Organ José Joaquim da Fonseca (c. 1863) and the Portuguese Historic Organ-Making

This book, written by Marco Brescia and published in Portuguese / English edition by Castelpor, proposes the approach of the historical organ José Joaquim da Fonseca (c. 1863) of the Portuguese House of Pastel de Bacalhau in Vila Nova de Gaia, in the light of Portuguese historic organaria. It is divided into three chapters, the first dedicated to the affirmation and apogee of the Iberian organ in Portugal (18th century), the second, to the genesis and development of the genuinely Portuguese organ model defined at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, while the third focuses on the study of the historical organ José Joaquim da Fonseca itself in the context of the organaria developed in northern Portugal in the 19th century.

Marco Brescia – Italian organist of Brazilian origin, Marco Brescia holds a doctorate in Historical Musical Sciences under an international thesis regime between the universities Paris IV-Sorbonne and NOVA de Lisboa. He has a master’s degree in interpretation of Ancient Music, a specialty of Historical Organ, jointly by the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona and a master’s in Art History by the University Paris IV-Sorbonne. He is currently a researcher at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa integrated with CESEM – Center for Studies in Sociology and Musical Aesthetics.