Meet the Black Composers: Lusitano

VICENTE LUSITANO

Vicente Lusitano was somewhat of a man of mystery. We don’t know for certain when he was born, don’t know too much about his life in general, and aren’t sure of when he died. What we do know, though, is that he was a pretty important man and someone worth remembering 500 years later.

Vicente Lusitano (which means “Vincent of Portugal”) was an Afro-Portuguese theorist, composer, and educator. He lived in the early-mid 16th century from approximately 1520 to approximately 1561 (again, his stats are a bit of a mystery…). As a composer, he wrote choral works in the popular styles of the days: madrigals and motets. In addition to his music compositions, his magnum opus came in the form of another kind of writing. 

In 1553, Lusitano published his music treatise entitled Introdutione facilissima et novissima de canto ferm. In it, he shared his views on the three pillars of Western music: diatonic scales, chromaticism, and enharmonic note spelling. His views were ones that, only two years prior, had earned him the title of winner in an infamous battle of the music theorists’ minds in Rome against the more progressive composer Nicola Vicentino (who championed microtonality and even invented a special microtonal keyboard). It was in Lusitano’s 1553 treatise that his highly chromatic and expressive Heu me domine was printed, making it the first published piece by an African diasporic composer and making Lusitano the first composer of African descent to be published.

Take a listen to Heu me Domine HERE and leaf through his 1553 treatise HERE.