Manuel Mendes (or Manoel Mendes; c. 1547 – 24 September 1605) 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 teacher of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

. While his music remains obscure, he was important as the teacher of several of the composers of 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, ...

, including

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 Manuel Cardoso. He was born in Lisbon, and studied music with

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 ...

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 ...

as a youth. Later he was appointed ''

mestre de capela (, also , ) from German ''Kapelle'' (chapel) and ''Meister'' (master)'','' literally "master of the chapel choir" designates the leader of an ensemble of musicians. Originally used to refer to somebody in charge of music in a chapel, the term ha ...

'' at the cathedral in Portalegre, but returned to Évora to receive a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in 1575. In 1575 he became a priest and teacher of the choirboys in the cathedral. His students included some of the most famous Portuguese composers of the early 17th century, such as Duarte Lobo, Manuel Cardoso, Filipe de Magalhães and Manuel Rebelo. He died at

. While Mendes was evidently a prolific composer, his works are only extant in manuscript. He was famous in the 16th century, and his music traveled to Spain as well as Mexico, where he was highly regarded.

References

*Robert Stevenson, "Manuel Mendes". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', ed. Stanley Sadie. 20 vol. London, Macmillan Publishers Ltd., 1980. .

External links

* 1540s births 1605 deaths Renaissance composers Portuguese classical composers People from Lisbon 16th-century Portuguese people Portuguese male classical composers {{Portugal-composer-stub