José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) - Te Deum (1799)
Performers: Americantiga; Ricardo Bernardes (conductor)
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Brazilian composer. He was the most important composer of his time in
Brazil, where he is generally referred to as José Maurício. He was the
son of a modest lieutenant, Apolinário Nunes Garcia, and a black woman,
Victoria Maria da Cruz. There is no evidence that he studied music at
the Fazenda Santa Cruz, established by the Jesuits outside Rio de
Janeiro, as has often been reported. It seems that he had some training
in solfège under a local teacher, Salvador José, and he did receive
formal instruction in philosophy, languages, rhetoric and theology. In
1784 he participated in the foundation of the Brotherhood of St Cecilia,
one of the most important professional musical organizations of the
time, and he officially entered the Brotherhood São Pedro dos Clérigos
in 1791. He was ordained priest on 3 March 1792: the fact that he was a
mulatto does not seem to have interfered in the process of his
ordination. Many of his contemporaries praised his intellectual,
artistic and priestly qualities. On 2 July 1798 Garcia was appointed
mestre de capela of Rio de Janeiro Cathedral, the most significant
musical position in the city. The appointment required him to act as
organist, conductor, composer and music teacher; and he also had the
responsibility of appointing musicians. Before that date he had begun a
music course open to the public free of charge. He maintained this
activity for 28 years, teaching some of the best-known musicians of the
time, including Francisco Manuel da Silva.
By the arrival of Prince (later King) Dom João VI and the Portuguese
court in 1808, Garcia’s fame was well established in the colony; he had
by then composed several works, including graduals, hymns, antiphons and
masses.
Following the tradition of the Bragança royal house, Dom João
was a patron of music; and Garcia’s talents were immediately recognized. In 1808 he was appointed mestre de capela of the royal chapel, for
which he wrote 39 works during 1809 alone. The prince’s appreciation was
marked by the bestowal of the Order of Christ. Soon the composer became
fashionable and famous for his skills in improvisation at the keyboard
in noble salons. The Austrian composer Sigismund Neukomm (1778-1858), a
former pupil of Haydn who lived in Rio from 1816 to 1821, referred to
Garcia as ‘the first improviser in the world’. But after the arrival in
1811 of Marcos Portugal, the most famous Portuguese composer of his
time, Garcia’s position and production tended to decline. His humility
and benevolence kept him from counteracting Portugal’s intrigues. His
activities as composer and conductor concentrated henceforth on the
city’s brotherhoods, although his position at the royal chapel was
nominally maintained. In about 1816 his health began to decline,
considerably reducing his working capacity. Yet on 19 December 1819 he
conducted the première in Brazil of Mozart’s Requiem, an event reported
by Neukomm in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung. The return of Dom
João and part of the court to Portugal in 1821 had the effect of
reducing the importance of the city’s musical life. Although Emperor
Pedro I was himself a musician, the years following independence (1822)
were not favourable for artistic development. Financial difficulties and
precarious health undermined Garcia’s last nine years, and he died in
extreme poverty.
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