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Sophia Sarwary FADO MUSIC

The music of Portugal consists of many different genres and styles including classical, folk and popular music (Branco, 1999). All of these genres are globally successful and highly diverse and dynamic (Branco, 1999). They all reflect political, cultural and historical events such as slavery and wars (Branco, 1999). ‘Fado’ music is a musical style that is a part of the folk genre and originated in Portugal. There are two different styles, Lisbon and Coimbra (Gorlinski, 2020). This essay will discuss the types and history of Fado music as well as exploring how Fado music migrated from Portugal to many parts of the world such as Brazil and Indonesia.

Fado music first originated in the 1800s during Portuguese sea voyages that sailed around the world. Fado singing and dancing rituals were common on these voyages in order to lighten up the mood (Gray, 2011). However, Fado music first appeared in Lisbon during the 1830s when male sailors who were part of the Portuguese slave trade, sang in bars and performed to whoever listened, mostly to young women (Brito, 1994). This has been illustrated through Amália Rodrigues’ song, “The Black Boat”. The lyrics of this song describe the sailors who were travelling between Portugal and Brazil as a part of the slave trade (McHenry, 2012). They arrived through the ports of Lisbon where the sailor’s slaves lived. At the end of the nineteenth century, Fado was devoted to Lisbon’s dominant classes (Gray, 2011). Female singers then took over the stage and began making it a part of the musical theatre genre, creating a new profession of musicians and singers.

There are now two types of Fado music, each associated with a political history. The oldest type is associated with the city of Lisbon where it emerged during the 1800s following

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Sophia Sarwary the return of the Portuguese government who had been moved to Brazil during the Napoleonic Wars (Gorlinski, 2020). The music began in the Alfama district of Lisbon, a marginalised district that had a connection to South American and African peoples and traditions, where many clubs and bars are centrally located (Gorlinski, 2020). Dance and singing traditions arose including the Lundum, the Spanish Fandango and the Fofa. The second type was developed in the 1870s at the University of Coimbra (Gorlinski, 2020). This style was only performed by men and only in front of the privileged class. The main audiences included college students and university faculties (Samuels, 2017). A certain type of dress code was worn, entirely black, to express the sorrowfulness and beauty as well as having a theatrical aspect to it (Samuels, 2017). Fado music began to popularise in Portugal after the nineteenth century (Samuels, 2017). The artist who most influenced Fado was Amàlia Rodrigues, who was known to popularise Fado music worldwide throughout her entire career (Moss, 2019). She was born in Lisbon and started her singing career at nineteen (Moss, 2019). Her first concert abroad was in Madrid. Her concerts eventually extended to Italy, Japan, Russia, Palestine, Venezuela, Canada, Germany, Brazil, and more (Moss, 2019). Her singing technique explores raw vulnerability, a feeling of controlled emotion and commitment (Moss, 2019). Her voice had a high range from alto to soprano and had a deep and rich tone (Moss, 2019). One of her most famous songs is ‘Fado Português’, the lyrics of the song was from the work of a famous Portuguese poet, Luis da Camões (Branco,1999). The song explores the history of Fado and describes the landscape and beauty of Portugal. It contains two classical guitars and a viola and is in typical Fado tuning.

The difference between these two styles is the lack of improvisation and the role of each instrument (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). The Lisbon style is perceived as mournful, mellow and emotive and the lyrics are in a Portuguese poetic form, usually written about

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Sophia Sarwary destiny, the pain of a broken heart and unhappy love (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). This is to express the mindset and belief of the Portuguese people and true soul of Lisbon as they believe destiny as something that overwhelms them and that they cannot escape from. The lyrics are usually improvised and is performed by a soloist woman or man with an accompanist of either a Portuguese or classical guitar and a viola (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015) . It is played in a duple metre of four beats (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). The Coimbra style is seen as more cheerful and uplifting (Samuels, 2017). Its lyrics are sung in ballads and are mostly used to express political opinions (Samuels, 2017). They are not improvised and instead rehearsed (Samuels, 2017). It is performed by only a soloist male accompanied by a bass viola and 2 classical guitars (Samuels, 2017). A bass viola is similar to the Brazilian acoustic guitar where it is tuned in the same way, from highest to lowest pitched strings (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). However, sometimes the guitar plays solo unlike the Lisbon style. It is also played in a duple metre of either two or four beats. These two styles have a traditional type of tuning- ‘B-A-E doubled and B-A-D octaviated’ (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). For both styles there is a specific order for the instrumental structures. It usually starts off by a guitarist, however it may interchange by a viola instead (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). The viola is responsible for the harmonic and rhythmic component of the style whilst the guitarist supports the vocalist complementing the melancholic sound by using arpeggios, trills and solos (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015).

Overseas expansion occurred in the sixteenth century and is when 100,000 Portuguese voluntarily arrived in Brazil (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). They took over the Brazilian coast, extracting gold, creating their own rules and monarchy (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). During the seventeenth century, 600,000 Portuguese immigrants were involuntarily sent to Brazil. In 1808 the Portuguese Royal family arrived in Brazil. (Ulhôa, Azevedo &

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Sophia Sarwary Trotta, 2015). They changed the whole landscape of Rio De Janiro and sent mestizos, black and mulatoos to be used as slaves (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). This all ended in 1850 when the Portuguese population took over slave labour with the paid work of European immigrants (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). Between the late nineteenth century and the mid twentieth a mass immigration of between 274,972-522,651 inhabitants from Portugal arrived in Brazil. (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). This led to the migration and acceptance of Portuguese music, including Fado, in Brazil (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). It was spread through theatres in the city as well as operettas of the theatres (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). This resulted in an integration of traditional Brazilian and Fado music, creating new musical genres. Some genres include Fado-Fox, Fado-Marcha and Fado-Samba (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). The arrangements of these genres use various instrumental combinations such as electric guitars, tambourins and cavaquinho, creating different cultural patterns (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). The first recording of the Fado genre in Brazil was sung by Baiano (1870-1944), a vocal duo. They called it ‘Fado Português’. The song has a combination of traditional Brazilian instruments and lyrical Portuguese poetry (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). Another main Fado singer in Brazil is Maria Alcina. She first arrived in Rio de Janeiro when she was 14 years old as a Portuguese immigrant in1953 (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). She began her singing career at age 20 as a guest on a Brazilian radio program and later started her own radio program which was comprised of 30 minutes of Portuguese music and 30 minutes of Brazilian music including Fado music (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). Later on, she started to sing at Fado house which is a restaurant where Fado singers perform. Fado music started to become popular when Maria started to become well known (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). She started to write her own albums, singles and CDs (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). Her songs evoke the memories of many Portuguese immigrants and her life story resembles hundreds of Portuguese immigrants

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Sophia Sarwary who came to Brazil (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). Nowadays, Fado music in Brazil is becoming a declining genre (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015). Fado houses have closed down and there are no radio programs dedicated to Fado music, no desire to learn the art of Fado music and a decline in Fado musicians (Ulhôa, Azevedo & Trotta, 2015).

In addition to the typical Portuguese Fado, ‘Keroncong’ music is an Indonesian music style that has Portuguese Fado origins (Rahayu, 1992). The history is similar to Fado, where sailors played small guitars and sang songs to create a lively environment (Rahayu, 1992). The music was played in areas such as Jakarta, they were where freed Portuguese slaves were located (Rahayu, 1992). Overtime, a combination of Fado and Gamalean music was created fused with elements of the traditional Indonesian language, Javanese (Rahayu, 1992). Keroncong music contains an ensemble that consists of an orchestra and a vocalist (Milyartini, 2019). The orchestra contains violin, two ukuleles, cello, double bass, flute and a guitar (Milyartini, 2019). It is played in a homophony structure where the vocalist takes the main lead and the instruments play as an accompaniment (Milyartini, 2019). Keroncong has an impact on the audience as the vocalist is very emotional whilst the lyrics tell stories much like Fado (Milyartini, 2019). Therefore, Fado has migrated and integrated itself in Indonesia.

To conclude, the future of Fado music is associated with society and politics. The song style expresses the current economic situation of Portugal and the political events that occur. It is a symbol of Portuguese nature and history. It has changed severely over time, from mournful sounds to imminent fate. Fado music adds many emotions and feelings towards its audiences and performers. It is the deepest expression of what it truthfully means to be Portuguese.

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Reference: Abduravhman, Rahayu. 1992. ‘Portuguese Presence in Jakarta.’ The Sixt International Conference of Asian History. Yogyakarta. (Retrieved: October 18, 2020).

Branco, Salma.1999. ‘A History of the Portuguese Fado.’ Latin American Music Review. 20(2):310-313.

Gray, Lila. 2013. ‘Fado Resounding: Affective Politics and Urban Life.’ Duke University Press: Durham and London. Gray, Lila. 2011. ‘Fado's City.’ Anthropology and Humanism. 36(2): 141-163. Gorlinkski, Virginia. 2020. ‘Fado.’ Encyclopaedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/fado. (Retrieved: October 18, 2020)

Samuels, Aj. 2017. ‘Fado: Portugal’s Melancholic Musical Tradition.’ Culture trip. https://theculturetrip.com/europe/portugal/articles/fado-portugal-s-melancholymusical-tradition/. (Retrieved: October 7, 2020).

Mchenry, Jillian. 2012. ‘Portuguese Culture and Civilisation.’ Academia. https://www.academia.edu/3519479/A_History_of_Fado_and_a_Comparison_of_Fad o_de_Coimbra_and_Fado_de_Lisboa. (Retrieved: October 8, 2020).

Milyartini, Rita. 2019. ‘Singing Keroncong and the Values Behind it.’ Atlantis Press. 255: 136-139.

Moss, Chris. 2019. ‘Amália Rodrigues: A beginner’s guide.’ Songlines. https://www.songlines.co.uk/explore/guides-and-lists/a-beginners-guide/amaliarodrigues-a-beginners-guide. (Retrieved: October 10, 2020).

Ulhôa, Martha., Azevedo, Cláudia & Trotta, Felipe. 2015. ‘Made in Brazil: studies in popular.’ Taylor & Francis Group: NEW YORK AND LONDON.

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