Of Shepherds and Angels
After last year’s beautiful rendition of A Christmas Carol in our Main Sanctuary (by candlelight in a power outage!), Crescendo Operatic Society (COS) is returning to UCoL Murrayville on November 30 at 3 pm.
This year’s program, Of Shepherds and Angels, features the late Brazilian composer José Maurício Nunes Garcia’s Missa Pastoril para a Noite de Natal. Following this work, three angels will appear to regale the Christmas story through story and song. With opportunities for audience participation during the carols, our start to the Advent and Christmas season is sure to be merry and bright.
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José Maurício Nunes Garcia (September 20, 1767 – April 18, 1830) was a Brazilian composer and priest, who is known as one of the greatest exponents of Classicism in the Americas.
Born in Rio de Janeiro to bi-racial parents, Nunes Garcia studied music from his childhood and became a Catholic priest. When King John VI of Portugal came to Rio de Janeiro with 15,000 people in tow, Nunes Garcia was appointed Master of the Royal Chapel. He sang and played the harpsichord, performing his compositions as well as those of other composers such as Domenico Cimarosa and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. He was a very prestigious musician in the royal court of John VI.
His musical style was strongly influenced by Viennese composers of the period, such as Mozart and Haydn. Today, some 240 musical pieces written by Nunes Garcia survive, and at least 170 others are known to have been lost. Most of his compositions are sacred works, among which is the Missa Pastoril para a Noite de Natal (Pastoral Mass for Christmas Eve), which will be performed by Crescendo Operatic Society this Christmas season.
(source: www.wikipedia.org)