The fado is a musical kind Portuguese which takes the form of a song melancholic person generally accompanied by string instruments pinches. The singer of fado or fadist ( fadista ) exploits recurrent themes in general: unaccomplished love, jealousy, the nostalgia of died and the past, the difficulty of living, sorrow, the exile… This song was initially sung in the badly famed districts before reaching the middle-class. The fado was the national song of Portugal at the time of the dictator Salazar.

The word fado comes from Latin destiny , who means “destiny”.

The fado probably appeared towards the Années 1820 or 1840 with the Portugal, but its precise origins are dubious. According to some, it would have appeared starting from the marine fado , a song entonné by the Portuguese sailors. For others, it would be the synthesis of musical genres Brésil iens very in vogue with Lisbon at the 18th century, like the Lundum and the Modinha .

The first singer of fado which one is informed was Maria Severa, which lived in first half of the 19th century. In the Years 1920 and 1930, a series of recordings of fado of Coimbra were a certain success.

The characteristic of the fado is that in the majority of the songs, the coded is always played in the same way.

The fado of Coïmbre (Coimbra)

Traditional Fado of Coïmbre, related to the academic traditions of the university of Coimbra. He is sung only by men in the street or in company. The singers as the musicians are in general equipped with the black traditional academic dress, pants, long dress and wool jacket. The singers who sing like the troubadours of the time of the kings, address to the “young misses” (coeds). This song is practiced the evening, in the streets and on the places. The most typical places are the steps of the Monastery Mosteiro de Santa Cruz and the church Velha de Coimbra. It is also current to hear serenades, songs below the window of a lady which the singer tries to allure.

The song can be practiced in group, called “tuna”. These groups exist in all the Portuguese universities. It also arrives from now on to find groups female. An annual meeting of groups of song is organized with Oporto and gathers singers as well coming from Spain, of Italy as of Argentina.

The fado of Coimbra can be accompanied as well with the Portuguese guitar as with the Spanish guitar. The sonority of the fados of Lisbon and Coimbra are however completely different.

The most sung topics relate to the loves of students, the love through the city, the love in the voyage, as well as the ironic and critical references to the preserving spirit of the professors of university. Among the “traditional” singers, it is necessary to notice Augusto Hilário, António Menano and Edmundo Bettencourt.

In the Years 1950, the new singers of Coimbra started to adopt folk topics. One also started has to sing the large traditional and contemporary poets, like a form of resistance to the dictatorship of Salazar. Of this movement, the most known fadists were Adriano Correia de Oliveira and Jose Afonso, which played a true part in the revolution which has occurred since then in the Portuguese popular music.

With regard to the Portuguese guitar, the revival came from Artur Paredes, which associated with its name the most innovating singers. His/her son, Carlos Paredes, continued to make even more general-purpose the Portuguese guitar.

Among the fados of Coimbra the most known, one will note Fado Hilário , Do Choupal até in Lapa , Balada da Despedida , O meu menino E of oiro , Samaritana .

Curiously, works most known apart from Portugal relating to Coimbra are not fados but songs, like Coimbra E uma lição , or April in Portugal of Yvette Giraud.

The fado of Lisbon

This kind is originating in the popular quarters of Lisbon (Alfama, Castelo, Mouraria, Bairro Alto, Madragoa). It is practiced as well by men as by women. It is in general more involving and merrier than that of Coïmbre.

The most sung topics of this fado are the Saudade, nostalgia, sadness, the little stories of the daily newspaper of the typical districts and the Portuguese races. They were the topics authorized under the mode of Salazar, with the tragic fado, of sadness and passion solved in violence, with blood and tears. The words in connection with social and political problems, or the claiming texts were censured.

The most known fadists of this “traditional” kind were Carlos Ramos, Alfredo Duarte Marceneiro, Berta Cardoso, Maria Teresa de Noronha, Hermínia Silva, Fernando Farinha, Fernando Maurício, Lucília C Carmo, Manuel of Almeida, inter alia.

The modern fado knew its apogee with Amália Rodrigues. It was it which popularized the use of famous texts of poets, like Luís de Camões, Jose Régio, Pedro Homem of Mello, Alexandre O' Neill, David Mourão-Ferreira, Jose Carlos Ary back Santos and others, like João Ferreira-Rosa, Teresa Tarouca, Carlos C Carmo, Beatriz da Conceição, Maria da Fe. The revival of the fado is also associated in the name of João Braga, because of the quality of the poems which he sang and put in music, those of the already quoted authors and those of Fernando Pessoa, António Botto, Affonso Lopes Vieira, Sophia of Mello Breyner Andresen, Miguel Torga or Manuel Alegre. It was a source of inspiration for a whole new generation of fadists.

This care for the words was associated with new forms of musical accompaniment by large type-setters. It is necessary in particular to notice the work of Alain Oulman, proposed by Amália Rodrigues, but also those of Frederico de Freitas, Frederico Valério, Jose Fontes Rocha, Alberto Janes, Carlos Gonçalves.

The fado of Lisbon is known to today be frequently accompanied with the violin, the violoncello or the orchestra, but it does not exempt a Portuguese Guitare. Among the most known guitarists, one will note Armandinho, Jose Nunes, Jaime Santos, Raul Nery, Jose Fontes Rocha, Carlos Gonçalves, Pedro Caldeira Cabral, Jose Luís Nobre Costa, Paulo Parreira or Ricardo Rocha. The Spanish guitar is also an instrument impossible to circumvent and the most known executants counts Alfredo Mendes, Martinho d' Assunção, Júlio Gomes, Jose Inácio, Francisco Perez Andión, O Paquito, Jaime Santos Jr., Carlos Manuel Proença. The player of low guitar most known is Joel Pina.

Currently, a generation of young musicians: Anna Moura, Maria Anna Bobone, Mariza, Joanna Amendoeira, Mafalda Arnauth, Anna Sofia Varela, Katia Guerreiro, Camané, Gonçalo Salgueiro, Diamantina, Cristina Branco take part in the popularization of musical genre.

The “typical” fado known as is nowadays sung mainly bound for the tourists, in specialized establishments, in particular in the historical quarters of Lisbon. These fados preserves original characteristics: either a sad song, diverting or ironiquen, or a dialog partially impromptu between two singers.

Some artists

See too

External bonds

  • Terreiro C Fado
  • Fado in Holland
  • Alguns fadistas E lugares
  • Fado: has alma um povo
  • Rádio Fado
  • Rádio Novas Divas C Fado
  • Rádio Fado of Portugal
  • Casas fado of Lisboa
  • Jeu in connection with the fado and of the fadistas
  • Grupo Canção de Coimbra
  • Capas Negras - Grupo de Fados de Coimbra - History of the fado of Coïmbre
  • Orfeon Académico de Coimbra - the oldest organization of Coïmbre
  • Portal C Fado
  • '' Verdes Anos '' - Grupo of fados of Coimbra
  • Fado, generators of emotions

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