Eva Juárez / A Corte Musical / Rogério Gonçalves SEBASTIÁN DURÓN Lágrimas, Amor...

Sebastián Durón is one of those composers whose turbulent life story, combined with an exceptional musical output, can end up leaving nobody indifferent. He was born in 1660, in Brihuega, a small municipality in Castilla-La Mancha and was the younger brother of another important Spanish composer, Diego Durón (1653-1731), who became the maestro de capilla in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. At the age of nineteen, Sebastián embarked on his musical career as assistant organist to Andrés Sola in the cathedral of San Salvador (La Seo) in Zaragoza. In the following years, he travelled across mainland Spain to be employed as second organist in the cathedral of Sevilla (1680), and first organist in the cathedrals of Burgo de Osma 1685) and Palencia (1686). During the course of this time he was ordained as a priest. 

By now, his fame as an organist and as a composer was already such that in 1691 King Carlos II appointed him to succeed the organist José Sanz, who in that year was going into retirement. Durón quickly became one of the favourite Madrid court composers, as much for his religious music as for that for the stage. During this period, Durón also took the opportunity to work for high-ranking families of the nobility, such as the Dukes of Osuna and the Counts of Oñate. The absence of the official maestro of the Real Capilla, Diego Verdugo led increasingly to the musical responsibilities falling upon Durón until, in 1701, with the arrival of the first Spanish Bourbon king, Felipe V, Durón was appointed maestro of the Real Capilla as well as rector of the Real Colegio de Niños Cantorcicos.