Music Teaching and Didactic Materials at the Real Seminário da Patriarcal of Lisbon (1713-1834): A case study on David Perez's Partimenti and Accompaniment Solfeggios

The primary mission of the Portuguese institution Real Seminário da Patriarcal of Lisbon (1713- 1834) was to train skilled musicians for the Patriarchal Church and Royal Chapels. However, its pedagogical impact was much broader. The institution welcomed many of the leading Portuguese composers of the 18th century, as well as numerous musicians who later held significant positions in various Luso-Brazilian institutions. The Italian composer David Perez (Naples, 1711 – Lisbon, 1778), who had studied at the Neapolitan Conservatory of Santa Maria di Loreto and enjoyed great European celebrity in his lifetime, was hired in 1752 by King Joseph I of Portugal and came to Lisbon, where he held the post of Composer of the Royal Chamber and Master of the Royal Princesses. David Perez was never officially Master of Music of the Real Seminário da Patriarcal, but he composed various didactic materials that were widely used for training students of this institution and were widely disseminated in Portugal as well as in Europe. These include Partimenti (called Regras de Acompanhar) and Solfeggio’s. This presentation aims to give an overview of David Perez's didactic sources in Portugal ― particularly the Regras de Acompanhar ―, trying to understand the place of his pedagogical materials in music teaching, and to investigate the impact of methodologies acquired in the Neapolitan conservatories on other didactic sources produced by Portuguese composers, mainly teachers and students of the Real Seminário da Patriarcal.