António Carreira (

Lisbon Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...

, ca. 1520-30 - Lisbon, ca. 1597) was a Portuguese

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

organist An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ (music), organ. An organist may play organ repertoire, solo organ works, play with an musical ensemble, ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumentalist, instrumental ...

of the

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

. He held the post of organist at the Royal Chapel in Lisbon. His compositions (Fantasias, Tientos, Chansons) reveal his high

contrapuntal In music theory, counterpoint is the relationship of two or more simultaneous Part (music), musical lines (also called voices) that are harmonically dependent on each other, yet independent in rhythm and Pitch contour, melodic contour. The term ...

craftsmanship. Most of his surviving works can be found in manuscripts at the

University of Coimbra The University of Coimbra (UC; , ) is a Public university, public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university ...

. A particularly interesting work is the Canción "Con qué la lavaré", where the organ part to accompany this popular song is written in the "Tento" form. This constitutes one of the earliest European examples of written instrumental accompaniment to a song.Nicholas Thistlethwaite, Geoffrey Webber '' The Cambridge companion to the organ'' 1998 p175

Discography

* Fantasia on the 1st tone - on ''Early Iberian Organ Music'', Parkins Naxos 1993. * Tiento - on ''Masters of the Royal Chapel, Lisbon'', dir. Rees. Hyperion 1994. * Canção a Quatro glosada - on ''Spanish and Portuguese Harpsichord'', Sophie Yates (harpsichord), Chandos 1994.

References

1520s births 1590s deaths 16th-century Portuguese composers Portuguese male composers Portuguese organists Male organists Musicians from Lisbon {{Portugal-composer-stub