Diogo Dias Melgás

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Diogo Dias Melgás (often Melgaz) (Cuba (Portugal), 1638 - Évora, 1700) was a Portuguese composer of polyphony.

Contents 1 Life 2 Work 3 Recordings 4 References

[edit] Life

Diogo Dias Melgás was born in Cuba, Alentejo, on April 14 1638. He was a choirboy at the Colégio da Claustra in Évora in 1646. He took the holy orders at the Cathedral of Évora, where he stayed the rest of his life, being a student of Manuel Rebelo, and holding the position of mestre de capela for c. 30 years. He died blind and extremely poor on February 3 1700. He was the last of the great Portuguese polyphony masters who flourished in Évora in the second half of the 16th century.

[edit] Work

A large part of Melgás's work is lost. The surviving works - masses, motets, graduals - are kept in the archives of the Cathedrals of Évora and Lisbon, and were published in modern notation by the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian in 1978 (Opera Omnia, Portugaliae Musica XXXII).

[edit] Recordings

• 1994, Music of the Portuguese Renaissance, Pro Cantione Antiqua, Hyperion CDA66715
  • includes 14 works by Melgás

[edit] References

• Enciclopédia Verbo Luso-Brasileira de Cultura, vol. 19, "Melgaz (Diogo Dias)", ed. Verbo, Lisboa/São Paulo, 1998