Juan Esquivel de Barahona (c.1560 - c.1615), a Spanish composer. He was born in Ciudad Rodrigo, where it is supossed he was taught by Juan Navarro who, by the way, was also a teacher of Tomás Luis de Victoria. The first data that we have about him is his appointment as Chapel Master of Oviedo Catedral, following a lawsuit against the Chapter because they had appointed master Alonso Puro without respecting a previous agreement with Esquivel. In Oviedo he remained until 1585. After this time, we do not know with certainty the details of his life. Mateo Hernández Vegas afirms that from Oviedo he went to Calahorra, and then to Ávila, and finally to Ciudad Rodrigo. However others place him in Salamanca in 1608. Esquivel was one of the few Iberian musicians who had the good fortune of having their works printed. In particular we know three books.
The first one, edited in Salamanca in 1608, is entitled Missarum liber primus and contains 6 masses from 4 to 8 voices (one of them is a requiem) and the antiphon Asperges me.
The second book, edited the same year and in the same city, is entitled Motecta Festorum et Dominicarum cum Communi Sanctorum IV, V, VI et VIII vocibus concinenda. It contains seventy-one motets, mostly for 4 voices, composed with the finest technics of the epoch.
The third book is the most important because it contains: eight vesper psalms plus the Song of Simeon; a Nunc dimitis for 4 voices; twenty-nine hymns for 4 voices; sixteen Magnificats, most of which are written for 4 voices; the four Marian antiphons; five different pieces plus one motet; seven masses for 4 and 5 voices and one Officium defunctorum.