09 Apr 2021  |   06:12am IST

Portuguese flavour at the Ketevan festival

The ensemble calls itself Cardo Roxo and is focused on exploring Portugal’s oral tradition as a starting point
Portuguese flavour at the Ketevan festival

Antony Fernandes performing at the Ketevan Festival is a musician who plays bagpipes and sings along with Nina who sings and plays the viola da gamba.

Unfortunately this year because of the coronavirus, the ensemble was unable to go to India to play in the Ketevan festival but they are hopeful of playing in India for all their audiences.

The concert they being presented is a very spiritual concert with a very beautiful repertoire, especially religious. “Since the concert is on _mineconcert_ everyone in the world can watch it. Our concert was played with a lot of love and care,” Antony says. He hopes that everyone who watches it really enjoys the music.

He’s not too familiar with Indian classical music, but he’s aware of how unique it is in terms of music writing, tempo as compared to European music.

Fernandes who is a folk musician, thinks that folk music is a way to identify ourselves not just as individuals but as a part of culture. He says, “Folk music is very important for us to identify us as human beings, as part of a country or culture. Unfortunately, folk music is forgotten by many but I hope our music helps people to identify.”

Delving into Portuguese folk is interesting, just like Caucasian music or other kind of folk music. He said “It is very important that folk music stays alive with a lot of young people playing instruments and singing old songs, old lyrics, and the old poetry of folk music.”

Always enthusiastic about live performances, for Fernandes it’s a platform that helps young singers to grow. “Live performances are extremely important for an artist. I don’t know about India, but here in Portugal and whole of Europe, we are unable to hold public concerts and it’s very difficult for us as musicians to stay far away from our public,” he voices adding that financially instability and contact with the public has been affected.

Though some might have reservations about use of electronic instruments to create music, Fernandes thinks it’s valid. “ I don’t oppose to any kind of music, our instruments are beautiful in their own way. I don’t care if they are electronic or acoustic, it’s not important to me as it makes beautiful music,” he says.

His ensemble plays only acoustic instruments, and Fernandes plays the old bagpipe, an instrument inherent to the medieval period and Nina plays the carminium and viola da gamba which are also very old instruments.

Fernandes believes that old instruments should be preserved and people should be encouraged to play them. Music is all that matters and so evolution is inevitable and should be looked at with a positive outlook. 

 



IDhar UDHAR

Idhar Udhar