Festivais RTP e festivais da MPB: entre a tradição e a modernidade (1964-1975)

Abstract

In this research, whose theme is the song festivals of Brazil and Portugal, within a chronological outline delimited between 1964 and 1975, we intend to highlight everything that is associated with national tradition and/or corresponds to modernity in the music created and produced in the context of the RTP Festivals and MPB Festivals. The intention, however, is not only to demonstrate the moments when tradition and modernity are presented separately, but also, and especially, those in which these elements interrelate. More specifically, we seek to demonstrate that the great compositions presented at the festivals, that is, the most symbolic and representative songs of this period pass through the sieve of tradition and modernity, or, at least, pass through this dualism, intertwining these components, which produces new forms, hybridized, syncretized, in an innovative and renewing way for the set of songs in these countries. Through a case study, which aims to identify possible gaps in a given object to be researched, and a comparative analysis, using a relational method, which allows observing two distinct realities and, more specifically, their similarities and differences, this research is ready to prove that the musicality that appeared in the song festivals originates a “formula” that is characterized as both modern and traditional. In Brazil, the result of these crossings was soon called Modern Popular Brazilian Music (“Moderna Música Popular Brasileira”), gaining the acronym MMPB, later MPB, a dimension that was consolidated and today is synonymous of “brasility” (“brasilidade”) and represents what is recognized as the best in Brazilian music. In Portugal, the innovative songs presented brought the “new Portuguese music” (“nova música portuguesa”) to the stage of the festivals, reaching greater projection, conquering the Portuguese and disputing the European public through the Eurovision Song Contest, and, even without having configured a specific genre or musical strand, maintained all the requirements for both and for the legitimate representation of a “portugality” (“portugalidade”), of a “Portuguese national identity”. The objective of this research, therefore, is to demonstrate that the crossing between tradition and modernity was the mold used by the most emblematic songs of the festivals, constituting a “formula” for musical production that became a point of convergence in popular music in these countries. The songs that took modernity with it, coveted by an audience eager for news, but also the brands of tradition, as a rule, were among the preferences of the audience-spectator, presented higher selling rates, were critically acclaimed, pointed out as innovative and renovating, or even perpetuating themselves, being mimicked and serving as a legacy for the following generations.