Background
LOPES-GRACA, Fernando was born on December 17, 1906 in Tomar. Son of Silverio Lopes-Graca and Emilia da Conceiyao LopesGraca.
composer conductor musicologist
LOPES-GRACA, Fernando was born on December 17, 1906 in Tomar. Son of Silverio Lopes-Graca and Emilia da Conceiyao LopesGraca.
Lopes-Graça was influenced by Portuguese popular music, which he also studied, continuing the work of the composer and musicologist Francisco de Lacerda. He completed the Dicionário de Música (Dictionary of Music), started by his teacher, Tomás Borba, himself a composer.
two piano concertos 1940, 1953, six piano sonatas 1934, 1939, 1952, 1961, 1977, 1981, Glosas (piano) 1949-1950, Cuatro Canciones de Federico Garcia Lorca (for baritone and chamber instrumental ensemble) 1954, Trois Danses Portugaises pour orchestre 1941, Sinfonia per Orchestra 1944, Estelas Funerarias 1948, Suite Rustica Number 1 (for Orchestra) 1950, 24 Preludes (piano) 1952-1958, Concertino (for piano, brass, strings and percussion) 1956, Histdria TragicoMaritima, for baritone, fern, chorus and orchestra 1943-1960, Gabriela, Cravo e Canela (overture) 1960, Prelude and Fugue (violin solo) 1961, Canto de Amor e de Morte (orchestra) 1961, Poema de Dezembro (orchestra) 1961, Para uma Criamja que vai Nascer (for strings) 1961, March de Setembro (cycle for voice and piano) 1962, Concertino for Viola and Orchestra 1962, In Memoriam Bela Bartok (8 suites for piano) 1959-1964, First String Quartet 1964, 9 Cantigas de Amigo (for voice and chamber instrumental ensemble) 1964, Four Sketches (for strings) 1965, Concerto da camera colonel violoncello obbligato 1965, Quatorze Anotacoes (for string quartet) 1966, Doctorate. Duardos e Florida (cantata-melodrama in two parts for narrator, mezzo-soprano, alto, tenor, chorus and orchestra) 1966-1969, Preludio e Baileto, Partita (for guitar) 1968, 1971, Four Pieces (for harpsichord) 1971, Requiem pelas vftimas do fascismo em Portugal (for soloists, choius and orchestra) 1978, Sinfonietta (Homenagem a Haydn) 1980, Sete Predicayoes d"Os Lusiadas (for tenor, baritone, male chorus and twelve wind instruments) 1980, Sete Apotegmas (for oboe, viola, double bass and piano) 1981, Second String Quartet 1982, Dez Novos Sonetos de Camoes (voice and piano) 1984. Danyares (ballet) 1984, In Praise of Peace (orchestra) 1986, Tre Equali (for double-bass) 1986, Cantos de Magoa e Desalento, Nove Odes de Ricardo Reis, Quatro Momentos de Alvaro de Campos (voice and piano) 1987, Canciones de Tierras Altas (cycle for voice and piano) 1989, Triptico de Joan (voice and piano) 1990, Georgicas (for oboe, viola, double bass and piano) 1990. Publicatiotis include: Reflexoes sobre a Musica 1941, Introdu: cao a Musica Modema 1942, Musica e Miisicos Modemos 1943, A Musica Portuguesa e os seus Problemas (Volume I) 1944, (Volume II) 1959, Talia, Euterpe e Terpsieore 1945, A Canyao Popular Portuguesa 1954, Dicionario de Musica (Volume I) 1956, (Volume II) 1958, Igor Stravinsky and Bela Bartok 1959, Musicalia 1960, Nossa Companheira Musica 1964, Paginas Escolhidas de Criticae Estetica Musical 1967, Disto e Daquilo 1973, A Musica Portuguesa e os seus Problemas (Volume Illinois) 1974, Um artista intervem, Cartas com alguma moral 1974, Escritos musicologicos 1977, and translations of Rousseau, Mann, Keller, Morike, Percy Buck, Alan Bush, Haskell. Remain Holland, Balzac.1906: December 17: birth in Tomar (where he would start his piano studies). 1924: becomes a student at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa. 1927: becomes a student of Vianna da Motta"s Classe de Virtuosidade.
1931: obtains the Composition Degree.
In the same year he is arrested and expelled to Alpiarça. 1934: wins a scholarship to study in France, which he is later denied for political reasons.
1937: goes to Paris, where he studies with composition and orchestration with Charles Koechlin. 1938: The "Maison de la Culture de Paris" commissions «Louisiana fiévre du temps» (ballet-revue).
Harmonisation of traditional Portuguese songs.
1940: Wins the composition prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical with his 1st Concert for Piano and Orchestra. 1941: receives an invitation from Tomás Borba to teach at the Academia de Amadores de Música. 1942: wins a prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical for «História Trágico-Marítima» (Miguel Torga poem).
1944: wins, for the 3rd time, the Composition Prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical for «Sinfonia».
1949: integrates the jury of the International Béla Bartók Festival in Budapest. 1952: wins another composition prize from Círculo de Cultura Musical for his 3rd Piano Sonata, dedicated to the Franco-Swiss pianist Hélène Boschi, who premieres the sonata in Paris in 1954.
1961: publishes, with Michel Giacometti, the 1st volume of the Antologia de Música Regional Portuguesa. Starts work on «In Memoriam Béla Bartók» (8 progressive suites for piano), which he will complete in 1975.
1969: Mstislav Rostropovich performs his Concerto da Camera (cello).
1973: Editora Cosmos starts the publication of «Obras Literárias» (18 volumes). 1974: becomes president of the Comissão para a Reforma do Ensino Musical, created by the Provisional Government of the April Revolution. 1981: receives invitation from the Hungarian government for the celebrations of the 100th anniversary of Béla Bartók"s birth.
1993: publication of his complete piano sonatas and sonatinas (Matosinhos).
Tribute for his 87th birthday. 1994: dies, at home, in the evening of November 27.
1979: composes the «Requiem pelas vítimas do fascismo em Portugal» (Requiem for the Victims of Fascism in Portugal) for large orchestra, soloists, and choir.
He was a member of the Portuguese Communist Party and strenuously opposed the Estado Novo and its leader António de Oliveira Salazar.