On the Music in the History of Portugal

Abstract

With regard to the two books on the History of Music in Portugal published in 1991 (by Rui Vieira Nery and Paulo Ferreira de Castro) and in 1992 (by Manuel Carlos de Brito and Luísa Cymbron), the author proposes corrections, presents new data and offers different interpretative perspectives, discussing the problems of historical methodology and periodization that face the contemporary researcher. Worthy of note are the references to the influence of Cluny, the Cistercian codices, the oldest extant Portuguese polyphony, the regulations of King Duarte's Royal Chapel, the dating of the repertoires of the Portuguese secular cancioneiros, the question of mannerism in music, the idea of baroque in music, the establishment of the gallant style in the time of King João v, the emergence of musical modernism at the beginning of the 20th century, the nationalism of Lopes-Graça and his relations with the Estado Novo, and, finally, the penetration of post­ modernist concepts into the awareness of contemporary composers.