José Ángel Lamas

Who was José Ángel Lamas?

José Ángel Lamas was a Venezuelan classical musician and composer born in Caracas. He was the main representative of the classical period in Venezuela.

Author of the immortal sacred piece, Popule Meus, his most important and best known piece. It was composed in 1801, and premiered in Caracas Cathedral during the colonial-provincial period. Lamas, away from politics and the whirlpool of the independence war, dedicated his life to music and specifically religious music. As a member of the School of Chacao, in 1789 he played Tiple and Bajón Chirimía in the cathedral orchestra. He played the chirimía, an ancient medieval Spanish instrument, which preceded the oboe. From 1796 until his death on the December 10, 1814, José Ángel Lamas was Maestro Bajonista or Main Bassoonist of the orchestra.

Among his pieces are, En Premio a tus Virtudes, Sepulto Domino, Ave Maris Stella, Misa en re, Benedicta et Venerabilis.

José Ángel Lamas died at 39 on December 10, 1814, and was buried in Saint Paul's church in Caracas. His bones were never found when later Antonio Guzmán Blanco demolished the church and subsequently built the Teatro Municipal de Caracas' on it.