Vicente Lusitano (ca. 1520 – ca. 1561) is arguably the most significant Portuguese composer of his time and, quite possibly, of all time. Most of the details of his life remain a mystery, and what little we do know has come down to us from 17th- and 18th-century sources examined in recent decades by Maria Augusta Barbosa (1977) and Robert Stevenson (1982). Lusitano was born in Olivença, Portugal, possibly to a Portuguese father and Angolan mother, and in several sources he is referred to as ‘brown’ or ‘mulatto’. His musical career is noteworthy for a number of reasons: he is the first documented Black composer in European music history; he held distinguished positions in Padova, Viterbo, Rome and, after converting to Protestantism, in Stuttgart; his collection of motets Liber Primus Epigramatum (1551) is the first anthology of music by a Portuguese composer published outside Portugal; equally distinguished is his treatise Introduttione facilissima, et novissima, di canto fermo, figurato, contraponto semplice, published in Rome in 1553, with subsequent reprints in Venice (1561) and Lisbon (1603); some of his music survives in manuscripts scattered across Spain, France and Germany, in choir books associated with important chapels collating works by many of Lusitano’s celebrated contemporaries, a fact that is itself testament to the scale of his reputation; among these works is the motet Heu me Domine which is, in the opinion of many scholars, the most difficult work to execute of the entire 16th-century repertoire. Despite all this, today his music remains largely unknown, and the majority of it is yet to be recorded.

Today, Vicente Lusitano is known primarily for debating the celebrated composer and theorist Nicolà Vicentino in a famous theoretical dispute held in Rome in 1551. The debate, centring on differences of opinion regarding the tuning of certain intervals requiring a level of nuance that challenges the limits of human perception, was arbitrated by the singers of the Papal choir (a special jury of sorts to resolve matters of music theory), and eventually victory was awarded to Lusitano. Perhaps for this reason, Lusitano has long had a reputation as a music theorist, and indeed musicological studies from the last 40 years have tended to concentrate on the content of his treatises rather than his music. What is certain, however, is that his music is sublime, characterised by melodies of impeccable shape and prosody, forming a dense polyphony of great expressivity that almost pre-empts the mannerisms of future generations of composers.The collection Liber Primus Epigramatum contains 23 motets, the majority of which are settings of texts for antiphons and responsories taken from the Office of Vespers. However, their musical treatment sets them apart from music traditionally written for such occasions, making it hard to envisage them fulfilling a liturgical function. More probably, these motets exist within the universe of musica reservata (also sometimes called musica secreta), an elite practice that flourished in Italy and the south of Germany during the second half of the 16th century. This was a performative musical style presenting a refined and emotionally intense setting of a text sung by a small group of musicians in front of an exclusive, learned audience who, after the performance, would engage in a sophisticated debate about the poetic attributes of the musical composition.The use of the term ‘epigram’ in the title of the collection seems to confirm that we are dealing with compositions of a poetic– hermeneutic nature focussing on the semantics of each individual text, works that were probably destined for the spiritual contemplation of Lusitano’s patrons in their private chapels. This practice – both aural and spiritual – was explored in considerable depth at so-called Accademie Filarmoniche in northern and central Italy in the mid 16th century. Some of these academies exist to this day, and their archives and musical collections attest to the common practice of combining voices and instruments (particularly recorders) in the performance of repertoire similar to Lusitano’s motets. In line with this model, we propose an interpretation featuring one singer per part accompanied by a consort of recorders, exact copies of Venetian instruments dating from ca. 1550 and whose use is documented at academies in Vienna and Verona.

Founded by Pedro Sousa Silva in 2011, Arte Minima is a project dedicated to the interpretation of music from the 15th, 16th and 17th centuries, with a particular focus on Portuguese music from this period. The ensemble’s working methods are based on models taken from academic research that seek to harness the Renaissance approach to study and musical interpretation and apply these tools to music-making in the 21st century. Our interpretative work is conducted directly from original source material without the mediation of modern transcriptions, and this philological perspective extends to all aspects of performance (theory, instruments, tuning, etc.) as part of an ongoing quest for a greater comprehension of the musical language of the past.

Arte Minima’s many concerts include participation at distinguished festivals including Festival Internacional de Música in Póvoa de Varzim, Temporada Música in São Roque, Festival de Sons in Almada Velha, and Música na Primavera in Viseu, almost always with programmes featuring Portuguese works from the Renaissance, many of them in their first performance in modern times.

In 2021, the group completed the recording In Splendoribus containing 15 previously unpublished works associated with the musical activity at the cathedrals of Braga and Porto during the 16th century (with financial support from DRCN). Between 2022 and 2023 the group will produce three new recordings featuring music by Francisco de Santa Maria (with financial support from Fundação GDA and realised in association with CESEM-UNL) and Vicente Lusitano (with financial support from DGArtes).

The group’s work has support from CESEM-P.Porto, ESMAE-IPP, Instituto Politécnico do Porto, PORTIC – Porto Research, Technology and Innovation Centre, and DRCN.

Pedro Sousa Silva - recorders and direction
Irene Brigitte - cantus
Maria de Fátima Nunes - cantus
David Hackston - altus
Nuno Raimundo - tenor  

Pedro Marques - tenor
Ricardo Leitão Pedro - tenor
Miguel Barreirra - bassus
Luis Neiva - bassus

António Godinho - recorders
Carlos Sánchez - recorders
João Távora - recorders
Silvia Cortini - recorders

Susanna Borsch - recorders

Rita Rodríguez García - recorders

Moisés Maroto - recorders

Tiago Simas Freire - recorders

Rosa Lopes Dias - executive production
Tomás Quintais - audio-visual production

Information and Booking
arteminima.org
pedrosousasilva@arteminima.org
Pedro Sousa Silva +351 939 854 832

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