News | Herdeiros de Orfeu: Uma história da música antiga em Portugal

INET-md researcher Tiago Manuel da Hora is the author and host of the radio series Herdeiros de Orfeu: Uma história da música antiga em Portugal (Heirs of Orpheus: A history of early music in Portugal), which will be broadcast on Antena 2 between 7 January and 31 March 2024 as part of the programme Caleidoscópio.

Since the mid-20th century, Early Music spread internationally as an artistic movement of musical practice and production whose main hallmark was the musical practice on period instruments based on historical knowledge surrounding musical performance. It was one of the most revolutionary phenomena in the last hundred years if we look at the practice of classical music, although today it became a common approach for repertoire before the 19th century.

In Portugal, the historical informed performance movement has spanned around six decades, which are portrayed throughout this programme as a possible biography of this artistic context in our country. A journey whose foundations actually date back to the turn of the 20th century, and which, over the course of a century or so, has intersected with multiple fields of our musical life, from concert programming to phonographic production, teaching, research and the promotion of historical cultural heritage.

Over successive generations, the Early Music movement in Portugal (in line with the international context) has given birth to an autonomous market made up of performers, researchers, cultural agents and a specialised public. In order to achieve a more complete understanding of the history of musical life in Portugal over the last hundred years, it is essential to listen to this journey guided by musicologist Tiago Manuel da Hora in the national radio (Antena 2 - RTP), whose work as an integrated researcher at INET-md (NOVA FCSH) has focused on this same subject, which can now help us rediscover some of the corners of this golden legacy.

More information about this programme, here.