O violino em Portugal no primeiro quartel do século XX: perspectiva sobre a Escola de Música do Conservatório de Lisboa

Abstract

Since its foundation, the Lisbon Conservatory of Music had a fundamental role in the Portuguese music scene (Castro 1991; Gomes 2002; Rosa 2000, 2009, 2010). At the dawn of the First Republic, the violin was the second most representative instrument, with nearly seventy students distributed among Alexandre Bettencourt's and Júlio Cardona's classes.

This research proposes a characterization of violin teaching during the First Republic, identifying relevant personalities and repertoires through the analysis and systematization of documentation from the Conservatory's Historical Archive (school grades, frequencies, exams and classroom programs) and press information.

During this period, four teachers were hired, and more violin students were admitted (exceeding 150 in 1916-17). Data indicates that most of the students in the general programme were women, surpassing the 43% of the Academia de Amadores de Música at the same time. In the superior course, the situation was inverse, and the students Paulo Manso, Hermínio do Nascimento, Artur Fernandes Fão, Frederico de Freitas, António Cabral, Mário Garibaldi e Maria da Luz Antunes became success cases in the Portuguese music scene.

Advanced students predominated in the auditions promoted by the Conservatory, which may explain the reduced participation of Pavia de Magalhães and Tomás de Lima’s students, who attended the less advanced classes. Bettencourt's students presented compositions by Leonard, Viotti, Vieuxtemps and Wieniawsky. Cardona often chose authors less often represented in the current violin repertoire (Scharwenka, Sgambati, Sinding, Schillings). The repertoire selected by Cunha e Silva included thirty-seven composers from the Baroque to the 20^th century. The presentations by Flaviano Rodrigues and Tomás de Lima's students included works by Viotti, Seitz, Bériot, Leonard and Raff. This data confirms the predominance of virtuosic repertoire, and the secondary role of expressive music.