(Lisbon May 14, 1924 - 18 July 1988)
He was born in Lisbon in 1924 and died in this city in 1988, at the height of his musical creativity. After studying violin and composition at the Lisbon National Conservatory, he became a disciple of Luís de Freitas Branco (1890–1955), the leading Portuguese composer of the previous generation.
After the Second World War, he went abroad after studying conductor with Hermann Scherchen and Antonino Votto and composition with Virgilio Mortari. In 1945, he visited England, where he met Ralph Vaughan Williams, who encouraged him to use his native popular song in his symphonic music and suggested taking counterpoint lessons. It was undoubtedly the central Portuguese symphonic of the 20th century and perhaps of all time. Apart from an innate sense of orchestration, its musical language is based on solid musical architecture and theatrical, with long melodic phrases and a natural instinct for structural development. In his own words, he wanted to "contribute to a Latin symphonic and react to the predominant tendency, of the generation that preceded me, to refuse monumentalism in music."
He also wrote three works, chamber music for a wide variety of instruments and ensembles, film soundtracks, and several choral works based on poems of the great Portuguese and Spanish classic and modern poets such as Camrip, Antero de Quental, Teixeira de Pascoaes, Fernando Pessoa, Garcilaso de la Vega, Antonio Machado, and Rosalia de Castro. He taught composition at the Lisbon National Conservatory, where he introduced the chair of musical analysis. He was also director of the Porto Symphony Orchestra and one of the founders of the Juventude Musical Portuguesa (Portuguese musical youth). As a critic and journalist, he produced a wide range of works for various Portuguese and foreign newspapers and magazines.
In his first works, the composer showed a modal trend motivated by the desire to connect contemporary music and the golden age of Portuguese music: the Renaissance.
He died in Lisbon of a stroke.
This symphony is dedicated to "The heroes and martyrs of the last world war." When he wrote his first symphony, the composer was 22 years old. He began, with an unusual technical skill, his symphonic gesture that made him the most important Portuguese symphonist. The first took place on February 6, 1947, at the Teatro de S. Carlos in Lisbon, under the direction of Maestro Pedro de Freitas Branco.
The first and decisive major work would be his Symphony n. 1 in D minor, op.9. It is a symphony of war similar to symphonies n. 7 and 8 by Dimitri Shostakovich, to Symphony n. 5 of Prokofieff and Symphony n. 6 by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
As he said, the beginning of his career is linked to Pedro de Freitas Branco, who directed most of his works in Portugal and abroad. In 1946, Joly Braga Santos had already composed a symphonic obiture and some songs of chamber music, in particular her string quartet n. 1 dedicated to his teacher and teacher Luís de Freitas Branco.
I. Very sustained - Allegro energico
II. Andante very quiet
III. Allegro very - very supported
