{"id":155817,"date":"2020-01-31T16:32:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-31T14:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/cape-town-lens-old-portuguese-tiles-o-fado\/"},"modified":"2020-01-31T16:32:50","modified_gmt":"2020-01-31T14:32:50","slug":"cape-town-lens-old-portuguese-tiles-o-fado","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/cape-town-lens-old-portuguese-tiles-o-fado\/","title":{"rendered":"Cape Town Lens: Old Portuguese Tiles : O Fado"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Cape Town University of Cape Town<\/em> tagged image from photographer \u2013 pedrosimoes7<\/a> as published on Flickr.<\/p>\n

Old Portuguese Tiles : O Fado<\/strong>
\"University
Image by pedrosimoes7<\/a><\/i><\/p>\n

Estrada Velha, Sintra, Portugal<\/p>\n

In Wikipedia<\/p>\n

Fado (translated as destiny or fate) is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier origins. In popular belief, Fado is a form of music characterized by mournful tunes and lyrics, often about the sea or the life of the poor. However, in reality Fado is simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain structure.
\nThe music is usually linked to the Portuguese word saudade (that has no match in English but it could be understood as nostalgia felt while missing someone), a word describing a sentiment. Another similar English translation can be to pine for something or someone.
\nSome enthusiasts claim that Fado\u2019s origins are a mixture of African slave rhythms with the traditional music of Portuguese sailors and Arabic influence.
\nThere are two main varieties of Fado, namely those of the cities of Lisbon and Coimbra. The Lisbon style is the most popular, while Coimbra\u2019s is the more refined style. Modern fado is popular in Portugal, and has produced many renowned musicians. According to tradition, to applaud fado in Lisbon you clap your hands, in Coimbra you cough as if clearing your throat.
\nMainstream fado performances during the 20th century included only a singer, a Portuguese guitar player and a classical guitar player but more recent settings range from singer and string quartet to full orchestra.
\nCape-Verdean morna is a close relative of fado.<\/p>\n

The fado is undoubtedly Portugal\u2019s most famous music. One theory states that Fado had its origin in Moorish songs, which were preserved in the quarter of Mouraria in Lisbon. The melancholy of those songs and the references in many fado lyrics to this part of Lisbon support that theory. Musicological research connects the first fado performances to modinhas, which were a kind of Brazilian hall music that was successful among middle-class social circles in the later 18th century in Lisbon and Porto: at the time, Brazilian students were a strong presence in the University of Coimbra[citation needed].
\nThe first great fado singer who survived in collective memory is Maria Severa Onofriana, who lived in the first half of the 19th century. In the 1920s and 1930s, a series of fado de Coimbra (a version born in Coimbra) recordings were very popular. Guitarists Carlos Paredes and his father Artur Paredes were the masters and the great pioneers of this genre and of the Portuguese guitar. The Orfeon Acade\u0301mico de Coimbra was, and still is, one of the most prominent ambassadors of Fado de Coimbra, along with an internationally recognized choral activity.
\nAma\u0301lia Rodrigues introduced the best-known variety of fado. Still today, after her death in 1999, Rodrigues is considered to have been the greatest fado diva ever. After she died, a new wave of performers added stylistic changes and brought more international popularity to the traditional Portuguese music. In the last few decades there has also been some successful experimentation with fado by mixing it with electronic music. Carlos do Carmo, Mariza, Ana Moura, Mafalda Arnauth, Camane\u0301, Katia Guerreiro and Mi\u0301sia brought with them a new look to the traditional song, occasionally reviving 19th century fado.
\nWhilst Dulce Pontes mixed fado with popular and traditional Portuguese music, Madredeus and Cristina Branco added new instruments and themes \u2013 all they kept of the original Fado are its looks and the concept of saudade. The fado is almost universally sorrowful, although some can also be joyful songs.
\nMariza is considered to be one of the best fado singers of the newest generation.
\n[edit]Lisboa Fado<\/p>\n

Fado probably arose from the taverns and popular squares of working-class city sectors (Alfama, Castelo, Mouraria, Bairro Alto, Madragoa), being sung and heard by the people until the well-to-do began frequenting those places to join in the enjoyment of the music. The first fado singer of renown was Maria Severa.
\nThe most popular themes were saudade, nostalgia, the small stories of everyday life in the traditional sections of town (bairros ti\u0301picos) and Bullfights: these were also the themes for songs that were permitted by the Salazar dictatorship, and these themes pushed aside the tragic fado, which dealt with lovers\u2019 jealousy or passion, often leading to violence, with lots of blood, repentance and remorse. The lyrics that were concerned with social or political problems, or which featured any complaint about the establishment, were repressed by the regime\u2019s censorship. [1]
\nThe \u201cclassic\u201d fado (also known as fado castic\u0327o) was performed by the earliest performers of whom anything is known: among others these were Carlos Ramos, Alfredo Marceneiro, Berta Cardoso, Maria Teresa de Noronha, Hermi\u0301nia Silva, Fernando Farinha, Fernando Mauri\u0301cio, Luci\u0301lia do Carmo, Manuel de Almeida.
\nModern fado began, and had its heyday, with Ama\u0301lia Rodrigues. She popularized fados that featured the words of great poets, such as Lui\u0301s de Camo\u0303es, Jose\u0301 Re\u0301gio, Pedro Homem de Mello, Alexandre O\u2019Neill, David Moura\u0303o-Ferreira, Jose\u0301 Carlos Ary dos Santos, Joa\u0303o Ferreira-Rosa, Teresa Tarouca, Carlos do Carmo, Beatriz da Conceic\u0327a\u0303o, Maria da Fe\u0301.
\nJoa\u0303o Braga also carved out his name in the history of fado\u2019s revitalization because of the quality of the poems and the music that he performed: he interpreted poems by the authors mentioned earlier, as well as works by Fernando Pessoa, Anto\u0301nio Botto, Affonso Lopes Vieira, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Miguel Torga or Manuel Alegre. Braga was also the mentor of a new generation of \u2018\u2019fadistas\u2019\u2019.
\nAlong with the attention to lyrics, new instrument accompaniment and music by distinguished composers were introduced: Ama\u0301lia collaborated with Alain Oulman (an important contributor to the modernization of fado musical accompaniment), and others who played similar roles were Frederico de Freitas, Frederico Vale\u0301rio, Jose\u0301 Fontes Rocha, Alberto Janes, and Carlos Gonc\u0327alves.
\nThe Lisboa fado that is known throughout the world today can be (and often is) accompanied by violin, cello, or even by a complete orchestra, but the Portuguese guitar (guitarra portuguesa) is always an essential element. There still are today great musicians, such as Armandinho, Jose\u0301 Nunes, Jaime Santos, Raul Nery, Jose\u0301 Fontes Rocha, Carlos Gonc\u0327alves,Custodio Castelo, Pedro Caldeira Cabral, Jose\u0301 Lui\u0301s Nobre Costa,Ricardo Parreira , Paulo Parreira and Ricardo Rocha. The viola de fado (a Spanish style guitar) is also central to some of the fado music, such as is the case with viola de fado performers such as Alfredo Mendes, Martinho d\u2019Assunc\u0327a\u0303o, Ju\u0301lio Gomes, Jose\u0301 Ina\u0301cio, Francisco Perez Andio\u0301n, o Paquito, Jaime Santos Jr., Carlos Manuel Proenc\u0327a, or with the greatest fado performer of the fado guitar bass (known in Portuguese as viola baixo) Joel Pina.
\nToday many younger singers \u2013 Maria Ana Bobone, Mariza, Joana Amendoeira, Misia, Miguel Capucho, Mafalda Arnauth, Ana Sofia Varela, Ka\u0301tia Guerreiro, Camane\u0301, Gonc\u0327alo Salgueiro, Diamantina, Cristina Branco, Ana Moura \u2013 have added their names to those of the great fadistas, and are giving this urban song an amazing revival.
\nThe traditional fado or \u201dti\u0301pico\u201d today is sung mainly for tourists in \u201cfado houses\u201d (casas de fado), with the traditional instrumentation. The best fado houses are found in the traditional or bairros ti\u0301picos of Alfama, Mouraria, Bairro Alto and Madragoa. It maintains the characteristics of the tradition: singing past and present sorrow with bitter sadness. But fado can also tell a funny story with irony, or provide a way for two singers to battle, improvising the verses \u2013 this is called the desgarrada.
\n[edit]Coimbra Fado<\/p>\n

Main article: Coimbra Fado<\/p>\n

Fado group Verdes Anos (Coimbra)
\nThis fado is closely linked to the academic traditions of the University of Coimbra and is exclusively sung by men; both the singers and musicians wear the academic outfit (traje acade\u0301mico): dark robe, cape and leggings. It is sung at night, almost in the dark, in city squares or streets. The most typical venues are the stair steps of the Santa Cruz Monastery and the Old Cathedral of Coimbra. It is also customary to organize serenades where songs are performed before the window of the woman to be courted.
\nThe Coimbra fado is accompanied by either a Portuguese guitar or by a classical guitar; the tuning and sound coloring of the Portuguese guitar in Coimbra are quite different from that of Lisbon.
\nThe most sung themes: student love, love for the city and bohemia, and the ironic and critical reference to the discipline and conservative nature of the professors and their courses. Noted singers of this style are Augusto Hila\u0301rio, Anto\u0301nio Menano, and Edmundo Bettencourt.
\nIn the 1950\u2019s, a new movement took the singers of Coimbra to adopt the ballad and folklore. They began interpreting lines of the great poets, both classical and contemporary, as a form of resistance to the Salazar dictatorship. In this movement names such as Adriano Correia de Oliveira and Jose\u0301 Afonso (Zeca Afonso) had a leading role in the revolution taking place in popular Portuguese music.
\nRegarding the Portuguese guitar, Artur Paredes revolutionized the tuning and the accompaniment style to the Coimbra fado, adding his name to the most progressive and innovative singers. Artur Paredes was the father of Carlos Paredes, who followed and expanded on his work, making the Portuguese guitar an instrument known around the world.
\nSome of the most famous fados of Coimbra include: Fado Hila\u0301rio, Saudades de Coimbra (\u201cDo Choupal ate\u0301 a\u0300 Lapa\u201d), Balada da Despedida (\u201cCoimbra tem mais encanto, na hora da despedida\u201d, the first verses are more recognizable than the song title), O meu menino e\u0301 d\u2019oiro, and Samaritana.
\nCuriously, it is not a Coimbra fado but a song which is the most known title referring to this city: Coimbra e\u0301 uma lic\u0327a\u0303o, which had success with titles such as April in Portugal.
\n[edit]Fado in North America<\/p>\n

Fado singer Ramana Vieira, San Francisco, California
\nSeveral singers of the traditional Portuguese fado have appeared in Canada and the United States.
\nOne of these, Ramana Vieira, regularly performs in the San Francisco Bay Area with unique blends of musical accompaniment that may include classical guitar, bass, percussion, violin and mandolin. Ramana received her formal voice training at San Francisco\u2019s American Conservatory Theater and has been called “The New Voice of Portuguese World Music.”[2]
\nSan Francisco\u2019s Brava Theater often hosts fado performances. Since its founding in 1986, Brava has invited a number of fado singers to perform, including Dona Rosa, Cristina Branco and Ramana Vieira.[3]
\nIn Canada one can look to Vancouver based Salome. The large Portuguese communities in Toronto and Montreal are also home to local fado singers that perform regularly in community events in these two cities.
\nStretching the tradition of fado even further, the Northern California-based band Judith and Holofernes blends the unique and mournful beauty of fado with their own indie and punk rock upbringing, taking fado from the aristocracy and giving it back to the people. The group\u2019s interpretation, cheekily referred to as “fadocore,” is also representative of Northern California\u2019s own blend of Portuguese and American culturse that resulted from the mass migrations of the 1950s and 1960s.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Cape Town University of Cape Town tagged image from photographer \u2013 pedrosimoes7 as published on Flickr. Old Portuguese Tiles : O FadoImage by pedrosimoes7 Estrada Velha, Sintra, Portugal In Wikipedia Fado (translated as destiny or fate) is a music genre which can be traced from the 1820s in Portugal, but probably with much earlier […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3331],"tags":[25,1737,77,3333],"class_list":{"0":"post-155817","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-cape-town","7":"tag-cape-town-2","8":"tag-government","9":"tag-municipality","10":"tag-mycapetown-co-za","11":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}