Fray Florencio Ibaņez was born at
Tarazona, Aragon, Spain, October 26, 1740, and entered the
Franciscan order at the Convento de Nuestra Senora de Jesus,
Zaragosa, February 8, 1757. At the convento grande in his
province as well as at that of Calatayud he was choirmaster...He
came to San Fernando College, Mexico City, May l, 1770, together
with thirty-nine other Franciscans. Besides holding the office
of preacher, he was attached to the choir of San Fernando
until August 16, 1774. A fine artist as well as a musician
of no little ability, he spent considerable time at the college
in painting large choir books, samples of which were brought
to the Mission Santa Barbara in 1882 by Fray Jose Maria de
Jesus Romo...In failing health in 1774, he obtained a transfer
from the college to the province of Michoacan where he was
again employed as choirmaster and professor of Latin at San
Miguel de Allende until 1781, when he joined the college of
Santa Cruz de Queretaro. There he became an Indian missionary
serving in Sonora...After seventeen years as a missionary,
he returned to Queretaro and once again to San Fernando in
1800...The next year he was on his way to California. He embarked
on the frigate Concepción and arrived at Monterey,
August 9, 1801. At Carmel mission he administered baptism
on August 16 and 18. He was stationed first at Mission San
Antonio from September 20, 1801, to August 17, 1803. In that
same month he was transferred to Mission Soledad, where he
made his first baptismal entry on October 20. He remained
at that mission until November 26, 1818. Ibaņez had spent
a short time at Mission San Juan Bautista, August 17 to September
14, 1806, and baptized there again, August 22 and 26, 1808...He
died at Soledad, November 26, 1818...In 1817, V. F. de Sarria
wrote that he considered Ibaņez as a man of only ordinary
ability...In matters connected with temporal management, Ibaņez
is credited with great capability and intelligence. In person
he had great strength, was tall with broad shoulders. He was
described in records as possessing a good build, of having
a light complexion, a somewhat reddish beard, and a face large
and thin. He was very kind to the poor and lowly and loved
to instruct the neophytes in their work and in music and to
teach the common soldiers to read and write. On José
Joaquin Arrillaga's second coming to California, Ibaņez welcomed
him with music and songs, the words of which he himself had
composed. He is also remembered as a dramatist of ability:
his "Pastorela," a nativity play, was, it is said, a prime
favorite in California.
Source: Maynard Geiger, O.F.M., Franciscan Missionaries
in Hispanic California, 1769-1848, A Biographical Dictionary,
The Huntington Library, San Marino, 1969, pg. 124.
More on Florencio Ibaņez
The Mass of St. Dominic. The Choral book [See Note
1] is not the only piece of mission music manuscript left
at Santa Clara. The Mass of St. Dominic [See Note
2], a handwritten Gregorian manuscript in black and white,
is made up of 85 pages of music using square notes. Bound
by Father Viader in brown cowhide with leather thong stitching,
this rare item bears the following handwritten inscription
on page 83 [See Note 3], "8
de Junio de 1812 se acabaxan estos 15 pliegos en Lunes Y Luna
29, visperad de conjunction. Ibaņez." This is very clearly
a note by Father Florencia Ibaņez, reporting that they had
completed 15 fascicles on that date. Father Da Silva places
Ibaņez among the foremost musicians of the day [he writes]:
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Padres Ibaņez entered the
Franciscan order in 1757, and was choirmaster there for
a number of years. At the age of twenty-seven years, he
set sail for Mexico, where he was appointed choirmaster
at the College of San Fernando in Mexico City...He volunteered
for the Missions of Alta California. He entered upon his
new work in 1801, serving at Mission San Antonio. Two
years later he was transferred to Mission Soledad, where
he remained until his death in 1818 [23].
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How this fine example of mission
music came to be housed at Santa Clara will probably never
be known. Since there were others than Ibaņez working on its
pages, one of the other Fathers may have carried it with him
to Santa Clara from the College of San Fernando, or from the
Mission Soledad.
Source: Beryl Hoskin,
A History of the Santa Clara Mission Library, Biobooks, Oakland,
California, 1961, pg. 44.
Notes:
[1] The Choral book is another choir
book at Mission Santa Clara besides the Mass of St. Dominic
book.
[2] The Mass of St. Dominic
is the first entry in the book that is claimed to bear the
writing of Father Florencio Ibaņez.
[3] Te Deum is on fol. 83 to 84v.
Although a note can be see on fol. 83 (top) and 84v, it may
not correspond with what Hoskin writes. Salve Regina is on
fol. 56v and 57.
[23] Owen da Silva, O. F. M. "Mission
Music of California," Warren F. Lewis, Publisher, Los Angeles,
CA, 1954, p. 22.
Description: Leather Bound, 85 pages, Gregorian manuscript,
B&W, square notes. Manuscript found at Mission Santa Clara
and is possibly attributable to Florencio Ibaņez and his contemporaries.
Music is described in Beryl Hoskin's book (pgs. 45-46). The
manuscript is also on microfilm (manuscript 1-4, Mass of St.
Dominic and other songs) at Santa Clara University. Te Deum
is on fol. 83 to 84v. Salve Regina is on fol. 56v and 57.
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