Lésbio, António Marques

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Lésbio, António Marques

Lésbio, António Marques, Portuguese writer and composer; b. Lisbon, 1639; d. there, Nov. 21, 1709. He spent his entire career in Lisbon. In addition to his literary pursuits, he was made master of the royal chamber musicians (1668) and of the boys in the royal chapel choirs school (1679), curator of the royal music library (1692), and royal choirmaster (1698). He was a distinguished composer of Spanish villancicos and Portuguese vilhancicos, of which 16 are extant with the music. His polyphonic Latin sacred works were destroyed in the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

—Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire