CANALES, Marta

Marta Canales Pizarro was a Chilean composer, violinist and choral conductor. Raised in a highly musical household in Santiago, she studied violin with Luis Cervino and made her public debut at the age of eleven, performing Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor. She later studied harmony, counterpoint and composition with the Italian musician Luigi Stefano Giarda.
Canales devoted much of her career to sacred and choral music. She founded the women’s choir Amalia Errázuriz in 1933 and the Ana Magdalena Bach Choir in 1944. Her principal compositions include Misa de Navidad, Misa Eucarística, the oratorio Marta y María and Madrigales Teresianos. She also wrote vocal and instrumental music and prepared choral arrangements of traditional and folkloric melodies.
Her music is characterised by a strong concern for the text, post-Romantic and modal harmonies, and an interest in forms associated with Renaissance and Baroque sacred music.