International Festival of Portuguese Polyphony

The first programme, Rosa sine spinis, explores Iberian Marian repertoire, bringing together works dedicated to the Virgin Mary. At its heart lies Duarte Lobo’s Missa Sancta Maria, modelled on Francisco Guerrero’s motet of the same name, which opens the concert and reveals the intimate relationship between model and parody mass. In this mass, Lobo, who trained at the Music School of Évora Cathedral before serving as chapel master at Lisbon Cathedral, demonstrates remarkable technical refinement and clarity of counterpoint.
This programme also includes motets by some of the most significant composers of the period. Francisco Guerrero, a towering figure in Sevillian polyphony, influenced generations of musicians. Estêvão Lopes Morago, born in Vallecas (Madrid), came to Portugal aged around eight, joining the moços de coro (choirboys) of Évora Cathedral, where he continued his studies before becoming chapel master at Viseu Cathedral, leaving a body of work of striking expressive power. Estêvão de Brito, from Serpa and also trained in Évora, later served as chapel master in Badajoz and Málaga, illustrating the remarkable artistic mobility of the Iberian world. Manuel Rebelo, born in Aviz and among the first generation of polyphonists shaped within the Évora tradition, went on to become chapel master at Évora Cathedral. Pedro de Cristo, meanwhile, was a leading figure at the Monastery of Santa Cruz in Coimbra, fusing local traditions with courtly influences in a polished and elegant musical language.
Particularly noteworthy is Rebelo’s Magnificat primi toni, preserved in Codex 3 at Évora Cathedral, a manuscript containing works by Rebelo and other composers of the same period. This Magnificat is one of the few of Rebelo’s works to have survived, bearing witness to the vitality of Portuguese liturgical repertoire preserved in manuscript sources.
The first programme concludes with pieces for eight voices (a 8) arranged for double choir, reflecting the polychoral practice that flourished in Portugal at the time.

Sancta Maria, a 4
Francisco Guerrero (1528 - 1599)

Missa Sancta Maria, a 4
            Kyrie
            Gloria
Duarte Lobo (1565 - 1646)

Erumpant Montes, a 5
Estêvão Lopes Morago (1575 - 1628)

Missa Sancta Maria
            Credo
Duarte Lobo 

Sancta Maria succurre, a 6
Estêvão de Brito (1570-1641)

Missa Sancta Maria
            Sanctus
            Agnus Dei
Duarte Lobo 

Magnificat primi toni, a 4
Manuel Rebelo (1575 - 1647)

Ego dilecto meo, a 5
Estêvão de Brito

Ave Maria, a 8
Pedro de Cristo (1545-1618)

Ave Regina cælorum, 8
Duarte Lobo

The second programme, Tristis est anima mea (“My soul is sorrowful”), offers a penitential musical journey centred on the Missa Si ignoras te by Filipe de Magalhães, which draws on the motet of the same name by the Dutch composer Christian Hollander (c.1510–1589). Magalhães, who studied at the Music School of Évora Cathedral, succeeded Francisco Garro as chapel master at Lisbon Cathedral, preserving the musical lineage deeply rooted in Évora’s tradition. This link between Garro and Magalhães is underscored by the inclusion of Garro’s profound Parce mihi, Domine, a work of great rhetorical power and refined imitative craft.
Also of special interest is Pedro de Cristo’s Tristis est anima mea, based on the responsory for Maundy Thursday Tenebrae. The text comes from the Gospels of Matthew 26:38 (“My soul is sorrowful even unto death; stay here and keep watch with me”) and Mark 14:34, and includes the verse “Nun videbitis turbam, quae circumdabit me” (“Soon you will see the crowd that will surround me”), following the liturgical tradition of the time. Pedro de Cristo’s setting for eight voices, preserved in Manuscrito Musical 8 (MM 8) of the General Library of the University of Coimbra, begins with a restrained and contemplative section that conveys Christ’s anguish. In the passage “vos fugam capietis, et ego vadam immolari pro vobis” (“you will flee, and I will go to be sacrificed for you”), however, the music becomes noticeably more animated and rhythmically vivid, using lively responsorial dialogue between the two choirs. This dramatic contrast suggests a rhetorical awareness, linking the text’s meaning — foretelling the disciples’ flight and Christ’s acceptance of his sacrifice — with a more fluid and dynamic musical treatment, revealing Pedro de Cristo’s acute sensitivity to the expressive power of the liturgical word.
This penitential programme also features works by Manuel Cardoso, the leading figure of Portugal’s golden generation of polyphony; Diogo Dias Melgaz, regarded as the last great representative of the Évora school, active into the early 18th century; Estêvão Lopes Morago, who drew on his experience in both Évora and Viseu to craft a compelling choral style; and Estêvão de Brito, whose international career demonstrates the broad networks through which Iberian musicians circulated.
Like the first, this second programme concludes with double-choir works, a style that remained vibrant in Portugal for centuries and illustrates the brilliance of the country’s polychoral tradition.

Asperges me, a 4
Manuel Cardoso (1566 - 1650)

Missa Si ignoras te, a 4
            Kyrie
            Gloria
Filipe de Magalhães (c. 1571 - 1652)

Exsurge, a 4
Estêvão Lopes Morago (c.1575 - 1630)

Missa Si ignoras te
            Credo
Filipe de Magalhães

In jejunio et fletu, a 4
Diogo Dias Melgaz (1638 - 1700)

Missa Si ignoras te
            Sanctus e Benedictus
            Agnus Dei
Filipe de Magalhães

Parce mihi, Domine, a 5
Francisco Garro (1556 - 1623)

Sitivit anima mea, a 6
Manuel Cardoso