Classical1:00A Portugesa (Portuguese National Anthem)A Portugesa (Portuguese National Anthem)
Alfredo Keil
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Browse piano sheets by Alfredo Keil on Zen Virtual Piano. Alfredo Keil was born in Lisbon to Johann Christian Keil, the court tailor, and Maria Josefina Stellflug, both of German origin. Interested in painting and music from a young age, he composed Pensée Musicale at twelve and dedicated it to his mother. Painting studies in Munich and Nuremberg, under Wilhelm von Kaulbach and August von Kreling, ended in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War sent him home to Portugal. Pensée Musicale at twelve, beside painting studies in Munich and Nuremberg, may suggest that music and painting ran side by side in his youth. A return driven by war suggests how events beyond his control shaped his career. Mostly a landscape painter, he also made other works, among them Leitura de uma carta of 1874, which helped win him a place among the aristocracy and the wealthy middle class. His painting is romantic, with a preference for melancholy landscapes and lonely corners, and his most important prize was a gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro art exhibition of 1879. He also took an interest in collecting, archaeology, ethnography and literature. A painter with prizes and a collector's curiosity suggests that music was one of several callings for him. The Presidency's museum says he is believed to have composed the patriotic march A Portuguesa on the night of January 12, 1890, and at his request the poet Henrique Lopes de Mendonça wrote the words late that month. According to the museum, the march's starting point was the reaction to the British Ultimatum, which had provoked a wave of national indignation. The musical references Keil followed were the Marseillaise, fado and the Hino da Maria da Fonte. The march was confirmed as the national anthem by the Constituent National Assembly on June 19, 1911, after the Republic of 1910 had adopted it. A march that began as a reaction to the British Ultimatum, beside its confirmation as the anthem in 1911, may point to a piece that moved from a national event to an official symbol. References ranging from the Marseillaise to fado suggest a score assembled from several musical sources. Keil kept in close contact with Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni and Massenet, and Massenet was the dedicatee of his successful opera Serrana. With this opera in Portuguese he tried to break the dominance of French, Italian and German opera and establish Portugal as a musical culture nation, and Infopedia calls it his true masterpiece. He died in Hamburg in 1907 of the consequences of surgery for esophageal cancer, and did not live to see the lasting success of the anthem. An opera in Portuguese, written to break foreign-language dominance, hints at an ambition for Portugal's musical culture. A gold medal for painting in 1879, beside an anthem adopted in 1911, may suggest that his recognition came through more than one art.
Browse piano sheets by Alfredo Keil on Zen Virtual Piano.
Alfredo Keil was born in Lisbon to Johann Christian Keil, the court tailor, and Maria Josefina Stellflug, both of German origin. Interested in painting and music from a young age, he composed Pensée Musicale at twelve and dedicated it to his mother. Painting studies in Munich and Nuremberg, under Wilhelm von Kaulbach and August von Kreling, ended in 1870 when the Franco-Prussian War sent him home to Portugal. Pensée Musicale at twelve, beside painting studies in Munich and Nuremberg, may suggest that music and painting ran side by side in his youth. A return driven by war suggests how events beyond his control shaped his career.
Mostly a landscape painter, he also made other works, among them Leitura de uma carta of 1874, which helped win him a place among the aristocracy and the wealthy middle class. His painting is romantic, with a preference for melancholy landscapes and lonely corners, and his most important prize was a gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro art exhibition of 1879. He also took an interest in collecting, archaeology, ethnography and literature. A painter with prizes and a collector's curiosity suggests that music was one of several callings for him.
The Presidency's museum says he is believed to have composed the patriotic march A Portuguesa on the night of January 12, 1890, and at his request the poet Henrique Lopes de Mendonça wrote the words late that month. According to the museum, the march's starting point was the reaction to the British Ultimatum, which had provoked a wave of national indignation. The musical references Keil followed were the Marseillaise, fado and the Hino da Maria da Fonte. The march was confirmed as the national anthem by the Constituent National Assembly on June 19, 1911, after the Republic of 1910 had adopted it. A march that began as a reaction to the British Ultimatum, beside its confirmation as the anthem in 1911, may point to a piece that moved from a national event to an official symbol. References ranging from the Marseillaise to fado suggest a score assembled from several musical sources.
Keil kept in close contact with Verdi, Puccini, Mascagni and Massenet, and Massenet was the dedicatee of his successful opera Serrana. With this opera in Portuguese he tried to break the dominance of French, Italian and German opera and establish Portugal as a musical culture nation, and Infopedia calls it his true masterpiece. He died in Hamburg in 1907 of the consequences of surgery for esophageal cancer, and did not live to see the lasting success of the anthem. An opera in Portuguese, written to break foreign-language dominance, hints at an ambition for Portugal's musical culture. A gold medal for painting in 1879, beside an anthem adopted in 1911, may suggest that his recognition came through more than one art.
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Common questions
Alfredo Keil was a Portuguese composer and painter, born in Lisbon, with an interest in collecting.
It is a march he composed in 1890 with words by Henrique Lopes de Mendonça, adopted as Portugal's national anthem.
Serrana was his opera in Portuguese, dedicated to Massenet, which Infopedia calls his true masterpiece.
He died in Hamburg in 1907 after surgery for esophageal cancer.