Henrique Alves de Mesquita

Introduction

Henrique Alves de Mesquita (Rio de Janeiro, March 15, 1830 – Rio de Janeiro, July 12, 1906) was a Brazilian composer, conductor, organist, trumpeter and teacher.

Trained at the Conservatório do Rio de Janeiro and with a period of study in Paris, he worked in the theater, in the church, in teaching and in popular music. He belonged to the generation preceding the consolidation of choro (Brazil's oldest urban instrumental genre) and helped shape part of the musical language later developed by figures such as Joaquim Callado, Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth.

Formation and early years

Mesquita was born in central Rio de Janeiro into a family of modest means. He began studying music while still young and entered the Conservatório, where he studied harmony, counterpoint and organ.

In 1856 he was awarded a gold medal and won the institution's first travel prize. The following year he left for Paris, where he studied with François Bazin, a professor at the Paris Conservatoire.

Shortly before the trip, Mesquita taught composition and conducting to Joaquim Callado, one of the musicians central to the formation of choro.

That connection places Mesquita squarely in the generation that prepared the ground for the first chorões (choro players) of Rio.

Paris and the Rio theater

In France, Mesquita deepened his knowledge of composition and orchestration and came into contact with operetta, opéra comique and the European ballroom dances.

Back in Brazil in 1866, he became a trumpeter at the Alcázar Lírico and began working intensively as a composer and conductor for theater companies.

Rio's theater was a meeting point for polkas, quadrilles, lundus (an Afro-Brazilian song and dance form), habaneras and Afro-Brazilian rhythms. It was in that environment that Mesquita developed much of his music.

The tango brasileiro and the origins of choro

Mesquita is frequently named as one of the creators of the tango brasileiro (Brazilian tango).

The work Olhos matadores, composed in 1868, was long considered the first to carry that designation. Since the original score has not been located, Ali Babá, from 1872, is today the earliest documented example in the composer's output.

The tango brasileiro of that period differed from the Argentine tango. It drew together elements of the habanera, the lundu, the syncopated polka and other dances circulating through Rio de Janeiro.

Mesquita helped carry that mixture into the theater, into printed scores and into professional ensembles. This language would later be developed by Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth, becoming one of the seedbeds of maxixe and choro.

When choro did not yet exist as a defined genre, Mesquita was already working with part of the rhythmic vocabulary that the chorões would transform in the decades that followed.

Batuque

Among his works, Batuque, from 1894, became one of the most present in the choro repertoire.

Classified as a tango característico (characteristic tango), the piece combines syncopation, strong rhythmic drive and short melodic cells that recall the Brazilian instrumental language of the late nineteenth century.

In 1911 it was recorded by the Banda do Corpo de Bombeiros (Fire Brigade Band) and it continued to circulate across different generations of musicians. It later received interpretations and arrangements associated with Época de Ouro, Camerata Carioca, Radamés Gnattali, Luiz Otávio Braga and Maurício Carrilho.

A copy was also preserved in Donga's archive, showing how his music remained alive among the chorões even after his death.

Chiquinha, Nazareth and the choro notebooks

Mesquita's importance for the generations that followed also appears in tributes from two central figures of Brazilian music.

In 1889, Chiquinha Gonzaga dedicated to him the tango característico Só no Choro.

In 1914, Ernesto Nazareth published Mesquitinha, likewise in his honor.

His compositions went on circulating in old manuscript notebooks. A copy of Soirée Brésilienne was found in a notebook belonging to Theodoro Aguilar and another in material associated with Alfredo Viana, Pixinguinha's father.

These records show that Mesquita's music left the theaters and the Conservatório and became part of the working repertoire of the musicians who would form the first generations of choro.

Notable works

Among his compositions are:

• Os beijos de frade
• Soirée Brésilienne
• L'Étoile du Brésil
• Olhos matadores
• Une Nuit au Château
• Trunfo às avessas
• Ali Babá
• A pêra de Satanás
• A coroa de Carlos Magno
• Batuque

Mesquita also wrote operas, operettas, sacred music, waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, lundus and other instrumental pieces.

Later years

Besides composing and conducting, Mesquita had a long career as a teacher.

He taught at the Conservatório de Música and later at the Instituto Nacional de Música, where he remained until his retirement in 1904.

He died in Rio de Janeiro on July 12, 1906, at the age of 76.

Henrique Alves de Mesquita belongs to a generation earlier than choro as we know it today, yet he was present along several of the paths that led to its formation: he taught Joaquim Callado, developed the tango brasileiro, had his music played by the chorões, and was honored by Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth.

His career shows that choro was built gradually, in the meeting of European dances, Afro-Brazilian rhythms, theaters, salons and circles of musicians.

Sources

• Instituto Casa do Choro – archive and scores of Henrique Alves de Mesquita.
• Dicionário Cravo Albin da Música Popular Brasileira – entry on Henrique Alves de Mesquita.
• Antônio José Augusto – Henrique Alves de Mesquita: da pérola mais luminosa à poeira do esquecimento.
• Fundação Biblioteca Nacional – score collection.
• Acervo Digital Chiquinha Gonzaga.
• Instituto Moreira Salles – Projeto Ernesto Nazareth 150 Anos.