Redondo, 15º Conde de

José Luís Gonzaga de Sousa Coutinho Castelo-Branco e Menezes, 15th Count of Redondo (1797-1863), was a Portuguese nobleman who devoted much of his life to music, acting as musician (tenor), composer, copyist, and conductor. He composed some works, such as Matinas de Santo Estevão for 3 voices and organ (P-Ln F.C.R. 175//4), but most of his musical activity was as copyist. As a partisan of Dom Miguel, after the Portuguese civil war, the count, his family and other Miguelist partisans, including some composers and musicians, took refuge in Quinta do Bom Jardim in Belas, where sumptuous religious festivities were held. It was for some of these solemnities that composers like Frei José Marques e Silva produced works that subsist through parts copied by the 15th Count of Redondo. According to Ernesto Vieira, the Count organised and directed an amateur military music band.