Pedro de Escobar
Pedro de Escobar (c. 1465 – after 1535), a.k.a. Pedro do Porto, was a Portuguese composer of the Renaissance, mostly active in Spain.
Pedro de Escobar
Anonymous Unknown author · Biblioteca Nacional Digital · Public domain
- Born
- 1465 · Porto.
- Nationality
- Kingdom of Portugal
- Occupation
- composer · chapelmaster
- Languages
- Portuguese
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Documentary evidence
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wikidata · Q1366752 · wikipedia · Pedro de Escobar
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Institutions cited
Bibliothèque nationale de France · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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Life
Life
He was one of the earliest and most skilled composers of polyphony in the Iberian Peninsula, whose music has survived.
He was born at Porto, Kingdom of Portugal, but nothing is known of his life until he entered the service of Isabella I of Castile in 1489. His surname is of Castilian origin, and maybe he was born to Castilian immigrants, or descendants, established in Porto. But Castilians regarded him as Portuguese. He was a singer in the Catholic Queen's chapel for ten years, and clearly was working as a composer as well; in addition he was the only member of her chapel described in court records as Portuguese. In 1499 he returned to his native Portugal, but in 1507 received an offer of employment, which he accepted, as the maestro de capilla (chapel master in the Castilian language) at the cathedral in Seville. While there he had charge of the choirboys, having to take care of their room and board in addition to having to teach them to sing; he complained of low pay, and eventually resigned. In 1521 he was working in Portugal, as mestre de capela (chapel master in Portuguese) for prince Dom Afonso, Cardinal-Infante of Portugal, son of Manuel I of Portugal. His career seems to have ended badly, however, for the final record of his life there is a mention in a document of 1535 that he was an alcoholic and living in squalor. He died in Évora.
Documentary record
Pedro de Escobar lived from 1465 to 1535 and was a composer. Pedro de Escobar was born in 1465; the birthplace is Porto, Portugal, according to the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Pedro de Escobar died in 1535; the place of death is Evora, Portugal, according to the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. Seville is recorded as a place of activity by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
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Places
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Porto.
Birth place
Évora.
Death place
Music and influence
• Illustration — Villancico "Pásame, por Dios, barquero", facsimile from the Elvas Songbook Two complete masses of Escobar have survived, including a Requiem setting (Missa pro defunctis), the earliest by a composer from the Iberian Peninsula. His known work also includes a setting of the Magnificat, 7 motets (including one Stabat Mater), 4 antiphons, 8 hymns, and 18 villancicos, but it is highly probable that his authorship is hidden among the many anonymous works of the Portuguese and Spanish renaissance manuscripts. His music was popular, as attested by the appearance of copies in far-off places; for example native scribes copied two of his manuscripts in Guatemala. His motet Clamabat autem mulier Cananea was particularly praised by his contemporaries, and served as the source for instrumental pieces by later composers, namely Alonso Mudarra.
References and further reading
References and further reading
* * *
The Love villancico "Pásame, por Dios, barquero" (Spanish for "For God's sake, pass me boatman", a famous work by the Portuguese Renaissance composer Pedro de Escobar. Facsimile from the Elvas Songbook.
Pedro de Escobar · [1]
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Pedro de Escobar, revision 1263438817 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
Bibliography printed in the source article · 3
- Reese, Gustave. Music in the Renaissance. W.W. Norton & Company. 1954. 0-393-09530-4.
- Stevenson, Robert. Escobar, Pedro de. vi. 243–244.
- Stevenson, Robert. Escobar, Pedro de. 24 February 2010. 10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.08972.
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Citizenship
1- Kingdom of PortugalPlace
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 24 August 2026.
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