In 1978, Joly Braga Santos directing a rehearsal at Lisbon's Nacional Teatro São Carlos (Photo by DR)
Joly Braga Santos composed a wealth of music. Yet, only a dearth of people have heard of him.
The Portuguese composer is not without advocates who seek to introduce his music to listeners and renew his place in contemporary orchestral repertoires. Composer Álvaro Cassuto, the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (National Library of Portugal) and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra are just a few of his champions.
Álvaro Cassuto, who conducted and recorded the overlooked composer, writes in his book, Joly Braga Santos: Uma Vida e Uma Obra (A Life and a Work) (2018):
"He was, without a shadow of a doubt, the most talented and brilliant Portuguese composer of the 20th century. His six symphonies, in addition to other orchestral works, constitute an unparalleled collection of musical creativity, and should be the daily bread of our orchestras. I had the privilege of being his friend and assiduous collaborator from 1959 until the end of his days."
On the occasion of what would have been his 90th year, the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal (National Library of Portugal) (March 20, 2014) showcased an exhibit, which highlighted his career as a composer:
"He composed symphonic and chamber instrumental music; music for piano; for singing and piano; for choir; ballet music; radio opera, and soundtracks for fiction and documentary films. Symphony is the genre in which he best expressed his creative talent -- he received, for the 5th Symphony, the UNESCO International Composition Prize in 1969 -- the size, quality and diversity of his musical work place him among the greatest Portuguese composers of the 20th century."
A British musician in A Vida Num Staccato (A Life in Staccato) (2018), a documentary about the recording of the composer's unreleased works by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Àlvaro Cassuto, says: "He wrote material that deserves a wider audience." Another says, "It's a discovery for us because we don't know this music. It's not known in the U.K. We had the one recording before. So, for us, it's very exciting to hear the music for the first time here."
Trilogia das Barcas
The opera, Trilogia das Barcas (Trilogy of the Ships) (1970), is one of Joly Braga Santos' more than 100 pieces. It is based on three one-act satirical plays with allegorical characters by the renowned Portuguese writer Gil Vicente (c. 1465 - c. 1536).
In June, its revival at Teatro Nacional de São Carlos (National Theater) was one of the most anticipated events of the year for Portuguese-speaking classical music, reported Teatro Nacional (June 13). The previous performance of the opera was in May 1988, two months before the composer died of a cerebral embolism at the age of 64 in his home in Lisbon, reported Expresso (June 13).
This year's event was only the fourth staging of the two-act opera by José Manuel Joly Braga Santos (1924-1988), whose centenary is being celebrated this year.
The libretto was written by opera singer Maria José Falção Trigoso Braga Santos, who was his wife, reported Expresso (June 13).
It also fell on the opera singer to practice Portuguese pronunciation with a cast composed of foreigners, even though the composer had written one of the roles with Álvaro Malta, who later performed alongside Maria Callas at the Teatro Nacional , in mind.
Their daughter, Piedade Braga Santos, said: "There was a huge discussion; my father wanted the text to be understood."
Gil Vicente's magnum opus critiques 16th-century Portuguese society by placing characters of different social statuses on a dock awaiting the arrival of one of the ferries that will carry them over to their eternal destination.
The cast of characters in Joly Braga Santos' adaptation include Angel; Devil; Devil's Companion; King; Fool; Bishop; Friar; Death; Lawyer; Hanged Man, and Shepherdess, according to Teatro Nacional.
The opera "presents us with a hallucinatory procession of figures representing a large part of humanity, from the Pope to the Shoemaker, with their vices and virtues. After death, everyone comes to answer to the Devil and the Angel, awaiting the decision of their journey. "
Why the Long Absence
Expresso (June 13) wrote about the opera's revival:
"The musical direction is in the hands of José Eduardo Gomes, for whom this is 'the great Portuguese opera of the 20th century'. 'His writing is full of colors, and the orchestra has a remarkable range of instruments, in harmony with the vocal lines of several soloists. It has a great orchestration. In fact, Joly was always a composer who wrote very well for orchestra, although opera always involves the challenge of bringing this all together with the choir', he points out.
"And why did it take so long to perform this opera again?
"'That's the million-euro question,' he says. 'Do we perhaps distrust our music, is that it? Not being played means it won't enter the repertoire, but if we don't play our best opera, who will?'
"Piedade Braga Santos puts it another way:
"'Quite honestly, despite everything, my father is one of those who suffered the least from the silence imposed on composers in this country. He is one of the ones who is played the most. There are many who are not played, period. Lopes-Garcia is not played. Luis de Freitas Branco is played very occasionally. When my father stopped conducting, all these people stopped being played.
"'Either there are some knights-errant who fight for the works or the orchestras all play the same Mozart and the same Brahms. To give an example, the Gulbenkian, which commissioned 14 works from my father, some of which are the most important in his career, such as the Sinfonietta, did not program him for the 2024-25 season.'"
Trilogia das Barcas was one of the 14 works commissioned by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, reported Expresso (June 13).
The Gulbenkian Foundation was created in 1956 by the last will and testament of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, an Armenian businessman, art collector and philanthropist, who lived in Lisbon from 1942 until his death in 1955, according to the foundation.
Established in perpetuity, the Gulbernkian Foundation's main purpose is to improve the quality of life through art, charity, science and education.
Musical Prodigy
Born in Lisbon, José Manuel Joly Braga Santos began studying violin at the age of six and composition at the age of 10, according to Juventude Musical Portuguesa (Music for Portuguese Youth).
The musical prodigy became a student of the notable composer, Luis de Freitas Branco, with whom he studied privately after leaving the Conservatory, in 1945, before completing his course.
His career as a composer began with a series of melodies based on poems by the great Portuguese writers, Luís de Camões, Antero de Quental and Fernando Pessoa.
Hino de Juventude (Hymn to Youth), Epilogue of Symphony No. 4, is performed by the Orquestra Académica da Universidade de Coimbra. The poem is by Artur de Vasconcellos Sobral.
Joly Braga Santos also was a conductor and a teacher.
In 1948, the Lisbon native was awarded the first of three scholarships to study abroad, according to Musical Panorama in Portugal Until the 20th Century (March 23, 2005). In that year, he studied, for the first time, orchestra conducting. His training began at the Venice Biennale, an annual cultural exhibition held since 1895, with Hermann Scherchen, a German conductor who promoted such contemporary composers of 12-tone-technique as Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg and Anton Webern. Later, the Portuguese musician traveled to Italy, Switzerland and Germany, where he studied conducting and composition.
He soon distinguished himself as a symphonist, writing four symphonies between 1946 and 1950, the fourth of which was dedicated to Juventude Musical Portuguesa. Symphonies No. 5 and No. 6 would come much later in 1966 and 1972, respectively.
Joly Braga Santos was a professor of Analysis and Composition Techniques at the National Conservatory of Lisbon. He co-founded, with seven others, the Juventude Musical Portuguesa (1948), whose counterparts were founded in Belgium (1939) and France (1941). The organization focused on spreading knowledge and appreciation of music among young people by, among other activities, familiarizing them with concerts given by the best performers, without any kind of economic, racial or religious discrimination.
He also conducted the Orquestra de Emissora Nacional (Orchestra of the National Broadcasting Company) and the Orchestra Sinfónica do Porto, emphasizing contemporary music. In addition, he regularly published music reviews in newspapers and other periodicals.
According to Expresso ( July 21, 2019), after the composer's Symphony No. 1 premiered in 1946, his tutor, Luis de Freitas Branco, wrote in a letter to him:
"I do not want to wait a single minute to tell you that this is, so far, your best work. For several reasons, you are on a path that has a way out, unlike most contemporary composers, who go around in circles, in a style with no future possibilities. You, dear José, make art, and you do not have to regret the arduous career you have chosen."
Making a Living
After the 1st Symphony, at the age of 23, Braga Santos was invited to join the Musical Studies Office of the National Broadcasting Company (Emissora Nacional) as a permanent collaborator, allowing him to earn his living exclusively from composition until the office closed down in 1954, when he was 30, according to the Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal.
The Estado Novo, the authoritarian government which would remain in power for 41 years until the 1974 Carnation Revolution, commissioned Joly Braga Santos' Symphony No. 5 for the 40th anniversary of the 1926 coup d'etat. The composer's wife, opera singer Maria José Falcão Trigoso, opposed its acceptance, reported Expresso (June 13). However, he wanted to write it, and Pedro Prado, director of programs at Emissora Nacional, where Braga Santos performed the modest role of recording conductor, threatened to fire him if he did not take it on.
UNESCO ended up choosing Symphony No. 5, utterly divorced from the previous symphony, with its colossal sound, large palette and, at times, dissonance, as one of the 10 best orchestral works in the world. The second of four movements, Zavala, was inspired by the marimba players of southern Mozambique, which the composer visited while working on the symphony, according to Lusofolias (August 21, 2016).
Composer Alexandre Delgado, who had been a private student of Braga Santos, said: "Zavala is, certainly, one of the happiest examples of the fusion of cultures and one of the best moments in the entire Portuguese symphonic repertoire."
How to Introduce Overlooked Composers
Symphony No. 5's fourth movement reminds me of the cascading strings of Jean Sibelius' Symphony No. 5, but not truly of Sibelius, because I cannot compare Joly Braga Santos broadly to any other composer.
Forty years ago, when I first heard Sibelius, widely recognized as Finland's greatest composer, I sat up ramrod straight in my seat. It was the composer's Fifth Symphony performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Simon Rattle in Los Angeles.
The Birmingham orchestra began to gain greater international renown after Simon Rattle became conductor in 1980. Under him, the orchestra increased its recording profile and gained a name for its interpretations of late romantic works, especially those of Sibelius and Gustav Mahler.
Rattle helped break the orchestra out of a musical ghetto.
After getting a taste of Sibelius, I was desperate for more. This addiction is what I feel for Joly Braga Santos of whom I first learned in the Expresso days before the revival of Trilogia das Barcas. Indeed, I am finding it a challenge to explore his oeuvre because I keep playing the same movements and pieces over and over again.
The Braga Santos' compositions, which I have heard, are marvels, each one with its own musical language. The listener may begin to hear nods to composers, such as Ralph Vaughn Williams and Anton Bruckner as in Symphony No. 4, and then the adept surprises us with his original departure. Perhaps it is these surprises that keep him at bay. Classical music audiences are notoriously conservative, craving to hear what they know well.
Thirty years ago, the San Francisco Symphony presented programs of three or four pieces but the first was always by a contemporary composer. It was a way to promote living composers and demonstrate a belief in the future and vitality of classical music. Granted, some concert-goers arrived at the interval after the first work, but most arrived at the start of the program with an open mind and willingness to give new pieces a chance.
Perhaps Braga Santos´ music could be introduced as the first piece in Portugal's concert halls. Certainly, he would intrigue audiences abroad.
Joly Braga Santos' daughter, Piedade Braga Santos, told Expresso (June 13) that the premiere in May 1970 in the Gulbenkian Music Festival did not correspond to her father's vision. After the performance, the librettist, who was Braga Santos' wife, and a Gulbenkian official forced him to go onstage to thank everyone.
"The truth is that composers are not the best judges of their own interests. But when he stood up, there was a roar of applause. The people loved it. The house came down on both performances. For the time, it was a rock in the pond. Everyone agreed that it was my father's best work."
Fellow composer and great friend Jorge Peixinho "came to tears" to hug him. And even those, due to the cultural guerrillas of the time criticizing him for the commission, had to back down. Musicologist "Mário Vieira de Carvalho wrote a review stating that he did not like the work, nor my father, nor Gulbenkian, but in the end, he said: 'I have to confess that it is a masterpiece.'"
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