Juan Manuel Olivares

Juan Manuel Hermenegildo de la Luz Olivares (b. Apr 4, 1760, Caracas - d. Mar. 1, 1797, El Valle, Caracas) was a Venezuelan composer from the Colonial era.

As a child he was a student of Don Ambrosio Carreño. In 1784 he began teaching in Caracas, and this same year Pedro Ramón Palacios y Sojo entrusted to him the direction of the Academia del Oratorio de San Felipe de Neri, which he held until his death; he also became organist at the academy's church, the "Basílica de Santa Teresa".

On May 11, 1789, he married Sebastiana Velásquez in Caracas at the Church of San Pablo Ermitaño, which stood where the Municipal Theater now stands. Padre Sojo was the priest. Olivares was the caretaker and teacher of Lino Gallardo.

His "Dúo de violines" is the only work of chamber music composed in colonial Venezuela which is preserved in its entirety.

Works

"Incomplete"
*"Lamentación primera del Viernes Santo" for tenor and orchestra, 1791
*"Stabat Mater" for four voices and instrument, 1791
*"Dúo de violines Salve Regina" for three voices and orchestra
*"Magnificat" with final fugue.
*"Vísperas de Nuestra Señora de la Merced" (motets for two voices)
*Psalmes: "Dixit Dominus", "Beatus Vir", "Laudate Dominum"

Further reading

*Juan B. Plaza "Juan Manuel Olivares. El más Antiguo Compositor Venezolano" Separata del No. 63 de la Rev. Nacional de Cultura. Jul-Aug 1947