Music History of Portugal - The 19th Century

The 19th Century

With the Napoleonic invasions, the Royal family goes to Brazil and the court establishes in the Rio de Janeiro. This presence would conduce to the independence of this colony (1822) and would be benefic as well to the development of Brazilian music (the first significative Brazilian composer is José Maurício Nunes Garcia, member of the royal chapel at the Rio de Janeiro). Meanwhile, the constitutional régime is proclaimed (1820) and King D. João VI (1767–1826) is forced to come back. The activity of the Royal Chamber Orchestra (founded by D. João V), which had been in the previous century one of the most important chamber orchestras in Europe, declines irreversibly. However, in the turn of the 19th century, generalizes the tradition of amateur academies performing the contemporary instrumental music. The generalization of public concerts is due to João Domingos Bomtempo (1775–1842), the most prominent musical figure of the first half of the 19th century. Bomtempo, son of an Italian musician of the court Orchestra, studied with the Patriarchal masters. Unlike most of his contemporaries, he was not interested in opera and, in 1801, instead of going to Italy, he travels to Paris, starting a virtuoso pianist career. He moves to London in 1810 and gets acquainted with the liberal circles. In 1822 he is back to Lisbon, and founds a Philharmonic Society to promote public concerts of the contemporary music. After the civil war between liberals and absolutists, Bomtempo becomes music teacher of Queen D. Maria II (1819–1853) and first Director of the National Conservatory, created in 1835 and which replaced the old Patriarchal Seminary, extinct by the liberal régime. As a composer, Bomtempo produced a vast amount of concerti, sonatas, variations and fantasias for the piano. His two known symphonies are the first to be produced by a Portuguese composer. The master piece of Bomtempo is his Requiem to the memory of Luís de Camões.