Oscar Fernández

Composer Oscar Lorenzo Fernândez was a major exponent of the nationalist school in 20th century Brazil. He is best known for his orchestral piece Batuque but many of his other works have been recorded. Fernândez was born on November 4, 1897, in Rio de Janeiro. His family was of Spanish background, and his surname has sometimes appeared as Fernández, even in Portuguese-language sources, but his signature clearly shows a circumflex rather than an acute accent. Fernândez began to play at dance parties while still a boy. He attended Rio's Instituto Nacional de Música, where his principal teachers were Francisco Braga, Frederico Nascimento, and Henrique Oswald. Nascimento was Fernândez's instructor in harmony and generally his mentor, but in 1923, he fell ill, and Fernândez was appointed as his substitute. That turned into a permanent appointment two years later. By that time, Fernândez was already an experienced composer. He wrote an opera, Rainha Moura, when he was 18, as well as songs and piano works. Fernândez's early works were influenced by French Impressionism and had little specifically Brazilian content. That changed around 1923 when he began to incorporate Brazilian folk dance rhythms into his music. Some of his vocal works were based on the modinha and seresta genres. One of Fernândez's most popular works was a three-movement orchestral suite, Reisado de Pastoreio, whose third movement, Batuque, employed an Afro-Brazilian rhythm. Batuque was performed well beyond Brazil. Fernândez also composed a second opera, Malazarte (1933), which was translated into Italian and produced at Rio's Teatro Municipal in 1941, two symphonies, five symphonic poems, orchestral suites, concertos, chamber music, 36 songs, and about 80 piano works. He founded the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música in Rio de Janeiro in 1936 and remained its director for the rest of his life. He also taught choral singing at the Conservatório Nacional de Canto Orfeônico. Fernândez died in Rio on August 27, 1948. As of the mid-2020s, Batuque had been recorded more than a dozen times, and recordings of some 35 of Fernândez's other compositions were available.
© James Manheim /TiVo