Miguel Bernal Jiménez

His talent was discovered by his teachers Felipe Aguilera Ruiz and Ignacio Mier y Arriaga, who succeeded in getting him recommended and admitted in 1928 to the Instituto Pontificio de Música Sagrada (Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music) of Rome by the Canónigo José María Villaseñor.

In 1933, he returned to Mexico to be director of the Escuela Superior de Música Sagrada (Sacred Music High School) of Morelia, a position he held for twenty years.

"Noche de Morelia" (1941) was made by request of the local Red Cross, and premiered by the Matinal Symphony Orchestra under the direction of its header and founder Carlos Chávez.

In his "Concertino para Órgano y Orquesta" (1949) he manifests his own admiration for great composers of the European Baroque and Classical periods, the influence of which is not as noticeable in his other, earlier works.

Bernal Jiménez demonstrates his harmonious dexterity by arranging the identity of the organ as a solo instrument and accompanies it grandiloquently with an orchestra.

His religious education and devotion to Catholicism, combined with his nationalism, made him become the head of the movement known as "Nacionalismo sacro", the product of the "motu proprio", published by the Pope Pius X in 1903.

Miguel Bernal Jiménez defended the application of innovative tendencies in religious music to vindicate its supremacy as a holy art over the profane.

He also seems to mix his music with themes obtained from popular traditions, like work chants, religious mottoes and melodies of political context.

After arduous and tedious searches, he discovered the first archive of Mexican colonial music, which dates from the 18th century, and comes from the "School of Santa Rosa de Virreinato".

In this magazine, Bernal Jiménez constantly published musical, musicological and pedagogical material under pseudonyms such as "M.Mouse", "Q.U.D", "Primicerius", "Jaime Le Brungel" and "Fray Florindo".

Miguel Bernal was a prolific academic and his bibliographic archive consists of 11 books and 173 articles, many of which were used in the teachings of sacred music in varied locations throughout the country, and in seminaries in Mexico and abroad.