Portuguese sounds in American spaces: music of the Grandes Festas in New England

Resumo

How does public space become ethnically marked by sound? What work does genre do to express collective identities during the outdoor summer festival Grandes Festas do Espírito Santo ? This paper explores the diversity of musical performances in New s Lusophone community during the summer festival season as a sonic occupation of public space. Sonic occupation involves not only music, but also the sounds of crowds, floats and speech amplified by sound systems. Building on fieldwork conducted in the Por tuguese neighbourhoods of Cumberland, Rhode Island and Fall River, Massachusetts in 2015, I extend this inquiry into the constellation of Portuguese genres that contribute to the festa soundscape. In terms of genre, I focus on the music of ranchos folclóri cos (multi generational music and dance troupes that perform folk repertories) and bandas filarmónicas (marching wind bands) that contribute to music of festa processions, thus filling New England neighbourhoods with Portuguese sounds. I also look to the dance music of the arraial , or open air party that occurs after the procession has ended. Drawing on Gerd Bauman’s (1990) theory of multiculturalism, I explore the ways in which ethnic identity is presented in relation to religious, Catholic identity throug h music and movement in Portuguese New England.