“Orfeonizar a Nação”, o canto coral como instrumento educativo e político nos primeiros anos da Mocidade Portuguesa (1936-1945)

Abstract

The Salazar regime’s youth organization, Mocidade Portuguesa (MP), assigned an important role to music among its ‘full education’ program. The minister Carneiro Pacheco, pointing out the coeval ‘German lesson’, even laid down as one of the MP’s aims the creation of youth choirs in the whole country.

First, this essay attempts to disclose the roots of this project in the Portuguese choral movement, from António Arroio to Tomás Borba, and to underline Hermínio do Nascimento’s central position in the development of Choral Singing as a pedagogical and political instrument. Following a brief historical background, a musical analysis of the ‘patriotic hymns and marches’ section from a MP songbook is given. Finally, we present the framework of musical practice in the organization, particularly the emotional function of collective singing in marches, parades and other rituals of power in the Estado Novo regime.