Juan de Anchieta was born into a leading Basque family, his mother a great-aunt of Ignatius Loyola, founder of the Society of Jesus. In 1489 he was appointed to the chapel of Queen Isabella and in 1495 became maestro di capilla to Prince Don Juan, returning to the Queens service after the Princes death in 1497 and in 1504 to that of the new Queen, Joanna the Mad. He held various church benefices, from 1518 as Abbot of Arbs, spending his final years in a Franciscan convent he had founded in Azpeitia.
Sacred Music
Some thirty of Juan de Anchietas 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. He was among the leading Spanish composers of his generation, writing music for the ample resources of the court chapel of the Catholic Kings.
