Mensagens: Portuguese Music in the 20th Century

Abstract

These lines of Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), the great poet of Portuguese modernism, may seem at first sight to invoke the principal element of fado, Portugal's national music: the element represented by that famously untranslatable word suadade, implying longing, nostalgia, homesickness … However, they hide far deeper resonances. Mensagen (Message), the poetic sequence from which they come, is a profound exploration of Portugal's history, a modern counterpart to Camoens's great 16th-century epic The Lusiads. It is connected to the nationalist Integralismo Lusitano movement, and to Sebastianism. Other poets, particularly Mario Sa-Carneiro (1890–1916), and plastic artists, notably Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso (1887–1918) and Jose de Almada Negreiros (1893–1970), similarly reflect the strength of these patriotic and mystical ideas in Portugal during the country's deepening social crisis in the early part of the century. But Pessoa, who famously split himself into several persons, each with their own name, style and poetic output, may also stand as a symbol of the different currents Portuguese composers have ridden in search of their national identity.