Projects
The Music of Words
Abstract
Poems for children and the youth by Portuguese authors such as Afonso Lopes Vieira, Sidónio Muralha, Matilde Rosa Araújo, Eugénio de Andrade, Luísa Ducla Soares or Manuel António Pina have often been set to music by composers/musicians such as Tomás Borba, Francine Benoît, Fernando Lopes-Graça or Suzana Ralha. Therefore the first goal of the project “The Music of Words” is to develop a continuous study of songbooks and songs based on poems of Portuguese children’s literature.
The starting point of this work was the book A Música das Palavras: Sidónio Muralha, Matilde Rosa Araújo, Eugénio de Andrade, Luísa Ducla Soares, Manuel António Pina, João Pedro Mésseder by José António Gomes (Porto: Tropelias & C.ª, 2017, ISBN: 9789898582522). This volume was published with the financial support of the Municipality of Ílhavo, due to the fact that every year Ílhavo Public Library (BMI) organizes a small but very specific project of reading and music promotion called ‘A Música das Palavras’. It usually involves the library staff, a speaker, local music teachers, sometimes a local music school and also children and their parents. This set of activities includes an oral and written presentation of the writer and the composer of the songs as well as a bibliographic and documental exhibition organized by the BMI. This one is always focused on a specific writer/poet whose poems were set to music. After the exhibition BMI provides the readers and researchers with a complete file on the author’s life and works.
The research products related to this reading and music promotion project deal with the relationship between literary language and musical language. They have been published and will continue to be so. Subsequently the research team intends to develop this kind of work and share it with the community not only in public sessions organized by the BMI, but also in academic events. The researchers will also discuss and offer ideas and suggestions on the pedagogical use of songs based on poetic texts, both in literary and musical education and in reading promotion activities. Consequently they will try to influence teaching practice and librarians’ practice as far as the promotion of literature and music is concerned.
Coordination
Research Team
José António Gomes |Graça Mota | Inês Vila | Ana Cristina Vasconcelos de Macedo | Sara Reis da Silva | Ana Margarida Ramos
Participant Institutions
Biblioteca Municipal de Ílhavo; Núcleo de Investigação em Estudos Literários e Culturais (IEL-C) da Escola Superior de Educação do Politécnico do Porto
Funding
Biblioteca Municipal de Ílhavo
Period
From February 2017 until February 2020
Keywords
Poetry for children and the youth; songs; songbooks; literary language; musical language
