Juan Nepomucino Goetz
Encyclopedia
Juan Nepomucino Goetz was a German
Catholic priest whose arrival in Cuba
led to two extraordinary controversies.
Goetz became Professor of Philosophy and Morality at the Imperial and Royal University of Vienna
, and then, desiring to travel, was appointed music chaplain of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo
in Hispaniola
(Dominican Republic
). Later, as priest and rector, he moves to San Fernando de Monte Cristi
, and then to the wealthy parish of Môle Saint-Nicolas
in Haiti
. There he witnessed the slave uprising and the occupation of his parish by the British. When Toussaint-Louverture drives out the British he rings the church bells and celebrates. But, all too soon! War flares up throughout the country, voodoo drums throb through the night, and white faces are none too popular. Deprived of alms and suffering from yellow fever
, Goetz flees to Santiago de Cuba
, where his knowledge of languages gives him a place as the 'foreigners' priest.
, choirmaster in the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba, died in 1803, the election of the new Maestro de Capilla was an extraordinary event. It had been a foregone conclusion that Francisco José Hierrezuelo, long-time assistant of Salas, would be elected. Came the day, and Hierrezuelo spotted a certain well-qualified German priest in the choir. Blind with rage, and fearing the bishop had planned a conspiracy to thwart him, Hierrezuelo refused to take the examination, picked up his pen and wrote infuriated letters. The bishop persuaded the German, none other than Goetz, to renounce his candidacy, but Hierrezuelo had so offended the bishop and the town council by his irate letters that, despite grovelling apologies, he got only a minor position in the chapel. He was never to become maestro. The competent and hard-working Juan París
was appointed, and Goetz moved on to Havana, where his arrival also had remarkable consequences.
. The matter was to be decided by competitive examination. Pagueras was a strong candidate, regarding himself as a maestro in four arts: plainsong
, organ playing, counterpoint
and composition.
All were set for the examination when a letter, written on 29 July 1803, arrived at the cathedral. It was from Goetz, offering his service. Great was the consternation amongst the rivals when they discovered that the town council had invited Goetz to Havana so they could learn more about his merits.
Goetz arrived in Havana at the beginning of November 1803, having applied for naturalization as a Spanish subject. Later that month, the town council, duly impressed with his competence, appointed him interim holder of the desired position. Pagueras and Rensoli set out to make his work as difficult as possible. "When Goetz appeared before the choir, he was surrounded by pale, half-scared smiles" (Carpentier, p136). After looking, listening and questioning, he wrote a first report to the town council full of acute assessments of key members of the choir:
As a good musician preferring quality of sound to quantity, he reduced the number of positions, moved good young singers up in status, and recommended that any reduced in rank should retake the exam, both theoretical and practical. In 1806, under his plan, the singers and musicians were: choirmaster, four sopranos, two contraltos, two tenors, a baritone
; two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns
, four violins, bass viol, and bass
.
, and does everything he can to create disorder: he is the main reason for the chapel's awkwardness and lack of success.
Goetz refused to yield, and succeeded in getting a vote of confidence from the town council, who ratified him in his position. He still waited for his Spanish citizenry, which at last arrived in October 1807. However, there was to be no peace for Goetz, who eventually resigned his position after, facing the sack, Gavira threatened a strike and forced the town council to resist Goetz. Goetz left Cuba in 1808. Carpentier comments: "Goetz was too good a musician for the Havana of those times". He was also too inflexible and dictatorial for the creole temperament of those times.
There appears to be no record of Goetz after he left the island. The music of the cathedral did eventually improve under the hands of Rensoli as chapelmaster and Gavira, who finally became chapelmaster in 1852. The reverend Abiel Abbot wrote in 1829: "The music of Havana cathedral is the best I have ever heard". The cathedral archive at the time had 623 scores by these various Cuban composers.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Catholic priest whose arrival in Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
led to two extraordinary controversies.
Goetz became Professor of Philosophy and Morality at the Imperial and Royal University of Vienna
University of Vienna
The University of Vienna is a public university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world...
, and then, desiring to travel, was appointed music chaplain of the Cathedral of Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo
Santo Domingo, known officially as Santo Domingo de Guzmán, is the capital and largest city in the Dominican Republic. Its metropolitan population was 2,084,852 in 2003, and estimated at 3,294,385 in 2010. The city is located on the Caribbean Sea, at the mouth of the Ozama River...
in Hispaniola
Hispaniola
Hispaniola is a major island in the Caribbean, containing the two sovereign states of the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The island is located between the islands of Cuba to the west and Puerto Rico to the east, within the hurricane belt...
(Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
). Later, as priest and rector, he moves to San Fernando de Monte Cristi
San Fernando de Monte Cristi
San Fernando de Monte Cristi is the capital of Monte Cristi Province, Dominican Republic.It is located in the northwest of the country in the coastal lowlands, close to the border with Haiti.- History :...
, and then to the wealthy parish of Môle Saint-Nicolas
Môle Saint-Nicolas
Môle-Saint-Nicolas is a town in the Republic of Haiti. It is the chief town of the Môle-Saint-Nicolas Arrondissement in the department of Nord-Ouest...
in Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
. There he witnessed the slave uprising and the occupation of his parish by the British. When Toussaint-Louverture drives out the British he rings the church bells and celebrates. But, all too soon! War flares up throughout the country, voodoo drums throb through the night, and white faces are none too popular. Deprived of alms and suffering from yellow fever
Yellow fever
Yellow fever is an acute viral hemorrhagic disease. The virus is a 40 to 50 nm enveloped RNA virus with positive sense of the Flaviviridae family....
, Goetz flees to Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba
Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city of Cuba and capital city of Santiago de Cuba Province in the south-eastern area of the island, some south-east of the Cuban capital of Havana....
, where his knowledge of languages gives him a place as the 'foreigners' priest.
Goetz in Santiago de Cuba
When Esteban Salas y CastroEsteban Salas y Castro
Esteban Salas y Castro was a Cuban composer of religious music. His compositions focused chiefly on vocal music, and are a fine representation of the late Baroque style...
, choirmaster in the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba, died in 1803, the election of the new Maestro de Capilla was an extraordinary event. It had been a foregone conclusion that Francisco José Hierrezuelo, long-time assistant of Salas, would be elected. Came the day, and Hierrezuelo spotted a certain well-qualified German priest in the choir. Blind with rage, and fearing the bishop had planned a conspiracy to thwart him, Hierrezuelo refused to take the examination, picked up his pen and wrote infuriated letters. The bishop persuaded the German, none other than Goetz, to renounce his candidacy, but Hierrezuelo had so offended the bishop and the town council by his irate letters that, despite grovelling apologies, he got only a minor position in the chapel. He was never to become maestro. The competent and hard-working Juan París
Juan París
Juan París was the priest who followed Esteban Salas y Castro in the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba. His election as Maestro de Capilla , after the death of Salas in 1803, was an extraordinary event. It had been a foregone conclusion that Francisco José Hierrezuelo, long-time assistant of Salas,...
was appointed, and Goetz moved on to Havana, where his arrival also had remarkable consequences.
Goetz in Havana
In Havana at the same time, the chapelmaster, Lazo de la Vega, was ailing, and died. On his death four men sought the post: 28 year-old first violinist José Francisco Rensoli, singer Luis Lazo, maestro Cayetano Solis and the Catalan Cayetano Pagueras, a religious composer and first contraltoContralto
Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice, with the lowest tessitura, falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C to the second G above middle C , although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C or the second B above...
. The matter was to be decided by competitive examination. Pagueras was a strong candidate, regarding himself as a maestro in four arts: plainsong
Plainsong
Plainsong is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Catholic Church. Though the Eastern Orthodox churches and the Catholic Church did not split until long after the origin of plainchant, Byzantine chants are generally not classified as plainsong.Plainsong is monophonic, consisting of a...
, organ playing, counterpoint
Counterpoint
In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...
and composition.
All were set for the examination when a letter, written on 29 July 1803, arrived at the cathedral. It was from Goetz, offering his service. Great was the consternation amongst the rivals when they discovered that the town council had invited Goetz to Havana so they could learn more about his merits.
Goetz arrived in Havana at the beginning of November 1803, having applied for naturalization as a Spanish subject. Later that month, the town council, duly impressed with his competence, appointed him interim holder of the desired position. Pagueras and Rensoli set out to make his work as difficult as possible. "When Goetz appeared before the choir, he was surrounded by pale, half-scared smiles" (Carpentier, p136). After looking, listening and questioning, he wrote a first report to the town council full of acute assessments of key members of the choir:
- "Cayetano Pagueras: Second contralto, terrible voice, no expressiveness. Almost blind... A good composer, but he doesn't know how to sing his own works."
- "Don Luis Lazo: Third contralto. Knows nothing of music, and never will. He entered the chapel fraudulently, and... is totally inept; superfluous."
- "Don Juan Alcayado: Third tenorTenorThe tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
. Terrible voice. He hardly attends, and when he does, he speaks comstantly, disturbing the others... A totally useless human being. The position of third tenor is hereby abolished for its superfluousness."
As a good musician preferring quality of sound to quantity, he reduced the number of positions, moved good young singers up in status, and recommended that any reduced in rank should retake the exam, both theoretical and practical. In 1806, under his plan, the singers and musicians were: choirmaster, four sopranos, two contraltos, two tenors, a baritone
Baritone
Baritone is a type of male singing voice that lies between the bass and tenor voices. It is the most common male voice. Originally from the Greek , meaning deep sounding, music for this voice is typically written in the range from the second F below middle C to the F above middle C Baritone (or...
; two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
, four violins, bass viol, and bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
.
The plot thickens...
The arrival of Joaquín Gavira y Rondón (1780–1870), a man with a violent disposition but a good musician, tipped the balance towards the thwarted opposition. Gavira had been a boy soprano in the cathedral for six years before joining the militia. Now he wanted to become first bass viol player, and soon became the centre of the conspiracy against Goetz, who had promoted him to fourth violin, which paid two extra pesos. In 1805 a serious incident occurred in the chapel. Goetz laid into the Mexican bass player Sebastián Solis for arriving late. Solis yelled back "Not even blacks are treated this way!" Goetz offered to remove him from the chorus with the back of his hand should Solis answer back again. From that moment on, Gavira becomes uncontrollable. He arrives in the chapel with a rapierRapier
A rapier is a slender, sharply pointed sword, ideally used for thrusting attacks, used mainly in Early Modern Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.-Description:...
, and does everything he can to create disorder: he is the main reason for the chapel's awkwardness and lack of success.
Goetz refused to yield, and succeeded in getting a vote of confidence from the town council, who ratified him in his position. He still waited for his Spanish citizenry, which at last arrived in October 1807. However, there was to be no peace for Goetz, who eventually resigned his position after, facing the sack, Gavira threatened a strike and forced the town council to resist Goetz. Goetz left Cuba in 1808. Carpentier comments: "Goetz was too good a musician for the Havana of those times". He was also too inflexible and dictatorial for the creole temperament of those times.
There appears to be no record of Goetz after he left the island. The music of the cathedral did eventually improve under the hands of Rensoli as chapelmaster and Gavira, who finally became chapelmaster in 1852. The reverend Abiel Abbot wrote in 1829: "The music of Havana cathedral is the best I have ever heard". The cathedral archive at the time had 623 scores by these various Cuban composers.