Historical context By the end of the 16th century, circumstances led to the disappearance of profane music in Portugal and religious music taking over. There are economical and political factors, like the troubles to keep the Portuguese conquests in Morocco and the competition led by Venetians and Turks (later by Dutch and English) to the spice trade, which leads to the closing of the Portuguese
feitoria (which was a kind of "spice supermarket") in Antwerp. In cultural terms, the influence of the
Counter-Reformation in Portugal is enormous: i) João III introduces the Inquisition in Portugal in 1536; his brother Henrique will be the first General Inquisitor; ii) the Jesuits come to Portugal in 1540 and soon start teaching in their own colleges in Coimbra and Lisbon. In 1555, they are in charge of the Arts College in Coimbra (the superior school in Portugal with most prestige), after the expulsion by the Inquisition of its most reputed teachers (like
André de Gouveia); iii) the Portuguese church participated actively in the
Council of Trent and, in 1564, Portugal becomes the only Catholic country where the council decisions (namely those concerning the musical practice in the church) are integrally published as laws. In this context, the profane music declined in the courts of João III and his grandson Sebastião I. In 1578, with the death of Sebastião I, Cardinal Henrique becomes king of Portugal. After his death in 1580, Portugal loses its independence, as the throne is inherited by
Felipe II, king of Spain (1527–1598). With the disappearance of the court in Lisbon, the aristocracy retired to their homes in the countryside, and the profane music nearly vanishes. The development of the Portuguese music in the end of 16th is thus mainly in the sacred polyphony.
Climax of the Évora school In 1575, Cardinal Henrique brought
Manuel Mendes (1547 - 1605), Mestre de Capela at Portalegre, to Évora, where he took the Mestre de Claustra position. Besides his qualities as a composer, Manuel Mendes is remarkable as a teacher. He formed the most part of the extremely competent professional musicians who would have the most reputed musical positions in Portugal in the next decades. Between his students at Évora, we have the most noted polyphonists of the next generation: Fr.
Manuel Cardoso (1566–1650), Filipe de Magalhães ( – 1652) and
Duarte Lobo (1564/69-1646) [6]. These continued the pedagogical action of their teacher, worthing him references as «mestre de toda boa musica deste reino» («teacher of every good music in this kingdom») and «el Mendes Sonoroso que de Musicos llena toda a Europa» («the sound Mendes who replenishes Europe with musicians»).
Other centres of musical activity in the 17th century Santa Cruz at Coimbra Prominent composers of the 17th century include
Pedro de Cristo, D. Pedro da Esperança and D. Gabriel de S. João. The manuscripts kept at the General Library of the University of Coimbra reveal innovative polyphonic practices, such as polychorality, accompanied monody and instrument obligato.
The Royal Chapel In spite of the absence of the King, it remains an important centre, with Mestres de Capela such as Francisco Garro, Filipe de Magalhães and Marcos Soares Pereira.
Chapel of the Dukes of Bragança at Vila Viçosa , pictured by
José de Avelar Rebelo, c. 1646. During the Spanish domination, the
duke of Bragança retired to his palace in
Vila Viçosa. The ducal chapel maintained a magnificent liturgy and, in 1609, Teodósio II founded the Santos Reis Magos College, working in a similar way to the Évora school. Roberto Tornar, mestre de Capela at Vila Viçosa, would become the musical instructor of the young Duke of Barcelos, D. João (later D.
João IV, king of Portugal). This king, both before and after succeeding to the Portuguese throne, enlarged immensely the musical library of his father, transforming it in the biggest musical library of the time in Europe. Further, João IV was a composer and a theorist himself, as well as a devoted patron of
João Lourenço Rebelo (1610–1661), whose works he would send for printing at Rome. Robelo, some of whose pieces have been issued on CD, composed in an innovative style, making use of opulent polychoral writing
à la Giovanni Gabrieli and combining it with the more conservative idiom of
Palestrina.
Instrumental music It was in the domain of
organ music, the organ being itself the liturgical instrument
par excellence, that Portugal's composers of the 16th and 17th centuries achieved particularly high standards. Portuguese organs, as well as Spanish ones, usually had just one
manual, without
pedalboard. (Or, if a pedalboard was included, it was very basic, and it forbade any melodic complexity of the sort that German composers of organ music from the early 16th century, such as
Arnolt Schlick, took for granted in their own pedal parts.) Nevertheless, the surviving music conceived for these organs does often show considerable contrapuntal ingenuity as far as the writing for keyboard is concerned. Several organ mechanisms were cultivated more in the Iberian peninsula than anywhere else. For example, these organs frequently incorporated a device known as
meio-registo ("half-stop"), which, when activated, divided the keyboard into two distinct parts with sharp contrasts in timbre, giving the effect of two manuals instead of one. Another conspicuous feature in both Portugal and Spain was the horizontal placing (
em chamada, the Portuguese called it) of particularly powerful, strident
reed stops, very useful for imitating trumpet fanfares. In the 16th century
António Carreira was the chief Portuguese organist-composer (his significance to Portugal resembles that of his slightly older contemporary
Antonio de Cabezón to Spain). But Carreira's output was never published during his lifetime. The first printed volume of Portuguese instrumental music did not appear until 1620:
Flores de Música para o instrumento de tecla e harpa ("Music flowers for the keyboard instrument and harp"), by
Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, who died in around 1635. This contains only sacred compositions. Coelho worked as an organist in the cathedrals of Badajoz, Elvas and Lisbon. During the 17th century a notable school of organists developed in Braga. The main figures in this connection were Gaspar dos Reis, employed at Braga Cathedral; Pedro de Araújo; and a priest-composer, Diogo da Conceição. Two prominent genres of early Portuguese organ music were the
Tento de Meio-Registo (Half-Stop Tento) and the
Batalha (Battle). This last form goes back to one of the most famous pieces by
Clément Janequin:
La bataille de Marignan ou La Guerre, in which the characteristic sounds of a battle are imitated. The Iberian composers would often quote whole phrases from Janequin's original, adding to these phrases distinctive keyboard figuration. ==The Baroque period and the Italian influence==