Carlos Seixas (1704-1742) - Dixit Dominus

Feliz aniversário Carlos Seixas! 🎹🍷

Composer: Carlos Seixas (1704-1742)
Work: Dixit Dominus em Ré maior
Performers: Ana Fеrraz (soprano); Luís Madurеira (tenor); Manuel Brаz da Costa (alto); Coro de Câmara de Lisboa; Nοrsk Barokkorkester; Ketil Hаugsаnd (conductor)

Painting: Sebastiano Conca (1680-1764) - Trinità in Gloria tra Angeli e Santi
HD image: https://flic.kr/p/2pWKXQW

Further info: https://www.discogs.com/sell/release/3096864
Listen free: https://open.spotify.com/album/4N4TOxfdHqLRciX2qVXjss

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(José António) Carlos Seixas [De Seixas, Seyxas, Sexas]
(Coimbra, 11 June 1704 - Lisboa, 25 August 1742)

Portuguese composer and organist. He was the son of Francisco Vaz and Marcelina Nunes. On the death of his father, early in 1718, he was appointed his successor as organist at the Coimbra Cathedral and within a month was, at the age of fourteen, earning his father’s old salary. Two years later he moved to Lisbon ‘with the intention of becoming a churchman’ where he secured the post of organist at a church then known as the Santa Igreja Patriarcal, a position he remained in until the end of his life. There is some doubt as to whether this was the royal chapel, at that time located in the Ribeira Palace, or the Basilica de Santa Maria Maior, near which Seixas lived. We do know, through the few documents available, such as his papers for entry to the Ordem de Cristo (The Order of Christ), and a biographical note, published in 1759 by Diogo Barbosa Machado in his Bibliotheca Lusitana, that Seixas taught the harpsichord at the Court in Lisbon and that ‘taken by a sincere affection’ he married Joana Maria da Silva in December 1731, having two sons and three daughters by her. We also know that on 21 May 1738 he acquired the job of paymaster of the Ordem de Santiago. In June 1733 he also joined the Royal Palace Guards, under the command of Viscount Barbacena, rising from second lieutenant to captain. He finally became a Knight of the Order of Christ by royal despatch in November 1738, after taking nine years to qualify. Carlos Seixas died in Lisbon at his home behind the Church of Sant’ Anténio da Sé, and was buried in the graveyard of the Brotherhood of the Santissimo Sacramento attached to that church. According to Barbosa Machado Seixas was suffering from fever and ‘prepared himself to take the last rites of the Catholic church, and so, receiving the Sacraments and reciting the Litany of Our Lady, he expired on 25 August 1742, at the age of 38 years, two months and fourteen days’. Carlos Seixas was the leading figure in Portuguese 18th-century music and his importance as a composer rests mainly on his keyboard sonatas, 88 of them currently extant.