The 18th- Century School of Music in Brazil

At the 18^th century, there was intense musical activity in all the more planned regions of Brazil, with their moderately steady institutional and educational structures. The past few groups became more common and the churches presented great types of music.

 

source of picture: riotimesonline.com

In the first half of this century, the main outstanding works were composed by Luis Alvares pinto, Caetano de Mello de Jesus and Antionio Jose da Silva (the Jew/), who became successful in Lisbon in writing the librettos for the comedies that were performed also in Brazil with the music by Antionio Teixeira.

In the second half of the 18^th –century, there was a great success in Minas Gerais, mainly in the places of Vila Rica (recently Ouro Perto), Mariana and Arraial do Tejuco (recently Diamantina), where the mining of the gold and diamonds for the Portuguese area attracted a sizable population. In the period, the first outstanding Brazilian composers were shown.

The musical piece were mainly few music, some of the noteworthy composer of this time were Lodo de Mesuita, Manoel dias de Olivera, Franciso Gombe da Rocha, Marcos, Coelho Neto and Marcos Coelho Neto Filho, which all of them are very active, but in several cases few pieces have lived until the recent day. Some of the most well-known pieces of this time are the Magnificat by Manuel Dias de Oliveria and the Our Lady’s Antiphon by Lobo de Mesquita. In the city of Arraial do Tejuco, the current Diaman Tina, there were ten conductors in activity, in Ouro Preto about 250 musicians were active, and in all of the territory of minas Gerais mainly about thousand musicians were active.

With the failure of the mines at the end of the century, the focus of the musical activity changed to another centres, like Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where Andre da Silva Gomes, a singer of Portuguese root, released a great number of works and dynamized the musical life of the city.