José Rufino Reyes y Siancas, also known as Jose Reyes (November 15, 1836 – January 31, 1905) was a Dominican composer, best known for composing the current Dominican national anthem. Among his other works are compositions of

waltzes The waltz ( , meaning "to roll or revolve") is a ballroom dance, ballroom and folk dance, in triple (3/4 time, time), performed primarily in closed position. Along with the ländler and allemande, the waltz was sometimes referred to by the ...

and

marches In medieval Europe, a march or mark was, in broad terms, any kind of borderland, as opposed to a state's "heartland". More specifically, a march was a border between realms or a neutral buffer zone under joint control of two states in which diffe ...

. He also composed secular and religious music.

Biography

José Rufino Reyes y Siancas was born in Santo Dominigo, Dominican Republic, on November 15, 1836. He was the son of Rafael Reyes, a poor retailer, and María Merced Siancas. Reyes had two siblings, Manuel María Reyes Siancas (born 1821), and Francisco Reyes Siancas. Reyes had no formal education and was raised in

cottage A cottage, during Feudalism in England, England's feudal period, was the holding by a cottager (known as a cotter or ''bordar'') of a small house with enough garden to feed a family and in return for the cottage, the cottager had to provide ...

dwelling. Reyes served as a military soldier, where he first studied music, with the director of the military band, Juan Bautista Alfonseca. He learned various musical instruments, with primary focus on the cello.

National anthem

In 1882, alongside Emilio Prud'Homme, he composed the music for what would later become the national anthem of the Dominican Republic. The following year on August 7th, he premiered the composition in celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the restoration of the Republic with lyrics written by Prud'Homme, during a ceremony held at the Lodge La Esperanza. The composition was then again performed on February 27, 1884, in honor of Juan Pablo Duarte in the theater of the Republic during the occasion of the arrival of Duarte's remains in the country, which were deposited in the Chapel of the Immortals.Today his face is on the 2,000 Dominican peso bill next to Emilio Prud'Homme In 1885, the composition received its greatest public praise when it was performed by the military band teacher Betances, in the Cathedral Square and its popularity then increased on the fiftieth anniversary of the Republic. In 1896 it was nominated to be the official anthem of the country unsuccessfully. On 7 June 1897, the Congress of the Dominican Republic passed an act adopting "Himno Nacional" with the original music and revised lyrics as the country's official national anthem; however, then-President Ulises Heureaux (1846–1899) vetoed the act because the lyric's author, Prud'homme, was an opponent of the president and his administration.

Death

José Rufino Reyes died on January 31, 1905, without seeing the national anthem being formalized. His remains were laid to rest by the words of Federico Henriquez y Carvajal. In 1916, the Congress tried once again without results to formalize the anthem. Eventually on May 3, 1934, due to a message sent to Congress by the dictator Rafael Leonidas Trujillo, a law was passed which established Reyes' composition as the official anthem of the

Dominican Republic The Dominican Republic is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean Sea in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. It shares a Maritime boundary, maritime border with Puerto Rico to the east and ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reyes Siancas, Jose Rufino 1836 births 1905 deaths 19th-century Dominican Republic people Dominican Republic independence activists People of the Dominican War of Independence Dominican Republic musicians Dominican Republic composers Dominican Republic military personnel National anthem writers People from Santo Domingo