Born in Jatobá, November 2, 1883
Died in Rio de Janiero, October 16, 19471
Pronunciation: first name
Pronunciation: last name
Born João Teixeira Guimarães (Pernambuco, the state in which he was born, appears to have been a stage name)
- Pernambuco came from a poor Brazilian family. His father was Portuguese, and his mother was a member of the indigenous Caeté people.
- Pernambuco learned the music as a child, from street musicians.
- Pernambuco played and composed throughout his life, but earned a living as an ironworker.
- Pernambuco was master of the Brazilian musical genre of chôro .
- Due to his illiteracy, Pernambuco had to rely on other musicians to transcribe and publish his compositions. Unfortunately, this resulted in the theft of many of this works by unscrupulous composers. One exception was Heitor Villa-Lobos, who heard of Pernambuco’s trouble and had several of the composer’s works published with Pernambuco properly attributed.2
- Pernambuco called himself “The Troubadour of the Poor.”3
- Biography from AllMusic
Sources
- “João Pernambuco,” Musica Brasilis, accessed July 14, 2021, https://musicabrasilis.com/composers/joao-pernambuco.
- “João Pernambuco,” Alvaro Neder, AllMusic, accessed July 14, 2021, https://www.allmusic.com/artist/jo%C3%A3o-pernambuco-mn0002296953.
- Graham Wade, liner notes to Guitar Recital, Pedro Aguiar, Naxos 8.574069, CD, 2020.