António João dos Santos Fernandes e Malta Gomes
António João dos Santos Fernandes and Malta Gomes (b. 1998), born in Macedo de Cavaleiro. From a young age with connections to music, with an incision in traditional music, he began his musical studies at the Municipal Conservatory of Bragança in the class of Professor Hugo Rodrigues. In the academic year 2013/2014 he joined ESPROARTE-Escola Profissional de Arte de Mirandela, also in the class of Hugo Rodrigues. He finished the course with a high rating. As a researcher, the elaboration of a monograph entitled “Traditional Journey: Bagpipes from the perspective of Trás-os-Montes and Galicia” was a remarkable moment in his student life, culminating in a public presentation of the same in which he obtained the classification maximum, was included in an e-book entitled “Good Practices of Professional Aptitude Tests” published by the Portuguese Catholic University, presented within the scope of the ArRiscar Meetings at the same institution, was also the 2nd prize winner in the Escola Empreendedora contest, promoted by the CLDS project. 3G de Mirandela, was also recognized and praised by the Secretary of State for Science, Technology and Higher Education, Dr. Maria Fernanda Rollo. In 2016 she enters the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo do Porto in the class of teacher Marta Eufrazio, where she still is currently studying. During this time he had the opportunity to work with great conductors such as Pedro Neves, Osvaldo Ferreira, Peter Askim, António Saiote, Thomas Hauschild, Andreas Stoehr, José Eduardo Gomes, Jan Wierzba, among others. He also had the privilege of working with great violinists, such as Jela Špitková, Zofia Wóycicka, Augusto Trindade, Pedro Piñol, Ilya Grubert, Afonso Fesch, Yossif Grinman, among others. As for Chamber Music, he studied with Gustavo Delgado, Ryszard Wóycicki, Afonso Fesch, Marta Eufrazio and Pedro Meireles, and had masterclasses with Juan Carlos Garvayo and Caspar Frantz.c
The following dissertation is based and aims to establish parallels and demonstrate, with practical examples, the influence of traditional Portuguese music on the writing of violinist and composer Augusto Maques Pinto.
As a violinist, bagpiper, enthusiast of classical music and traditional music, I have always been interested in the “link” between folkloric and classical. The source of inspiration that so many composers have developed, Franz Liszt in Hungary, Frédéric Chopin in Poland or Antonín Dvořák in ancient Bohemia. It is true that Lusitanian folklore also influenced Portuguese composers and with this dissertation I aim to specify and deepen this patriotic and nationalist connection.
In order to objectify and channel the study of this investigation, I chose to focus the dissertation on a composer and a specific work, “Canções do Meu País” for violin and piano, by the virtuoso violinist Augusto Marques Pinto. This composer was an emblematic, though forgotten, musical figure in Porto at the end of the 19th century.
The choice of this work is due to the fact that I was granted access to the recently found collection of Augusto Marques Pinto and, after a brief analysis, I concluded that it is extremely rich and full of traditional, folkloric, patriotic characteristics. and nationalists.
The importance of this theme and of this dissertation is related to the fact that there is no in-depth study on the Portuguese musical symbiosis between the traditional and the classical. Since the work and the composer to be addressed are unknown in the Portuguese music scene, I also aim to make known the talent and art of the virtuoso violinist and composer, Augusto Marques Pinto.