Joaquim Luís Gomes

Joaquim Luiz Gomes

Biography

Joaquim Luís Gomes (19 November 1914, Santarém, Portugal – 23 July 2009, Lisbon) was a Portuguese conductor, composer and orchestrator.

At the age of 18, Gomes joined the Hunters Battalion 5, where he played the clarinet for eight years. Late he began working as a clarinetist for the National Broadcast Symphony Orchestra, also collaborating in the Light Music Section, and as the 2nd principal of the Portuguese Typical Orchestra of conductor José Belo Marques.

Gomes worked with several Portuguese music artists, including Amália, for whom he provided symphonic orchestrations for Portuguese popular themes; the songwriter Maria de Lourdes Resende, for whom he wrote the song Nostalgia, which he later orchestrated for his variety programs of the National Broadcaster and RTP; as well as Francisco José, Rui de Mascarenhas, Paulo Alexandre, Tony de Matos, Carlos do Carmo, Simone de Oliveira and Fernando Tordo.

He was the orchestrator of songs such as Onde Vais Rio Que Eu Canto (1970), and he wrote works for the symphonic orchestra, harp and piano, with examples such as Concertante March, Loose Pearls, Scalabitana Opening, Abidis, Sonata em Mi Bemol (for piano) and the symphonic narrative Mar Português (Possessio Maris) , composed in 1988 at the invitation of Paulo Alexandre, and considered as a manifesto of public interest by the Portuguese government.

He directed the Scalabitana Typical Orchestra from 1958 to 1965, and was also the composer of the soundtracks for the movies Level Crossing and Justice of Heaven.

In 1995 and 2005 Gomes was honored by the Portuguese Society of Authors who considered him "one of the most outstanding figures of Portuguese music in the twentieth century".

Works for Winds

• Il Guarany Overture (arr. Clarke) (1870/1904)
• Rapsódia em Fado (1972)

Resources

• Joaquim Luís Gomes, Wikipedia Accessed 17 December 2019