João Lourenço Rebelo

• Name — João Lourenço Rebelo • Born — 1610 • Birthplace — Caminha, Minho Province • Died — 16 November 1661 • Place of death — Loures, Estremadura Province • Occupation — Composer

Rebelo was born in Caminha in 1610, the son of João Soares Pereira and Maria Lourenço Rebelo. In 1624, he became a choir boy at the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa, the ancestral seat of the Dukes of Braganza, while his older brother, Father Marcos Soares Pereira (?-1655) was admitted as chaplain-singer. In keeping with the aristocratic patterns of behavior of the 17th century, and as a sign of pre-eminence, Teodósio II, the 7th Duke of Braganza (1568-1630) had created an academy for court musicians, the Colégio dos Santos Reis Magos (College of the Three Wise Kings), where Rebelo studied under Robert Turner (c.1578-1629), an Irish musician who himself had been a student of the Flemish composer Géry de Ghersem, and mestre de capela of the ducal chapel from 1616, and possibly also under Friar Manuel Cardoso, one of the most famous and influential Portuguese composers of the time. Unlike what is traditionally said, Rebelo didn't become music teacher of the Duke’s heir João, the Duke of Barcelos (who was six years older than him); they simply struck up a friendship that was to endure the rest of his life. After the overthrow of the Philippine Dynasty on 1 December 1640, which had ruled Portugal since 1580, João became King of Portugal (King John IV) and the ducal chapel moved from Vila Viçosa to Lisbon. Both brothers moved to the capital in the King's retinue and in 1641 Marcos became mestre da Capela Real of the Royal Chapel. In 1646 Rebelo was made a nobleman, Fidalgo de juro e herdade, of the Royal House and knighted with the Order of Christ, a position with significant financial benefits, the Comenda of São Bartolomeu de Rabal, providing an annual income of two hundred thousand réis. In 1652 Rebelo married Maria de Macedo, daughter of Domingos de Macedo, governor of Monção. There are three clear pieces of evidence that prove King John's friendship with and admiration of Rebelo: the dedication of his own musical treatise Defensa de la musica moderna (In Defense of modern music), published anonymously in 1650, a letter to the Portuguese agent in Rome, and a paragraph in his last will and testament. In the first case, the King turned the tables on protocol and wrote in the dedication to the treatise: “To Senhor Ivan Lorenço Rabelo (…). This monograph written in Defense of the Modern Composition and Composers is dedicated to you, (…) having seen the book of your four, five, and six-part masses; the music for ten, twelve, seventeen and twenty voices (…) and if they have not yet been published it is not because they fear the light but because they have not been given to it; but they will appear in due course. God preserve you”. In the case of the letter to the Portuguese agent in Rome, dating from March 1654, the King wrote: “I have prepared some books for the press [containing] a complete series of vesper psalms, and other pieces for different choirs and voices by Juan Lourenço Rabelo (…)”. And in the last case, two days before his death, King John wrote in his will (4 November 1656): “I have ordered the works of João Rebello to be printed in Italy at my expense; I bestow this on him and leaving 20 books in my library, he must distribute the remainder in Castille, Italy, France and other parts as he thinks fit.”. Choosing a Roman printer can be interpreted as a means of bringing pressure to bear on the Papal States, which still had not recognized Portugal's independence from Spain. According to a contemporary Dutch translation of the will, the books were printed in Holland, not in Italy. • Illustration — Example of the 1657 edition of the Psalms of Rebelo, Rome In 1657 the workshop of Maurizio and Amadeo de Belmonte, in Rome, printed the collection of 33 pieces dated between 1636 and 1653, in the form of seventeen booklets respectively for voice and instrument, under the title Joannis Laurentii Rabello Psalmi, tum Vesperarum tum Completarum. Item Magnificat, Lamentationes et Miserere (Psalms, both of Vespers and of Compline. [And] also the Magnificat, the Lamentationes and the Miserere by João Lourenço Rebelo). Only one single copy of this edition had been preserved, thanks to the Italian priest Fortunato Santini (1776-1861), and is now preserved in the library of the Episcopal Seminary of Münster. A modern transcription was released in 1982 by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation monumenta edition Portugaliae Musica. In addition, four volumes of the original impression survived in the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal, from the Jesuit College of Santo Antão. João Lourenço Rebelo died at Apelação (Loures) on 16 November 1661.