Bartolomé de Escobedo

Bartolomé de Escobedo (c. 1500 – August 11, 1563) was a Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He was born in Zamora, studied at Salamanca where he was a singer, and in 1536 joined the papal choir in Rome, where he remained off-and-on until 1554. When he left the papal choir he returned to Spain, taking a position at the cathedral in Segovia.

He had his share of difficulties while in Rome, mostly due to his short temper. Records from the Vatican show that he was fined for calling a fellow singer an "ass"; on another occasion he called a singer a "fat pig." He appears to have been ill from gout for much of the 18 years he was in Rome.

Of his music, two masses and a small number motets survive.

Escobedo is best known as the teacher of Tomás Luis de Victoria.

References and further reading

• Robert Stevenson. "Bartolomé de Escobedo", The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), vi, 244.
• Gustave Reese, Music in the Renaissance. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. ISBN 0393095304