José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Afro-Brazilian Composer, Born September 22, 1767 in Rio de Janeiro

[José Mauricio Nunes Garcia]

José Mauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) is profiled at AfriClassical.com and was an Afro-Brazilian composer and organist who was the grandson of slaves. Antonio Campos Monteiro Neto was Webmaster of a former illustrated Brazilian Website in English and Portuguese with numerous audio samples, José Mauricio Nunes Garcia. We found it quite authoritative, and have referred to the site frequently. The Webmaster began by noting that 240 works of music by José Mauricio Nunes Garcia have survived, and that early biographers estimate his total output at nearly twice that number.

Garcia wrote his earliest surviving work, Tota pulchra Es Maria, in 1783. Garcia joined the brotherhood of Saint Cecilia as a music teacher in 1784. He wrote Litany for Our Lady in 4 voices and organ, and by 1788 he was composing anthems and a capella works for church services. He gained fame in 1790 with his Funeral Symphony. Garcia was ordained in March, 1792. The chapel master died in 1797 and was succeeded by Garcia. The Royal Family took refuge in Brazil in March 1808, and clerics who accompanied them tried to remove Garcia from his position because of his race. Garcia was then told to concentrate on composition. His works that year included the Missa Pastoril, recorded in 1998 by Ensemble Turicum. Two masterpieces were the Requiem Mass and the Officium for the Dead.

A Royal wedding in 1817 included skilled musicians from Europe, giving Garcia the opportunity to compose 12 Divertimenti. That was also the year in which Garcia composed the first Brazilian opera, Le Due Gemelle (The Two Twins), which was destroyed by fire in 1825. Monteiro Neto tells us that in December 1819 Garcia conducted the first Brazilian performance of Mozart's Requiem (K 626). His last work before he died on April 18, 1830 was the St. Cecilia's Mass.