José Joaquim dos Santos


José Joaquim dos Santos was a Portuguese music teacher and late Baroque-period composer who specialised in writing sacred music. He was listed by two authors as being among Portugal's "most outstanding eighteenth-century composers."
He was born in Senhor da Pedra near Óbidos to Manuel Gonçalves dos Santos and Vitória Luísa and entered Lisbon's Royal Patriarchal Music Seminary on 24 June 1754.
After graduating on 1 January 1763, Santos accepted an offer to remain on staff to teach solfège and was later appointed as professor of harmony, counterpoint and composition. He continued teaching there for the remainder of his life. From 1768, parallel to his work within the seminary, he was also engaged as a singer, organist, composer and conductor at the Royal Chapel.
Of his teaching skills, one of his students, André da Silva Gomes described Santos as "wise and experienced" then adding that his command of fugue writing was "outstanding … and singular", while Nancy Lee Harper in her survey of Portuguese keyboard music said he was "noted for his Figured Bass rules of accompaniment."
According to musicologist Robert Stevenson, Santos' own composition style was strongly influenced by Neapolitan opera composer Davide Perez who taught him at the seminary, and commenting about Santos' overall approach, Enrico Ruggieri says in his thesis, "He was renowned as master of the stile antico, however he composed music in concertato style as well." Looking specifically at Santos' 1792 setting of the Stabat Mater, Ruggieri noted that "the composition is built around the formal structure of a cantata sacra da camera that belongs to the style of the Neapolitan tradition of composers such as Alessandro Scarlatti or Giovanni Battista Pergolesi." What has been described by musicologist Ricardo Bernardes as "the well-known process of Italianization of musical practices begun in the reign of King João V" is clearly demonstrated here.
Apart from two secular eclogues which were performed respectively in 1786 and 1787 at the Lisbon Academy of Sciences for its celebrations of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the remainder of Santos' known works were written for liturgical use and performed in Portugal and Brazil. These include 5 settings of the Mass, 2 of the Te Deum, a Credo, a complete Vespers, 25 individual Psalms, 21 Anthems, Motets and Antiphons, 4 of the, 1 of Holy Week Matins and 1 of the Holy Week Responsories. The vocal forces vary from 4 to 8 voices plus soloists in some works, and always with accompaniment by organ, orchestra, organ and orchestra, or various smaller combinations of solo instruments.
The exact date and cause of Santos' death and the place of his burial are unknown.

Selective discography