José Cordeniz

Biography

Doctoral Project

Title
The Bells of Mafra National Palace: Musical Models from 1730 to the Present

Advisor
João Soeiro de Carvalho

Abstract
The Mafra Monument encompasses a unique organological concentration: two carillons and six pipe organs. Its towers contain one of the largest bell ensembles in the world. Comprising two groups of clock bells, one group of swinging bells, and two carillons with associated automata, the characteristics that define its scale and complexity constitute a unique historical testimony to eighteenth-century thought, art, and technology.
Historiography has adopted a simplistic view of the acquisition of these large-scale carillons and automata as an unconscious act of pure ostentation on the part of King João V. This interpretation is based on an alleged statement attributed to the king, who, upon learning the cost of a carillon, is said to have remarked: “I did not suppose it would be so cheap; I want two.”
This study seeks to clarify the particularities of the Mafra bell and technological complex as an adaptation of an instrument characteristic of the Low Countries to the musical, architectural, and symbolic context of Joanine power in Portugal.