Ernani Braga

Braga was born in Rio de Janeiro on January 10, 1888 to a Portuguese family, a fifth child of the nine. His father, João Joaquim da Costa Braga, was a prosperous merchant, who moved to Brazil in the middle of the 19th century. His mother was Antônia Maria Xavier Braga. Ernani's elder sister Zaíra had interest in music too, and it was she who became his first teacher. The father died in 1897, and the boy entered a boarding school of Colégio Salesiano de Santa Rosa in Niterói, where he remained up to 1904. On the second school year he began conducting masses and chants sung at the college chapel.[1]

In 1904 Braga returned to his mother and siblings to work in the family business. He took piano lessons with Manuel Faulhaber, and in 1910, not without this professor's encouragement, entered the Instituto Nacional de Música to study piano, theory, harmony and counterpoint. His professors were Arthur Napoleão dos Santos, Alberto Nepomuceno, Alfredo Bevilacqua, Agnello França and Antônio Francisco Braga. In 1913 he was sent to Paris. There he made acquaintance with Vincent d'Indy, Piaggio and the pianist Lucien Wurmern.[1] Braga deepened his compositional skills with d'Indy's handbook Cours de composition musicale. On one occasion he performed at the Salle Pleyel. He also met in Paris his future wife, Eponina D'Atri (daughter of Brazilian cultural attache Alessando D'Atri): he gave her piano lessons, and the same year they got married.[1]

In 1914 Braga came back to Rio de Janeiro to continue his studies at the Instituto Nacional de Música. In 1916 a son was born to him and named Francisco, in honor of professor Antônio Francisco Braga. The same year Ernani graduated with distinction and a gold medal (the president of the jury was the Polish virtuoso Ignacy Jan Paderewski).[1] In 1919 Braga entered a competition for a free professorship of piano, and in 1921 he took his teacher Bevilacqua's professor chair at the Instituto Nacional de Música. In 1920 another child was born, a daughter Vera, and he invited Antônio Francisco Braga to be godfather to her. After he became a professor, Ernani continued giving recitals and developed relations with different persons of culture. Together with his wife he met the Villa-Lobos couple.[1]

In the years 1921/22–1927 Braga resided in São Paulo, where he was professor of piano at the Conservatório Dramático e Musical. In order to move to São Paulo, he was obliged to leave his position at Instituto Nacional de Música, Rio de Janeiro, in July 1922.[3] He also taught in Campinas, Araraquara and Jaboticabal. Among his pupils can be listed Adolpho Tabacow and Camargo Guarnieri.[1]

He took part in the famous Semana de Arte Moderna in São Paulo (1922) as interpreter of compositions by Heitor Villa-Lobos[4] and Erik Satie's parody on Frédéric Chopin's funeral march (No.2 of Embryons desséchés).[1]

After São Paulo Braga moved to Recife, where he became one of the founders of the Pernambuco Conservatory (1930).[1] He left the city in 1939 and spent 2 years in concert tours through the country. In the years 1942–1943 he resided in Buenos Aires moderating the Hora do Brasil program. In 1944 he returned to Brazil.[1] In 1946 Braga came back to São Paulo, where he died on September 17, 1948.[1]