Manuel Machado (c. 1590–1646) was a

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 ** Portu ...

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

harpist The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has individual string (music), strings running at an angle to its sound board (music), soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing ...

. He was mostly active in

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

, as he was born when the kingdoms of

Portugal Portugal, officially the Portuguese Republic, is a country on the Iberian Peninsula in Southwestern Europe. Featuring Cabo da Roca, the westernmost point in continental Europe, Portugal borders Spain to its north and east, with which it share ...

and Spain were in a

dynastic union A dynastic union is a type of union in which different states are governed beneath the same dynasty, with their boundaries, their laws, and their interests remaining distinct from each other. It is a form of association looser than a personal un ...

Life

Manuel Machado was born in

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 ...

and studied at the Claustra college of the

Lisbon Cathedral The Cathedral of Saint Mary Major ( or ''Sé-Catedral Metropolitana Patriarcal de Santa Maria Maior de Lisboa''), often called Lisbon Cathedral or simply the Sé ('), is a Roman Catholic cathedral located in Lisbon, Portugal. It is the oldest ch ...

with the renowned composer

Duarte Lobo Duarte Lobo (c. 1565 – 24 September 1646; Latinized as ''Eduardus Lupus'') was a Portuguese composer of the late Renaissance and early Baroque. He was one of the most famous Portuguese composers of the time, together with Filipe de Magalhãe ...

. He moved to Spain and in 1610 he became a musician of the royal chapel in Madrid, where his father, Lope Machado, was already a harpist. In 1639, he became a musician in the palace of

Philip IV of Spain Philip IV (, ; 8 April 160517 September 1665), also called the Planet King (Spanish: ''Rey Planeta''), was King of Spain from 1621 to his death and (as Philip III) King of Portugal from 1621 to 1640. Philip is remembered for his patronage of the ...

, and in 1642, he was rewarded "for his long years of service".

Work

Machado composed several

sacred Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects ( ...

works, but he is better known for his secular 3- and 4-voice ''

cantiga A ''cantiga'' (''cantica'', ''cantar'') is a medieval monophonic song, characteristic of the Galician-Portuguese lyric. Over 400 extant ''cantigas'' come from the ''Cantigas de Santa Maria'', narrative songs about miracles or hymns in praise of ...

s'' and

romance Romance may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings ** Romantic orientation, the classification of the sex or gender with which a pers ...

s in

Mannerist Mannerism is a style in European art that emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spreading by about 1530 and lasting until about the end of the 16th century in Italy, when the Baroque style largely replaced it ...

style. Unfortunately, very few of his works have survived (most of them were destroyed during the

1755 Lisbon earthquake The 1755 Lisbon earthquake, also known as the Great Lisbon earthquake, impacted Portugal, the Iberian Peninsula, and Northwest Africa on the morning of Saturday, 1 November, All Saints' Day, Feast of All Saints, at around 09:40 local time. In ...

). His secular music is characterised by great skill in the flexible use of the

meter The metre (or meter in US spelling; symbol: m) is the base unit of length in the International System of Units (SI). Since 2019, the metre has been defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time interval of of ...

and

harmony In music, harmony is the concept of combining different sounds in order to create new, distinct musical ideas. Theories of harmony seek to describe or explain the effects created by distinct pitches or tones coinciding with one another; harm ...

to reflect the content of the poems. Machado's highly expressive

word-painting Word painting, also known as tone painting or text painting, is the musical technique of composing music that reflects the literal meaning of a song's lyrics or story elements in programmatic music. Historical development Tone painting of words ...

, with rich chromatism, unexpected

modulation Signal modulation is the process of varying one or more properties of a periodic waveform in electronics and telecommunication for the purpose of transmitting information. The process encodes information in form of the modulation or message ...

and

dissonant In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness, unple ...

chords (such as

augmented chord An augmented triad is a chord (music), chord, made up of two major thirds (an augmented fifth). The term ''augmented triad'' arises from an augmented triad being considered a major chord whose top note (fifth) is raised. When using Chord names ...

s or inverted

seventh chord A seventh chord is a chord (music), chord consisting of a triad (music), triad plus a note forming an interval (music), interval of a Interval (music), seventh above the chord's root (chord), root. When not otherwise specified, a "seventh chord" ...

s, which would have caused considerable impact in his own time), associated with typical

Petrarchan The Petrarchan sonnet, also known as the Italian sonnet, is a sonnet named after the Italian poet Francesco Petrarca, although it was not developed by Petrarch himself, but rather by a string of Renaissance poets.Spiller, Michael R. G. The Devel ...

love lyrics, make his romances comparable in style and quality to the Italian late-period

madrigal A madrigal is a form of secular vocal music most typical of the Renaissance (15th–16th centuries) and early Baroque (1580–1650) periods, although revisited by some later European composers. The polyphonic madrigal is unaccompanied, and the ...

s, such as those of Marenzio or

Monteverdi Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi (baptized 15 May 1567 – 29 November 1643) was an Italian composer, choirmaster and string player. A composer of both secular and sacred music, and a pioneer in the development of opera, he is considere ...

. His known compositions are found in the most important songbooks of his time, such as the '' Cancionero de la Sablonara'', which indicates that he probably enjoyed a considerable popularity. He died in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

Recordings

The following recordings include works by Machado: *1989 - O Lusitano - Portuguese vilancetes, cantigas and romances.

Gérard Lesne Gérard Lesne (; born 15 July 1956) is a French countertenor. He is also the founder and artistic director of the baroque music ensemble, Il Seminario Musicale. Life and career Gérard Lesne was born in Montmorency, Val-d'Oise. He was originally ...

and Circa 1500. Virgin Veritas 59071. Track 2 "Dos estrellas le siguen", and Track 21 "Paso a paso, empeños mios" *1994 - Canções, Vilancicos e Motetes Portugueses.

Paul Van Nevel Paul Van Nevel (born 4 February 1946) is a Belgian conductor, musicologist and art historian. In 1971 he founded the Huelgas Ensemble, a choir dedicated to polyphony from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Van Nevel is known for hunting out lit ...

and

Huelgas Ensemble Huelgas Ensemble is a Belgian early music group formed by the Flemish conductor Paul Van Nevel in 1971. The group's performance and extensive discography focuses on Renaissance polyphony. The name of the ensemble refers to a manuscript of polyphoni ...

. Sony Classical SK 66288. Track 2 "Qué bien siente Galatea", and Track 3 "Dos estrellas le siguen". *2007 - Entremeses del siglo de oro - Lope de Vega y su tiempo (1550-1650). Hespèrion XX and

Jordi Savall Jordi Savall i Bernadet (; born 1 August 1941) is a Spanish Conducting, conductor, composer and viol player. He has been one of the major figures in the field of Western early music since the 1970s, largely responsible for popularizing the viol ...

. Alia Vox. Track 12 "Que bien siente Galatea", and Track 17 "¡Afuera, afuera! que sale" *2007 - Flores de Lisboa - Canções, vilancicos e romances portugueses. A Corte Musical and

Rogério Gonçalves Rogério de Sousa Gonçalves (; born 1 October 1959) is a Portuguese football manager, currently in charge of Mozambican club Clube Ferroviário da Beira. In a career of over three decades, he had brief Primeira Liga spells at Varzim, Naval, B ...

. Le Couvent K617195. Track 1 "Dos estrellas le siguen", Track 2 "Paso a paso, empeños mios", and Track 8 "¡Afuera, afuera! que sale"

References

*''Enciclopédia Verbo Luso-Brasileira de Cultura'', ed. Verbo, Lisbon/São Paulo, 1998 *''Manuel Machado - Romances e Canções'', Portugaliae Musica 28, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, 1998

External links

* Portuguese Baroque composers Portuguese harpists Musicians from Lisbon 1590s births 1646 deaths Expatriates in Spain 17th-century Portuguese composers 17th-century Portuguese classical composers Portuguese male classical composers 17th-century male musicians {{Portugal-composer-stub