Fragments of Portuguese Culture, Fado.

"Joy of Fado" watercolour sketch.

Fragments of Portuguese Culture

Fado, the spirit of Portugal, more than the country’s port epitomize what it means to be Portuguese. This music with its sense of passion and pathos somehow tears at your very soul. I first heard Fado on ABC Classic FM one morning, an Australian radio station specializing in “serious” music. The singer was Misia, her voice full of pathos, had that soul wrenching quality that all great Fado should have. Her voice became the sound of Lisbon during the city’s year as Europe’s Cultural Capital in 1993. This first experience occurred without warning making the impact all the more dramatic. I had no knowledge of Fado, but the passion and magic of Misia’s singing aroused a desire  for more, and indirectly knowledge about  Portugal.

I decided to spend a few months there painting and attempting to come to some understanding of Portuguese culture. As I travelled around, I heard Fado drifting across the cities from street vans, apartments, to formal rending in cafes, and a very controlled form of Fado in Coimbra, were this music seemed to be more confined to male voices, rather than the female Queens of Lisbon. Personally I found the female version more passionate and personal. Though at times, their singing can descend  into pop music without the haunting quality of true Fado. The performance I attended in Coimbra was rather stiff, and according to the compare this was the proper Fado, not that female Lisbon version. The Coimbra version was widely sung by male University students dressed in academic gowns, on street corners, where they gave voice to protestsongs during the Salazar years.

Fado has been around for a long time, singer like Amalia Rodrigues, a cultural icon popularised this unique music world wide during her fifty year career. No one seems to know where it originated, it has been suggested the music was left behind by the moors, others that it came to Portugal via the African slaves in Brazil. There is another school of thought that Fado grew out of the waterfront dives of Lisbon, in the same way tango was born in the seedy districts of Buenos Aires, but no matter where this music originated, it has a presence all of its own. A music that invades the senses.

Portugal has many contradictions, a very Catholic country that saw fit to dissolve all the monasteries in the 19^th cent. Whether this was due to  lack of leadership by the Church after the Lisbon earthquake I don’t know, but the minister Pombal expelled the Jesuits after the devastation in the 18^th cent. I found this closure of convents rather strange for a fairly religious country, There seemed to be many shrines and pilgrim steps ever where in Portugal, particularly in the north around  Braga where pilgrimes climb steps on their knees as penance for past sins. Many of these monasteries, now museums, are very Spartan. One I visited just outside Sintra, The Convent of the Holy Cross built in 1560 had been cut into the hillside, its stone walls wet with seepage, narrow passageways and low ceilings all added to a sense of austerity. How the young monks survived I have no idea. Parts of the ceiling were covered in cork panels, but these areas were for the more senior monks. the Order of  Friers were noted for the extreme simplicity of their lives. The day I visited a T.V. crew was making a documentry, so many rooms were crowded. It reminded me of a visit I made to the Basilica of St. John in Selcui, Turkey were a film crew were making a film and forgot to tell their "Roman Guards" to take their wrist watches off. 

                                                     Pilgrim Steps.

Another contradiction were the Portuguese driver, as a people they are charming, very helpful, and kind, but once behind the wheel of a car a personality change takes place. They seem to revert to the sort of behaviour of a teenage boy driving his first car. Refusal to give way, make rude gestures, and their general reckless driving has to be seen to be believed, I have no idea what the road morality is like, but it must be high Maybe the new EU road network has encouraged them to try out for Formula One raceing. But not to end on a sour note, I really enjoyed my stay, I achieved a lot returning with a lot of work to develop, and am looking forward to a return visit.

Abstract painting titled "Fado"

This will give you some idea how I developed the titles, music and general spirt of Portugal.