(Jrt)
Fado
Fado is a Portuguese musical genre that takes the form of a melancholic song usually accompanied by plucked string instruments. The fado singer or fadiste (fadista) operates in general recurring themes: love fulfilled, jealousy, nostalgia of dead and the past, the difficulty to live, grief, exile ... This song was first sung in the districts badly famés before reaching the bourgeoisie. The fado was the national song of Portugal at the time of the dictator Salazar.
The word fado comes from the latin fatum, meaning "destiny".
The fado is probably appeared around the years 1820 or 1840 in Portugal, but its precise origins are uncertain. According to some, it is apparent from fado sailor, a song sung by Portuguese sailors. For others, it would be a synthesis of Brazilian musical genres popular in Lisbon in the eighteenth century, as lundum and Modinha.
The first fado singer whom we have knowledge was Maria Severa, who lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. In the years 1920 and 1930, a series of recordings of fado Coimbra enjoyed some success.
The particularity of fado is that in most songs, the coda is always played the same way.
The fado of Coimbra
Fado traditional Coimbra, linked to the academic traditions of the University of Coimbra. It is sung only by men in the street or in society. The singers as musicians are usually dressed in the traditional academic dress black pants, long dress and jacket of wool. The singers who sing like troubadours time of kings, aimed at "donzelles" (students). This song is practiced in the evening on the streets and squares. The places are the most typical steps Monastery Mosteiro de Santa Cruz and the Cathedral Church Velha de Coimbra. It is also common to hear serenades, songs below the window of a woman that the singer tries to seduce.
The song may be practiced in a group called "tuna". These groups exist in all universities in Portugal. It is now also find that women's groups. An annual meeting of groups singing is held in Porto, bringing together singers from both Spain, Italy and Argentina.
The Coimbra fado may be accompanied both the Portuguese guitar at the Spanish guitar. The sound of fados Lisbon and Coimbra, however, are completely different.
The issues most widely sung concern the students love, love across the city, love in the journey, as well as references ironic and critical mind conservative university professors. Among the singers' classic ', it should be noted Augusto Hilário, António Menano and Edmundo Bettencourt.
In 1950, new singers Coimbra began to adopt folkloric themes. It has also started to sing the great classical and contemporary poets, as a form of resistance to the dictatorship of Salazar. From this movement, fadistes the best known were Adriano Correia de Oliveira and Jose Afonso, who played an effective role in the revolution occurred since then in the Portuguese folk music.
Regarding the Portuguese guitar, the renewal has come to Artur Paredes, who was associated with his name singers most innovative. His son, Carlos Paredes, continued to make it even more versatile Portuguese guitar.
Among the fados of Coimbra's best-known, it should be noted Fado Hilário, Do Choupal até to Lapa, Balada da Despedida, O menino é meu of oiro, Samaritana.
Curiously, the most famous works outside of Portugal on Coimbra are not fados, but songs like Coimbra é uma lição or April in Portugal Yvette Giraud.
The fado of Lisbon
Such east from the neighbourhoods of Lisbon (Alfama, Castelo, Mouraria, Bairro Alto, Madragoa). It is practiced by both men than by women. It is generally leading to more and more joyful than Coimbra.
The issues most widely sung this fado are saudade, nostalgia, sadness, small stories of everyday neighbourhoods typical and Portuguese races. These were the themes allowed under the Salazar regime, with the tragic fado, sadness and passion resolved in the violence, with blood and tears. The words in relation to social and political problems, or the texts claims were censored.
The fadistes such "classic" the most famous was Carlos Ramos, Alfredo Duarte Marceneiro, Berta Cardoso, Maria Teresa de Noronha, Hermínia Silva, Fernando Farinha, Fernando Maurício, Lucília do Carmo, Manuel de Almeida, among others.
The modern fado culminated with Amália Rodrigues. It was she who popularized the use of texts by famous poets, as Luis de Camões, José Régio, Pedro Homem de Mello, Alexandre O'Neill, David Mourão-Ferreira, Jose Carlos Ary dos Santos and others, like Joao Ferreira - Rosa, Teresa Tarouca, Carlos do Carmo, Beatriz da Conceição, Maria da Fe. The revival of fado is also associated with the name Joao Braga, because of the quality of the poems he sang and put to music, those of the authors already cited and those of Fernando Pessoa, António Botto, Affonso Vieira Lopes, Sophia de Mello Breyner Andresen, Miguel Torga or Manuel Alegre. He was an inspiration to a whole new generation of fadistes.
This treatment was for the words associated with new forms of musical accompaniment by major composers. It should be noted in particular the work of Alain Oulman, put forward by Amália Rodrigues, but also those of Frederico de Freitas, Frederico Valério, José Fontes Rocha, Alberto Janes, Carlos Gonçalves.
The fado Lisbon is now known to be frequently accompanied on violin, cello and orchestra, but it does not exonerate the Portuguese guitar. Among the best-known guitarists, it should be noted Armandinho, Jose Nunes, Jaime Santos, Raul Nery, José Fontes Rocha, Carlos Gonçalves, Pedro Caldeira Cabral, José Luís Nobre Costa, Paulo Parreira or Ricardo Rocha. The Spanish guitar is also an indispensable instrument performers and best-known account Alfredo Mendes, Martinho of Assunção, Júlio Gomes, José Inácio, Francisco Perez Andión, o Paquito, Jaime Santos Jr., Carlos Manuel Proença. The bass guitar player best known is Joel Pina.
Currently, a generation of young musicians: Ana Moura, Maria Ana Bobone, Mariza, Joana Amendoeira, Mafalda Arnauth, Ana Sofia Varela, Katia Guerreiro, Camané, Gonçalo Salgueiro, Diamantina, Telmo Pires, Cristina Branco participate in the popularization of musical genre.
The fado said "typical" is sung today mainly for tourists, in institutions, particularly in the historic districts of Lisbon. These fados retain original features: either a sad song, entertaining or ironiquen, is a partially improvised dialogue between two singers.
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