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The famous writer José Gomes Ferreira was a composer during the 1910s and the 1920s. He was born in a family with strong connections to music and started his musical studies when he was eight years old. He took part as a pianist and a mandolinist in the chamber group Quarteto Beethoven led by Manfredo Peixoto, for which he composed several waltzes, fados and variations. His better known piece was however the symphonic poem Idílio Rústico, first performed in 1918 by the Politeama Theatre Symphonic Orchestra under the direction of David de Sousa.
José Gomes Ferreira’s first book of poems, Lírios do Monte, was also published in 1918, a work he would later classify as a childhood experience. Nevertheless, he then traced the path his career would follow.
After a gap of over five years, José Gomes Ferreira resumed his activity as a composer in the second half of the 1920s, when he was the Portuguese consul in Kristiansund (Denmark).
The book Poesia I was published in 1948 and would earn the author the recognition of his poetic work. Fifteen years later his book Aventuras Maravilhosas de João Sem Medo would also confirm his credits among the younger readers, overwhelmed by a fable that arouses imagination and creativity. Four years after the 1974 revolution José Gomes Ferreira became the president of the Portuguese Writers Association.