José Mauricio Nunes Garcia, Afro-Brazilian Composer & Organist, Born Sept. 22, 1767

[La Passion du Baroque Brésilien; Missa de Nossa Senhora do Carmo; José Mauricio Nunes Garcia; Association of Choral Singing; Cleofe Person de Mattos, Director; Camerata de Rio de Janeiro; Henrique Morelenbaum, Director; Jade 75443-2 (1991)]
InMay 2012, John Malveaux announced that www.MusicUNTOLD.comhadpurchased the piano reduction of TheFirst Choral Masterpiece in Black Music History, theRequiemMass (1816) by José Maurício Nunes-García. The music is forFour-Part Chorus of Mixed Voices and Alto, Tenor and Bass Solos withPiano Accompaniment. It was written to commemorate the death ofPortugal's Queen Mother.
JoséMauricio Nunes Garcia (1767-1830) was an Afro-Brazilian composer andorganist who was the grandson of slaves. Antonio Campos Monteiro Netohas generously made his information available to AfriClassical.com. We received word from him on March 12, 2012 that his website on JoséMauricio Nunes Garcia had been updated athttp://www.josemauricio.com.br Antoniowrote: "This long delay occurred because I had to rewrite allhis biography, due to new documents found at the Cathedral of Rio deJaneiro."  
"From Nunes Garcia are known 240 musical pieces, but research shows that his actual production would be almost twice this number. This quantity, and the quality of his works made him one of the most important composers of Brazil, in most of his lifetime a colony of Portugal."
"Today, thanks to the outstanding work made by musicologist Ms.,Cleofe Person de Mattos (1913-2002) the main facts of the composer's life are established, and his remaining works are cataloged. To her memory we dedicate this website."  Thewebsite is in both Portuguese and English.
Monteiro Neto givesdetails of the youth's music education: 
“According toManuel de Araújo Porto Alegre, his early biographer, he had "abeautiful voice and a great musical memory"; "reproducedeverything he heard", and "created melodies of his own andplayed the harpsichord and the guitar without ever have learned to". In 1779, at twelve, he began to teach music. José Mauricio neverhad a piano or a harpsichord, and trained himself by teachingharpsichord to the society´s ladies. To learn the organ, he wasassisted by some good organists in the churches. José Mauriciocompleted his education in the "Royal Classes", withlectures in history, geography, latin grammar and philosophy, andrhetoric as well."
The Webmaster of the Brazilian site recounts the process Nunes Garcia followed to be ordained as a priest in the Archdiocese, or See, of Rio de Janeiro.  Studies for the priesthood led to the ordination of Nunes Garcia in 1791.  A productive period followed for the composer.  When he was exposed to the movement for independence from Portugal, the composer began composing works influenced by Brazilian folk music. 
Monteiro Neto continues: "He took part in meetings at the Literary Society, founded in 1794, until its closing and the arrest of its leaders in 1797, after they had been accused of revolutionary activities against the Portuguese Crown."
"The Tempest and Zemira  are overtures from 1803 which mark the composer's diversification of his compositions into the instrumental genre," according to Monteiro Neto.  
A royal wedding in 1817 gave the composer access to skilled musicians from Portugal.  The year 1817 was also when José Mauricio Nunes Garcia composed the first Brazilian opera, Le Due Gemelle (The Two Twins). His output in 1818 included, we are told by Monteiro Neto, a Novena (CPM 67), a Mass for the Feast of Our Lady of Carmel (CPM 110), a Qui Sedes and Quoniam (CPM 163) and three Motets, as well as a Mass for Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist.  We are further informed by Monteiro Neto that in December 1819 he conducted the first Brazilian performance of Mozart's Requiem (K 626).
The score of Le Due Gemelle  was destroyed by fire in 1825.  Nunes Garcia wrote his last work, St. Cecilia's Mass, in 1826.  Financial problems are believed to have contributed to the composer's death in 1830.  A number of recordings of his works are described at the website of Monteiro Neto.