Antonio Carreira

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António Carreira (* around 1525 in Portugal , † around 1592 in Lisbon ) was a Portuguese organist and composer , the most important Portuguese 'piano player' before Manuel Rodrigues Coelho . During his life Portugal was at the zenith of wealth, power and cultural prosperity, but he also witnessed the end of the Portuguese Aviz dynasty and the beginning of Spanish rule (1580-1640).

Life

As a child António Carreira received training as a singer at the royal chapel in Lisbon and remained loyal to this ensemble - later as organist and conductor - until his death.

Together with the court conductor Bartolomeu Trosylho, Carreira already had a prominent position in the royal court orchestra under Dom Joaõ III (reigned 1521–1557), which he apparently also under the reigns of the queen's grandmother Dona Catarina (1557–1562) and the cardinal Dom Henrique ( 1562–1568) retained. After the accession of 14-year-old King Dom Sebastiaõ to the throne in 1568, Carreira was appointed Kapellmeister and Magisterio as successor to Bartolomeo Trosylho ; he should carry out a reform of the chapel. It is not exactly known, but it is likely, that there were at least two chapels at that time, one for the king and one for Dona Catarina and Dom Henrique, because between 1562 and 1580 there was a second conductor besides Carreira: The Flemish Raynaldus van Melle.

After the tragic disappearance of King Dom Sebastiaõ in 1578 after the battle of Alcácer-Quibir , and the death of the cardinal in 1580, Carreira remained conductor of the Royal Chapel in Lisbon under the reign of Philip II of Spain.

Carreira had a son whose name was António Carreira, who was musical and became an Augustinian hermit . A nephew of the same name António Carreira was Kapellmeister in Santiago de Compostela .

plant

Carreira is considered to be one of the best organists of his time; together with Andrea Gabrieli , Jacob Buus and Rocco Rodio he was one of the first composers to write monothematic 'fugues' ( tentos , ricercari , fantasies). His style is very elegant and expressive.

Because of some dramatic historical events that struck Portugal since the 16th century, relatively few works by António Carreira and other Portuguese composers have survived. The following story is particularly tragic: Diogo Barbosa Machado reported in 1741 (in Biblioteca Lusitana ) that Carreira left some of his admired vocal works to his son António so that he could have them printed; Before that could happen, however, his son died of an epidemic that struck Lisbon in 1599, and with him the said notes also disappeared. Nevertheless, according to Machado, in 1741 the most important of these works were in the Royal Music Library (as manuscripts), including two "Lamentações de Semana Santa" and the six-part motets "Circumdederunt me" and "Illumina oculos meos". Unfortunately, only 14 years later, in the great Lisbon earthquake in 1755 , the library perished , and with it also Carreira's vocal music, as it was never printed and thus had not found widespread use.

Fortunately, some very beautiful key compositions by Carreira have survived in a manuscript from the former Santa Cruz Monastery in Coimbra , which is now in the Coimbra University Library (Manuscrito Musical no. 242). Some of them were published by Kastner in the Portugaliae Musica series (PM 19) (see below).

literature

  • Alfred Baumgartner: Early Music: From the beginnings of occidental music to the completion of the Renaissance. Kiesel, Salzburg 1981, ISBN 3-7023-0120-8 .
  • MS Kastner, "António Carreira", in: Três compositores lusitanos para instrumentos de tecla, séculos XVI e XVII (Three Lusitan composers for keyboard instruments): António Carreira, Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, Pedro de Araújo . Fundaçao Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon 1979, pp. 153-169. (bilingual: Portuguese and German)

grades

  • Antologia de Organistas do Século XVI: António Carreira - Heliodoro de Paiva - António de Macedo - Giulio Segni da Modena - Antonio de Cabezón (Portugaliae Musica, PM 19), transc. de Cremilde Rosado Fernandes, estudo de MC Kastner, Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1998/1969 (2nd edição).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ MS Kastner, "António Carreira", in: Três compositores lusitanos ... , Lisbon 1979, pp. 153-169, here: pp. 154-156.
  2. ↑ MS Kastner, "António Carreira", in: Três compositores lusitanos ..., Lisbon 1979, pp. 153-169, here: p. 156.
  3. ↑ Also called Rinaldo del Mel in Italy. See MS Kastner, "António Carreira", in: Três compositores lusitanos ..., Lisbon 1979, pp. 153-169, here: pp. 157-158.
  4. ↑ MS Kastner, "António Carreira", in: Três compositores lusitanos ..., Lisbon 1979, pp. 153–169, here p. 161. (bilingual: Portuguese and German)
  5. ↑ MS Kastner, "António Carreira", in: Três compositores lusitanos ..., Lisbon 1979, pp. 153-169, here: pp. 160-161.
personal data
SURNAME Carreira, António
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Portuguese organist and composer
DATE OF BIRTH around 1525
PLACE OF BIRTH Portugal
DATE OF DEATH around 1592
Place of death Lisbon