Carrasco or Mathias? Plagiarism and Corruption in an Eighteenth-Century Examen de Opposicion from the Oaxaca Cathedral

Upon the death of the great Oaxaca chapelmaster Matheo Vallados on 14 May 1707, the Cabildo of the Oaxaca Cathedral named the sochantre, Luis José Montes de Oca, as interim chapelmaster,¹ and within a few months called a competition—an examen de oposición—to fill the position on a permanent basis.² The contest of 1708 is surprisingly well documented, as all four of the submissions survive, as well as the comments of the judge, the Mexico City chapelmaster Antonio de Salazar. In spite of this, some questions remain as to the end result of the competition and the appointment made by the diocese.

The surviving exámenes that have emerged are, not surprisingly, from members of Vallados's choir who had been employed by the cathedral since the 1680s and 1690s: Francisco de Herrera y Mota, Juan de Tobar Carrasco, Luis Gutierrez, and Juan Pérez de Guzmán. The candidates composed their submissions in December 1707 or early January 1708. Significantly, three of them presented their works in Oaxaca, while Guzmán, who happened to be in Mexico City at the time, did so at the Metropolitan Cathedral.

On 13 January the Oaxaca Cabildo requested the assistance of the Mexico City chapelmaster, Antonio de Salazar, to evaluate the entries.³ The Oaxaca Cabildo, looking to modernize its musical establishment, recruited Salazar as much for his fame and prestige as for his musical outlook. Though still embedded in an era of strict, orthodox counterpoint and polyphony, an era which was rapidly slipping away, Salazar's freer musical language nevertheless began the transition to a more modern style. Within a few years, Salazar would be replaced in Mexico City by Manuel de Sumaya, who brought the capital into the Baroque era, and who would do the same to Oaxaca decades later.⁴ Salazar's selection as judge was probably the best the Cabildo could have made in terms of musical ability, yet it also appears to have tainted the selection process from the start and subjected him to accusations of favoritism, since one of the candidates, Juan Pérez de Guzmán, had been Salazar's choirboy in Mexico City until 1692, when Guzmán left to become a singer in Oaxaca.⁵

Figure 1.

Correspondence between Bishop Angel Maldonado and Antonio de Salazar, 1708.

On 30 January the bishop of Oaxaca, Angel Maldonado, personally delivered the works to Salazar, who evaluated them and wrote his report the following day. The correspondence between Salazar and Bishop Maldonado survives in the archives in Oaxaca (see figure 1).⁶ In addition, Salazar also wrote comments and critiques on the compositions themselves, either on the front cover or in the margins. Each of the four submissions will be examined in turn.

Francisco de Herrera y Mota. Herrera's assignment was to compose a four-voice introit a Nuestro Padre San Pedro, set over the given plainchant Nunc scio vere, in a concerted style (see figure 2). This chant is sung at mass during the feast of St. Peter the Apostle, which occurs on 29 June. In addition, Herrera was to compose a hymn for St. Peter, Decora lux, based on a chant of that name, which is sung at Vespers during the same feast. This composition was to have a polyphonic setting (en canto de órgano). Finally, a villancico de presición was requested on the text: yo la vi, yo la miré, which unfortunately does not survive.

The selection of the texts is unrelated to the date of the feast, which occurs in mid-summer and thus six months after the date of the examination. Much of the repertoire of the Oaxaca Cathedral centered on the celebration of the feasts of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary. It is not surprising then, that these texts would be assigned to the candidates.

Herrera's introit and hymn are written in individual parts. On the front cover of the bass part in the manuscript...