Carlos Seixas (1704-1742)
- Dixit Dominus em Ré maior
Performers: Ana Ferraz (soprano); Luís Madureira (tenor); Manuel Braz da
Costa (alto);
Coro de Câmara de Lisboa; Norsk Barokkorkester; Ketil
Haugsand (conductor)
Further info: SEIXAS - Sonatas
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Portuguese composer and organist. He was the son of Francisco Vaz and
Marcelina Nunes. On the death of his father, early in 1718, he was
appointed his successor as organist at the Coimbra Cathedral and within a
month was, at the age of fourteen, earning his father’s old salary. Two
years later he moved to Lisbon ‘with the intention of becoming a
churchman’ where he secured the post of organist at a church then known
as the Santa Igreja Patriarcal, a position he remained in until the end
of his life. There is some doubt as to whether this was the royal
chapel, at that time located in the Ribeira Palace, or the Basilica de
Santa Maria Maior, near which Seixas lived. We do know, through the few
documents available, such as his papers for entry to the Ordem de Cristo
(The Order of Christ), and a biographical note, published in 1759 by
Diogo Barbosa Machado in his Bibliotheca Lusitana, that Seixas taught
the harpsichord at the Court in Lisbon and that ‘taken by a sincere
affection’ he married Joana Maria da Silva in December 1731, having two
sons and three daughters by her. We also know that on 21 May 1738 he
acquired the job of paymaster of the Ordem de Santiago. In June 1733 he
also joined the Royal Palace Guards, under the command of Viscount
Barbacena, rising from second lieutenant to captain. He finally became a
Knight of the Order of Christ by royal despatch in November 1738, after
taking nine years to qualify. Carlos Seixas died in Lisbon at his home
behind the Church of Sant’ Anténio da Sé, and was buried in the
graveyard of the Brotherhood of the Santissimo Sacramento attached to
that church. According to Barbosa Machado Seixas was suffering from
fever and ‘prepared himself to take the last rites of the Catholic
church, and so, receiving the Sacraments and reciting the Litany of Our
Lady, he expired on 25 August 1742, at the age of 38 years, two months
and fourteen days’. Carlos Seixas was the leading figure in Portuguese
18th-century music and his importance as a composer rests mainly on his
keyboard sonatas, 88 of them currently extant.
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