Joan Cererols

Who was Joan Cererols?

Joan Cererols was a Catalan musician and Benedictine monk. His musical production includes a Requiem composed in the mid-seventeenth century during the great plague which ravaged Barcelona, and a Missa de Batalla which celebrates the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples.

Cererols was born in Martorell. He entered the choir school Escolania de Montserrat around 1626. Cererols took his first steps in music under the direction of Father Joan March, a famous organist. After ten years in the escolania, Joan was admitted as a novice at the Monastery of Montserrat on 6 September 1636, at age eighteen. The polychoral dialogue texture with a slight gap between the vocal entries within each choir which lightens his style and contrasts with that of the composers of the earliest generation is supposed to be an influence of March.

In 1648, Cererols received the permission of March to visit Madrid where he could meet the new generation of musicians. After his return, he was confirmed as a member of the monastic community. After the death of March in 1658, Joan Cererols became choirmaster in his home monastery, a position he held until his death there in 1680. He was 61 years old.