Rodrigues Coelho, Padre Manuel (EN)

Rodrigues Coelho Padre Manuel, *ca. 1555 Elvas, †ca. 1635 Lisbon, Portuguese composer and organist. Around 1563, he began his studies at Elvas Cathedral, where he may have been a pupil of D. Lobo and M. Cardoso. Between 1573 and 1577, he worked occasionally as organist at the cathedral in Badajoz. From 1580 to 1602, he was organist at the cathedral in Elvas, and from 1602 to 1633, he served as chaplain and organist at the royal court in Lisbon.

Rodrigues occupies an important place in the history of Portuguese music at the turn of the Renaissance and the Baroque periods. Only one of his works is known – Flores de musica per o instrumento de tecla & harpa (Lisbon 1620), which is the first Portuguese publication to contain instrumental pieces. It is a very extensive collection comprising 133 pieces and documenting 30 years of Rodrigues’ work as an organist in Portugal’s major musical centres.  It contains 24 tientos, 97 verses, four arrangements each of the hymns Pange lingua and Ave Maris Stella, and four diminutions of Orlando di Lasso’s chanson Susanne un jour. The tientos constitute the largest group in the collection in terms of volume. These are generally extensive imitative works, composed in the Flemish contrapuntal style, sometimes extending up to 300 bars, in which the composer achieves internal contrasts of form, dynamism, and expressive tension using still fairly traditional means. In single-theme tientos, the main idea is divided into segments, which then serve as the basis for new imitative passages or may undergo various rearrangements; the theme is treated with augmentation, diminution, inversion, and retrograde, while harmonic progression acquires considerable structural significance. Multi-theme tientos are often opened with a long-note ricercar theme, with new themes introduced later in increasingly shorter rhythmic values. The contrapunctus floridus predominates, and voices may be linked in thirds or sixths; generally, diatonicism prevails, with clear and simple harmony. Another important part of the collection consists of organ versets, forming four groups of settings: 35 Kyrie, 5 Ave Maris Stella, 34 Magnificat and Benedictus, and 23 Magnificat and Nunc dimittis. These works are based on a long-note plainsong cantus planus, counterpointed by highly ornamented voices. Within this group, particular attention should be given to 23 versets for solo voice and organ, which stylistically resemble the monodies of L. da Viadana and G. Frescobaldi.

Literature: M.S. Kastner Música hispânica. O estilo musical do Padre Manuel Rodrigues Coelho, Lisbon 1936; K. Speer The Organ “Verso” in Iberian Music to 1700, “Journal of the American Musicological Society” XI, 1958; M.S. Kastner Drei Lusitanische Komponisten für Tasteninstrumente, Lisbona 1980; J. Ring Europäischer Geist und iberische Tradition: Padre Manuel Rodrigues Coelho und das “meio registo”, “Organ: Journal für die Orgel” 2003 No. 6; D.W. Laginya Manuel Rodrigues Coelhos Flores de musica: Style and performance practice, doctoral thesis, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2004.