João Lourenço Rebelo

João Lourenço Rebelo
Portrait by José de Avelar Rebelo, c. 1646.
Born	1610 Caminha, Minho Province
Died	16 November 1665(1665-11-16) Loures, Estremadura Province
Occupation	Composer

João Lourenço Rebelo, or João Soares Rebelo (1610 – 16 November 1665) was the only Portuguese composer to adopt the Venetian polychoral style. Despite his closeness to the king John IV of Portugal (1603–1656), and despite what is traditionally said, Rebelo never held any office in the royal household.

Rebelo was born in Caminha in 1610, son of João Soares Pereira and Maria Lourenço Rebelo. In 1624, became a choir boy at the Ducal Palace of Vila Viçosa, while his older brother, Father Marcos Soares Pereira (?-1655) was admitted as chaplain-singer.

Fitting the aristocratic patterns of behavior of the 17th century, and as a sign of pre-eminence,Teodósio II, Duke of Braganza had created the Colégio dos Santos Reis Magos (College of the Three Wise Kings), an academy for court musicians, where Rebelo study under Robert Turner (c.1578-1629), an Irish musician who himself had been a student of the Flemish composer Géry de Ghersem, and mestre de capela of the duke chapel since 1616, and possibly under Friar Manuel Cardoso. Unlike what is traditionally said, Rebelo didn’t became music teacher of the duke’s heir João, Duke of Barcelos (who was six years older than him), they simply struck up a friendship that was to endure the rest of his life.

After the overthrow of the Philippine Dynasty on 1 December 1640, which had ruled Portugal since 1580, João became king of Portugal and the ducal chapel moved from Vila Viçosa to Lisbon. Both brothers moved to the capital in the King’s retinue and in 1641 Marcos became mestre da Capela Real of the Royal Chapel.