On July 9th, we discussed J.S. Bach’s Cantata 140, “Wachet Auf”. Bach sought to uplift and transform the hymns sung by everyday people through his music. The same is true for folk music. Classical musical composers often took folk songs and transformed them in such a way that showed people something that they did not know, about either the songs or themselves. In the case of Brazil, folk music and Classical music played an important role in the advancement of political freedom that eventually contributed to overturning the institution of slavery.
Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830)
Over 250 years ago, 70% of immigrants to Brazil were black African slaves. Brazil imported the largest number of African slaves (at least 5.8 million), and was the last place in the western hemisphere to ban slavery (until 1888). Slave-masters did things like pitting mulattos against Africans, and native slaves against both, in order to control them. The fights were intense. Before Nunes Garcia, Brazilian music was typified by the Portuguese court composer, Marcos Portugal. Here is a typical example.
Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia was born in Rio de Janeiro. Though his parents were free mulattos, they did not have an easy time of it. He showed much musical talent and his parents went to great expense to give him a musical education. It took all they had. At the age of 12, he began to teach music, even though he had no access to a keyboard. He learned to play at the same time as he taught, i.e. on his students keyboards, and was said to be able to reproduce anything he heard. He became famous as an improviser.
In 1790, this Funeral Symphony made him famous, at least in Rio. Some performances zip through it in half the time as this:
In 1792, he became a priest. He had to pass three requirements:
1. He had to declare himself and his parents to be true Catholics. Easy enough.
2. He had to own a house. A rich parent of one of his students gave him one.
3. He had to be free of any "color defects." He asked that this requirement be dismissed, and it was.
In 1795 he started a free music program in his house, even though his only instrument was a guitar, played in succession by students. He trained most of the next generation of Brazilian musicians there on that guitar. He improvised Modinhas, a type of Brazilian folk song, of Portuguese origin, often accompanied by only a guitar. He and his students would sometimes play Modinhas in the park next to his house.
Here is Nunes Garcia 's Modinha # 8, recorded in 2020.
Here is another Modinha by him: "Beijo a mão que me condena" (“I kiss the hand that condemns me”). We didn’t include the translation because it did not seem right.
Beijo a mão que me condena
A ser sempre desgraçado
Obedeço ao meu destino
Respeito o poder do fado
Que eu ame tanto
Sem ser amado
Sou infeliz
Sou desgraçado.
In 1798, he became Chapel Master, and the leading musician in Brazil. He also seems to have gotten the celibacy requirement dismissed, since he had five children.
In 1808, Prince John VI of Portugal arrived in Rio with a retinue of 15,000 (basically the entire court) fleeing Napoleon. They were relocating to Brazil. When the Prince decided to create a Royal Chapel, the Portuguese clergy demanded that no Brazilian clergy be accepted into it, to avoid the sight of someone with a "visible physical defect”—meaning Garcia. They were afraid. The Haitian Revolution of 1804 had inspired many Brazilians, and soldiers of African descent wore the medal of Dessalines. Despite more such hostile actions against Nunes Gracia, the prince appointed him as head of the Royal Chapel, making him the first musician in all of the Kingdom of Portugal!
His compositional powers grew, and he composed this great Te Deum in 1809.
https://youtu.be/Ch8Od0x2yjQ?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA
Although we don’t have the full story, by 1811, he was replaced by former court composer Marcos Portugal.
Francisco Manuel da Silva (1795-1865)
Da Silva, also from Rio, was one of Nunes Garcia's students, who founded the National Imperial Music and Opera Academy, the National Music Institute, and the Rio de Janeiro University Music School.
Brazil achieved independence from Portugal in 1822, but it was a slow process. In 1822, Jose Bonifacio de Andrade e Silva, the man referred to as the "Father of Brazilian Independence", called an end the slave trade and phase out slavery.
Francisco Manuel d Silva composed the Brazilian National Anthem, but waited to present it until April 13th, 1831, the day that Emperor Pedro I (who had resigned six days earlier), set sail back to Portugal. The Anthem is reminiscent of a Donizetti Aria.
https://youtu.be/SyyOahYXhUQ?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA
In 1835, the first major slave revolt occurred. Besides the Modinha, the Lundu was the other popular style of Afro-Brazilian music and dance. It was of African origins. Here is a traditional anonymous Brazilian Lundu.
https://youtu.be/_BOqBcrmfGg?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA
Da Silva composed this delightful Lundu de Mariquinha.
https://youtu.be/8L-4TaqWiEo?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOU
He also composed religious music. Here is a section of his Te Deum in G.
https://youtu.be/9HAH8RzjKMI?list=TLPQMjEwNjIwMjLOUDSzvlOUyA
Antonio Carlos Gomez (1836-1896)
Gomez was the first New World composer to be celebrated in Europe, including, apparently, by Verdi. He studied at Da Silva's Rio de Janeiro Music School. He composed “O saluto de Brazil” for the 1867 U.S. Centennial in Philadelphia.
He also composed “Colombo", and "O Guarini", about a forbidden love affair between a native (Guarini) prince, and a Portuguese-Brazilian woman. It was premiered at La Scala. Here is a duet.
He composed Lo Schiavo, in opposition to slavery. Here are some excerpts.