Musician, composer and conductor · 1844–1927
Musician, composer and conductor
Fermín Cedrés Hernández was a musician, composer, conductor and music teacher linked to Tegueste and La Laguna, especially remembered for his musical compilation and adaptation of Lo Divino.
Fermín Cedrés Hernández holds a prominent place in Tegueste's musical memory through his work as a musician, composer, conductor and teacher. In his most active period he directed the music band of Sociedad El Porvenir, for which he wrote waltzes and short pieces, and from the beginning of the twentieth century combined that work with the direction of the small Orchestra and Choir of the Ateneo de La Laguna.
His known output was oriented mainly toward religious music, including litanies and prayers sung in the convent of Santa Catalina. The municipal source from Tegueste also highlights his teaching, including the training of pupils such as Julio Navarro Grau and the musical transmission to his son Fermín Cedrés Nóbrega, later linked to Orfeón La Paz in La Laguna.
Cedrés's popular relevance is associated with the musical compilation and adaptation of Lo Divino, an emblematic Canarian Christmas carol. The authorship of the words appears disputed in bibliographic tradition, but the municipal source attributes to Cedrés the musical preparation and adaptation of the piece in Santa Cruz de Tenerife at the beginning of the twentieth century, in the context of a charity festival for the Hospitalito de Niños.
