Manuel Cardoso (baptized 11 December 1566 – 24 November 1650) was a

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

composer and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

. With

Duarte Lobo Duarte Lobo (ca. 1565 – 24 September 1646; Latinized as ''Eduardus Lupus'') was a Portuguese composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. He was one of the most famous Portuguese composers of the time, together with Filipe de Magalh ...

and

John IV of Portugal John IV ( pt, João, ; 19 March 1604 – 6 November 1656), nicknamed John the Restorer ( pt, João, o Restaurador), was the King of Portugal whose reign, lasting from 1640 until his death, began the Portuguese restoration of independence from H ...

, he represented the "golden age" of Portuguese

polyphony Polyphony ( ) is a type of musical texture consisting of two or more simultaneous lines of independent melody, as opposed to a musical texture with just one voice, monophony, or a texture with one dominant melodic voice accompanied by chords, h ...

. Cardoso is not known to be related to an older contemporary composer of the same name; the precentor Manuel Cardoso, who published a book of Latin passions in

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

in 1575. Cardoso was born in Fronteira, near Portalegre, most likely in 1566. He attended the Colégio dos Moços do Coro, a choir school associated with the

Évora Évora ( , ) is a city and a municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of 1307.08 km2. It is the historic capital of the Alentejo and serves as the seat of the Évora District. Due to its well-preserved old to ...

cathedral, studying with

Manuel Mendes Manuel Mendes (or Manoel Mendes; c. 1547 – 24 September 1605) was a Portuguese composer and teacher of the Renaissance. While his music remains obscure, he was important as the teacher of several of the composers of the golden age of Portugu ...

and

Cosme Delgado Cosme Delgado (c. 1530, Cartaxo – 17 September 1596, Évora) was a Portugal, Portuguese Renaissance composer. He was born in Cartaxo and held the positions of ''cantor (church), cantor'' and ''kapellmeister, mestre de capela'' at the Cathedral of ...

. In 1588 he joined the

Carmelite , image = , caption = Coat of arms of the Carmelites , abbreviation = OCarm , formation = Late 12th century , founder = Early hermits of Mount Carmel , founding_location = Mount Car ...

order, taking his vows in 1589. In the early 1620s he was resident at the ducal household of

Vila Viçosa Vila Viçosa () is a town and a municipality in the District of Évora, Alentejo in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 8,319, in an area of 194.86 km². The municipal holiday is August 16. Parishes Administratively, the municipality is d ...

, where he was befriended by the Duke of Barcelos—later to become King John IV. For most of his career he was the resident composer and organist at the Carmelite

Convento do Carmo The Convent of Our Lady of Mount Carmel ( pt, Convento da Ordem do Carmo) is a former Catholic convent located in the civil parish of Santa Maria Maior, municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. The medieval convent was ruined during the sequence of the ...

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Grande Lisboa, Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administr ...

. Cardoso's works are models of Palestrinian polyphony, and are written in a refined, precise style which completely ignores the development of the Baroque idiom elsewhere in Europe. His style has much in common with

Tomás Luis de Victoria Tomás Luis de Victoria (sometimes Italianised as ''da Vittoria''; ) was the most famous Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He stands with Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and Orlande de Lassus as among the principal composers of the late Ren ...

, in its careful treatment of dissonance, occasional

polychoral An antiphon (Greek ἀντίφωνον, ἀντί "opposite" and φωνή "voice") is a short chant in Christian ritual, sung as a refrain. The texts of antiphons are the Psalms. Their form was favored by St Ambrose and they feature prominently ...

writing, and frequent

cross-relation A false relation (also known as cross-relation, non-harmonic relation) is the name of a type of dissonance that sometimes occurs in polyphonic music, most commonly in vocal music of the Renaissance. The term describes a " chromatic contradiction ...

s, which were curiously common among both Iberian and English composers of the time. Three books of masses survive; many of the works are based on

motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the pre-eminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to Margar ...

s written by King John IV himself, and others are based on motets by Palestrina. Cardoso was widely published, often with the help of King John IV to defray costs. Many of his works—especially the elaborate polychoral compositions, which probably were the most progressive—were destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake and fire of 1755.

Recordings

* Frei Manuel Cardoso, ''Requiem''.

The Tallis Scholars The Tallis Scholars is a British professional early music vocal ensemble normally consisting of two singers per part, with a core group of ten singers. They specialise in performing ''a cappella'' sacred vocal music. History The group was formed ...

, Peter Phillips. Gimell CDGIM 021 * Manuel Cardoso, ''Missa pro defunctis''.

Schola Cantorum of Oxford Schola Cantorum of Oxford is the longest running chamber choir of University of Oxford, and one of the longest established and most widely known chamber choirs in the United Kingdom. The conductor is Steven Grahl. The choir was founded in 1960 ...

, Jeremy Summerly. Naxos CD 8.550682, 1992 * Manuel Cardoso, ''Missa Secundi Toni, Magnificats, and Motets''.

Choir of Girton College, Cambridge A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

, Gareth Wilson. Toccata Classics TOCC0476, 2018 * Manuel Cardoso, ''Requiem, Lamentations, Magnificat & motets''. Cupertinos, Luís Toscano. Hyperion CDA68252, 2019.

Sources and further reading

Gustave Reese Gustave Reese ( ; 29 November 1899 – 7 September 1977) was an American musicologist and teacher. Reese is known mainly for his work on medieval and Renaissance music, particularly with his two publications ''Music in the Middle Ages'' (1940) ...

, ''Music in the Renaissance''. New York, W.W. Norton & Co., 1954. *

External links

* *Resources and information from the Carmelite Priory, London'
Cardoso450
project 1566 births 1650 deaths Renaissance composers Portuguese Baroque composers Portuguese classical organists Male classical organists People from Fronteira, Portugal 16th-century Portuguese people 17th-century Portuguese people 17th-century classical composers Portuguese male classical composers 17th-century male musicians {{Portugal-composer-stub