Travelling the World in Music , continued, An Iberian Interlude

As a Tgirl, if I were to look in the mirror ... shall I compare thee to a Summer's day? No, I'm old and tired and my head resembles a jeroboam of old 'firne' wine of poor provenance that is now uncorked and gushing never-ending verbiage all over this blog! The 'Travelling the World in Music' theme has been fun and helpful and continues. 

Although I do want to write seriously on a couple of themes - post SCJ sex, and a wider look at 'neurodiversity' and deviation from the statistical 'norm', I find the fizzing of the gushing verbiage renders my powers of concentration limited, so I'm returning to music. And here is a 'cold collation' to go with that old wine, based around memories of fado.

Praia de Luz, Portugal, 1972

 Fado is a form of music from Portugal, particularly Lisbon dating back to the early 19th C. It is music much associated with the concept of 'saudade' which has no direct English translation but is about yearning and while it would be easy for me to slip into bathos at this time, the music here doesn't take me there, instead it takes me fishing.

Midtown Marbella 1972

This story begins in Spain, not Portugal, in the early 1970's when, while on a trip to Andalucia, an ex-pat friend took me to a tiny bar behind what was then the small town of Marbella (!) where locals were gathering to listen a couple of guys playing flamenco guitar. I can't remember the music but the atmosphere was electrifying and I became an aficiando of flamenco. Around the same time, in the hope that what worked in Spain also worked in Portugal, I listened to some fado, but thought it rather dull in comparison.

 

View from the Alhambra 1971

 

 

A propos of nothing else in this post, Pauline and I had already had the luck to visit the Alhambra in Granada and that's where the music starts now, acknowledging Spain for getting me to fado, if not 'into' it, with Francisco Tárrega - Memories of Alhambra (also I like the music). A different bit of Spain appears shortly.

 

Praia de Luz, Portugal 1972

  All was quiet on the Iberian front for us for many years afterwards: Salazar's regime in Portugal finished and in Spain Franco died. Then one year we saw that Portuguese was being taught at Kent Adult Ed and we decided to sign up. Another member of the class then introduced us and the tutor to Mariza, who had released her first album. Her fado was not the fado that I remembered and had no time for, or perhaps my appreciation of the concept of saudade had grown. In the following years we saw Mariza in London, Brighton and Bruges. This is a concert, much later, in Lisbon and the song is*Maria Lisboa, describing the dress and manner of a fishwife (who is actually Lisbon city itself and the song a celebration of the city). (* The original link didn't work so I've renewed it).

From Frank Meadows Sutcliffe, Whitby

I couldn't find a suitable older picture of a fishwife from southern Europe, so have borrowed this one from the Frank Meadows Sutcliffe collection of Whitby. It is curious that Maria Lisboa and Molly Malone (Dublin) are considered emblems of their respective cities. Anyway, Maria Lisboa links directly to one of the fados I enjoy most, here performed by Cristina Branco - Meu amor é marinheiro (My love is a sailor). This song can also be found in Galician, by Fuxan Os Ventos - in a more sentimental version?

 

In the 2000's I spent some time in northern Spain, the autonomous region of Galicia - I wanted to visit Fisterra/Finisterre (it has always sounded so much more romantic than Land's End) and experience the Costa da Morte - the Coast of Death. The previous song, in its Portuguese and Galician versions highlights the connection of fado from Portugal to Galicia and reinforces the connection between saudade and the sea, and this continues, but after a further interlude.

The Galician scenery is good, although dominated in places by forests of Eucalypts, grown for pulping. Various routes of the Camino de Santago run through it and as Franco hated it, it remained one of the least developed regions of Spain. Galicia and Asturias are historically linked to the Celtic nations. This can be seen through hillforts in the regions and, possibly, a reverence for ancient Yew trees (that may be a fanciful idea of my own!) Some folk groups, particularly in Galicia, reflect on the Celtic link. The Leabhar Gabhála Éireann, known in English as The Book of Invasions, is an Irish collection of Christian-promulgated myths concerning the settlement in Ireland by the Milesians, who came over the sea from Iberia. To avoid wandering too much away from fado, here is music by Luar na Lubre together with a short story of the title of the tune, Leabhar Gabhála (Torre de Breoghán).

Back to fado - in parallel to enjoying that music, I had come across the music of Cape Verde (through the same loose link that I came across the Malian singer Rokia Traore - mentioned in the earlier 'music' post) and in my never-ending ignorance (rather than my verbiage) at the time I directly linked the type of song - morna - of Cape Verde with fado. It seems more than likely now that there is no direct link except a possible colonial one (even, perhaps, from an earlier African source and thence to Portugal). However, here is a link between sodade (CV) and saudade (Port. & Gal.) in this song Mar E Morada De Sodade which roughly translates as 'The sea is the home of sodade' by Cesária Évora, who we saw about 25 years ago in Bruges. By then she had given up smoking on stage, but still appeared barefoot with a large glass of whisky - she had a fabulous voice.

 

So, fishing? The UK/EU Reset has done the UK fishing fleet no favours. In the grander scheme of things, it can be seen as a pawn to be sacrificed for the greater access of UK agriculture to the EU, but the social cost of fishing across Europe is one every country should remember. The Costa da Morte was not so-named for no reason:

 

 

Just to finish ... 

Cesária Évora again, with cigarette and bare feet  ... Sodade