Silva, Francisco Manuel da
Silva, Francisco Manuel da
Silva, Francisco Manuel da, Brazilian conductor and composer; b. Rio de Janiero, Feb. 21, 1795; d. there, Dec. 18, 1865. He began his musical training with José Maurício Nunes Garcia, and later studied counterpoint and composition with Sigismund Neukomm in Rio de Janeiro. He was a singer and then a cellist in the orch. of the royal chapel and chamber until it was disbanded when Emperor Dom Pedro I abdicated in 1831; that same year he wrote the abdication hymn Hino ao 7 de Abril, which was adopted as the Brazilian national anthem (with new text) upon the establishment of the Republic in 1889. In 1833 he founded the Sociedade Benefi^encia Musical. He became conductor of the Sociedade Filarmônica in 1834, served as composer of the imperial chamber (from 1841) and as master composer of the imperial chapel (from 1842), and founded the Rio de Janeiro Cons. (1847). He wrote an opera, O prestigio da lei, and much sacred music.
Bibliography
A. de Albuquerque, Ouviram do Ypiranga, Vida de FM. d.S. (Rio de Janeiro, 1959); A. de Andráde, FM. d.S. e seu tempo, 1808–65. Uma fase do pássado musical do Rio de Janeiro á luz de novos documentos (2 vols., Rio de Janeiro, 1967).
—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire