Pedro Alvares Cabral

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Pedro Álvares Cabral (c. 1467-1520) was a Portuguese navigator who discovered Brazil on a voyage to India.

Born on the family estate in Belmonte, Pedro Álvares Cabral grew up close to the Portuguese court. As a nobleman, he served in the council of King Manuel I and received the habit of the Order of Christ. Little is known of his activities before 1499, when Manuel appointed him the chief captain of a fleet being prepared to sail to India to follow the maritime route to the East charted by Vasco da Gama on his historical voyage of 1497-1499.

Amid colorful pageantry 13 ships with 1,200 men sailed from the Tagus River on March 8, 1500, en route to India. On April 22 the fleet unexpectedly sighted land in the west at 17° South latitude. Cabral explored the coast and claimed the new land for his sovereign. He christened it Ilha de Vera Cruz. Merchants, quickly attracted to its plentiful stands of brazilwood, the source of an excellent red dye, called it Terra do Brasil, and the name Brazil gained popular acceptance.

Cabral's discovery has raised a series of historical questions which have never been properly answered. Was he the first to reach Brazil or had the Spanish or French made prior visits? Had Portugal previously discovered Brazil and protected that discovery with secrecy? Did Cabral - who was far off the prescribed course to India - discover Brazil accidentally or intentionally? There is room for much speculation on each of these questions, but lack of documentary evidence to the contrary leads to the conclusion that Cabral was the first to discover Brazil and that he did so accidentally. The first cartographic notification of Cabral's discovery was the Cantino chart, finished no later than 1502.

After dispatching news of his discovery to King Manuel, Cabral proceeded to India, where he established a trading post at Cochin. He then returned to Lisbon laden with the coveted spices of the East. He helped to prepare the next fleet for India, which sailed under the command of Vasco da Gama. Cabral then apparently retired to his estate at Jardim, near Santarém, where he died about 1520.

Further Reading

The most complete information on Cabral and his voyage to the East is the translation, with an introduction and notes, by William Brooks Greenlee of The Voyage of Pedro Álvares Cabral to Brazil and India: From Contemporary Documents and Narratives (1938). See also Edgar Prestage, The Portuguese Pioneers (1933); Charles David Ley, ed., Portuguese Voyages, 1498-1663 (1947); and Gilbert Renault, Caravels of Christ (1959).

• Active: '90s
• Genres: World
• Instrument: Guitar, Flute, Drums
• Representative Albums: "Variacoes," "Momentos Da Guitarra Portuguese," "Memórias Da Guitarra Portuguesa"

Biography

He plays beautiful music on a beautiful instrument, and if that doesn't make a person happy, then what could? He certainly looks pretty happy on the back cover of his CD Varioces, holding his petite Portugese guitar and beaming benevolently. He has become one of the world's masters of an instrument that developed as a hybrid centuries ago, and has composed a body of work for the Portugese guitar that has been collected on a series of wonderful recordings. Because of the historical development of the genre of music he eventually became immersed in, he represents an interesting blend of both classical and traditional approaches to both learning and making music. At first listen, one would think his music would belong directly to the classical tradition, as it sounds something like classical guitar music and within it has references to Italian, Flemish, and English classical music. However, the actual development of music for the Portugese guitar is considered a particular type of urban folk music and as a result there is no standard, established classical tradition of learning the instrument as there is with the standard or Spanish guitar.

So, Pedro Caldeira Cabral is the rare musician who is both self-taught and classically trained. He began with the latter and so-called legitimate study of guitar, recorder, flute, and viola from the age of ten. His home was a hotbed of classical record spinning, the most common sounds playing being the German romantics and Baroque pieces. This is what he listened to and practiced until he was 15. Then a bug got in his ear, something like one might pick up in the older parts of town. It was the Portugese guitar, a combination of the Renaissance zither, which was introduced to Portugal in the 16th century, and the guitar as we know it today, which came along roughly 200 years later. In the attempt to combine the sweet, high, ringing sound of the zither with the flexibility of the guitar, the Portugese craftsmen came up with what is arguably a much better version of what was created in the 12-string guitar. The Portugese model also has a dozen strings, tuned in octaves, but because of its design and smaller size, doesn't have the problem of more than 10,000 extra pounds of pressure on the neck. He began composing for the instrument when he had learned enough to be able to perform his works. Several periods exist within his compositional development, the first being straightforward copying of the types of pieces other Portugese guitarists were playing in the saloons. This time around he was learning a kind of music where he had no choice but to go and listen to the players and copy what they were doing by ear and eye. There was no school of Portugese guitar or acknowledged maestro offering an instruction course. By 20, his experience with the traditional music was deep enough that he could serve as the conductor of several ensembles that specialized in early music, Lucitani Musici and La Batalla. In the next stage of more intricately conceived pieces, he began adding the influences of the classical music he had studied when he was young. For most of his pieces, he is accompanied by a nylon string classical guitarist, bringing out the hearty sound of this instrument's bass strings. He performs with guitarist Francisco Perez on the previously mentioned World Network recording. His debut recording was the 1971 Guitarres de Portugal, and the 1982 Encontros is a favorite of many guitar listeners. Recordings from the late '80s and the 1994 Momentos de Guitara Portugese glow with his more developed compositional approach. He continues to maintain a fascinating open mindedness and as a result, creates a music that seems limitless in its possibilities. As a result, he is highly in demand in several fields related to his speciality. He has performed solo all over the world, including concerts in Europe, the United States, China, and Brazil. There have been commissions to create pieces for film and theater, and he has also created opportunities for himself as a lecturer and teacher in various aspects of traditional Portugese music. This country's fado styles combine the Portugese guitar with mournful laments, and enough vocalists in this style to cause a small traffic jam have called on Cabral to be in their accompanying group. He went on to learn many other instruments that are used in Portugese music, including the cavaquinho, viola braguesa, and viola alentejana. The viola is also a regular feature of fado music, often played in tandem by a pair of violists. He can't seem to get enough of musical instruments and has also gotten involved as an instrument builder and restorer. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, All Music Guide