THE NOTORIETY AND LEGACY OF VICENTE GARCÍA VELCAIRE IN SPAIN AND THE NEW WORLD

Although there are still many unknowns about the figure of the master Garca Velcaire (1593-1650), the discovery of his figure and his legacy lead us to affirm that he is one of "the most distinguished masters that there have been and there are in our times", as Andres Lorente indicated in his book El Porqu de la Msica.Regarding the birth of Vicente Garca Velcaire, we will present the two existing theories.The first, that he was a native and chapel master of the town of Alcoy (Alicante), as described by Dr. Sebastin Jordn in his book Adiciones a los libros de varias y diversas cosas (Additions to the books of various and diverse things) and defended by Higinio Angles.And the second, collected in his baptismal certificate in the parish of San Miguel of Valencia and that Francisco Asenjo Barbieri proposes.What we do know is that when he was only 16 years old, he presented the bulls as a chapel master in the cathedral of Orihuela (Alicante) and where he obtained the magisterium in 1610, succeeding the deceased Diego Herrera.There remained eight years, where, at the same time of exercising his functions as sochantre, he obtained his bachelor's degree in Theology and also in Arts.Subsequently, and without giving up his place in Orihuela, he became a teacher in the Cathedral of Valencia, succeeding Juan Bautista Comes (1618) where he remained for fourteen years, although during this period he went on to serve in the Royal College of Corpus Christi in Valencia for a time.In 1632 he was named maestro de capilla of the cathedral of Cuenca, succeeding Castro Mallagaray, although he barely lasted two years.Garca, requesting to go to Madrid for business, went to the competition to cover the vacancy of maestro de capilla in the monastery of the Encarnacin, where he won and took possession in 1634.There remained until the middle of 1645 when he traveled to Toledo to take possession of the magisterium 1. Aguilar Gmez (1900-1991) describes that Vicente Garca was born in Alcoy, that he was a chapel master in the main church of the city and from there he went on to teach in the cathedral of Orihuela.In