Acordes d’além-mar - bandas filarmônicas portuguesas, migração e memórias

Abstract

Philharmonic bands are one of the most significant cultural manifestations of Portuguese social life, especially in the central and northern regions of the country where they perform in several moments of religious festivities such as masses, processions and concerts, according to André Granjo (Granjo 2005).

At the same time, in the context of migrant associativism, the memory link with Portuguese mores are established in the celebrations and institutions created by migrants that are places of memory, in the sense of Pierre Nora (Nora 1993), in which symbolic representations and ritualizations are materialized, among them, the philharmonic bands.

The study I carry out deals with this reality in the city of Rio de Janeiro where, since 1920, Portuguese migrants have created seven amateur bands. Two of them remain in activity. In this sense, I developed an extensive literature review on Portuguese migration, research in local newspapers and on the Internet, contacted musicians and associative leaders and developed fieldwork in Portugal and the United States. The crossing of all these sources allowed me to map the distribution of Portuguese philharmonic bands in activity in the destination countries of Portuguese migration.