Luís de Freitas Branco

Luís Maria da Costa de Freitas Branco (12 October 1890 – 27 November 1955) was a Portuguese composer, musicologist, and professor of music who played a pre-eminent part in the development of Portuguese music in the first half of the 20th century.

Luís had a cosmopolitan education, studied piano and violin beginning in childhood and began composing at a precocious age.

[citation needed] During the 1930s he increasingly encountered political difficulties with the authorities and was finally forced into retirement from his official duties in 1939.

He continued to compose, however, and to pursue his research into Portuguese early music, publishing several books and numerous articles.

[2] He married Estela Diniz de Ávila e Sousa, born on 18 August 1892, daughter of João Deodato de Ávila e Sousa (b. São Jorge Island, Velas, 10 November 1861) and wife Margarida Diniz; the couple had no children.