| As research into the Mexican Baroque continues to expand, forgotten composers and their works are garnering deserved attention. Miguel Mateo Dallo y Lana (c. 1650--1705), who served as maestro de capilla [chapel master] at the Puebla Cathedral from 1686 to 1705, belongs to the tradition of polychoral composition inherited from musicians of the Spanish Renaissance. His liturgical settings, specifically Domine ad adjubandum me festina/Dixit Dominus and Beatus Vir, contain traits indicative of the Baroque period as well. These works reveal the Dallo y Lana's compositional techniques, which include homophonic declamation of text intermingled with polyphonic episodic material, layered above basso continuo. He worked in a time just before Mexican composers fully embraced Italian models, placing him at the end of the mostly autonomous Mexican tradition. |
