José Maurício Nunes Garcia (September 20, 1767 – April 18, 1830) was a Brazilian composer and priest, who is known as one of the greatest exponents of the Classical style in the Americas.
Born in Rio de Janeiro to bi-racial parents, Nunes Garcia lost his father at an early age. His mother perceived that her son had an inclination for becoming a musician and, for this reason, improved her work to allow him to continue his musical studies.
Nunes Garcia became a Catholic priest and, when King John VI of Portugal came to Rio de Janeiro with 15,000 people in tow, Nunes Garcia was appointed Master of the Royal Chapel. He sang and played the harpsichord, performing his compositions as well as those of other composers such as Domenico Cimarosa and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a very prestigious musician in the royal court of John VI.
His musical style was strongly influenced by Viennese composers of the period, such as Mozart and Haydn. Today, some 240 musical pieces written by Nunes Garcia survive, and at least 170 others are known to have been lost. Most of his compositions are sacred works, but he wrote also some secular pieces, including the opera Le due gemelle and the Tempest Symphony.
Infancy and youth On September 22, 1767, in a house at Rua da Vala, in Rio de Janeiro, a boy was born to parents, both of whom were biracial, Victória Maria da Cruz and the tailor Apolinário Nunes Garcia. Victória was born in the city of Mariana, in the province of Minas Gerais, and Apolinário, in Ilha do Governador (Governor's Island), near the city of Rio de Janeiro. Victória's mother was Joana Gonçalves, slave of Simão Gonçalves, and Apolinário was the son of Ana Correa do Desterro, slave of the parish Apolinário Nunes Garcia. Their baptism documents have no record of their fathers' names, evidence they were both their masters' children. Victoria and Apolinário married in 1762. The boy, who had been born on St Maurice's day, was baptized José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, on December 20, 1767, in the city's cathedral, now the .
An aunt, whose name is not known, lived with the family. After Apolinário's death in 1773, she and Victória raised Nunes Garcia and, when his precocious musical talent was detected, succeeded to contract, not without sacrifice, Salvador José de Almeida e Faria to teach him music. Faria had been educated in the musical style of Minas Gerais in the 18th century, and made his career there. This style is present in Nunes Garcia's early compositions.
To complete his musical education, he probably joined the cathedral's boys choir as a soprano. The choir's members were students of the Seminário de São Joaquim, now the Pedro II School, where they learned to read music, Greek and Latin. According to Manuel de Araújo Porto Alegre, one of Nunes Garcia's early biographers, the young boy had "a beautiful voice and a sharp musical memory", "reproduced everything he heard", and "created his own melodies and played the harpsichord and the guitar without ever have learned to".
In 1779, at twelve, Nunes Garcia began to teach music. Since he never had a piano or a harpsichord, he exercised on the keyboard by teaching society ladies in their homes. He learned to play the organ later, when he was already a priest, assisted by some good organists in the churches. He completed his education in the , public lectures in history, geography, Latin grammar, philosophy and rhetoric.
The first steps for priesthood Note: the abbreviation CPM refers to the Thematic Catalogue of Nunes Garcia's Works, compiled by the musicologist Mrs. Cleofe Person de Mattos. In 1783, at 16, Nunes Garcia composed his first surviving work: the antiphon Tota pulchra Es Maria (CPM 1). In the 1780s, he studied for the examinations he had to go through to take the holy orders, and developed a musical partnership with the old chapel master and subchanter of the See, deacon João Lopes Ferreira. These would be his first steps to succeed him as the chapel master.
In 1784, the brotherhood of Saint Cecilia, the traditional guild of the musicians, was founded in Rio de Janeiro. Nunes Garcia, at 17, was allowed to sign the foundation act, as he was already recognized as a professional music teacher. By the end of the 1780s, he had already a large repertoire of his own: a Litany for Our Lady for 4 voices and organ, in 1788; the anthems O Redemptor Summe Carmen and Pange Lingua, both in 1789; and the works a capella for all the Holy Week of the See, the Bradados or Passions, of these the most important was Bradados de 6ª feira maior (CPM 219), or Passion for Good Friday; this work originally included some motets classified – and nowadays sung – apart: Crux Fidelis (CPM 205), Heu Domine (CPM 211), Popule Meus (CPM 222), Sepulto Domino (CPM 223), and Vexilla Regis (CPM 225). In 1790 Nunes Garcia composed an instrumental work that made him famous in Rio de Janeiro: the Funeral Symphony (CPM 230).
He requested the holy orders in 1791. The two main prerequisites to be accepted were to prove the true Catholic faith from himself and from his parents, and to be free from "any color defect". The first had been proved through research and witnessing from his parents' and grandmothers' friends. To overcome the second, he requested to be dismissed from his "defect", in which he was successful.
In June 1791, he began the necessary examinations, and in March 1792 he was approved. There was one last requirement to take orders: to be an estate owner. This was gone through with the help of one of his student's father, Thomaz Gonçalves, a rich merchant who donated him a house at Rua das Bellas Noutes.
Nunes Garcia tried to develop himself in oratory, as it was useful to a priest, taking part in meetings of the Literary Society, founded in 1794. In 1797, the society was closed and their leaders arrested, under the accusation of revolutionary activities against the Crown. Among the arrested was Manuel Inácio da Silva Alvarenga, a poet born in the city of Vila Rica, and relative of Inácio José de Alvarenga Peixoto, one of the condemned leaders of the Inconfidência Mineira, a 1789 uprising in the province of Minas Gerais.
In 1795, he was appointed as public music instructor, installing a free music class in his own house. There the only instrument left for teaching was a steel guitar, used in sequence by all the students. Great musicians and singers there began their musical education. They would enrich Rio's musical stage during almost all the 19th century.
Chapel master
Following his ordination, Nunes Garcia enjoyed a period of great productivity. From this period are known 32 pieces of music, among them graduals, antiphons, various psalms, a Magnificat (CPM 16) for voices and organ, the vespers Vésperas das Dores de N. Srª. (CPM 177), Vésperas de N. Srª. (CPM 178), and several works for Holy Week: two Miserere, one for Maundy Thursday (CPM 194), and the other for Good Friday (CPM 195), and, in 1797, his first mass, – Pontifical mass of the See. On July 4 (or 5th), 1798, deacon Lopes Ferreira died. Two days earlier, perhaps because of his imminent death, Nunes Garcia was nominated chapel master. His dream of succeeding the master had come true. The position of subchanter was occupied by deacon José Mariano.
In 1799 he joined the brotherhood of Nossa Senhora do Rosário e São Benedito dos Homens Pretos, in whose church the See was installed. This same year he composed a Funeral Office (CPM 183) and a Requiem Mass (CPM 184), in honour of the deceased deacons, probably a personal tribute to Lopes Ferreira, and the Matins of Christmas (CPM 170).
As his house at Rua das Bellas Noutes was near the city's Public Garden, there is evidence that he took part in the traditional serenades there, for, in 1837, the scores of three of his popular compositions were printed by music editor Pierre Laforge; the Modinhas: Beijo a mão que me condena (CPM 226) – I kiss the hand that signs my condemnation; Marília, se não me amas (CPM 238) – Marília, if you don't love me, and No momento da partida, meu coração t'entreguei (CPM 239), – at the moment of the departure I gave you my heart. At the beginning of the 19th century, he diversified his production with two overtures: The Tempest (CPM 233) and Zemira (CPM 231), both written in 1803.
Few of his other works composed between 1800 and 1807 are known: two graduals, the motet Te Christe Solum Novimus (CPM 52), written in 1800, the Te Deum for the Matins of the Assumption (CPM 91) the Mass in B Flat (CPM 102), both written in 1801, and the antiphon In Honorem Beatissimae Maria Virginis (CPM 4), written in 1807. He resumed his rhetoric classes with Silva Alvarenga from 1802 to 1804, but of his purely rhetorical works, only the titles of two of his sermons are known.
Despite celibacy, Nunes Garcia had in the first decade of the 19th century a marital relationship with Severiana Rosa de Castro, born in 1789. From this relationship five children were born: José Apolinário, in 1807; Apolinário José, in 1808; Josefina in 1810, Panfília in 1811 and Antônio José in 1813. The elder, José Apolinário, later changed his own name to José Maurício Nunes Garcia Jr, after his father's acknowledgement, in 1828.
The Portuguese Royal Family arrives in Rio de Janeiro
In January, 1808 the brig Voador brought to Rio the news of the imminent arrival of the Portuguese Royal Family. They were fleeing from the invasion of their kingdom by the French troops, led by general Junot.
Some weeks later, another boat brought the information of the precise date of the arrival: March 7, and a request from prince regent John: to assist at a Te Deum, celebrated in the city's See, in thanksgiving for the successful trip. Some steps were taken in advance for the occasion, and at the informed date, the Anglo-Portuguese fleet reached the bay of Rio de Janeiro.
The prince regent and his court disembarked the next day, walking from the port to the See. Along the way, there were fireworks, music and the churches' bells tolling. When the prince entered the church, a "great orchestra", joined by the boys' choir, began to play.
The music was conducted by Nunes Garcia. About it, besides probably his Te Deum in D (CPM 96) written in 1799, there were presented the antiphons O Beatae Sebastiane, and Sub Tuum Praesidium (CPM 2).
The prince regent, though enthusiastic about the music, did not have the same opinion about the players. Soon he became aware of the precarious state of the See, and the quarrels between the Chapter and the church's brotherhood. One of his first decrees in Rio was to transfer the Chapter to the church of the Firsts of the Carmel, next to the Governor's Palace. Soon he had the idea to create a Royal Chapel, to replace his Patriarchal of Lisbon, to be installed in this church.
The institution was made official when the Portuguese bishop Dom José Caetano da Silva Coutinho arrived in the city, on April 25, 1808. He had to act with diplomacy to integrate the priests of the Patriarchal of Lisbon with the Chapter of the See of Rio de Janeiro. The admission of the Brazilian priests had been officialized, but the Portuguese clergy thought otherwise: in an anonymous document, they stated that, as a measure of economy, the ministers should be limited to those who previously served the prince regent. This would spare him to see in his chapel someone with a "visible physical defect". That someone with a "visible physical defect" was Nunes Garcia.
That was only the beginning of a series of aggressive actions, that had the objective of humiliating the man they considered to be of an inferior race. But the prince regent, recognizing his musical gifts, confirmed him, on November 26, as the master musician of the Royal Chapel. That made Nunes Garcia officially the first musician of the kingdom of Portugal.
Master of Music of the Royal Chapel