Diogo Dias Melgás (often ''Melgaz'') (

Cuba (Portugal) Cuba (), officially the Town of Cuba (), is a town and List of municipalities of Portugal, municipality in the District of Beja (Portugal), District of Beja in Portugal. The population in 2011 was 4,878, in an area of 172.09 km2. The curren ...

, 1638 -

Évora Évora ( , ), officially the Very Noble and Ever Loyal City of Évora (), is a city and a municipalities of Portugal, municipality in Portugal. It has 53,591 inhabitants (2021), in an area of . It is the historic capital of the Alentejo reg ...

, 1700) was a Portuguese

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of late-

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

sacred

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 chord ...

Life

Diogo Dias Melgás was born in

Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

Alentejo Alentejo ( , , ) is a geographical, historical, and cultural region of south–central and southern Portugal. In Portuguese, its name means "beyond the Tagus" (). Alentejo includes the regions of Alto Alentejo Province, Alto Alentejo and Bai ...

, on 14 April 1638. He was a

choirboy A choirboy is a boy member of a choir, also known as a treble. As a derisive slang term, it refers to a do-gooder or someone who is morally upright, in the same sense that "Boy Scout" (also derisively) refers to someone who is considered honor ...

at the Colégio da Claustra in Évora in 1646. He took holy orders at the Cathedral of Évora, where he stayed the rest of his life, being a student of Manuel Rebelo, and holding the position of ''

mestre de capela ( , , ), from German (chapel) and (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 has evolved considerably in i ...

'' for about 30 years. He died blind and extremely poor on 3 February 1700. He was the last of the great Portuguese polyphonic masters, who began to flourish in Évora in the second half of the sixteenth century.

Work

A large part of Melgás's work is lost. The surviving works -

mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

es,

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 preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...

gradual The gradual ( or ) is a certain chant or hymn in liturgical Christian worship. It is practiced in the Catholic Mass, Lutheran Divine Service, Anglican service and other traditions. It gets its name from the Latin (meaning "step") because i ...

s - are kept in the archives of the Cathedrals of Évora and

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, and were published in modern notation by the

Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (), commonly referred to simply as the Gulbenkian Foundation, is a Portugal, Portuguese institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, philanthropy, science, and education. One of the List of wealthiest c ...

in 1978 (''Opera Omnia'', Portugaliae Musica XXXII).

Recordings

*1994, Music of the Portuguese Renaissance, Pro Cantione Antiqua, Hyperion CDA66715 **includes 14 works by Melgás *2004, A Golden Age of Portuguese Music,

The Sixteen The Sixteen (previously known as the Symphony of Harmony and Invention) are a British choir and period instrument orchestra. Founded by Harry Christophers, they started as an unnamed group of sixteen friends in 1977, giving their first bille ...

, CORO COR16020 **includes 3 works by Melgás *2008, The Golden Age,

The King's Singers The King's Singers are a British a cappella vocal ensemble founded in 1968. They are named after King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the ...

, Signum Classics **includes 2 works by Melgás

References

*''Enciclopédia Verbo Luso-Brasileira de Cultura'', vol. 19, "Melgaz (Diogo Dias)", ed. Verbo, Lisboa/São Paulo, 1998

External links

* 1638 births 1700 deaths People from Beja District Portuguese Baroque composers Renaissance composers 17th-century Portuguese people 17th-century Portuguese classical composers Portuguese male classical composers 17th-century male musicians {{Portugal-composer-stub