# Jose Estella

Don José Anastasio Estella y Barredo (1870 - 6 April 1943) was a Filipino composer and conductor. Besides composing waltzes, he also became one of the major contributors of Philippine zarzuelas from 1890s to 1900s. He was sometimes referred to as the "Philippine Waltz King".

## Biography

Jose Estella was born in Escolta, Manila in 1870 to Spaniard Don José María Agustín Ricardo Estella y Cazorla from Andalusia, Spain and Doña María del Socorro Josefa Antonia Barredo y González from Quiapo, Manila. After studying and graduating from the Madrid Conservatory, he returned to the Philippines and pursued a career in music. In Manila and Cebu, he conducted several orchestras. In Manila, he had a teaching career as a piano instructor. He spends his time studying history, visiting different Filipino provinces and exploring the local folk music. In Cebu, he was director of the Municipal Band where he started to gain recognition. Estella also became a director of the Rizal Orchestra, founded in 1898.
He was one of the Filipino composers inspired from the songs published by the Tin Pan Alley. During the American occupation, he made his ragtime and dance compositions such as the California March (1899), Germinales (1908), Manila Carnival Rag (1914), and the Visayan Moon (1922).
Estella became involved with a plagiarism case in 1939 with Francisco Santiago over which he complains that Santiago copied his Campanadas de Gloria. In the end of the investigation, it was revealed that they both get inspiration from the same folk song named "Leron Leron Sinta".

## Death

He died on 6 April 1943, and throughout his lifetime, he composed more than 100 waltzes hence he is given the title, "the Philippine Waltz King". There are no information regarding his personal life except he has a son named Ramon Estella, a film director.

## Notable works
### Ang Maya

Composed in 1905, it was a piece from Estella's zarzuela, "Filipinas para los Filipinos" with Severino Reyes as librettist. The lyrics were also created by Reyes. Estella's "Filipinas para los Filipinos" was a satire made by the composer as a reaction to an American Congress bill banning American women from marrying Filipino men. Maria Carpena, one of the first recording artist in the Philippines, sung "Ang Maya" under the American label Victor Records issued around 1908 and 1909.

### La Tagala

Originally composed during the 1890s, the waltz is a collection of Filipino folk songs such as Balitaw, Hele hele, Kundiman, Kumintang, etc. It was dedicated to the Tobacco Company Germinal. One of its notable performance was on a concert night of November 1899.

### Filipinas Symphony (1928)

Jose Estella's Filipinas Symphony is the first Filipino Symphony by modern scholarly consensus. It was composed in 1928 prior to Francisco Santiago's Taga-ilog Symphony. Although not much was known about the information of the piece, according to sources, a movement of the symphony was based on the Filipino folk song "Balitaw" meanwhile the Slow Movement (Adagio) was based on another folk song "Kumintang". Some parts of the symphony were lost during World War II.

## Other Works

Source:
* California March (Ragtime)
* El Diablo Mundo - First performed at the inauguration of the Teatro Zorrila on October 25, 1893, this zarzuela was described to have a dark and gloomy atmosphere.
* Los Pajaros
* Katubusan (Fox-Trot)
* My Dreamed Waltz