29 OCT | Sunday 6.00 pm
Convento of Santa Clara, Funchal
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho - Flores de Música (1620)
André Ferreira, organ
Ensemble São Tomás de Aquino
João Andrade Nunes, direction
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho:
Flores de Música (1620)
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (1555-1635) was a keyboard player at the Portuguese Royal Chapel until 1609. In 1620, he published Flores de Música, the first volume of keyboard music printed in Portugal, which contains a set of 24 tentos and 109 short compositions of various kinds: kirios, verses in the eight modes, four suzanas (inspired by the song Susanne un jour by Orlando di Lassus), four Pange Lingua, four Ave maris stella, Magnificat verses, and also five verses on the chant for Ave maris stella. Coelho intended the work for liturgical use.
Though Flores de Música is a volume for keyboard and does not contain any vocal polyphony, liturgical practice also involved the choir. The organ and the choir would perform in alternation the chant or polyphonic verses, a practice known as alternatim. The Cinco versos sobre os passos do cantochão de Ave maris stella stand out in Coelho’s work because they resemble the tentos, longer and more complex works than the Magnificat verses or kirios. The chant is divided into five verses, the last having a duple and a triple section: excluding the tentos, it is the only such case in the verses of the Flores de Música. The Magnificat verses are differently organized from the kirios or the eight-mode verses, since the composer includes an upper voice, the organ providing the accompaniment.
Frei Manuel Cardoso (1566-1650), organist and prolific composer of polyphony, spent most of his life at the Carmelite Convent in Lisbon. His authorization was necessary for the publication of Flores de Música, in which his words appear amongst the licences for Coelho’s work. One might speculate as to whether, still while both composers were alive, they would not have complemented each other’s work, as happens in this programme: the polyphonic sections of the Kyrie of the Missa Tradent enim vos, by Cardoso, correspond to the even verses of the Kyrie, and Coelho’s verses correspond to the odd verses.
Though Flores de Música does not contain any intabulations – transcriptions and arrangements of a vocal piece for keyboard – this would have been an indispensable skill for any organist. The intabulation of the motet Domine tu mihi lavas pedes aims to link Cardoso’s work with diminutions and glosses to Coelho’s style. The second tento por b mol is a demonstration of all the stylistic richness and thematic variety present in Flores de Música.
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho (ca. 1555-ca. 1647)
¬ Cinco versos sobre os passos do cantochão de Ave maris stella
Frei Manuel Cardoso (1560-1650)
¬ Kyrie
(Missa «Tradent enim vos»)
alternated with
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho
¬ Kirios do 3º tom por a la mi re
Frei Manuel Cardoso
¬ Motet «Domine tu mihi lavas pedes»
Frei Manuel Cardoso / André Ferreira (1989)
¬ Intavolation of the motet «Domine tu mihi lavas pedes»
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho
¬ Magnificat do 1º tom
¬ Segundo tento do 2º tom
Participants
|
André Ferreira graduated in organ from the Royal Conservatory of Amsterdam, where he studied with Jacques van Oortmerssen, and also Pieter van Dijk. He took his masters in organ at the Higher School of Music on Lisbon (ESML) under the supervision of João Vaz. He began his organ studies with António Esteireiro at the Gregorian Institute of Lisbon, continuing thereafter with Jos van der Kooy at the Conservatory of The Hague. His interest in early music led him to study the baroque oboe, with Maria Petrescu, and he is currently a bachelors student on the course run by Pedro Castro at ESML. As both soloist and member of various ensembles, he has already given recitals in Portugal, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands. As an organist he collaborates with the Parish of St Thomas Aquinas and the Parish of St Mary in Belém (Mosteiro dos Jerónimos) in Lisbon. During the academic year 2016-17 he taught at the Regional Conservatoire of Ponta Delgada, in the Azores. He is professor of organ at the Diocesan School of Sacred Music of the Lisbon Patriarchate. He graduated in applied mathematics and computing at the Higher Technical Institute. |
André Ferreira|
Resident at the Church of St Thomas Aquinas in Lisbon, the Ensemble São Tomás de Aquino is a group of variable dimensions, made up of young professional musicians. Founded in 2015 by por João Andrade Nunes, the Ensemble São Tomás de Aquino has sought to present, in a liturgical context – the setting par excellence for the performance of sacred repertoire – various works by Marc Antoine Charpentier, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Joseph Haydn and others. The repertoire performed ranges from Gregorian chant to the 21st century. The Ensemble, in parallel with its liturgical function, gives regular concerts, having recently performed Bach’s Mass in B minor, BWV 232. |
Ensemble São Tomás de Aquino|
Born in Sabugal in 1990, he began his studies in saxophone at the Pedro Álvares Cabral Music Conservatoire in Belmonte in 1999, at only nine years of age, in the class of Carlos Canhoto. He graduated from the supplementary course in saxophone at the São José Conservatoire, in Guarda, with a note of 19. As a saxophonist and chamber musician he has attended master classes with Mario Marzzi, Claude Delangle, Christian Lauba, Richard Ducros, Marialena Fernandes, João Vaz, Nuno Inácio, Pavel Gomziakov, Olga Prats and others. He was awarded the Third Prize in the Youth Category of the Palmela International Saxophone Competition in 2005. He has taken part in various projects for the dissemination of contemporary music, such as the Peças Frescas project and the S. Luiz Music Festival. He is a founding member of the Entre Madeiras Trio, a contemporary music group already recorded. Since January 2008 he has been a permanent member of the Band of the Portuguese Navy. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in music – saxophone – at the Higher School of Music of Lisbon in 2011. He was the first saxophone teacher of the “Orquestra Geração” project at the Music School of the National Conservatory. As a composer, he has worked principally on sacred music. As conductor, he works at the Church of St Thomas Aquinas in Lisbon, where he founded the Ensemble São Tomás de Aquino in 2015. |
João Andrade NunesNotes about the organ
Church and Convent of Santa Clara, Funchal
The church of Santa Clara had acquired a small positive organ with Italo-Iberian characteristics in the 18th century. With the extinction of the religious orders and the subsequent sale of the congregation’s goods, the organ was also put up for sale, being purchased by a certain Romano de Santa Clara, who kept it in a wing of the dissolved convent. In 1921 he gave it to the fraternity of Santa Clara, so that it could once more be put to service in the worship of the church. In October 1923 the task of ‘repairing’ it was put in the hands of the musicians César R. Nascimento and Guilherme H. Lino, who completed the work in November of the following year.
Unused and badly damaged for many years, this instrument of considerable historical value underwent a major restoration by Dinarte Machado on the basis of proper criteria drawn from a knowledge of the organ-building practices of the instrument’s period. This was completed in 2001. The poor state of the instrument, completely disfigured, required a rigorous, in-depth study on which to base this restoration. Thus we see how from the outset Dinarte Machado went to considerable pains in the course of this restoration.
Manual (C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb-c’’’)
Principale (c#’-c’’’)
Ottava (4’)
Quintadecima (2´)
Decimanona (1 1/3´)
Vigesimaseconda e Trigesimasesta
Flauto 8’
Flauto 4’
Cornetto (c#’-c’’’)