Category: Articles

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , , ,

❧ 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 both serving the purpose of holding the heavy choirbooks …

The choir lectern of Angra Cathedral (Terceira Island, Azores) ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , , ,

❧ 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 so-called Good Friday procession organized by …

The Procession of Soledade in 1656 Évora ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes, Musicians Tagged with , , , ,

❧ 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 their activity. By contrast, when speaking about …

Manuel Botelho, a musician in 17th-century Évora ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Composers Tagged with , , ,

❧ 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 birth and death (sometimes not even these dates …

The 17th century Portuguese composer Henrique de Faria ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles Tagged with , , , ,

❧ 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. Among the recent readings on Iberian music …

The Francisco Valls’s Missa Scala Aretina controversy ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , , , ,

❧ 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 as other foods. Processions imploring for rain (ad petendam …

A procession imploring for rain in seventeenth century Évora ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Composers, Music Compositions Tagged with , , ,

❧ 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. So much has been written about Giovanni Pierluigi da …

The motet Cantantibus organis by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , , ,

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 da Palestrina’s motet Assumpta est Maria for the first time in …

The motet Assumpta est Maria by Giovanni P. da Palestrina ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , ,

❧ 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 brother Domenico, he was a choirboy from …

The Missa Salvatorem exspectamus by Gregorio Allegri ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , ,

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 »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , , , , ,

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 »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , , , , , ,

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 »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Composers, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , , ,

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 »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , ,

When speaking of Cecilian music, one generally has the idea of the nineteenth-century movement, mostly centred in Germany, that pushed a reformation of Catholic church music, aiming to restore a more traditional religious feeling and the authority of the church in regard to the sacred music repertoire. This movement of the 1800s was in great part inspired by the fifteenth-century …

Two mid-16th-century Cecilian parody masses ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , , ,

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina died on 2 February 1594. Several months earlier, a collection of 68 motets was published. Although it appeared at the end of 1593 it is generally thought that these motets were composed over a period of years. Many have interpreted this publication as a summation of Palestrina’s life’s work. It was the last of the many …

The motet Ad te levavi animam meam by Palestrina ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Composers Tagged with

❧ Not much is known about the Portuguese composer António de Oliveira, besides that he was active in the last decades of the sixteenth century. Much of what is known about him comes from the short entry of Diogo Barbosa Machado’s Bibliotheca Lusitana and must be interpreted as accurate as the period in which the author gathered his information. Not …

A biographical note on the composer António de Oliveira ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Historical Soundscapes Tagged with , ,

Most of the published studies about the history of music in the Portuguese city of Évora have begin chronologically in the first decades of the sixteenth century onwards. This period corresponded to the activity of the Spanish chapel master Mateus d’Aranda at Évora Cathedral. The successors of Aranda both as chapel masters, singers, and instrumentalists, throughout the sixteenth century have …

The Medieval Soundscape of Évora from a 17th-Century Perspective ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , , , ,

The city of Évora, Alentejo, Portugal, is known for its musical history regarding the great Portuguese masters of polyphony of the first half of the seventeenth century. Names like Fr. Manuel Cardoso, Duarte Lobo, Filipe de Magalhães are known throughout the world as leading figures with biographical and professional relations with Évora Cathedral.

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , ,

In 1626 the Portuguese theorist Antonio Fernandes dedicated his Arte de Musica to his former master Duarte Lobo praising him as one of the most illustrious Portuguese masters. Duarte Lobo is included in the trio of Portuguese composers (the other two being Fr. Manuel Cardoso and Filipe de Magalhães) with an impressive body of music compositions during the Portuguese golden …

The Magnificat Quarti Toni by Duarte Lobo ❧ read more »

By Posted on Posted in Articles, Music Compositions Tagged with , , , ,

Flemish composer and singer Cornelis Verdonck was born in Turnhout sometime during the year 1563 and died in Antwerp on 5 July 1625. He was a choirboy at Antwerp Cathedral and in 1572 was enrolled as a singer at the court of Felipe II of Spain being colleague to other singers of Flemish origin such as Peeter Cornet and Philippe …

The motet Ave gratia plena by Cornelis Verdonck ❧ read more »