Portuguese Music Identity: Patterns of the Keyboard Repertoire (1750-1834)

What distinguishes music from different countries is a subject of major interest as it concerns people and their identity. Fado (2011) and Cante Alentejano (2014) are two types of popular music that represents Portuguese identity and are recognized by UNESCO, through their inclusion in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. This project addresses Portuguese identity in classical music, a field where its characteristics have not yet been explored. During the 18th century there was significant musical exchange between Portugal and Italy. Italian composers and musicians came to Portugal and participated in the musical life of the court, the church and the theatres. From the middle of the century, Italian music was played and heard everywhere in Portugal alongside Portuguese music. This project focuses on the recovery, study, analysis and dissemination of the Portuguese keyboard repertoire from the period 1750-1834. The repertoire will be studied and brought to life through its dissemination at an academic, educational and social level. The aim of the project is to find the specificities of Portuguese music through the analysis and discovery of patterns using software. A comparison between the Italian and Portuguese repertoires from the period of 1750-1807 and within the Portuguese keyboard repertoire up to 1834, as well as the chronological study of the patterns, will show the specific characteristics and identity of Portuguese music.