Duarte Lobo's name sits prominently beside two others, those of Manuel Cardoso and Filipe de Magalhães. Together, they were the most famous and celebrated Portuguese composers of their generation. Coincidentally or not, all of them studied under the equally renowned Manuel Mendes. Born in Alcáçovas (according to unverified sources), Lobo studied Mendes whilst a choir boy at Évora Claustra da Sé, the cloister school of the Évora cathedral. Somewhere before 1589, he became maestro di cappella at the Hospital Real, Lisbon, obtaining, in 1591, the same post at Lisbon Cathedral. It was one of the most illustrious musical appointments in the country. He kept that job until at least 1639, during which time he also served as director of the Seminário de St. Bartolomeu there, and taught at the Lisbon Claustra da Sé. Like Manuel Cardoso, Lobo used a refined, Palestrinian counterpoint for more immediate, expressive ends. In his highly pleasing compositions, additional expressive strength is attained through carefully placed extensions of the rhythmic and harmonic properties of the idiom.