Carpe Diem #1488 The Soul of Portugal (Fado)

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

August has started with a "bang". Yesterday I published our first episode of our new month in which we will travel around the world to find folkmusic of all kinds. We started in Southern Italy and today we will travel on to Portugal, because Portugal is the place for you if you like Fado.

Fado ("destiny, fate") is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of Fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today."

Although the origins are difficult to trace, today fado is commonly regarded as simply a form of song which can be about anything, but must follow a certain traditional structure. 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, and infused with a sentiment of resignation, fatefulness and melancholia. This is loosely captured by the Portuguese word saudade, or "longing", symbolizing a feeling of loss (a permanent, irreparable loss and its consequent lifelong damage). This is similar to the character of several musical genres in Portuguese ex-colonies such as morna from Cape Verde, which may be historically linked to fado in its earlier form but has retained its rhythmic heritage. This connection to the music of a historic Portuguese urban and maritime proletariat (sailors, dock workers, port traders and other working-class people in general) can also be found in Brazilian modinha and Indonesian kroncong, although all these music genres subsequently developed their own independent traditions. (Source: Wikipedia)

One of Portugal's most famous Fado-singers is Amalia Rodriques, so I love to share a Fado song by her. Enjoy!

tears flow
memories of lost love
my soul hurts

© Chèvrefeuille

Isn't that the emotion, the feeling while listening to Fado? 

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until August 8th at noon (CEST). I will try to publish our new episode later on.