Alexandre Jorge Maria Idalécio Raimundo Rey Colaço (

Tangier Tangier ( ; ; ar, طنجة, Ṭanja) is a city in northwestern Morocco. It is on the Moroccan coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, where the Mediterranean Sea meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel. The town is the ca ...

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

, 30 April 1854 - Lisbon, Portugal, 11 September 1928) was a Portuguese

pianist A pianist ( , ) is an individual musician who plays the piano. Since most forms of Western music can make use of the piano, pianists have a wide repertoire and a wide variety of styles to choose from, among them traditional classical music, j ...

of a French father and

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: ** Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Ca ...

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Port ...

mother.

Life

He studied piano at the

Madrid Royal Conservatory The Madrid Royal Conservatory ( es, Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid) is a music college in Madrid, Spain. History The Royal Conservatory of Music was founded on July 15, 1830, by royal decree, and was originally located in Mosten ...

and gave his first performance in Lisbon in 1881. Pedro Eugénio Daupias, 1º Visconde de Daupias ( Count of Daupias) was present and so impressed that he offered Colaço a trip to

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

to continue his musical education. From there he moved on to

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

to study at the

Berlin Hochschule für Musik The Universität der Künste Berlin (UdK; also known in English as the Berlin University of the Arts), situated in Berlin, Germany, is the largest art school in Europe. It is a public art and design school, and one of the four research unive ...

under Barth and Rudorff (piano) and Harertel and Bargiel (composition). Due to his outstanding talent, he was invited to teach piano at this school, whose director was the famous violinist

Joseph Joachim Joseph Joachim (28 June 1831 – 15 August 1907) was a Hungarian violinist, conductor, composer and teacher who made an international career, based in Hanover and Berlin. A close collaborator of Johannes Brahms, he is widely regarded as one of ...

, a great friend of

Schumann Robert Schumann (; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and influential music critic. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers of the Romantic era. Schumann left the study of law, intending to pursue a career a ...

and

Brahms Johannes Brahms (; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid- Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped wit ...

. In 1887, Colaço returned to Lisbon and became a Portuguese citizen. He was appointed piano professor at the Conservatory of Music and contributed largely to the cultural activities of this country as a performer, pedagogue and composer. He taught music to the young Portuguese Prince Manuel of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha Braganza (later King

Manuel II of Portugal '' Dom'' Manuel II (15 November 1889 – 2 July 1932), "the Patriot" ( pt, "o Patriota") or "the Unfortunate" (), was the last King of Portugal, ascending the throne after the assassination of his father, King Carlos I, and his elder brother, ...

). Colaço married Alice Lafourcade Schmidt, born in Chile in 1865, who had a French mother and a German father. Their daughter, Amélia Rey Colaço, became one of Portugal's leading actors.

Compositions

His works were among the first to incorporate popular themes of a Portuguese national character. These works include pieces for the piano: the collection of

Fado Fado (; "destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado wa ...

s, the reference point of his personal creative style,

Bailarico Bailarico (also known as bailharico) is a Portuguese folk dance. The pairs face each other without holding each other, and with their backs turned to the neighboring pair, form a circle. In the first part of the music, the circle rotates, with the ...

Jota Jota may refer to: __NOTOC__ * Iota (Ι, ι), the name of the 9th letter in the Greek alphabet; * (figuratively) ''Something very small'', based on the fact that the letter Iota (lat. i) is the smallest character in the alphabet; * The name of the ...

, Malagueña and ''Pequenas Peças''; for piano and voice: ''Cantigas de Portugal''. He also wrote a book, ''De Música'', a consequence of his experience and reflections about musical art. A recording of his piano music was issued by Educo Records in 1985 (Educo LP 4114). The recording by Michael Habermann contained the following compositions: Um Fado No. 1, Canção do Mondego, Fado No. 2, "Malagueña" from Cante Flamenco, Bailarico, Fado No. 3, "Hylário", Peças Pequenas, and Two Popular Spanish Dances: "Seguidilha" and "Jota".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Colaco, Alexandre Rey 1854 births 1928 deaths People from Tangier Composers for piano Madrid Royal Conservatory alumni Portuguese classical pianists Portuguese composers Portuguese male composers 19th-century Portuguese people 19th-century classical pianists Male classical pianists 19th-century male musicians 19th-century musicians