Aparicio Vasquez, chapel master of Prince Henry, the Navigator ❧ The fifteenth century is still less-known period in the Portuguese Music History, despite several recent efforts to cast some light in the music sources that have survived to this day, as well as some musical activity. There is no doubt that much has been done in the recent decades to …
Aparicio Vasquez, chapel master of Prince Henry, the Navigator ❧ read more »
Around two sixteenth-century doors in Évora and their musical context ❧ The door, an object of everyday life frequently forgotten, has, in certain contexts, some historical significance, sometimes not by itself, but by the individuals who used them. The present text does not intend to be a philosophical exercise on the symbolism of the door, notably through its biblical readings, …
Around two sixteenth-century doors in Évora and their musical context ❧ read more »
Some notes on the Spanish composer Hernando Franco’s activity in Portugal ❧ Hernando Franco is nowadays a fairly well-known composer, mostly associated with the flourishing music activity at Mexico City Cathedral in the last decades of the sixteenth century. Most of what we known about him has come to us from notable scholarship contributions on both sides of the Atlantic: …
Some notes on the Spanish composer Hernando Franco’s activity in Portugal ❧ read more »
The organ of the Church of Nossa Senhora da Guia in Angra do Heroísmo (Terceira Island): some notes ❧ The Azores has a dense concentration of around sixty organs distributed by eight of the nine islands of the archipelago. These instruments were built during several time periods ranging from the mid to late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. …
The choir lectern of Angra Cathedral (Terceira Island, Azores) ❧ Lecterns played an important part in the visual culture of musical practice in church choirs throughout the centuries. The stalls have been frequently regarded as the epitome of wood-carving carpentry and embellishment of the choirs but the lectern, usually its centre-piece, frequently stands out as some of the finest art …
The choir lectern of Angra Cathedral (Terceira Island, Azores) ❧ read more »
The Procession of Soledade in 1656 Évora ❧ The so-called Good Friday procession organized by the Misericórdia of Évora in 1656, was in fact the procession of the Soledade. This procession seemed to be a strong Iberian devotion that commemorated the solitude of the Virgin Mary on Holy Saturday, and was part of a wider devotion practised on Good Friday. …
The motet Ecce mulier Chananea by Fr. Manuel Cardoso1 ❧ Manuel Cardoso was baptized on 11 December 1566, in the Parish Church of Fronteira, being most of his biographic details transmitted by the chronicler of the Carmelite Order, Fr. Manuel de Sá, who, in 1724, published the Memorias historicas… da Ordem de Nossa Senhora do Carmo, where three pages were …
The motet Ecce mulier Chananea by Fr. Manuel Cardoso ❧ read more »
The motet Mulier quae erat by Manuel Cardoso ❧ Manuel Cardoso was born in the small Portuguese village of Fronteira (near the Spanish border), possibly in the second semester of the year of 1566, since he was baptized on 11 December of that year in the Parish Church of this Alentejo village. The biographical details of Manuel Cardoso were passed …
The motet Dominus dabit benignitatem by Ludovico Balbi ❧ Both the sixteenth as the seventeenth centuries were times when an almost infinite number of musicians worked in European religious institutions at a higher level never seen after. I have frequently stated this in several conferences and talks followed by the fact that everyday there is an unknown composer that was …
The motet Dominus dabit benignitatem by Ludovico Balbi ❧ read more »
Manuel Botelho, a musician in 17th-century Évora ❧ Most of what we read regarding the musical activity in Évora Cathedral from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries is frequently focused on the careers and compositions of the institution’s most distinguished chapel masters. Indeed, this happens in many cases as a result of the amount and availability of documental sources regarding …
Manuel Botelho, a musician in 17th-century Évora ❧ read more »
The 17th century Portuguese composer Henrique de Faria ❧ As is the case with many Portuguese composers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, those whose musical careers were mostly developed in ecclesiastical institutions of lesser importance, when compared to the great cathedrals and monastic and conventual houses, are frequently almost unknown with scarce information circulating besides a name, dates of …
The 17th century Portuguese composer Henrique de Faria ❧ read more »
The Francisco Valls’s Missa Scala Aretina controversy ❧ Among the recent readings on Iberian music in the last decades of the seventeenth and early decades of the eighteenth century, one interesting aspect called my attention which is centred on the controversy around the Catalan composer Francisco Valls’s Missa Scala Aretina that developed during the first decades of the eighteenth century. …
The Francisco Valls’s Missa Scala Aretina controversy ❧ read more »
A procession imploring for rain in seventeenth century Évora ❧ Processions imploring for rain (ad petendam pluviam) are a constant occurrence in the Early Modern World. During the extended periods of extreme drought Man turned to the divine forces to ensure his subsistence directly related to the cultivation of the fields and harvesting of cereals to make bread as well …
A procession imploring for rain in seventeenth century Évora ❧ read more »
The motet Cantantibus organis by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ So much has been written about Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina’s compositions that it would be fruitless to follow the same approach to his music as many accomplished scholars have done so. So, in this text I’ll offer a personal perspective to a motet that has eluded me for some time. …
The motet Cantantibus organis by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ read more »
The motet Assumpta est Maria by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ No Renaissance composer and few later ones have been as proficient as Palestrina at writing positive, outward-going, major-key music, and in this context Assumpta est Maria represents one of the most important works of the period. With these words Peter Philips (director of The Tallis Scholars) mentioned Giovanni Pierluigi …
The motet Assumpta est Maria by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ read more »
The Missa Salvatorem expectamus by Gregorio Allegri ❧ The composer Gregorio Allegri is best known for his Miserere and all the tradition around the Papal chapel during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Besides this wider-known composition, it is not an easy task to list other works by Allegri. The composer was born in Rome sometime during 1582. Together with his …
The Missa Salvatorem expectamus by Gregorio Allegri ❧ read more »
As many early modern cities did, so did Évora have its areas where certain trades were concentrated, arranged throughout specific streets our squares. As we still see today in many of Évora’s buildings the ground floor of most of them in the nowadays historical centre streets were shops where goods were sold, or services were provided to the city’s inhabitants …
Artists living at Porta Nova of Évora in the 16th century ❧ read more »
The Church of Santo Antão (dedicated to St Anthony, Abbot) was one of the main construction projects of the Cardinal D. Henrique during his government as Archbishop of Évora. During Medieval times it is referenced as the Church of Santo Antoninho in the city’s main square, annexed to the hospital and lodging facilities in charge of the Order of the …
Organ activity in the Church of Santo Antão, Évora, in the 1570s ❧ read more »
The entries and visits of kings to the cities were always moments of grandeur, consisting in the perfect moments for the commission of artworks as well as social gatherings and much activity among the ruling classes of the cities and villages visited. To write about this would be too extensive for this kind of text so, in order to keep …
A visit to the Convent of Calvário in Évora by King Philip III ❧ read more »
To write about musicians, composers, or even chapel masters in Évora during the sixteenth century frequently represents a challenge, to say the least, due to the scarcity of sources and accounts regarding their professional careers or their own biographies. The case of the singer, composer, and master Francisco Velez is no exception being part of a group of musicians of …
Francisco Velez, a musician in sixteenth century Évora ❧ read more »