Cenobio Hernandez

Who was Cenobio Hernandez?

Cenobio Hernández was a Mexican-American composer, born in San Luis Potosi, Mexico and died in San Antonio, Texas.

He began by playing cello and eventually moved to bass, bajo sexto, and other stringed instruments. While in Mexico, Cenobio's father, Don Cenobio, taught his children the fine art of music, providing to them a rigorous musical education. Cenobio Hernández was heavily active in the late 1920s performing in orchestras in the silent film industry. After moving away from Mexico, he settled in San Antonio, Texas and performed at the Majestic, the Empire, and the Palace theaters in San Antonio, Texas at the turn-of-the-century. In 1927, when the silent film industry moved into the "talking film" industry, Cenobio Hernández began to focus his time on composing music.

Although he did not play piano, Cenobio wrote several compositions for piano. He wrote many upbeat polkas, marked with trance-like, hypnotic harmonies and careful, elegant melodies. Inspired in an instant, Cenobio would use a pencil to write ideas on paper bags and other everyday materials, hand-drawing the staff lines, the harmony, and then the melody.