PhD Dissertation

Title

Musical Production in the Begginings of Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (1956-1964)

Advisor

João Soeiro de Carvalho

Fellow Reference

SFRH/BD/40792/2007

Abstract

My thesis addresses the musical production on Radiotelevisão Portuguesa (RTP) from the beginning of the experimental broadcast (September 4, 1956), until the use of videotape (early 1964). The field of media, previously defined as the radio, record, film and press, was joined by another element: television. As a mean of diffusion it seems to have had an important role both in disseminating the pre-existing music, continuing the old models and production processes, as in the musical changes presenting musical actors to places where otherwise would be impossible. This study, which focuses on the "screen music", i.e. "the music emanating from a source located directly or indirectly in place and the action of the time" (Chion, 2011, 67), aims to study the importance of presence of music on television based on the analysis of musical production in this new medium. Thus, it is necessary to know who was present on television screens, what kind of repertoire was performed, what kind of programs involved, and what was the weight of the musical programs on TV scheduling. The influence of television both in the media field, to which it belonged since its origin, and outside of it, seems to have gradually increased over the period defined for this study. Television was then a medium that did not just play the music that emerged from the existing means of communication. It seems to have been responsible for changes in both languages already present in film, radio and the disc before its advent; and in the rapid emergence of new musical categories closely associated to television picture. In the national context the media have had little attention from researchers who are dedicated to the study of music, particularly television that has been almost forgotten (Pinto, 2005, 14). Thus, the present research contribution is to provide concrete data and analysis tools that can be useful to researchers, who will look into the music in the second half of the twentieth century in the Portuguese context. It is essential that they begin to take into account the importance of the different media, such as television, on different musical languages.