José Maurício Nunes Garcia

José Maurício Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) composed at least 237 sacred and secular works and was the son of a Black woman (Victoria Maria da Cruz) and Brazilian lieutenant (Apolinário Nunes Garcia). He helped to establish the Brotherhood of St. Cecilia in 1784, joined the Brotherhood of São Pedro dos Clérigos in 1791, and was ordained a priest in 1792. Garcia’s contemporaries respected his intellectual, artistic, and priestly qualities, and records show no evidence that he experienced any documented racial discrimination in his ordination process.

Garcia was widely regarded as the most important Brazilian composer during his lifetime, and he was appointed the mestre de capela of Rio de Janeiro Cathedral in 1798. For twenty-eight years, Garcia taught free music courses to the public, and he worked with some of the most prominent Brazilian musicians of the day. By 1808, Garcia had composed several graduals, hymns, antiphons, and masses, and his work caught the attention of Prince Dom João VI. This led to Garcia’s next appointment as mestre de capela of the royal chapel and a substantial increase in his compositional output.

As a performer, Garcia was famous throughout the colony for his keyboard improvisations. Sigismund Neukomm, a former pupil of Haydn living in Rio, dubbed Garcia “the first improviser in the world.” Although his work had diminished due to poor health, Garcia conducted the Brazilian premiere of Mozart’s Requiem in 1819.

Garcia’s compositional output consists of masses, graduals, hymns, sequences, offertories, requiems, service music for the offices, antiphons, litanies, novenas, motets, secular vocal music, and orchestral works.

Resources

• Public Domain Scores

Sources

Béhague, Gerard. “Garcia, José Maurício Nunes.” Grove Music Online. 2001.

Works Featured on Expanding the Music Theory Canon

Libera Me
Excerpt
Pages: Intervals, Augmented 6th

“Quia cœciderunt” from Matinas do Apóstolo S. Pedro
Excerpt
Pages: Triads, Cadences, vii°6, vii°7+Inversions, Predominant

Rupris Constantiae from Ladainha de N. S. das Dores
Excerpt
Pages: Seventh, V, V7+ Inversions

“Cum vidisset ventum” from Matinas do Apóstolo S. Pedro
Excerpt
Pages: Seventh Chords, vii°6, vii°7+Inversions

“Pater de Coelis” from Ladainha de N. S. das Dores
Excerpt
Pages: Neighbor Tone, Augmented 6th

Inter Vestibulum
Excerpt
Page: Suspensions

Immutemur Habitu
Excerpt
Page: Suspensions

“Quem dicunt homines” from Matinas do Apóstolo S. Pedro
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Pages: Cadences, 6/4 Chords