Biography
During Brazil’s colonial period, Joaquim Manuel ranked among the earliest composers to achieve widespread popularity there, becoming the first whose twenty modinhas appeared in lithographed form. The Austrian composer Sigismund Neukomm gathered these pieces, supplied them with harmonies, and arranged their publication in Paris in 1824. Although scant information about Manuel has survived, contemporary traveler accounts extolled his gifts: Louis de Freycinet judged him a superior guitarist to any European counterpart, while Adrien Balbi described him as “exceptionally talented for music, famed for his perfect execution of the cavaquinho and author of beautiful modinhas.” Joaquim Manuel is thought to have been born in Rio de Janeiro near 1780; official records confirm his residence in that city by 1822, and he is believed to have died there around 1840.