Maurício, José

José Maurício (1752-1815) was an organist and composer, principally of sacred music, born in Coimbra. He enrolled in the University of Coimbra to study theology and become a priest, but did not complete his degree. While there he developed his interest in music under the tutelage of the mathematician José Monteiro da Rocha and at some point decided to follow a musical career instead. According to Vieira (1900, p. 68) he was ‘for some time in Salamanca’ before a brief period (1784-1785) as chapel master at Guarda cathedral. He returned to Coimbra to serve as organist at the Santa Cruz monastery and at some point between 1789 and 1794 he was nominated to teach a music class in the bishop’s palace. Later, in 1802, the principe regente, D. João VI, charged him with the task of reforming the public classes in music at the university.

The title-page of Mauricio’s Método de Muzica (Coimbra, 1806) testifies to his prominence by the early nineteenth century, describing him as ‘professorial chair of music and master of the royal chapel at the University of Coimbra, and chapel master at Coimbra Cathedral’ (‘lente proprietário da cadeira de musica da Universidade [de Coimbra], mestre da Real Capella da mesma, e mestre da capella da cathedral de Coimbra’). He was also known for chamber music concerts that involved himself and members of his family at his house; they were highly regarded and ‘remained in the memory’ at Coimbra (Vieira 1900, p. 70).

Many of Maurícios’s autographs were collected by Ernesto Vieira in the nineteenth century and are today preserved in P-Ln.  

Rodrigo T. De Paula, ‘Maurício, José dos Santos’, Dicionário Biográfico do Núcleo Caravelas do CESEM/NOVA FCSH (2017), [https://dicionario-biografico.caravelas.fcsh.unl.pt/node/75] 

Rui Paulo de Moura Branco Simões, ‘O Stabat Mater de José Maurício: 1781’, masters dissertation (Universidade de Coimbra, 2004).

Robert Stevenson, ‘Maurício, José (i)’, Oxford Music Online: Grove Music Online (2001) [https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.18128]

Ernesto Vieira, Diccionario biographico de musicos portuguezes: historia e bibliographia da musica em Portugal, 2 vols. (Lisbon: Typographia Mattos Moreira & Pinheiro, 1900), ii, pp. 68-72.