JOSÉ MAURICIO NUNES GARCIA

José Mauricio's mortuary mask

The composer's mortuary mask. ¹

THE FINAL YEARS

In 1826, as evidenced in recent research, the King John VI died of poisoning. The news of the death of the monarch caused a stir in Rio de Janeiro, and in particular in Nunes Garcia. Already sick at that time, the composer left his house only occasionally.
This year, two of his students, on behalf of the brotherhood of Saint Cecilia, ordered him to "Mass with large orchestra". The now famous "Mass of St. Cecilia" (CPM 113), presented on November 22 this year, would be his last work. It is a monumental work, and the autograph score was later donated by composer's son, Dr. José Maurício Nunes Garcia Jr., as a fee for admission to the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute. From 1826 to 1830, Nunes Garcia devoted to reviewing the orchestration of his greater mass, and wrote a Treaty of Harmony and Counterpoint, which was lost.
Even through times of financial instability, the composer made use of his personal relationships to intercede on behalf of José Apolinario, the only one he recognized as his son. In a demonstration that he was still prestigious, he got him exempted from military service, when he was forcibly recruited off the streets of Rio de Janeiro to fight the war of independence in Provincia Cisplatina (now Uruguay). On another occasion, when was moved against the son a plot by a fellow medicine scholar, he managed the process to be terminated. In the final years, disillusioned with the profession of musician, he arranged for the son a marriage with the daughter of an Angolista (slave trader), but the son has not kept his commitment. In 1828 he resigned the title of Knight of the Habit of Christ in favor of the son, who then changed his name to José Maurício Nunes Garcia Jr.
In early 1830, he was living in a house in the Alley of the Nuncio, now the Republic of Lebanon Street.
In February 17, 1830, Marcos Portugal died and was buried in the Convent of St. Anthony. Jose Mauricio, sensing that his time had come, made carry his own bed for the first floor of the house, "not to be cumbersome to anyone" On April 18, attended by the son and a slave, he died, murmuring a hymn to Our Lady. The brotherhood of Saint Cecilia was responsible for the funeral mass. At the ceremony, a small orchestra performed the "Funeral Symphony" (CPM 230), composed 40 years earlier. He was buried at St. Peter of the Clerics.

Death record of Marcos Portugal ²

Death record of José Maurício Nines Garcia ³

THE FINAL YEARS

In 1826, as evidenced in recent research, the King John VI died of poisoning. The news of the death of the monarch caused a stir in Rio de Janeiro, and in particular in Nunes Garcia. Already sick at that time, the composer left his house only occasionally. This year, two of his students, on behalf of the brotherhood of Saint Cecilia, ordered him to "Mass with large orchestra". The now famous "Mass of St. Cecilia" (CPM 113), presented on November 22 this year, would be his last work. It is a monumental work, and the autograph score was later donated by composer's son, Dr. José Maurício Nunes Garcia Jr., as a fee for admission to the Brazilian Historical and Geographical Institute. From 1826 to 1830, Nunes Garcia devoted to reviewing the orchestration of his greater mass, and wrote a Treaty of Harmony and Counterpoint, which was lost. Even through times of financial instability, the composer made use of his personal relationships to intercede on behalf of José Apolinario, the only one he recognized as his son. In a demonstration that he was still prestigious, he got him exempted from military service, when he was forcibly recruited off the streets of Rio de Janeiro to fight the war of independence in Provincia Cisplatina (now Uruguay). On another occasion, when was moved against the son a plot by a fellow medicine scholar, he managed the process to be terminated. In the final years, disillusioned with the profession of musician, he arranged for the son a marriage with the daughter of an Angolista (slave trader), but the son has not kept his commitment. In 1828 he resigned the title of Knight of the Habit of Christ in favor of the son, who then changed his name to José Maurício Nunes Garcia Jr. In early 1830, he was living in a house in the Alley of the Nuncio, now the Republic of Lebanon Street. In February 17, 1830, Marcos Portugal died and was buried in the Convent of St. Anthony. Jose Mauricio, sensing that his time had come, made carry his own bed for the first floor of the house, "not to be cumbersome to anyone" On April 18, attended by the son and a slave, he died, murmuring a hymn to Our Lady. The brotherhood of Saint Cecilia was responsible for the funeral mass. At the ceremony, a small orchestra performed the "Funeral Symphony" (CPM 230), composed 40 years earlier. He was buried at St. Peter of the Clerics.

Death record of Marcos Portugal ² Death record of José Maurício Nines Garcia ³

¹ PORTO ALEGRE, Manuel de araújo. Máscara mortuária de Joeé Maurício Nunes Garcia. Acervo do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro. In MATTOS, Cleofe Person de. José Maurício Nunes Garcia - Biografia [Biography]. Rio de Janeiro: Fundação Biblioteca Nacional, 1997. Photograph section, p. XX.

² "At the seventeenth day of February of Eighteen Hundred and Thirty years, in the house where he lived, at Lavradio Street, passed away Marcos Antonio Portugal, married to Dona Maria Joanna Portugal and in the eighteenth day was by me given license, accompanied on stilts to the Convent Santo Antonio, where he was buried, shrouded in robes of gentleman. To be official I made this record. Canon Luiz Marcianno da Sª". Livro de Óbitos das Pessoas ocupadas no Serviço do Paço (1808-1887) [Book of the Deaths of People at the Palace's Service (1808-1887)]. Acervo da Cúria Metropolitana do Rio de Janeiro. p. 57v.

³ "At the eighteenth day of April of Eighteen Hundred and Thirty years, in the house where he lived, at the Alley of the Nuncio, passed away the Reverend Jose Mauricio Nunes Garcia, and in the nineteenth day by me given license and buried at de St. Peter of this city, shrouded in priestly garments. To be official I made this record. Canon Luiz Marcianno da Sª". Ibid., p. 58r.