He founded the Philharmonic Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a series of musical and liturgical celebrations held on July 2, 1813.
When the Cathedral chapter decided in 1804 that vernacular matins texts were not up to the standard, chapel master Vicente Sáenz tried to remedy the situation by substituting villancicos for movements of concertos by Antonio Vivaldi and menuets from symphonies by Joseph Haydn.
Studying Haydn, he taught himself European instrumental forms, writing first his brief "Tocatas", and then expanding to ever larger movements, until he was able to sustain his musical discourse in full-fledged symphonies.
The oldest extant work in this form is his Seventh Symphony finished in June, 1834, which he dedicated to the victory of the Federal Army at the battle of Jiquilisco, in present-day El Salvador.
It is structured, as would be expected, in four movements: allegro, andante, minuet, and a fast finale with programmatic elements such as a stylized military march and a "son."