Valsa para Violao
This song and performance was published in the Fall 2019 issue of the Fingerstyle Guitar Journal. To receive fingerstyle guitar interviews, workshops, reviews, and more automatically each quarter subscribe to the Fingerstyle Guitar Journal
Joaquim Francisco dos Santos, known as Quincas Laranjeiras, was born on December 8th, 1873, in the city of Olinda in the state of Pernambuco. Olinda is a historic city located on Brazil’s northeastern coastline. Quincas Laranjeiras lived to the age of sixty-one and passed away on February 3rd in 1935.
When Quincas was six months old, the family moved to Rio de Janeiro, where his father worked as a carpenter and had a reputation as a talented ten-string guitarist. At the age of eleven, Quincas went to work at Fábrica de Tecidos Aliança, a textile manufacturing plant in the Quincas borough of Rio in Laranjeiras, hence the nickname "Quincas Laranjeiras" The plant had more than a thousand employees but was deactivated in 1937. Today the region is known as Rua General Glicério and the land where the factory stood was transformed into a subdivision.
In the Fábrica de Tecidos Aliança plant was a music group, which was conducted by João Elias, who became Quincas’ first music teacher. He began playing the flute and soon also learned to play accompaniment parts on the guitar. Quincas was a frequent visitor to the popular music shop of Rabeca de Ouro, where he got to know the great guitarists of that time. Along with his colleagues, he helped establish Estudantins Arcas, where he began to teach. Quincas participated in a group of musicians who would regularly meet at Cavaquino de Ouro, located in Rua da Carioca. This group included, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Anacleto de Medeiros , Ze do Cavaquinho , Juca Kalut , João Pernambuco and Irineu de Almeida.
Quincas was trained in the Tarrega method of guitar and was an essential proponent of the Tarrega approach in Brazil. His compositions include "Prelúdio Em Ré Menor" and "Valsa Em virtude de Violão," while his most well-known piece was the sentimental waltz “Dores D’alma." He was also a dynamic harmonizer of Brazilian melodies.
Quincas Laranjeiras was the teacher of several eminent music artists such as, Levino da Conceição, José Rabelo, and João Pernambuco. A eulogy published in the O Violão journal in 1929 described him as the "Grandfather of the present-day violão."