José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas
(25 January 1868 - 9 July 1894) was a Mexican composer, violinist, and band
leader.
Rosas was born in Santa Cruz de
Galeana, Guanajuato, in a poor Otomi Native American family. In his youth he
did whatever he could related to music, from ringing church bells to playing
fiddle on the street, making music for his living from age 7 on. He used
music for his ambitions to better himself, including composing a waltz in
exchange for a pair of shoes.
He moved to Mexico City and soon
became a well known musician and composer. At age 12 he was playing violin
in one of the city's most popular dance bands. In his early teens, he worked
accompanying well known singer Angela Peralta. Although he applied twice for
entrance to the National Music Conservatory and briefly studied there, he
was mostly self taught.
Rosas led a large orchestra and a
brass band that toured internationally.
His best known work is "Sobre las Olas"
or "Over the Waves". This classic waltz has often been mistakenly thought by
many to be Viennese, and frequently ascribed to Johann Strauss II. It was
first published by Rosas in 1884 when he was in New Orleans, Louisiana with
the popular Mexican band at the World Cotton Centennial World's Fair. (It
was later republished in Mexico and Europe in 1888, and 1891 - these later
years are sometimes incorrectly given as the piece's first publication
date.) It remains popular as a classic waltz, and has also found its way
into New Orleans Jazz and Tejano music.
In 1893 he led a band at the World
Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois.
Rosas died in Surgidero de Batabanó,
Cuba. Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were brought back to Mexico.
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