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‘TO MAKE OF LISBON A NEW ROME’: THE REPERTORY OF THE PATRIARCHAL CHURCH IN THE 1720S AND 1730S

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 July 2011

JOÃO PEDRO D'ALVARENGA
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Abstract

The elevation of the Portuguese Royal Chapel to the rank of Patriarchal Church in 1716 was part of a larger process of ‘Romanization’ – that is, of assimilation and adaptation of Roman models within Portuguese music and culture. This involved the training of numerous chaplain-singers and young Portuguese composers in Rome, as well as the importation of chant books, ministers, singers and even the maestro di cappella of the Cappella Giulia, Domenico Scarlatti. According to the anonymous ‘Breve rezume de tudo o que se canta en cantochaõ, e canto de orgaõ pellos cantores na santa igreja patriarchal’ (Brief summary of all that is sung in plainchant and polyphony by the singers at the holy Patriarchal Church) – a document written at some point between 1722 and 1724 – the repertory of the Patriarchal Church was a varied mixture of works by thirty-two identified composers, mostly Italian and Portuguese, from a period ranging from the sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. Some of the repertory for Holy Week is also extant in three large choirbooks prepared by a copyist from the Patriarchal Church in 1735 and 1736 for use in the Ducal Chapel in Vila Viçosa. These include ‘modern’ additions to late sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century pieces and also some curious reworkings, made with the purpose of adjusting older works to newly ‘Romanized’ performance conditions and aesthetic ideals. The sources examined in this article thus show that Portuguese ‘Romanization’, far from being a simple transplantation of ideas and practices from the centre to the periphery, was a dynamic process of acculturation and adaptation rooted in emerging forms of historical consciousness.

Type
Research Article
Information
Eighteenth-Century Music , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , September 2011 , pp. 179 - 214
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

1 With the creation of the Patriarchal Church the city of Lisbon and the territory of its diocese were divided into two: the Patriarchate of Lisbon West and the Archbishopric of Lisbon East. After revoking the designation of the Collegiate Church of St Thomas – a rank granted to the Royal Chapel on 1 March 1710 after the creation of the relevant parish in 1709 – it was elevated to the status of Archiepiscopal See and Metropolitan Church of Lisbon West under the invocation of Our Lady of the Assumption, continuing to function in the Royal Chapel at the Ribeira Palace until such time as a Patriarchal Basilica could be built. The architect Filippo Juvara came to Lisbon between 31 January and the end of July 1719, charged with designing the church and the attached Patriarchal and Royal Palaces. For a time King João V considered beginning the construction of the church in the ‘Buenos Aires’ neighbourhood of Lisbon, but the project never got underway. It was not until the reign of King José I (1750–1777) that a Patriarchal Basilica was built, following the 1 November 1755 earthquake. This new church, erected in an elevated point in Lisbon known as ‘Cotovia’ (nowadays the ‘Príncipe Real’ Garden and Square), was used from 14 July 1757, even though it was at that time unfinished; it was destroyed by fire on 10 May 1769. See João Baptista de Castro, Mappa de Portugal antigo, e moderno, volume 3 (Lisbon: Officina Patriarcal de Francisco Luiz Ameno, 1762–1763), 182–202, and Fortunato de Almeida, História da Igreja em Portugal, volume two, ed. Damião Peres (Oporto: Portucalense; Lisbon: Livraria Civilização, 1967–1971), 10–15. See also Cristina Fernandes, ‘O sistema produtivo da Música Sacra em Portugal no final do Antigo Regime: a Capela Real e a Patriarcal entre 1750 e 1807’ (PhD dissertation, Universidade de Évora, 2010), 1–18 and 423–437.

2 Other such symbolic achievements included the promotion to the cardinalate of the nuncios at the end of their mission in Lisbon, as was usual with those in the courts of Paris, Madrid and Vienna (this was the outcome of a long diplomatic battle, which led to a rupture in relations with the Vatican between 1728 and 1730); the 1731 granting of the privilege to appoint a cardinal with veto in the conclaves; and the promotion of the Patriarch to the office of Cardinal in 1737.

3 King João V thus pursued a number of clearly defined objectives: a policy of neutrality in European conflicts (providing they did not threaten the Portuguese empire); a firm defence of the transatlantic possessions, especially the route to Brazil, because of their vital economic importance; the reinforcement of the internal authority of the crown; and the achievement of parity with the great nations of Europe (which was the reason for the long-term diplomatic and financial investments in Rome, Vienna, Madrid and Paris). For an overview of João V's government and political programme see Nova História de Portugal, volume 7: Da paz da Restauração ao ouro do Brasil, ed. Avelino de Freitas de Meneses (Lisbon: Presença, 2001), especially 206–210, and Maria Beatriz Nizza da Silva, D. João V (Lisbon: Círculo de Leitores, 2006). On Portugal's artistic connections with Rome see Pier Paolo Quieto, D. João V de Portugal: a sua influência na arte italiana do séc. XVIII (Lisbon and Mafra: Elo, 1990).

4 Details of these three composers can be found in the relevant articles in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, ed. Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (London: Macmillan, 2001). In 1761 António Teixeira was recorded as organist of the Patriarchal Church; he died on 20 November 1774.

5 On 20 August 1720 there were already fourteen foreign singers in the service of the Patriarchal Church, mostly Italians (at least seven of whom, including Domenico Scarlatti, came from the Cappella Giulia). In early 1734 their number reached thirty-six. On Domenico Scarlatti's Portuguese period see João Pedro d'Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s: Portugal, Travelling, and the Italianisation of the Portuguese Musical Scene’, in Domenico Scarlatti Adventures: Essays to Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of His Death, ed. Massimiliano Sala and W. Dean Sutcliffe (Bologna: Ut Orpheus, 2008), 17–68.

6 See Cláudio da Conceição, Gabinete Histórico, volume 11 (Lisbon: Impressão Régia, 1827), 288–289: ‘Os principaes informadores das Ceremonias Romanas, e exactissimas circumstancias do Ceremonial Pontificio forão Monsenhor Candido Cassini, o Monsenhor João Baptista Gambaruci, Mestres de Ceremonias de Sua Sanctidade: Francisco Bolsa, da Capella Pontificia, e o Padre Fr. João Baptista Amadei, Sotto Sacrista da mesma, d’onde veio Gabriel Cimballi para a Patriarchal: além dos Ecclesiasticos Portuguezes, que El Rei mandou a Roma, para se instruirem neste ministerio, com grossos subsidios para satisfação da sua incomparavel curiosidade, e acerto das funcções do Culto Divino' (The main informants about the Roman ceremonies and more accurate circumstances of the Pontifical ceremonial were Monsignor Candido Cassini and Monsignor Giovanni Battista Gambaruci, Masters of Ceremonies of His Holiness; Francesco Bolsa from the Papal Chapel, and Father Giovanni Battista Amadei, Under-Sacristan of the same chapel, whence came Gabrielle de Cimballi to the Patriarchal; besides the Portuguese Clerics that the King sent to Rome to be instructed in this ministry, with huge subsidies to satisfy his incomparable curiosity and the correctness of the functions of Divine Worship).

7 It should be noted that documents belonging to the ‘Colecção Pombalina’ in the National Library of Portugal and the Biblioteca da Ajuda, Lisbon, contain countless references to the copying in Rome of music books and choir regulations and to correspondence with Roman clerics concerning ceremonial and the manner of singing chant.

8 See Doderer, Gerhard and Fernandes, Cremilde Rosado, ‘A música na sociedade joanina nos relatórios da Nunciatura Apostólica em Lisboa (1706–1750)’, Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia 3 (1993), 69–146Google Scholar , especially 90. This article publishes all the relevant excerpts from the official correspondence of the nuncios, Vincenzo Bichi and, from September 1720 onwards, Giuseppe Firrao, in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Segretaria di Stato, Portogallo, volumes 65–105, covering the years 1708 to 1750.

9 For example in Pagano, Roberto, ‘Scarlatti, (Giuseppe) Domenico’, in Grove Music Online <www.oxfordmusiconline.com> (20 June 2010)+(20+June+2010)>Google Scholar .

10 Though there are references in the Nunciature reports after 1710 to occasional performances of music ‘all’italiana' in the Royal Chapel; see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 42–49.

11 Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Segretaria di Stato, Portogallo, volume 75, f. 262, 21 November 1719; reproduced in Doderer and Fernandes, ‘A música na sociedade joanina’, 93.

12 See Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 33, 38 and 44–45, and Clark, Jane, ‘Farinelli as Queen of the Night’, Eighteenth-Century Music 2/2 (2005), 321–333Google Scholar .

13 P-La MS 49-i-59 (henceforth ‘Breve rezume’), [iv] + 51 + [1] ff; fols 43r–51v were left blank. I am currently preparing an edition of this document with notes.

14 The liturgical ceremonies of the Patriarchal Church publicly attended by the king were known as ‘Capelas Patriarcais’ (Patriarchal Chapels) and the respective days of ceremony as ‘Dias de Capela’ (Chapel Days). The latter, since they were public ceremonies of the Royal Chapel, were also called ‘Funções de Corte’ (Court Functions).

15 ‘Breve rezume’, f. 36r: ‘Segunda oitava [de Pentecostes]. / Com asistencia do Senhor Patriarcha. / a Missa se cantou a 8. Autor Joaõ Rodriguez / Esteves 1.º tom’ (Second octave [of Pentecost]. / With the presence of the Patriarch. / the Mass was sung in 8 parts. Author João Rodrigues / Esteves, 1st tone).

16 Autograph in P-Lf MS 72/19; modern edition in João Rodrigues Esteves: Obras selectas, ed. Fernandes, Cremilde Rosado and Doderer, Gerhard (Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1980), 23–128Google Scholar .

17 This is recorded, for example, in the Liber processionum, et stationum Ecclesiae Olysiponensis, nunc denuò auctus, & in meliorem formam redactus ab Eduardo Lupo (Lisbon: Pedro Crasbeeck, 1607); a second, revised edition was made for the exclusive use of the Diocese of Lisbon East: Liber processionum, et stationum Sanctæ Metropolitanæ Ecclesiæ Ulyssiponensis Orientalis, auctus ab Eduardo Lupo … & in meliorem formam redactus ab Antonio Petro de Carvalho (Lisbon West: ex Typographia Musicæ, 1728).

18 ‘Breve rezume’, f. 16r: ‘logo principiaõ / a Antiphona Adorna Thalamum, e he intoada por / dous Contraltos, e os mais a continuaõ en / Cantochaõ, e a cantaraõ pello retual de / Paulo 5.º’ (they start off at once / the antiphon Adorna Thalamum, and this is intoned by / two altos, and the rest go on in / plainchant, and they sing it from the Ritual of / Paul V).

19 According to its 1764 Statute (P-Ln Cód. 3693), the Patriarchal Seminary was established as a music school for young boys attached to the Royal Chapel on 9 April 1713, when it was still a collegiate church. It remained the main Portuguese school of music during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, being abolished and supplanted by the French-modelled Lisbon Conservatory in 1835.

20 Thirty years later Giorgi would retire to Genoa, supposedly horrified by the 1 November 1755 earthquake, but he continued to send works to Lisbon until his death in 1762; see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 48–49. The autographs of 188 of Giorgi's works (248 scores and sets of parts) are extant in the archive of Lisbon Cathedral (P-Lf).

21 ‘Breve rezume’, f. 24r.

22 P-La MS 54-iii-93 36–44.

23 For a discussion of vero stile in the works of Davide Perez and Niccolò Jommelli see Dottori, Maurício, ‘The Church Music of Davide Perez and Niccolò Jommelli, with Special Emphasis on their Funeral Music’ (PhD dissertation, Cardiff, University of Wales, 1997), 64–79Google Scholar .

24 da Bolsena, Andrea Adami, Osservazioni per ben regolare il coro de i cantori della Cappella Pontificia (Rome: Antonio de' Rossi, 1711)Google Scholar .

25 On the Royal Library of Music and its printed index see Nery, Rui Vieira, ‘The Music Manuscripts in the Library of King D. João IV of Portugal (1604–1656): A Study of Iberian Music Repertoire in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ (PhD dissertation, University of Texas at Austin, 1990)Google Scholar .

26 For an updated list of Domenico Scarlatti's vocal works composed for the court and the Patriarchal Church of Lisbon see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 67–68.

27 See Primeira parte do Index da Livraria de Mvsica do mvyto alto, e poderoso Rey Dom Ioão o IV. Nosso Senhor (Lisbon: Paulo Craesbeeck, 1649), 16, item no. 73.

28 See, for example, Primeira parte do Index, 81, item no. 377.

29 That I have newly identified certain works and composers that the ‘Breve rezume’ leaves ambiguous accounts for the differences between the figures I provide here and those in my earlier ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 50.

30 A distinction made by Girolamo Chiti in his correspondence; see Dottori, ‘The Church Music of Davide Perez and Niccolò Jommelli’, 66.

31 For a few examples of the different performance practices referred to in the ‘Breve rezume’ see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 50–51, note 151.

32 For its sources see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 68.

33 P-Lf MS 63/1 and P-Ln CN 134 nos 4 and 5 respectively.

34 P-Lf MS 34/3, I-Rsm 97/7, P-Lf MS 27/4 and P-Lf MS 91/16 respectively.

35 See ‘Breve rezume’, fols 20v–34r.

36 Adami, Osservazioni, 35.

37 See, for example, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Segretaria di Stato, Portogallo, volume 75, f. 215 (report of 26 September 1719) in Doderer and Fernandes, ‘A música na sociedade joanina’, 91–92.

38 The Portuguese kings since 1640 were also Dukes of Bragança, the main estate and residence of the dukedom being in Vila Viçosa, in the northeast of the Alentejo province, near the Spanish border. For a description of Vila Viçosa's choirbooks see Manuel Joaquim, Vinte livros de música polifónica do Paço Ducal de Vila Viçosa (Lisbon: Fundação da Casa de Bragança, 1953).

39 P-VV J. 12/A. 6: ‘Officium Majoris Hebdomadae Complectens ea, Quæ à Choro cantari consueverunt in cantu figurato Quatuor vocum Á Missa Dominicæ in Palmis usque ad Missam & Vesperas Sabbati sancti: interjecto etiam ubi opus fuit cantu plano, ad majorem canentium commoditatem. Omnia ex probatissimis Regiæ Musices Bibliothecæ Auctoribus deprompta ac selecta. Quæ vero In iis desiderabantur, aliquot Modernorum non inconcinnis compositionibus suppleta sunt. Pro Sacra & Regia Capella Serenissimi Brigantiæ Ducis. Vincentius Perez Petroch Vale(n)tinus Sacrosanctæ Basilicæ Patriarchalis Ulixbonen(ensis) Scriptor. Exarabat. Ulyssipone Occidentali. Anno mdccxxxv’. Henceforth MS A.

40 P-VV J. 15/A. 9: ‘Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae In quo continentur Ea omnia, quæ per totam Majorem Hebdomadam à Missa videlicet Dominicæ in Palmis ad Missam & Vesperas Sabbati sancti a Choro cantari solent, Octo pleraque, nonnula sex, quinque, & quatuor vocibus concinnata. Adjecto etiam ubi opus fuit cantu plano. Pars prima A Dominica in Palmis usque ad Feriam quintam In Cœna Domini. Pro Regia Capella Serenissimi Ducis Brigantini. Vincentius Perez Petroch Valentinus Sacrosanctæ Basilicæ Patriarchalis Ulixbonen(ensis) Scriptor: Exarabat. Ulyssipone Occidentali Anno mdccxxxvi’; and J. 16/A. 10: ‘Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae … Pars secunda Pro Feria sexta in Parasceve, & Sabbato sancto. Ad usum Regiæ Capellæ Serenissimi Ducis Brigantini … ’. Henceforth MSS B1 and B2 respectively.

41 Diogo Barbosa Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana, volume 2 (Lisbon: Officina de Ignacio Rodrigues, 1743), 16. See also the modern edition, A música no ciclo da “Bibliotheca Lusitana”, ed. Nery, Rui Vieira (Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 1984), 46Google Scholar .

42 There are copies of the four Maundy Thursday responsories in P-Lf MS 216/5, and of the three Holy Saturday responsories in P-Lf MS 216/6. Choirbook P-Lf MS VI contains Manuel Soares's set of four-voice psalms for Saturday Vespers, also copied in P-VV J. 13/A. 7, fols 1v–43r.

43 A set of parts for this work with an added organ continuo is in P-Lf MS 5/11.

44 The indices at the end of the volumes also refer to most of the sources used by the copyist; see Appendix 2.

45 See de Brito, Manuel Carlos, ‘Um retrato inédito do compositor Francisco António de Almeida’, in his Estudos de história da música em Portugal (Lisbon: Estampa, 1989), 123–126Google Scholar , especially 124.

46 D-Dl Mus. 2655-N-1.

47 Only the third act of this opera survives; the incomplete autograph score is in P-La 47-ii-14.

48 The fullest available list of Almeida's works – which is, however, neither complete nor accurate – is in Grove Music Online <www.oxfordmusiconline.com> (19 July 2010).

49 Or possibly between 1707 and January 1717, when he was replaced in the contraltos by Giuseppe Ulissi, according to Jean Lionnet, Musiciens à Rome (1570–1750) <http://philidor.cmbv.fr/nom/1980> (28 November 2010).

50 See Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 47.

51 These works are: P-Lf MS 34/1 to 11, P-Vs 77 and P-VV lxxxi nos 1 to 5. The sixteen psalms attributed to Bezzi in P-VV B cxxii no. 2 are incomplete.

52 Barbosa Machado, Bibliotheca Lusitana, volume 4 (Lisbon: Officina Patriarcal de Francisco Luiz Ameno, 1759), 250; A música no ciclo da ‘Bibliotheca Lusitana’, 225.

53 Another edition of this piece is in Manuel Mendes: Asperges me a 8 (Mapa Mundi 254A), ed. Nelson, Bernadette (Lochs: Vanderbeek & Imrie, 2008)Google Scholar .

54 A copy of this piece, undoubtedly made from the Vila Viçosa choirbook, exists in P-Lf MS 137/1.

55 Dom Henrique was later made king (1578–1580) following the death of his grand-nephew King Sebastião (1557–1578) in the disastrous battle of El-Ksar-El-Kebir in Morocco on 4 August 1578.

56 For an updated list of Mendes's works and their sources see João Pedro d'Alvarenga, ‘Manuscript Évora, Biblioteca Pública, Cód. CLI/1-3: Its Origin and Contents, and the Stemmata of Late-Sixteenth- and Early-Seventeenth-Century Portuguese Sources’, Appendix 2, Anuario Musical (forthcoming).

57 Tomé Álvares, letter to Balthasar Moretus, 11 March 1610; facsimile in Armindo Borges, Duarte Lobo (156?–1646): Studien zum Leben und Schaffen des portugiesischen Komponisten (Regensburg: Bosse, 1986), 317.

58 It is now housed in the former Episcopal Palace in Lamego (P-LAp; nowadays the Lamego Municipal Museum), with the call number Liv. 143.

59 Afonso Henriques, the first Portuguese king, had ordered the building of the Monastery of Alcobaça in 1153; João I, founder of the Avis dynasty, the Monastery of Batalha in 1386; Manuel I – who, like João V, was not expected to succeed to the throne – ordered the building of the Monastery of Belém in 1502; and Filipe II, the Monastery of São Vicente de Fora, Lisbon, in 1582.

60 António Caetano de Sousa, Historia Genealogica da Casa Real Portugueza, 14 volumes (Lisbon West: Officina de Joseph Antonio da Sylva, and Officina Sylviana da Academia Real, 1735–1749); and Provas da Historia Genealogica da Casa Real Portugueza, 6 volumes (Lisbon West: Officina Sylviana da Academia Real, 1739–1748).

61 A set of parts for the responsory exists in P-Lf 5/9. For an additional source of the Miserere see note 43 above.

62 Autographs in P-Ln Espólio de M. S. Ribeiro 209 and P-Lf MS 72/85 respectively.

63 An eighteenth-century fair copy of the score exists in Lisbon, Church of Our Lady of Loreto; see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 53, note 158, and 64, note 175. On the Te Deum ‘alla Romana’ tradition in Lisbon see Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, 62–64.

64 Since at least 1640 villancicos had traditionally been sung in the Portuguese Royal Chapel at Matins and Mass on Christmas, Epiphany and the Conception of the Blessed Virgin; see Lopes, Rui Cabral, ‘O vilancico na Capela Real Portuguesa (1640–1716): o testemunho das fontes textuais’ (PhD dissertation, Universidade de Évora, 2006Google Scholar ); and Torrente, Álvaro, ‘“Misturadas de castelhanadas com o oficio divino”: la reforma de los maitines de Navidad y Reyes en el siglo XVIII’, in La ópera en el templo: Estudios sobre el compositor Francisco Javier García Fajer, ed. Marín, Miguel-Ángel (Logroño: Instituto de Estudios Riojanos, Institución ‘Fernando el Católico’, 2010), 193–234Google Scholar .

65 On the arrival of the first castratos in Lisbon, the impression they made and the envy they inspired among local musicians, see the reference in note 37 (Nunciature report of 26 September 1719).

66 On the issue of ‘Italianization’ in Portuguese music see Nery, Rui Vieira, ‘Italian Models and Problems of Periodisation in Portuguese Baroque Music’, in Routes du Baroque: la contribution du Baroque à la pensée et à l'art européens, ed. Roy, Alain and Tamen, Isabel (Lisbon: Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, 1990), 217–223Google Scholar , and Alvarenga, ‘Domenico Scarlatti in the 1720s’, especially 55–57.

67 Princess Mariana Vitória de Bourbon, letter to her mother, Isabel de Farnesio, Queen of Spain, 6 April 1743, in Cartas da Rainha D. Mariana Vitória para a sua família de Espanha, ed. Caetano Beirão (Lisbon: Empresa Nacional de Publicidade, 1936), volume 1, 246.

68 On opera and related genres in Portugal see de Brito, Manuel Carlos, Opera in Portugal in the Eighteenth Century (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989)Google Scholar .

69 Esteves's surviving output totals one hundred works; most of the autographs of these works, which date from between 1719 and 1751, are now housed in the archive of Lisbon Cathedral (P-Lf). On Giorgi's extant works see note 20 above.