Background
Born into a leading Basque family, his mother was a great-aunt of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.
Born into a leading Basque family, his mother was a great-aunt of Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus.
University of Salamanca.
He held various church benefices, from 1518 as Abbot of Arbós, town located at the province of Tarragona, as a chaplain at Granada Cathedral, spending his final years in a Franciscan convent he had founded in Azpeitia. Some thirty of Juan de Anchieta"s compositions survive, among them two complete Masses, two Magnificats, a Salve Regina, four attributed Passion settings, with other sacred works and four compositions with Spanish texts. The two Masses and many motets which survived, show extensive use of plainsong and much chordal writing.
He was among the leading Spanish composers of his generation, writing music for the ample resources of the court chapel of the Catholic Monarchs.
Anchieta might be the author of the motet Epitaphion Alexandri Agricolae symphonistae regis Castiliae (published in 1538), which contains important details of the Agricola"s biography.