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Fado and the place of longing - loss, memory and the city. By Richard Elliott. Farnham, UK: Ashgate. 2010

2012; International Association for the Study of Popular Music; Volume: 2; Issue: 1-2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.5429/2079-3871(2011)v2i1-2.12en

2079-3871

Åse Ottosson,

Diverse Musicological Studies

Sometimes referred to as Portuguese blues, fado has become a rather trendy "world music" genre in recent decades.The Portuguese word "fado" means "fate", and the mournful voice and emotionally stylised performance style of fadistas, as well as the nostalgic and fatalistic themes of loss, love and despair of fado song, are deeply entangled with Portuguese national sentiments and cultural history.It is particularly associated with the back alleys, cafes and shady figures populating the poor quarters on the steep hillsides below the Castelo de São Jorge in the city of Lisbon, where fado emerged in the mid-nineteenth century.This urban folk music is also characterised by the distinct tinkle of the drop-shaped Portuguese guitarra, and the all important quality of saudadea Portuguese word that conveys multiple meanings of sorrowful yearning and loss.Richard Elliott"s Fado and the Place of Longing; Loss, Memory and the City explores the changing contexts for fado practices in the second part of the twentieth century.It is a nice fit with Ashgate"s Popular and Folk Music Series, established to publish popular music research that expands the theoretical and methodological horizons beyond those of musicology.Elliott draws on a wide range of literary, visual and musical sources, as well as theorists in a range of disciplines, as he sets out to examine not so much the music itself, but a "fadoscape" (2010, p. 180)the interlocking processes in which fado mythology and ontology of place, loss, memory and mourning are presented, re-presented and reconfigured.Hence, fado devotees who expect the book to fill a gap in English language work on the music itself may be left yearning for more.However, scholars who are looking for ways to understand the complex dynamic of (any) music as mediating local and global place-making, memory and deeply held national sentiments and imagination, as well as the authenticating role of recording technologies and global commercial production, may find the book intellectually inspiring and analytically rich.The chapters move gradually from theoretical density to more descriptive overviews of musical contexts, recordings and performers of contemporary fado.Chapter One, "Songs of disquiet: mythology, ontology, ideology, fadology", outlines the mythological themes and musical styles of fado, and how these have been reproduced and reinvented in essentialised but contested terms of origins, race, nation and Portugueseness.Elliott proceeds to challenge fado sentimentality as specifically