Father Sojo
During the Spanish domination, Venezuela was one of the poorest and most neglected colonies of the American continents. These conditions made it difficult for the flourishment of the arts. However, by the end of 1770 circumstances were beginning to change. At that time there lived in Caracas a young priest by the name of Don Pedro Palacios y Sojo who, after finishing his studies at the Caracas Seminary, made a trip to Rome and Madrid in order to arrange for the founding of an Oratory of St.Philip Neri in Caracas. Father Sojo, on his return from Rome in 1770, brought with him various musical instruments as well as the scores of sacred works by famous composers of the time. Sojo and his friends or disciples gathered at his small ranch in Chacao, to hear the interpretation of the scores brought over from Italy. It is still unclear what exactly the part of Father Sojo in these meetings was. In one of the 1826 issues of the periodical, El Repertorio Americano, which was edited in London by Don Andres Bello, there is an article in which Father Sojo is called “the founder of music in Venezuela”. There is no doubt that in his school, and under his spiritual guidance, were developed the first Venezuelan composers whose works we know today.
During the Spanish domination, Venezuela was one of the poorest and most neglected colonies of the American continents. These conditions made it difficult for the flourishment of the arts. However, by the end of 1770 circumstances were beginning to change. At that time there lived in Caracas a young priest by the name of Don Pedro Palacios y Sojo who, after finishing his studies at the Caracas Seminary, made a trip to Rome and Madrid in order to arrange for the founding of an Oratory of St.Philip Neri in Caracas. Father Sojo, on his return from Rome in 1770, brought with him various musical instruments as well as the scores of sacred works by famous composers of the time. Sojo and his friends or disciples gathered at his small ranch in Chacao, to hear the interpretation of the scores brought over from Italy. It is still unclear what exactly the part of Father Sojo in these meetings was. In one of the 1826 issues of the periodical, El Repertorio Americano, which was edited in London by Don Andres Bello, there is an article in which Father Sojo is called “the founder of music in Venezuela”. There is no doubt that in his school, and under his spiritual guidance, were developed the first Venezuelan composers whose works we know today.
http://web.cfa.arizona.edu/sturman/CLAM/Pub1/Labonville_Fig6.html
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