Vicente Lusitano

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Vicente Lusitano (c. 1520 – c. 1561)[1] was a Portuguese composer and theorist of the late Renaissance. He is thought to have been of mixed race and it has been therefore suggested that his mother may have been of African descent.[2][3] Since the 1980s, he has been described as the first published black composer.[4][5][6][7]

Life and career

Lusitano, which means "Portuguese", appears to be a nickname rather than a family name. He was born in Olivença, but little else is known for certain of his life, including the dates of his birth and death. Lusitano is described as pardo, indicating that he may have been of mixed European and non-European heritage.[6]

Some information about Lusitano is recorded a manuscript by Joao Franco Barreto:[4] he came from Olivença, became a Catholic priest, and was employed as a teacher at Padua, Viterbo and Rome. Barreto's manuscript was used by Diogo Barbosa Machado in his Bibliotheca Luzitana (published in Lisbon: Ignacio Rodrigues, 1752).

Very little of what Machardo wrote about Lusitano's life has been verified by any other source. However books and manuscripts of his musical compositions survive and are dated.[4] There is a record that Lusitano was in Rome in 1551 and that by 1561 he had converted to Protestantism and traveled to Germany. There is no record of him after 1561.[6]

From the dedication in one of his first works, it has been suggested that Lusitano was a tutor to the Portuguese Lencastre family, who also arrived in Rome in 1551, but as ambassador to the Papal court.[6][4]

During the time that Lusitano lived, composers were usually employed by the Church, but there is no evidence that he held a salaried post.[4][6]

Music

Lusitano has been credited with a number of choral works, including Latin motets (published as Liber primus epigramatum que vulgo motetta dicuntur, 5, 6, 8vv, Rome, 1551) and a madrigal. In several works he references Josquin des Prez, who had died 30 years earlier. For example, he reworked des Prez' motet Inviolata, integra for more voices.

His works include:[6]

  • Liber primus epigramatum, containing 23 motets published in 1551
  • Introdvttione facilissima, et novissima, di Canto Fermo, Figvrato, Contrapon to semplice, et in concerto. Con Regole Generali per far fvghe differenti sopra il Canto Fermo, a ii, iii & iiii. voci, & compositioni, proportioni, generi. S. Diatonico, Cromotico, Enarmonico (Rome: Antonio Blado, 1553; Venice: Francesco Marcolini, 1558; Venice: Francesco Rampazetto, 1561).
  • A manuscript on the art of singing. All three editions dedicated to Marc' Antonio Colonna, Duke of Marsi.
  • Beati omnes qui timent Dominum, one motet in a book from the Stuttgart ducal court published in 1562

His style uses counterpoint.[6]

Lusitano's music has been revived in recent years, for example by The Marian Consort in 2021[8] and Chineke! Voices in 2022.[6] His motet Heu me Domine and 1562 madrigal All’hor ch’ignuda have been recorded.[1]

Before the performance revival, Lusitano was better remembered for his work as a theorist. In a 1551 debate in Rome, he espoused traditional views on the role of the three genera in music (diatonic, chromatic and enharmonic) over more radical ones put forward by Nicola Vicentino. Lusitano was deemed to have won the debate and Vicentino was fined. In 1555 Vicentino published an account of the debate that was recognised as misleading. This went on to influence later composers and may be a factor in omission of Lusitano from subsequent works on early European composers.[1]

Lusitano's Introduttione facilissima, et novissima, di canto fermo, figurato, contraponto semplice, et inconcerto (Rome, 1553, and again at Venice, 1561),[9] contains an introduction to music, a section on improvised counterpoint (setting new parts above or below a cantus firmus), and his views on the three genera.

References

  1. ^ a b c Schumann, Garrett (2020-04-23). "Centuries of Silence". VAN Magazine. Retrieved 2021-09-09.
  2. ^ Spicer, Jonathan, ed. (2012). Revealing the African presence in Renaissance Europe. Baltimore: Walters Art Museum. p. 24. ISBN 9780911886788.
  3. ^ Flandreau, Suzanne (1998). "Black Music in the Academy: The Center for Black Music Research". Notes. 55 (1): 26–36. doi:10.2307/900345. JSTOR 900345.
  4. ^ a b c d e Stevenson, Robert (1982). "The First Black Published Composer". Inter-American Music Review. 5 (1): 79–103.
  5. ^ "Vicente Lusitano, the first published black composer". Radio Three (BBC radio programme on Lusitano, broadcast on June 28th, 2021).
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h McHardy, Joseph (2022-06-16). "Vicente Lusitano: Why was the first Black published composer just a footnote in histories?". the Guardian. Retrieved 2022-06-16.
  7. ^ Williams, Holly (June 14, 2022). "The great 16th-Century black composer erased from history". BBC. Retrieved June 18, 2022.
  8. ^ "Proms at Cadogan Hall". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2021-08-20.
  9. ^ Introduttione. Bibliothèque nationale de France
  • Bonnie Blackburn: "Vicente Lusitano", Grove Music Online, ed. L. Macy (Accessed January 6, 2006), (subscription access)

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