Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez was a first-generation Brazilian of Spanish descent. He enjoyed a very successful career, but died when he was just 50, at the peak of his fame as a composer, conductor and teacher. Despite his premature death, he left a relatively large and varied body of work to posterity, from songs (48 in all) to operas, and from chamber music to tone poems and concertos (for piano and for violin). Restless and dynamic by nature, Lorenzo Fernandez was also one of the key figures in the cultural life of Rio de Janeiro more generally: he spearheaded various initiatives, including the foundation of the Sociedade de Cultura Artística, the music journal Ilustração Musical and the Conservatório Brasileiro de Música, whose work took place in a number of different places both in the city and elsewhere in Brazil, as well as supporting Villa-Lobos in the establishment of the Academia Brasileira de Música.

Until he was 25, Lorenzo Fernandez wrote music in a neo-Romantic style, with some Impressionist influences. In 1922, however, the festival known as the Semana de Arte Moderna (‘Modern Art Week’) took place in São Paulo, heralding a significant change in direction for Brazilian art. The intellectuals and artists who led this new movement championed work that drew on the country’s own cultural traditions. In this context, ‘modern’ first and foremost meant ‘authentically Brazilian’ art. Lorenzo Fernandez embraced this new aesthetic, imbuing his output with a strong sense of musical nationalism. Unlike his rebellious contemporary and friend Villa-Lobos, however, he reconciled his new nationalist colours with the Classical-Romantic tradition.