José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January
1868 - 9 July 1894) was a Mexican composer and
violinist.
Rosas was born in Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, later
renamed into Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato,
and still later into Santa Cruz de Juventino
Rosas.[1] Rosas began his musical career as a
street musician and playing with dance music bands
in Mexico City. In 1884/85 and 1888 he
matriculated into the conservatory, both times
leaving it without taking any examination.
Most of Rosas's compositions?among them "Sobre las
Olas" ("Over the Waves")?were issued by Wagner y
Levien and Nagel Sucesores in Mexico City.
In the late 1880s, Rosas is reported to be a
member of a military band, and in 1891 he worked
in Michoacán. In 1892-93 he was around Monterrey,
before joining an orchestra in 1893 for a tour
through the USA. During this tour the group played
also at the World Columbian Exposition World's
Fair in Chicago, Illinois.
In 1894 he went for a several-month tour to Cuba
with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, where he came
down with major health problems and had to stay
behind in Surgidero de Batabanó. As a result of
spinal myelitis he died there at the age of 26.[2]
Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were
brought back to Mexico.
Rosas was one of the best known Mexican composers
of salon music, and the composer with the highest
number of editions abroad and of sound recordings,
the first of them released in 1898. Rosas's best
known work is 'Sobre las Olas' or 'Over the
Waves'. It was first published in Mexico in 1888.
It remains popular as a classic waltz, and has
also found its way into New Orleans Jazz and
Tejano music. In the United States 'Sobre las
Olas' has a cultural association with funfairs,
and trapeze artists, as it was one of the tunes
available for Wurlitzer's popular line of
fairground organs. The music was used for the tune
'The Loveliest Night of the Year', which was sung
by Ann Blyth in MGM's film The Great Caruso. It
remains popular with country and old-time fiddlers
in the United States. Text source : Wikipedia (Hide extended text) ... (Read all)
SHEET MUSIC