Alberto Nepomuceno: Prece

Alberto Nepomuceno (July 6, 1864 – October 16, 1920) was a Brazilian composer and conductor.

He began to study music with his father, a violinist, organist, teacher and chapel-master at the Fortaleza Cathedral. In 1872, Nepomuceno and his family moved to Recife, also in Northeastern Brazil, where he initiated piano and violin studies.

In 1888, Nepomuceno left for Europe in order to further his musical studies. In Rome, he took lessons from Giovanni Sgambati. He moved to Berlin in 1890, where he studied composition with Heinrich von Herzogenberg and continued his piano studies with Theodor Leschetizky at the Stern Conservatory. In Leschetizky's class, he met Norwegian student Walborg Bang, whom he ended up marrying in 1893. Bang had been a student and friend of Edvard Grieg's. After the wedding, Nepomuceno moved to Bergen and lived in Grieg's house. As Grieg was also an advocate for nationalism in composition, the friendship was instrumental in convincing Nepomuceno to write music that reflected Brazilian culture. Before leaving Europe, he visited Paris, where he met Camille Saint-Saëns and Vincent d'Indy.

Upon his return to Brazil, he became the director and taught at the Instituto Nacional de Música (National Institute of Music) in Rio de Janeiro, where he strongly promoted the use of the Portuguese language in Brazilian classical music, instead of the preferred European languages such as French and Italian. In addition, Nepomuceno was a significant influence on many early 20th-century Brazilian nationalist composers such as Heitor Villa-Lobos, which became one of his students, Luciano Gallet, and Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez.

Later on, Gustav Mahler engaged him to conduct at the Vienna Opera House, but illness prevented this from taking place. He returned to Europe in 1910 for a series of concerts in Brussels, Geneva and Paris. During this trip, he became friends with Claude Debussy. Back in Brazil, he championed the use of Portuguese in opera and song and remained the leading musical figure in the country until his death at age 56.

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