Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia

The Father Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia (Rio de Janeiro, September 22nd 1767 - Rio de Janeiro, April 18th 1830) is a Compositeur Brésilien. Having lived the transition between the Brazil-colony and imperial Brazil, he is regarded as one of the largest type-setters of the Americas of the last half of the XVIIIe century and first half of the XIXe century.

Biography

Modest mongrel of origin, Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia had as parents Apolinário Nunes Garcia and Victória Maria da Cruz, both mongrels and freed slaves. His/her father died in 1773, whereas he was still child; his/her mother, perceiving her talents of musician, would have asked El Salvador Jose de Almeida E Faria, musician originating in the Minas Gerais and family friend, to initiate it with the Musique.

Nunes Garcia would have been Enfant of chorus to the Cathédrale of Rio de Janeiro, then installed in the church of Nossa Senhora C Rosário E São Benedito, where he would have learned the Clavecin, the Orgue, the Solfège, the Gregorian chant and the Latin . Early musician, it gave already lessons of music to the twelve years age, and composed his first work in 1783, at the 16 years age: the Antienne Tota will pulchra are Maria , whom it dedicated to the cathedral. He was also professor of music to the brotherhood of Sainte Cecile, founded in 1784.

In 1792 it was ordered priest, not without difficulties because of its skin color and its modest origins.

In July 1798, Nunes Garcia succeeded the canon Lopes Ferreira at the Choirmaster station of of the cathedral. Its function included the composition of parts ordered by the Senate for the liturgical festivals, the marriages and the births of the royal family. One of the first works which were ordered to him was the Te Deum , Thanksgiving for the birth of the prince Dom Pedro in 1798.

With the turning of the century, Nunes Garcia sought to improve in the eloquence and the Rhétorique, disciplines useful for its priesthood. Within this framework, it became acquainted with Handbook Inácio da Silva Alvarenga, originating in Ouro Preto, intellectual related to the circle of the Conjuration Mineira. This last awoke at Nunes Garcia a deep patriotic feeling present in the compositions of this period, marked by the liturgical Modinha S. Of its activity of speaker there remain however only some testimonys and the title of some Sermon S.

In 1808, the arrival of the Portuguese Royal family in Rio de Janeiro upset the artistic panorama of the city. Nunes Garcia obtained the favors of the prince regent Jean VI of Portugal, large amateur of Musique, of which it accepted the title d'" employee personnel". In spite of the opposition of the Portuguese priests, who reproached Nunes Garcia his " physical defect visible" , Jean VI named it Royal choirmaster, recently created under the model of that of the court with Lisbon, and trained by local and European musicians. The Royal Vault was installed with the church Nossa Senhora C Carmo, that the sovereign hoisted with the row of cathedral.

The period between 1808 and 1811 was most productive of the career of Nunes Garcia, during which it composed approximately seventy works. In 1809, the arrival of Portuguese musicians to the Royal Vault made evolve/move the style of Nunes Garcia, but also marked the beginning of a new wave of protests with its opposition because of its mongrel origins. Nunes Garcia profited however from the unwavering support of the prince regent: in February 1809, this one, filled with enthusiasm by the music which it had just heard at the time of a concert to the Quinta da Boa Vista (the residence of the imperial family), withdrew buttonhole of the baron de Vila Nova the chivalric insignia of the dress of the Ordre of Christ, and hung it at once to the cassock of the priest, thus ordering it knight, with the great indignation of the members of the court.

In 1811 arrived at the court Marcos Antonio da Fonseca Portugal, type-setter and organist Portuguese of reputation, Royal choirmaster of Lisbon that, deserted, it decided to leave with back-plate. Although the two musicians had cordial relations and that they were appreciated mutually, the Senate and the court took the party of the Portuguese against the Brazilian one and obliged Jean VI to replace the second by the first with the head of the Royal Vault. The Brazilian one continued, however, to profit from the favors of the prince and even composed, though in a sporadic way, some new works for the Royal Vault. The November 22nd 1814, Nunes Garcia accepted from Jean VI an annual pension of twenty-five thousand réis.

In 1816, in homage to the queen Marie Anger of Portugal, deceased the same year in Rio de Janeiro, the Third-Order of the Carmel ordered from Nunes Garcia two parts which appear among its masterpieces: the Requiem and the Office of late of 1816 .

The March 26th 1816 arrived at Brazil the French artistic Mission. Convened by Jean VI, anxious to develop arts and the culture in the country, the group was directed by Joachim Lebreton, of the Académie of the inscriptions and the humanities, and was composed, inter alia, of the painters Jean-Baptiste Debret and Nicolas-Antoine Taunay and of the architect Auguste Henri Victor Grandjean de Montigny. Taunay declared its admiration for " large the mulâtre" Nunes Garcia.

The same year, arrived at the court the type-setter Autrichien Sigismund Neukomm, raises Joseph and of Michael Haydn, with which Nunes Garcia bound friendship. Undoubtedly because of its nationality, Neukomm was him also boycotted by the court, and like Nunes Garcia, profited from the protection of the prince regent who directed it towards musical teaching. It had as pupils the prince Dom Pedro and the musician Francisco Manuel da Silva. Later, Nunes Garcia directed the first Brazilian ones of the Requiem of Mozart (1819) and of Creation of Haydn (1821).

In 1817, on order of Jean VI, Nunes Garcia composed the opera Due Gemelle , the first made up opera in Brazil. Work did not survive the fire which devastated the Royal Theater São João, in 1825.

The financial serious attack and the impoverishment of the Brazilian cultural life, after the return of Jean VI to Portugal in 1821 and the independence of the Brazil in 1822, slowed down the musical production of Nunes Garcia, already put in difficulty by the bad conditions of health of the type-setter.

In 1826 it composed its Chant of the swan, the Messe of Sainte Cecile , for the brotherhood of the same name. Monumental work, its manuscript was given by his/her son, Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia Junior, at the Historical and Geographical Institute Brazilian. Of 1826 until its death, Nunes Garcia got busy to re-examine the Orchestration this mass, and wrote a Traité Harmonie , lost today.

Having lost its revenues after the departure of Jean VI, Nunes Garcia lived its last years in a great destitution. The April 18th 1830, in the presence of his/her son and of a slave, it returned his last sigh by murmuring an anthem to the Vierge. The Brotherhood of Holy Cecile dealt with her funerals, and it was buried in the church São Pedro back Clérigos with the sound of its Symphonie Funèbre .

Fact running in the Brazilian company, Nunes Garcia, in spite of its statute of priest, had as a partner Severiana Rosa of Castro, it so mongrel freed, of which he had six children, of which five only survived: Apolinário Jose in 1807, Jose Mauricio Junior in 1808 (the only one that he recognized), Josefina in 1810, Panfília in 1811 and Antônio in 1813.

Works

Nunes Garcia composed approximately 26 Messe S, four Requiem, of the Répons, the Matines, of the Vêpres, a Miserere, a Stabat MATER, a Te Deum, Hymne S, Modinha S and short profane parts.

Some 240 parts written by Nunes Garcia survive today, and at least 170 others were lost. A great number of its works is with the Files of the Metropolitan Chapter of Rio de Janeiro, recently restored and digitized within the framework of a project subsidized by the company Petrobrás. Works are available on the http://www.acmerj.com.br site.

Principal compositions

dramatic Music: Coro para O entremês (1808); O Triunfo da América ( Triumph of America , 1809); Ulisséia ( Odyssey , 1809); Due Gemelle ( the Two Binoculars , 1817).
Music of Orchestra: Sinfonia fúnebre ( funeral Symphony , 1790); Sinfonia tempestade ( Symphony the Storm ).
Modinha S: Beijo has mão that me condena ; No momento da partida .
Instrumental music: Twelve entertainments (1817).
Sacred music: Tota will pulchra are Maria (1783); Ecce sacerdos (1798); Bendito E louvado seja ( Blessed and rented either , 1814 and 1815); Christus factus is (1798?); Miserere Quarta-feira para of trevas ( Miserere for Wednesday of the Holy Week , 1798); Released to me (1799); Missa de Réquiem (1799); Ofício of defuntos (1799); Judas mercator (1809); Matinas da ressureição (1809?); Missa de Requiem (1809); Missa de Réquiem (1816); Missa de Santa Cecília (1826).

Sources

Site devoted to Nunes Garcia, Portuguese version
Site devoted to Nunes Garcia, English version

External bonds

Files of the Metropolitan Chapter of Rio de Janeiro
Site with some partitions of Nunes Garcia (format pdf)
Text by Ricardo Bernardes (format pdf)
Text by Ricardo Bernardes (format HTML)
Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia titular of the armchair n° 5 of the Brazilian Academy of Music
Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia at the Brazilian National library
Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia - life, work, files MIDDAY, partitions
Musical Academia of Índias - Information and promotion of the old music in Latin America

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