Since the precise origins of Fado are unknown, this page sketches a «pre-Fado», the general context of a time before there was a musical form called Fado. It features a concise timeline of selected relevant aspects of Portugal's history; refers to a few significant books from the past; and commences with a brief revision of the time before there was even a Portugal.
Iberia is home to some of the earliest human remains yet discovered, at least a million years old (eg Atapuerca).
About three thousand years ago the Celts arrived (whether as migrants or invaders is not known), they would mostly settle in the north west of the peninsula.
Iberia was known to the Phoenicians, Greeks and Carthaginians who all founded Mediterranean coastal settlements.[1] Over subsequent centuries it was variously occupied by Romans, Vandals and Visigoths and, in the early 700's, by Berbers and Arabs when virtually all of the peninsula became part of the Umayyad Caliphate.
Portugal takes it name from the city of Oporto which the Romans called «Portus Cale» (Cale could have been a Celtic, Greek or Roman word).
The creation of the country was protracted and more or less followed what would become known - centuries later - as the «Reconquista».[2] A County of Portugal was founded in 868 between the Minho and Duero rivers in the north. The Kingdom of Portugal was recognised in 1143 (by the Kingdom of León) although most southern areas were still occupied and not for another hundred years, until 1249, would Portugal finally establish the boundaries which have remained more or less stable ever since.
Back in these early times, there was a tradition in Northern Portugal and neighbouring Galicia for women to sing sad love songs. These were known as «Cantigas d'Amigo» (Songs of Boyfriend) and appear to have been written by men. Hundreds of lyrics have survived from the 1200's.
The word «fado» predates Fado music. So when the great Portuguese poet Luís Vaz de Camões (1524-80) wrote: «With which voice shall I sing my sad fado?»,[3] he was not using the word to mean song, even though of course, in that specific context, it would have been plausible. It is clear throughout his work, that it means «fate» (and to bemoan more often than to celebrate). The Portuguese and English words both come from the Latin «fatum» which is the neuter case of the past participle of one of the verbs to speak,[4] so «that which has been spoken» - hence fate.
The word «fadista» does not appear in any of the writings of Camões.
Portugal and England (already formal allies since 1371) signed the Methuen Treaty in 1703. One consequence was the expansion of the port wine trade which brought increasing numbers of English merchants to Oporto. It was only after this date that the word «guitarra» first appears, and given the evidence of surviving instruments as well as later explicit references,[5] it was likely to have been an English guitar - a variation of the cittern. That a further enhancement of this instrument would eventually become the Portuguese guitar, is the opinion of - amongst others - respected musicologist Salwa Castelo-Branco.[6]
In 1755, on All Saints Day, Lisbon was extensively destroyed by an earthquake and subsequent fire and tsunami - with loss of life estimated in the tens of thousands. Other coastal areas and islands of Portugal, and other countries, most notably Morocco, also suffered. The Lisbon districts that are most associated with Fado - Alfama and Mouraria - escaped relatively lightly because of their positions on the city's central hill.[7]
In 1761 the legal process of the abolition of slavery throughout the Portuguese Empire starts with a law effectively banning slavery in mainland Portugal.
In his book «Italy: with sketches of Spain and Portugal», the writer and art collector William Beckford MP described listening to what he called «Brazilian modinhas» in Lisbon in 1787: «... the most bewitching melodies that ever existed since the days of the Sybarites».
Two German botanists, Heinrich Friedrich Link and Johann Centurius Hoffmannsegg, in their book «Journey in Portugal from 1797 to 1799», commented: «The songs of the Portuguese people are plaintive; they tell almost always of the pain of love.»
Portugal was invaded by Napoleon's armies during the Peninsular War in 1807 (which inspired The Royal Court to decamp to Brazil); in 1809; and yet again in 1810. The Royal Court returned in 1822 after which Brazil would win its War of Independence (1822-23). From 1828 to 1834 there then followed the Liberal Wars, also known as the Portuguese Civil War (although other countries including the UK were involved).
At some stage the word «fado» became associated with a dance in Brazil. This was documented by a French circumnavigator, Louis de Freycinet,[8] who had been in Brazil in 1817, and an Italian writer, Adriano Balbi, whose book (in French) was published in 1822.[9]
In «History of Fado» (1903), Pinto de Carvalho confidently stated: «It is indubitable that fado only appeared on the streets of Lisbon later than 1840. Until then, the only fado that existed, o fado do marinheiro (the fado of the sailor), was sung in the bows of boats... [It] served as a template for the first fados that were played and sung on land.»
As late as 1845, a little-known fortune-telling parlour game in the form of a book called «The Fado, or Game of Amusing Fortune» was published in Oporto. It consists of 1,280 verses with methods for consulting them involving tables of different questions and 3-dice combinations.
The first famous Fadista - Maria Severa - died in 1846, aged 26. Much of her fame is derived from a book and a play (later made into a film) by Júlio Dantas who was born 30 years after her death. Apart from the records of her birth and death, nothing is known about her for certain, although a «Fado da Severa», written in 1850[10], describes her as «the queen of fadistas»; mentions the Count of Vimioso with whom she may have had an affair; and describes her holding a guitar (banza).
According to Alberto Pimentel in his 1904 book «Sad Song of the South», the musical meaning of the word «Fado» did not appear in a national dictionary until 1874 (Lacerda 4th edition).[11]
1 Cádiz, Empúries & Cartagena repectively.
2 There are historians and other specialists who take issue with the terminology (Reconquista) for various reasons, but that is beyond the scope of this page.
3 «Com que voz chorarei meu triste fado» - first line of a sonnet.
4 Oxford English Dictionary.
5 The Victoria & Albert Museum has several 18th century English guitars (not on permanent display) including one made in Lisbon in 1760 by Jacó Vieira da Silva; Lisbon's Music Museum has a couple from the early 1800s made in Braga by Domingos José de Araújo. The earliest relevant document is from 1720 - a performance in a Lisbon chapel by «António Cardoso, guitarra e Ilário Gomes, violla». There is sheet music from 1755 - XII Serenatas for the guitar - by António Pereira da Costa, chapel master of Funchal cathedral, which is generally assumed to be for the English guitar. Said instrument is specifically mentioned in the «Gazeta de Lisboa» in 1795 announcing a performance by the composer and guitarist Manuel José Vidigal.
6 Mariza and the Story of Fado, BBC & EBU 2007.
7 An event of this scale and nature can be thought of as a supporting argument by either side of the destiny or free will debate.
8 M. Louis de Freycinet: «Voyage Autour du Monde» 1824.
9 Adriano Balbi: «Essai statistique sur le royaume de Portugal et d'Algarve comparé aux autres états de l'Europe, et suivi d'un coup d'oeil sur l'état actuel des sciences, des lettres et des beaux arts parmi les Portugais des deux hémisphères».
10 Hence the «new» in the title of the widely recorded «Novo Fado da Severa» - also known as «Rua do Capelão» - which was written for the 1931 film «A Severa» (words by Júlio Dantes and music by Frederico de Freitas).
11 In the same book, Pimentel gives incidental support to one of Pinto de Carvalho's above assertations, by quoting the guitarist Ambrósio Fernandes Maia, then in his 70's, who stated that the oldest Fado he knew was one called «Fado do Marinheiro».
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