Arthur Napoleão dos Santos

Arthur Napoleão dos Santos (6 March 1843 - 12 May 1925) was a Portuguese composer, pianist, instrument dealer and music publisher. Brother of Aníbal Napoleão and Alfredo Napoleão.

This name uses Portuguese naming customs: the first or maternal family name is Napoleão and the second or paternal family name is dos Santos.
Arthur Napoleão dos Santos
Arthur Napoleão, Warsaw, ca. 1860
Born6 March 1843
Porto, Kingdom of Portugal
Died12 May 1925(1925-05-12) (aged 82)
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
OccupationComposer, pianist, instrument dealer and music publisher

Biography

He was born in Porto, Portugal, and gave his first piano concert at the age of 7. When he was 8, supported by Ferdinand II of Portugal, Napoleão gave his first international concerts, visiting cities such as London (where he played at the Portuguese Embassy in the city) and Paris. Thereafter he toured all over Europe and America, sometimes playing duets with Henri Vieuxtemps or Henryk Wieniawski. At age 15, he performed in New York and critic Richard Storrs Willis attended "out of curiosity to see the sort of child that tickles Europe". Willis was impressed and noted him as "an extraordinary performer... His touch is exquisitely full of tenderness; his precision almost unerring; his power more than respectable, and his rounding of musical thought perfectly delightful."[1]

In 1866 he settled in Brazil, living in Rio de Janeiro. Here he set up shop to sell instruments and publish sheet music. He taught piano lessons, one of his pupils was Chiquinha Gonzaga and composed, almost exclusively piano pieces. He died in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, aged 82. He is the Patron of Chair 18 of the Brazilian Academy of Music.

Works
Arthur Napoleão in the 1900s

Arthur Napoleão composed piano music in all principal genres of his time: opera fantasies and paraphrases, etudes, character pieces, salon and virtuoso pieces. There were also several compositions for orchestra (mostly lost), for piano 4-hands and half a dozen of songs. He wrote incidental music for O remorso vivo by Furtado Coelho and Joaquim Serra (first staged Feb 21, 1867).[2]

Napoleão's last work to get an Opus number was 18 Études pour virtuoses, Op.90 (published in 1910). Summarizing his vast pianistic experience, it remains his most significant composition. His most popular piece was Romance, Op.71 no.1, of which several arrangements were published.

Further reading

References
  1. Lawrence, Vera Brodsky. Strong on Music: The New York Music Scene in the Days of George Templeton Strong. The University of Chicago Press, 1999. vol. III, p. 214. ISBN 978-0-226-47015-3
  2. José Galante Sousa (1955). Bibliografia de Machado de Assis. Ministério da Educacão e Cultura.
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