Carlos Seixas on the Classical Guitar: The Essential Guide

This guide is part of our overview of the essential classical guitar repertoire. Carlos Seixas (1704–1742) was the greatest Portuguese composer of the Baroque era — a prodigiously gifted keyboard player and composer whose surviving sonatas have found a lasting place in the classical guitar repertoire through transcription. His is one of the most remarkable short careers in the history of European music: an output of over 700 sonatas in a life that ended at only 38.

Life and Career

José António Carlos de Seixas was born in Coimbra on 11 June 1704. His father, Francisco Vaz de Seixas, was the organist at Coimbra Cathedral, and Carlos grew up surrounded by church music. By his mid-teens he had already succeeded his father in the same role, demonstrating a precocity that would define his entire brief career.

At the age of sixteen, in 1720, Seixas moved to Lisbon to take up the post of royal chapel organist under King John V — one of the most prestigious musical appointments in Portugal. He held this position until his death, serving through the reigns of John V and his successor Joseph I. He died on 25 August 1742, aged only 38, of rheumatic fever. His early death cut short a career that, by any measure, was already exceptional.

The Earthquake of 1755

One of the great tragedies in the history of European music is that the catastrophic Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755 — which killed tens of thousands of people and destroyed much of the city — also destroyed the archives where the majority of Seixas's manuscripts were stored. Scholars estimate that he composed over 700 keyboard sonatas; approximately 100 survive, alongside a handful of keyboard concertos, an overture, and some sacred choral works. The destruction of his archive means we have access to only a fraction of what he created.

Seixas and Domenico Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757) arrived at the Lisbon court in 1719 as music master to Princess Maria Barbara. The two men — Scarlatti, an established Italian master, and Seixas, a young Portuguese prodigy — coexisted at the same court for years. The famous anecdote holds that Scarlatti remarked that Seixas had nothing to learn from him. Whether apocryphal or not, the story captures a widely held assessment of Seixas's exceptional talent.

The comparison with Scarlatti is natural: both wrote keyboard sonatas of similar length and character, and both worked at the same court. But their voices are distinct. Scarlatti's sonatas are generally more consistent in style and more immediately recognisable; Seixas's surviving sonatas show a wider variety of emotional character and a distinctly Portuguese sensibility that sets them apart from the Italian and Spanish music of the same period.

Musical Style

Seixas's sonatas work in a transitional idiom between the learned counterpoint of the 17th century and the lighter galant style that would dominate the 18th. Italian, French, and German influences combine with a distinctly Portuguese sensibility to produce music that is graceful, inventive, and emotionally direct. The Portuguese influence is difficult to pin down analytically — it is felt more in a certain melancholy, a chromatic colouring, and an expressive directness that distinguishes his best works from the more polished surface of his Italian contemporaries.

Why Guitar Works for This Music

Several of Seixas's sonatas have been arranged for classical guitar by various transcribers, and they transfer naturally to the instrument. Baroque keyboard writing — particularly the single-manual keyboard sonata tradition — tends to use textures that lie well on the guitar: two-voice counterpoint, chordal passages, and running melodic lines that do not require the simultaneous sustaining of many notes that a piano or harpsichord can produce but a guitar cannot easily replicate.

The classical guitar is, after all, itself descended from plucked string instruments closely related to the lute and theorbo that were central to Baroque music-making. When a guitarist plays a Seixas sonata, the sound world is not so remote from the original keyboard version as it might seem: the guitar's plucked, decaying tone is closer to the harpsichord than the modern piano is.

At Siccas Guitars

Two guitarists have performed Seixas sonatas for Siccas Guitars:

• Edith Pageaud performed Sonata No. 24 in D minor
• André Ferreira performed Sonata No. 23 and Sonata No. 67

These performances are available on the Siccas Guitars YouTube channel and provide an excellent entry point into Seixas's music for listeners unfamiliar with it.

Seixas in the Guitar Repertoire

Among the Baroque composers whose keyboard works have been transcribed for classical guitar, Seixas is somewhat less well known internationally than Bach, Scarlatti, or Handel. This is partly a consequence of the catastrophic loss of his archive and partly a reflection of the relatively small international profile of Portuguese music of any period. But for guitarists interested in expanding their Baroque repertoire beyond the familiar German and Italian traditions, his sonatas offer something genuinely distinctive.

The emotional directness and the Portuguese flavour of his best works make them interesting alternatives to the more frequently played Baroque transcriptions, and their modest technical demands (by the standards of the full classical guitar repertoire) make them accessible to advanced-intermediate players.

FAQ

Who was Carlos Seixas?

A Portuguese Baroque composer (1704–1742), born in Coimbra. He served as royal chapel organist in Lisbon from 1720 until his death at 38. He composed over 700 keyboard sonatas, of which approximately 100 survive following the Lisbon earthquake of 1755.

Why are so few of his works known?

The Lisbon earthquake of 1 November 1755 destroyed the archives where the majority of his manuscripts were stored. Only about 100 of his estimated 700+ sonatas survive.

What is his connection to Scarlatti?

Both worked at the Lisbon court simultaneously. Scarlatti reportedly remarked that Seixas had nothing to learn from him — a significant endorsement from one of the Baroque era's greatest keyboard composers.

How difficult are the Seixas guitar transcriptions?

Advanced-intermediate. The textures of his keyboard writing transfer naturally to the guitar, and the technical demands are proportionate to the musical content.

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