Manuel Turrillas Ezcurra (1 January 1905 – 20 October 1997) was one of the most popular composers of

Navarre Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

. He was born in

Barásoain Barásoain is a town and municipality in the autonomous community of Navarre, northern Spain, within the historical lands of the Basque Country (greater region). the population stands at 621. It is located approximately 25 km south of Pam ...

, where he started in music in the local band, having learned his

scales Scale or scales may refer to: Mathematics * Scale (descriptive set theory), an object defined on a set of points * Scale (ratio), the ratio of a linear dimension of a model to the corresponding dimension of the original * Scale factor, a number w ...

from the church organist. At the age of 20 he moved to Pamplona and immediately joined the band " The Pamplonesa", to which he belonged for 50 years. He was one of the most important figures of the

popular music Popular music is music with wide appeal that is typically distributed to large audiences through the music industry. These forms and styles can be enjoyed and performed by people with little or no musical training.Popular Music. (2015). ''Fun ...

of Navarre. Known as the "maestro Turrillas", he composed the most popular hymns of the main Sanfermines Association

Aldapa, Anaitasuna, La Jarana, Muthiko, Oberena, as well as many others. Manuel Turrillas is also the composer of the popular song that runners sing, newspaper in hand, before the worldwide famous

running of the bulls A running of the bulls ( es, encierro, from the verb ''encerrar'', 'to corral, to enclose'; oc, abrivado, literally 'haste, momentum'; ca, correbous, 'run-bulls') is an event that involves running in front of a small group of bulls, typicall ...

of the

festival of San Fermín The festival of San Fermín is a weeklong, historically rooted celebration held annually in the city of Pamplona, Navarre, in northern Spain. The celebrations start at noon on July 6 and continue until midnight on July 14. A firework starts o ...

, a celebration held in the city of

Pamplona Pamplona (; eu, Iruña or ), historically also known as Pampeluna in English, is the capital city of the Chartered Community of Navarre, in Spain. It is also the third-largest city in the greater Basque cultural region. Lying at near above ...

. Turillas is well known for composing the

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El Sa ...

football club hymn. The catalog of his work includes more than 400 compositions. The City Council of

awarded him the Gold Medal of the city. Manuel Turrillas died, aged 92, in

, and, after his death, the City dedicated a square to honour him in the local neighbourhood of Azpilagaña.

Bibliography

* Mikel Aramburu et al.: ''Manuel Turrillas en el centenario de su nacimiento'', Pamplona: Ayuntamiento, 2005,

Discography

* Banda de música "La Pamplonesa": ''Música de las peñas sanfermineras'', Pamplona 2005 (features 12 compositions of Maestro Turrillas) {{DEFAULTSORT:Turrillas, Manuel 1905 births 1997 deaths Pamplona