The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909)

Rui Magno Pinto Universidade Nova de Lisboa

1 Introduction

By the 1870’s, a considerable fraction of Lisbon’s audiences seemed to have be- come dissatisfied with the dominant trends in concert programming. In spite of a few prior attempts to introduce what was by then called “philosophical” or “classical” music, the programming at the musical venues still tended to favor opera, virtu- osity—in works that consisted mainly on excerpts, variations, fantasias and potpour- ris for soloist, consort, orchestra and band, withdrawn from the established and new Italian and French operas or set on original themes—, solo character pieces and social dances—such as waltz suites, polkas, mazurkas, and other dances. This dis- contentment was part of an acute awareness of a certain decadence in Portuguese life in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. A range of agendas that aspired to develop the social, political, aesthetic and cultural institutions issued forth from an intelligentsia known as the Generation of 1870, led by the poet-philosopher Ante- ro de Quental, and constituted by Ramalho Ortigão, Guerra Junqueiro, Oliveira Martins, Téofilo Braga, Eça de Queirós, Jaime Batalha Reis and Guilherme de Azevedo, among others. With regard to music, the demand for a more elevated taste in musical listening and the favoring of the musical classics within concert programming (what William Weber has called “musical idealism”) found as its promot- ers a generation of amateurs and professional musicians that, due to their ontological and historical musical knowledge and to their wealth, were bestowed with the au- thority and means to establish and maintain specialized musical periodicals from 1873 onwards, an endeavor which had been attempted and failed ever since the 1850s. In the wake of the discourses that promoted “musical idealism”, professional and amateur musicians brought about the foundation of two important institutions— the Society of Classical Concerts in 1879 and the Royal Academy of Music Amateurs in 1884. In the years to come, with the aid of foreign conductors, they were to pro- mote the introduction of repertoires from among the German classics and contemporary French and Russian composers, leaving aside the long-dominant tradition of works related to operatic genres and salon music. In the first decades of the twentieth century, the invitation of well-known conductors and orchestras to Lisbon and Rui Magno Pinto the creation of professional orchestras contributed significantly to the gradual establishment of “classical music” in Lisbon’s concert life. The establishment of “musical idealism”, the rise of a “symphonic culture” and the dynamic enterprise of Lisbon’s musicians, musical firms and musical institutions in the import of musical works by renowned foreign composers that led gradually to the transformation of concert programming seems also to have promoted a change in the favored genres for orchestra. Another contribution to this ulterior transformation was the gradual investment of composers in search of a better and more updated training, that lead several of them to proceed on their musical improvement in France and Germany. The course and characteristics of this alteration in the field of Portuguese musical composition was thus resumed by Ferreira de Castro (Nery & Castro, 1991, p. 157):

Meanwhile, under the combined influence of French and German examples, the axis of the musical creation in Portugal moved slowly from the operatic field to that of symphony and chamber music (to the point that from the 1920’s the balance between the two components can be considered totally reversed).

Concerning orchestral music, since the 1880’s the composition of overtures (following the Italian model) declined (virtually to the point of disappearing), due to composers’ fostering of other genres, such as the symphonic poem, the paraphrase, the rhapsody, the symphony, the minuet, the character piece, among others.

2 The Portuguese “symphonic poem”

This study focuses mainly on those Portuguese orchestral works in which a literary paratext is used as, and/or assigned a programmatic content. I have chosen to gather them together roughly as “symphonic poems”, since they are, following Hugh Mac- Donald’s definition (2001, p. 802), “orchestral forms in which a poem or program provides a narrative or illustrative basis”. Within the scope of the Portuguese musical composition of the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, the production of programmatic works for orchestra seems to have exclusively recurred, in the period between 1884 and 1909, to the use of the literary output of Portuguese writers as an inspirational source (table 1). This corpus of orchestral works comprises the symphonic suite A Hunt at the Court (1884), by Alfredo Keil; the Ouverture D. Ignez de Castro (1886), by José Viana da Mota; the symphonic ode Sintra’s Mountain (circa 1893), by Carlos Adolfo Sauvinet; the “short symphonic poem” Inês (1907), by David de Sousa and Luís de Freitas Branco’s symphonic poems After a reading of Antero de Quental (1907–1908; revised in 1910), After a Reading of Júlio Dinis (1908–1909) (unfortunately lost) and After a Reading of Guerra Jun- queiro (1909, revised in circa 1916). Apart from Sintra’s Mountain by Sauvinet, the symphonic poems composed between 1884 and 1909 share as common characteristic the exclusive use, as paratext,

2 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) of Portuguese literary works, written by Luís Vaz de Camões (c. 1524–1580), Júlio Dinis (1839–1871), Antero de Quental (1842–1891), Casimiro Dantas (1850–1904), and Abílio Manuel Guerra Junqueiro (1850–1923). Aside from the most renown ancient Portuguese writer, Camões, author of the epic poem The Lusiads (1556; 1572) are some of the recognized writers of the second half of the nineteenth century: Dinis, Quental and Guerra Junqueiro; Dantas seems to have been a less known writer, but he must have had some local appreciation, since he was a prolific feuille- tonist in Lisbon’s specialized literary and artistic press in the last decades of the nineteenth century. Nonetheless, the contemporaneity of both writers and composers is elusive: only Dantas and Guerra Junqueiro were alive during the production and première of the musical works set to their literary output, although it is not certain that the latter was aware of the Fantasia by Freitas Branco or of the symphonic poem Babilónia, composed by Sousa in 1917. Notwithstanding, it is safe to argue that the program of Sintra’s Mountain was idealized by Sauvinet, since he must have been the author of the notes that were delivered at the première, which reads: “This descriptive composition reproduces the impressions of a tourist in a visit made to Sintra and to its enchanting mountain, and aims to clarify the listener to his impressions.” By the detailed description we became aware that the program is, in fact, idealized by the composer from reality, from Sintra’s landscape and monuments, from its historical events (occurred in the

Composer Musical work Literary source Year Alfredo Keil Uma Caçada na Corte Casimiro Augusto Vanez 1884 (1850-1907) Dantas (1850-1904), Contos do Outono [excerpts] José Viana da Ouverture D. Ignez de Luís Vaz de Camões Berlin, Mota Castro (ca.1524-1580), 1886 (1868-1948) Os Lusíadas, Canto III, stanzas 118-130 Carlos Adolfo Ode Sinfónica A Serra [Carlos Adolfo Sauvinet (?)] c. 1893 Sauvinet de Cintra [Sintra] (1836-1905) David de Sousa Poemeto sinfónico Ignez, Luís Vaz de Camões, Leipzig, (1880-1918) op. 16 Os Lusíadas, C. III, st. 118- 1907 130 Luís de Freitas Depois de uma leitura de Antero de Quental (1842- 1907- Branco Antero de Quental 1891), 1908 (1890-1955) /Antero de Quental Sonetos (1861-1886) rev. 1910 Depois de uma leitura de Júlio Dinis (1839-1871), 1908- Júlio Dinis [Poesias (?) (1873)] 1909 Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro (1850- 1909 Guerra Junqueiro 1923), rev. A Morte de D. João c.1916

Table 1 – Portuguese symphonic works with programmatic content (1884- 1909).

3 Rui Magno Pinto

Royal Palace, in the Moorish Castle and in the Pena Castle and Palace) and other episodes of Portuguese history. Camões’s epic poem is used in several ways: the tragic episode regarding the death of Inês de Castro, referred in Canto III, stanzas 118 to 130 of The Lusiads serves as paratext to the Ouverture by Viana da Mota and to the “short symphonic poem” by David de Sousa, both of them composed in Germany during the composers’ learning period abroad; excerpts of Cantos I, III and IX of The Lusiads are used in the printed edition of Sintra’s Mountain by Sauvinet as “poetic fragments quoted in relation to the themes addressed in this Ode”. The appropriation of Luís Vaz de Camões and The Lusiads as identifiable marks of the Portuguese Nation-State— especially after the celebrations of the three centuries of the death of the author in 1880—seems to have been understood by Portuguese composers as one of the possible means apt for the upgrowth of Portuguese musical nationalism. Nonetheless, the use of the epic poem, and notably of the same episode, is made abroad, in Ger- many, what certifies the pretensions of Mota and Sousa of their identification as Portuguese composers or their knowledge of the nationalistic discussions in Portugal and their willingness to offer some contributions on that cultural movement. An important dichotomy emerges from this intermedial corpus: while the musical use of The Lusiads remits to the construction of national identity based on the importance given to the collective memory of Portuguese history, namely of the Discoveries and of the ancient Portuguese empire, acquiring the form of eulogy, the shared musical appropriation of Guerra Junqueiro’s “The Death of Dom João” re- ports the coeval decadence of the Portuguese fin-de-siècle society, politics and culture, perpetuating the same criticism that emerged around the decade of 1870. The use of Portuguese literary works for the composition of “symphonic poems” between 1884 and 1909 can be understood as the result of the various intentions of creating a Portuguese musical nationalism, as another example of their implementa- tion by other Portuguese composers, in addition to the more direct accomplishments often asserted, such as the operas Serrana by Alfredo Keil, Amor de Perdição and Leonor Teles by João Marcelino Arroio, the symphonies À Pátria, by Viana da Mo- ta, and Adamastor, by Miguel Ângelo Pereira, the symphonic odes Camões, by Au- gusto Machado, and Vasco da Gama, by Victor Hussla, and the Rapsódias Portu- guesas, by Victor Hussla, as well. The symphonic poems with Portuguese literary and musical authorship composed between 1884 and 1909 are the scope of discussion in this article. In my ana- lytical approach, I follow Keith Johns’s methodology for the discussion of Liszt’s symphonic poems, enquiring about musical topics, their interrelation within the musical score and their correlations. Johns (1997, p 11) defines musical topoi or topics as “stylistic ‘place[s]’ or culturally transmitted mode[s] of expression” which “may be presented as melodic figures or rhythmic patterns or both or (…) may be associated with characteristic accompaniment figures or presented by characteristic instruments”, which “[stands] for or [represents] a particular social class, a dance or kind of music, a physical location, or a mood or idea”, and whose correlation is

4 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) understood by the listeners. The analysis of topics on Portuguese Romantic and late- Romantic musical works serves my insights about the correspondences between the musical output and the literary narrative, allowing one also to explore some aspects of their maintenance on the Portuguese musical compositional processes.

3 Alfredo Keil, Uma Caçada na Corte, suite sinfónica, 1884

Keil’s A Hunt at the Court was finished on November the 10th, 1884, and was premiered later that year, on December the 18th, by the orchestra of the recently founded Royal Academy of Music Amateurs, to whom the work was dedicated. In a manuscript score prepared as an offer to that institution, the composer recollected, in the first pages, the four excerpts chosen from Casimiro Dantas’ Autumn Tales as a basis for the work. In the same source, the composer chose to classify the work as a suite, probably due to his acknowledgment that the work was not in a single movement, and was therefore not apt to affiliate as a token of the genre symphonic poem; since that date the piece is known as his First Suite for Orchestra. Nonetheless, it is the only one, among Keil’s three symphonic suites, that takes as its basis a literary work. “Through the Forest” (or “Depart”), “A Stop”, “Before the Cross” and “The Re- turn”—respectively, the four movements of A Hunt at the Court—portray a courte- ous hunt that took place in France during the reign of Louis XIV. “Through the Forest” describes the beginning of a morning hunt. The musical sections of the first movement—in ABA structure—are related to some of the text descriptions. The introduction, in hunt style, uses the subtopics hunt signal (with overtones 2, 3 and 4) and bicinia/tricinia (horn calls in simple harmony played by two or more musicians [Monelle, 2006, p. 83]). Despite the use of binary meter, the incipit of the theme suggests a compound metric measure, more suited to the characteristics of these signifiers. Both relate to the following sentences: “Dawn put some soft shades in purple and gold in the unclouded horizon. (…) In the thick of the sleeper and im- measurable woods the blare of loud horns is heard. The sounds, distant and unde- fined at first, will gradually vibrate with greater intensity” (example 1).

Example 1 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, I, measures 1-12, horns: hunt style: horn signal, bicinia, tricinia. Morning; the hunt.

Example 2 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, I, measures 13-20, clarinets, bassoons, horns: military style: march. The cavalcade; the heroic nobility. The A section (example 2) comprises a march (as subtopic of military style) orchestrated firstly and predominantly for clarinets, bassoons and horns, recalling the

5 Rui Magno Pinto eighteenth-century Harmoniemusik consort, and it refers to the parade and to the beginning of the hunt: “A brilliant cavalcade, in which multicolored costumes of highly elegant and gallant gentlemen splendor, goes through the thick trees (…).” The B section (example 3), which can be related to a contra-dance, falls short in its relation to the text, even though it can be associated with the amusing hunting episodes occurred in the forest, described in the following sentences.

Example 3 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, I, measures 102-109, violins I: dance typologies: contredanse. The bucolic.

The following references to an increase in the pace of the hunt — “The horse ride adds up fast amid the shady woods”—were set to a reexposition of the main theme of the musical section A, without the implied alteration of tempo. Still, the correlation remains intelligible, due to the previous use of the subtopic march as an allusion to the pace of the hunt. In the coda, the altered recapitulation of the horn calls is concordant with the last sentence of the text: “far, far in the distance, vibrates again the sound of horns, calling the disbanded hunters.” The literary context of “A Stop” (example 4) is the reunion of knights at the old guard’s home to rest and to drink, as well as their merrymaking and flirt with the female peasants. Keil had chosen to illustrate this episode with a dance typology, which can be classified as a contra-dance in 6/8 meter or a “new siciliano”— subtopic of pastoral style—in AB form.

Example 4 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, II, measures 5-13, violins I: dance typologies/ pastoral style: contredanse / “new Siciliano”. Country dance/peasant music.

6 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909)

The third excerpt—“Before the Cross”—describes the tragic story of two young lovers, the young captain of the King’s guards and the Duchess of Lafresnay, sen- tenced to death by the offended Duke. The knights at hunt recall the sad story fifty years later through the discovery of a symbolic Cross. The episode is set to the slow movement of the suite, in AB structure. The theme A (example 5) is sub-structured in aba form. Aa is a melody in stile cantabile set to the sax alto, accompanied in pastoral style by bassoons (displaying the drones) and clarinets (with long notes in

thirds); horns share both drone and homophonic motion in harmonic thirds. Ab retains the same character, with the melodic line divided between woodwind instruments and strings. In the B section (example 6), the woodwind instruments present a motive in two quavers, with the second anticipated by a whole tone appoggiatura (alike the fourth beat of the third measure in the example below), which can be correlated with the topic pianto. The dactyl rhythm of the slow paced melodic lines of the introduction and the ones played by the strings in the B section recall

Example 5 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, III, measures 3-6, sax, clarinets, bassoons, horns: stile cantabile/pastoral style. “Cantilena” / folk song. a “funeral march”, if we consider the correlation made by Berlioz with the melodic ostinato of the “Andante” of the Seventh Symphony by Beethoven, discussed and highlighted by Beate Angelica Krauss (1992, p. 308). In fact, this movement had been, for a few years, the most commonly heard excerpt of a symphony by Beetho- ven in Lisbon’s concert venues, what may suggest Keil’s “anxiety of influence” or his deliberate attempt to suggest a correlation with the “funeral march” topic. The last literary excerpt, and, accordingly, the last movement of the suite, focuses on the return of the hunters (example 7). The movement starts again with another adequate horn signal (with overtones 2 and 3), albeit with characteristics of a military trumpet/bugle call, followed by a fanfare in the same military style. This introduction fits somewhat conveniently to the text: “[t]he ‘hallali’ resounds again in the distance.”

Example 6 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, III, measures 18-22, cellos: stile cantabile; pianto; funeral march rhythm. “Funeral march”.

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Example 57 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, IV, measures 1-7, brass: military style/[horn style]: signal/fanfare. The "hallali". After the mention of the hallali, Dantas describes the reunion of the knights and their wives at the court. Keil, on the other hand, offers the depiction of the episode absent from the text: the return of the hunting noblemen. The movement is an ex- tended march, with two main themes and a bridge, all of them in military style, with a sole exception of the first subphrase of B, in the minor mode (example 8).

Example 48 – Keil, Uma caçada na corte, IV, measures 40-48, clarinet I, violins I: military style: march. The hunting noblemen. The return of the entourage. Keil’s Hunt at the Court seemed to fit properly the changing listening modes of Lisbon’s audiences. Due to its clear and easy-to-follow programmatic content, the suite was still close to opera, a genre that was by then starting to lose its hegemony in the musical scene of the Portuguese capital. The coeval evaluation of the work by the Portuguese critics (most surely, by Greenfield de Melo, 1884, p. 6) in Amphion corroborates this conclusion: “Mr. Keil […] offers us now a suite, which he intends to apply to an opera (…).” Addressing only what appeared to be a false suggestion of the purpose of the work, the critic failed to notice that the Hunt at the Court was in fact an autonomous programmatic work, and that a clear change on the Portu- guese composers’ agenda, as a potential result of relevant changes in concert programming, was underway.

4 José Viana da Mota, D. Ignez de Castro, Ouverture für Orchestre, 1886

Composed in Berlin between February and May 1886, during Viana da Mota’s learning period, the Ouverture D. Ignez de Castro apparently was never played in Portugal. Nonetheless, its relevance for Portuguese music history rests on the composer’s assimilation of Liszt and Wagner’s ideas on orchestral music, on the introduction in Portuguese compositional practice of a new model for the overture, on its close relation with other musical pieces related to Camões’s literary works, and on its probable affiliation with the Portuguese nationalistic trends of the fin-de-siècle.

8 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909)

Viana da Mota’s reworking of the literary source is similar to Liszt’s compositional method regarding excision of parts (as we can see in Hamlet) and redivision of the poem (as prepared in Die Ideale) (cf. Johns 1997, p. 68, 74). The Portuguese composer builds on the episode regarding Inês de Castro’s tragedy from The Lusi- ads, Canto III, stanzas 118 to 135, in a German translation by Wollheim da Fonseca published in Leipzig in 1879. He chose to shorten the poem, maintaining only the stanzas that expose the historic event, conceiving a new two-part structure, which he quotes in the manuscript title page. There are no other indications in the manuscript score or in sketchbooks regarding the identification of musical themes or sections. The bipartite literary frame serves the slow and fast sections of the Ouverture. The slow section begins with a motive in stile cantabile, whose melodic contour is characterized by its minor intervals, namely two semitones, a minor sixth, and an ascending minor third, recurring widely, in our understanding, to the topic pianto and to, regarding the minor third, an established topic in Portuguese opera, the allusion to death. Its subsequent presentations are made on minor thirds intervals, creating harmonic superposition of diminished chords, suggesting the topic ombra. The trope created by these topics can be acknowledged, within this Ouverture, as “tragic love” or “tragic death”, the thematic idea that will unfold. This reading is corroborated by the similitude of this first motive with the first theme: the latter shares, mutatis mutandis, the same incipit. This first theme is set in major mode, in homophonic texture and stile cantabile. I have identified it as “Inês’s theme” (example 9), given that it is the first character mentioned on the literary frame.

Example 69 – Viana da Mota, D. Ignez de Castro, measures 14-22, violins I: Inês’s theme. Pedro, mentioned in the subsequent literary stanza, is illustrated by a theme in military style, played by the trumpet (example 10): its melodic contour can be related, due to the partial use of the overtone scale, to the sub-topic trumpet/bugle call. In the same section, Inês’ theme is displayed with a new epiphora (a concluding

Example 10 – Viana da Mota, D. Ignez de Castro, measures 34-41, trumpet I: Pedro’s theme. motif or segment of a phrase), which is then reworked and repeated by the low-brass section, in an orchestration commonly associated with death and punishment, due to

9 Rui Magno Pinto its resemblance to the consorts active at funerals and exequies.1 The correlation aimed is the willingness of the King and Council in sentencing Inês to death, in order to prevent the reunion of the lovers (stanzas 122 and 123). A brief presentation of motive A1 and the incipit of themes related to Inês and Pedro (in minor mode) conclude the slow section. The fast section starts with a dysphoric march, which can be correlated to the figure of King Afonso (example 11): the atypical use of the minor mode aims to enlighten the weakness of the sovereign in face of the wishes of his Council.

Example 11 – Viana da Mota, D. Ignez de Castro, measures 75-79, tutti: Dom Afonso’s theme. The sections chosen from The Lusiads display a certain textual dichotomy, compre- hending, on one side, the exposition of the dramatis personae and their primeval emotive states and, on the other, the unfolding of the tragic event. This content- based dichotomy grants to the composer a large accessibility in the conception of form, enabling the use of slow and fast sections, according to the norms of the structural output of the overture. Within this successful structural form, the slow section presents two lyrical themes that are correlated, by the use of specific signifiers, to the emotional states and character of the most important dramatis personae, while the fast section comprises the presentation of the opponents of their love affair, and the unfolding of the tragedy, through the reworking, development and combination of all the themes previously exposed. Through this process of reconstruction, the themes are infused with new meaning, related to the several episodes of the tragedy. Therefore, the juxtaposition of motives withdrawn from the theme of Dom Afonso and of the introduction (related to Inês’s theme) in a new melodic contour suggests the presence of Inês before him (stanzas 124 and 125); the transformation of the King’s theme to major mode might refer to his willingness to pardon, and its gradual reposition to minor mode restates his weakness before his advisors and the murder of Inês (stanza 130); the transformation of mode in Dom Pedro’s theme and its combination with the theme consigned to Afonso alludes to the wrath of the Prince against his father and his Council (stanza 132); finally, the exposition of themes by Pedro e Inês suggests the Prince’s willingness to have his Princess crowned (stanza 132: outlined verse). The reexposition of themes in the fast section can as well be

1 There are at least two references to these musical practices in Portugal, concerning the exequies of Dom Nuno Álvares Pereira (1727) and King Dom João V (1750). The descriptions mention the use of muted trumpets and drums, and the latter relate this use to the practices of Royal funerals in Germany: “[At] the end of each responsory, one sad harmony of kettledrums and trumpets, as practiced in Germany in the Royal funerals, with mutes, affected with a sensible tenderness the bystanders.” (Gazeta de Lisboa, 12.11.1750, apud Doderer, 2003, p. 12, footnote 8).

10 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) related to new meaning within the narrative: the presentation of Inês’s theme after the combination of the themes of Inês and Afonso suggests the exposition of her plea for mercy (absent, suggested in stanza 125); at last, the long exposition of the same theme (mm. 190-234) refers to her posthumous coronation as Dona Inês de Castro, Queen of Portugal, as noted by the outlined verse by Viana da Mota. By 1886, Viana da Mota was already a devoted Wagnerian. If one takes as plau- sible the reading suggested above, it is fair to assume that the Ouverture D. Ignez de Castro offers us a statement of that knowledge, since the use of topics within the narrative resembles the procedures of leitmotiven. Viana da Mota was thus able to achieve, within a musical work, a clear and faithful counterpart of the narrative of the tragic episode of Inês de Castro as described in The Lusiads.

5 David de Sousa, Inês, poemeto sinfónico para grande orquestra, op. 16, 1907

Composed, in Leipzig, twenty-one years after the contribution of Viana da Mota, the short symphonic poem of David de Sousa takes as source the same episode of The Lusiads. Concluded on August the 3rd, 1907, Inês was premiered soon after in Berlin, on September the 4th. Sousa’s Inês is partly endowed with the same clarity in the depiction of the narrative seen above in the homonymous work by Viana da Mota, and shares with it some of the significant lexicon. However, the composer chose to make use of new themes and motifs for the unfolding of the narrative, instead of proceeding on the derivation of the themes related to the dramatis personae. Therefore, our analysis identifies seven major sections, which can be associated to the general moods that inspire the narrative and, occasionally, to the characters belonging to it. The theme of the first section, which is profusely used in the course of the symphonic work, stresses, in the incipit, the same descending minor second and ascending minor third which convey, respectively, the notions of sorrow and death identified in Viana da Mota’s D. Ignez de Castro. Built otherwise on the harmonic minor scale (with omission of the second degree), the first theme is, nevertheless, set in stilo cantabile—another of the topoi used by Viana da Mota. Hence, the trope consists of a congenerous lyrical, yet melancholic, evocation of the tragic love story of Inês de Castro and Dom Pedro (example 12).

Example 12 – Sousa, Inês, measures 1-8, violins I. The tragic love of Inês de Castro and Dom Pedro.

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The second section is a long lyrical scene, assembling two musical themes in stile cantabile. The general mood of the section seems to be the love shared by Inês and Dom Pedro (example 13). However, Sousa delays and weakens the climax of the section through recurrence to interrupted cadences and a final resolution to the relative minor, suggesting the impossibility of happiness for the dramatis personae.

Example 13 – Sousa, Inês, measures 67-73, violins I: closing measures of the second musical theme. The love felt by Inês and Dom Pedro. The stile cantabile topic and the minor mode are maintained from the second to the third section, being suddenly interrupted by musical material built on diminished chords, punctuated by the orchestral tutti in “hammer strokes”. In the beginning of this developmental section, the sorrow that will unveil is restated. The following section, initiated by motivic working on the incipit of the first theme, displays the opponents to the love affair of Inês and Pedro. The King is de- picted by a dysphoric trumpet/bugle call, a sub-topic of military style, the same signifier employed by Viana da Mota in his symphonic Ouverture, but, unlike the latter, the weakness of the character is stressed by the use of a diminished melodic contour (which is not so closely related to the musical materials written for brass) (example 14).

Example 14 – Sousa, Inês, measures 160-173, trumpets. D. Afonso’s theme. A few measures later, a new theme, with the same diminished melodic contour, in the manner of a march in compound meter, is presented by the low-register instruments: it can be understood as a rendering of the prominent Council that intends the death of Inês (example 15). The climax of the section is reached through the use of ascending diminished arpeggios, set from the lower to the most upper register, rapidly resolved in a descending chromatic scale. All this frantic movement is suddenly opposed by a semi- quiescence achieved by long diminished chords, performed in Molto Adagio by

Example 15 – Sousa, Inês, measures 187-197, trombones, cellos, double basses. Council’s theme.

12 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) cellos and basses, which conclude on a dominant chord, in preparation for the next section. Unlike the former, the fifth section is clearly defined in extent, and appears somewhat like an autonomous episode within the work. The melody in stile cantabile, set in major mode and to a sparse orchestration, conveys the same serenity that characterizes the literary excerpt that “quotes” the pray made by Inês to the King (example 16). This attribution is corroborated by the fact that the plea is the sole section, in Camões’s work, where narration is interrupted and direct speech is con- ceded to Inês.

Example 16 – Sousa, Inês, measures 211-221, violins I. Inês’ pray. Motivic working on the incipit of the first theme is again employed at the first measures of the sixth section, preceding the exposition of a new lyrical theme, comprising three periods in minor mode. The first period is derived from the second subphrase of the theme of the first section; the second, in pesante character, stresses the minor second, through a kind of appoggiatura resolved at the second beat of the measure; the last is based on a march motive (dotted quaver, semiquaver) and is characterized by a brief excursion to major mode, in order to emphasize its minor relative. The alteration of mode, the predominant use of the minor second, a signifier of the topic pianto, leads us to believe that the thematic idea that inspires this section is the assassination of Inês. Through a sudden change in tempo, the pianto section is overlapped by a theme in military style, which aggregates the subtopic dysphoric march and the topic alla zoppa. The tempo indication determined by David de Sousa—Allegro furioso— makes this thematic content clear as it is related to the wrath and vengeance of Dom Pedro against the murderers. Finally, the previous section leads quickly to the coda, constituted by the altered incipit of the first theme, the chromatic scale of the third section, and the typical concluding “hammer strokes” in minor mode.

6 Luís de Freitas Branco, Antero de Quental, poema sinfónico, 1908

Unlike the aforementioned works, the symphonic poems by Freitas Branco retain the exact (excerpts of the) literary source more conspicuously. In the extant copies, none mentions the literary works. Our current knowledge of them is due to ulterior references made by the author to the press or in letters sent to his relatives.

13 Rui Magno Pinto

The composer mentioned the literary source of After a reading of Antero de Quental (later Antero de Quental) in an interview held at its première2 in 1915, seven years after its composition in 1908: “I wrote this symphonic sketch at the age of 16, after a reading of the Sonnets by Antero.” It would be worthless to track the possible sonnet(s) out of the almost hundred ones written by Antero de Quental: our aim is merely to identify possible connections between the content of the musical work and the main themes addressed by the poet-philosopher. The sketchbook, on the other hand, offers us an insight on the musical influence exerted by Wagner on the young Portuguese composer. Notes added close to some of the drafts of Antero de Quental point out that the Prelude of Tristan und Isolde was sought, by Freitas Branco, as a model for his first symphonic poem: “At the end replicas of natural trumpets and [in the] orchestra Tristan’s dissonances with gong”; (…) violins until ABC and, after, “belebend” of Wagner (sketchbook, p. 5).” The work comprises two main themes and three thematic derivations. The first theme, or main theme since it serves the apotheosis section, consists of a horn call, comprising overtones 9, 8 and 5 (or emphasizing the fifth between overtones 3 and 2), concluded by an arabesque, and it is performed in unison by the clarinets. This melody is set above a drone, played by the double basses and timpani (example 17).

Example 17 – Freitas Branco, Antero de Quental, measures 1-10, clarinets, double basses: first theme. Hunt Style: Hunt call; Pastoral style.

In its first exposition, the theme is related to the subtopic pastoral horn, sharing hunt and pastoral styles. This type of arabesque, quite a common musical motive used in coeval and posterior Portuguese popular music, can also be understood as a national equivalent within the signifiers of pastoral style. However, this bipartite classifica- tion as hunt and pastoral styles is dubious: some of the characteristics of the pastoral style, like the major mode or the use of its full harmonic construction, are absent. The theme itself will, later on, assume those characteristics in its subsequent presentations, such as the addition of intermediate voices with movement in thirds, while losing some of the previously used, such as the stable drone, substituted by funda- mental notes in a plagal harmonic progression (I-IV-I). So one must keep in mind that Freitas Branco, by leaving aside some of the characteristics of the pastoral subtopics, suggests the opposite of the tranquility correlated with this style. Finally, at

2 The first presentation of Antero de Quental occurred at the Teatro Politeama, on April the 11th 1915, and was held by the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa [Portuguese Symphonic Orchestra], conducted by David de Sousa.

14 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) the apotheosis section, the first theme, with its new orchestration, is overlapped by a fanfare by the brass instruments, creating a trope gathering pastoral and military styles that may suggest a “heroic pastoral”. The second theme (example 18) is characterized by its descending albeit interrupted chromatic contour, and can be classified, according to its ambitus, as pianto or passus duriusculus. The developmental sections focusses mainly on this theme, especially on its second cell (measures 2 and 4), chosen as subject to various phases of motivic and derivational work.

Example 18 – Freitas Branco, Antero de Quental, measures 25–33, cellos: second theme. Pianto/Passus duriusculus. None of the themes seems to be offered, in its first presentations, in its entirety. Both themes are followed by epiphorae, which are used in an interchangeable way. The first epiphora can be understood as a trope with characteristics of stile cantabile and hunt call and is embedded to the first theme; the second, in passus duriusculus, follows the second theme as well as the epiphora related to the first theme.3 The thematic derivations of the first theme are created by the descending repeti- tion of the incipit and by the addition of a new second subphrase in a contrasting topic, in stile cantabile and military style, respectively. The thematic derivation of the second theme, on the other hand, consists of the reworking of the incipit on new rhythmical figures and melodic contour, maintaining the same topic. The through-composed structure comprises sections designed for the exposition of themes and motives and other sections served by their derivation, variation and combination, and by the addition of new musical material, especially small motifs and figuration. While in the combination of pre-existing themes and motifs the same general topoi are maintained (even when recurring widely to stile fugato), in their derivation, in some cases, different stylistic traits are produced, which, as I have pointed above, affiliate in the categories of stile cantabile or military style. The figuration patterns used are mainly scales, arpeggios and circular figures, constitu- ents of style brillant. Finally, the small motifs can be classified under the categories of recitative, alla zoppa and the subtopic fanfare. Raymond Monelle (2000; 2006) discussed thoroughly the mentioned main signifiers—hunt and pastoral styles and pianto. From my point of view, the young Luís de Freitas Branco might have had in mind the following correlations: to the hunt and pastoral styles, Nature, the dawn; to pianto, the association with lacrimae, ghosts, ruins, and loss. Taking into account the analysis of Antero de Quental’s Sonnets by the philosopher António Sérgio (included as preface in the 1943 edition), one can confirm that the production of the Sonnets is classified as nocturnal, in opposition to

3 To achieve a clear exposition, I have chosen to relate epiphora I to the first theme and epiphora II to the second, even though the second epiphora is presented earlier.

15 Rui Magno Pinto the luminosity and clarity of his Odes, and that at least a fifth of its production refers to nature and night, as well as to tears or ghostly figures. Therefore, Freitas Branco’s usage of topics is in accordance with the thematics addressed by Antero de Quental in his Sonnets. From the correlations mentioned above, a wider archetype emerges: the dichotomy between Nature and Humanity. Recalling Antero de Quental itself as he was seen at his time, as a genius in torment, one can also take as an hypothesis the correlation of the symphonic poem to the literary author itself; hence the with- drawal, in later years of the prefix “After a reading of” of the first title of the work, relating it more with the poet and less with his production.

7 Luís de Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, Fantasia, 1909

Luís de Freitas Branco concluded the first version of his Fantasia After a Read- ing of Guerra Junqueiro in October 1909. On a date prior to 1916, the composer made a thorough revision of the work. The literary work that inspired the composition is omitted in the remaining musical sources. Freitas Branco, late in his life, shared to his nephew, João Paes, that the work chosen from Guerra Junqueiro literary output as a source for his Fantasia was the poem “The Death of Dom João”. Junqueiro’s work affiliates in the literature produced around the mythical figure of the libidinous and gallant Don Juan. As the myth is well known, I do not see the need to mention it; I will only address the major contributions made by the Portu- guese writer. The work emerges mainly as a criticism of the political and religious beliefs of Portuguese society by the fin-de-siècle: the main dramatis persona is related to God and the Devil themselves as examples of decadence, which are opposed to the virtuous figures of Jesus Christ and Prometheus. Dom João, the orphan son of a prostitute, falls in love with Imperia, a beautiful woman of the bourgeois salon, responsible for the unfortunate ways of men and the disgrace of their families, to whom he declares his feelings but chooses, surprisingly, not to marry. Both lovers, after devoting to a life of seduction, vice and carnal pleasures, fell aside each other, impoverished, homeless, hungry and sick, playing music and performing circus acts at the streets and sheltering at a hideous swampy alley in order to avoid the storm. The death announced in the title of the poem is merely a metaphor for the decay of both characters, since no mention to their perish is made. In its first version, the work begins with an introduction in military style. The first theme in 6/8 (example 19) is divisible into two phrases: the first, which uses a fractioned whole-tone scale; and a second, with an unusual melodic contour, which emphasizes the semitone, whole tone and augmented second (an enharmonic minor third). The gloomy and sinister character of the theme is corroborated by the orchestration, designed for the low-register instruments of the orchestra (bassoons, contrabassoon, double basses). I suggest that the correlation sought by the composer is the

16 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909)

Example 19 – Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, measures 20-27, bassoons, contrabassoon, doublebasses: first theme. Dom João, abject. allusion to Dom João, the abject, the transgressive figure of decorum and social morality. The first theme is then developed in the following sub-section: the incipit is exposed successively, from the lower register until the higher register, and then the whole theme is presented in unison by the orchestral tutti. The second theme (example 20) is no more than a “corrected” derivation of the first: the notes are close to those used previously, but now produce a diatonic melodic contour in stile cantabile, exposed in counterpoint by the cellos and double basses. The reference implied seems to be the transformation of Dom João from despised to common/virtuous man, due to his love for Imperia.

Example 20 – Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, measures 74-83, cellos: second theme. Stile cantabile. Dom João. Preceded by a section in recitative, with cadenza for solo violin, the theme regarding the latter (example 21) is also set in stile cantabile, in the high register, for solo violin, sharing the incipit of the first and second themes and the mood of the second; the melodic contour and mood certifies Imperia as the female equivalent to Dom João, and the feelings shared by both. This attribution of the second and third themes to these dramatis personae takes as a basis quite a common practice of orchestration, concerning especially the arrangement of operatic themes in instrumental versions: Dom João is presented by a tenor instrument, the cello, while Imperia is set to the soprano instrument of the same instrumental family, the violin.

Example 21 – Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, measures 144-151, violins I: third theme. Stile cantabile. Imperia.

17 Rui Magno Pinto

The middle section in Freitas Branco’s Fantasia appears to be the counterpart to the central episode of Guerra Junqueiro’s poem, “The Island of Love”, which describes the libidinous adventures of Dom João. The ideas of love and seduction are suggested by a lyrical scene, based on a new melodic theme in stile cantabile, concluded by a fanfare in military style (example 22).

18 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) Example 22 – Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, measures 185-200, tutti: fourth theme. Stile cantabile. “The Island of Love.” After this section, motifs taken from the second phrase of the first theme of Dom João lead to the Apotheosis, which takes as its literary source the storm mentioned in the last chapter of Guerra Junqueiro’s poem. The suggestion of a storm is achieved through congenerous signifiers to those used in Rossini’s Guillaume Tell, who were established, during the nineteenth century, in the Portuguese operatic repertoire: Freitas Branco uses ascending and descending chromatic scales in overlapping harmonic major thirds and augmented fourths in fortississimo, within distinct rhythmical figures, producing an effect of 3 descending semitones (in the high register, by the woodwind) against two ascending semitones (in low register, by the trombones), alluding to the wind blows and its sudden changes. For the remaining instruments, the Portuguese composer sets a drone (within a fifth interval) as a sustained pedal in fortississimo, for contrabassoon, tuba and double basses, and in tremolo, con tutta forza, for strings and timpani. While the drone is itself a subtopic of pastoral style, the tremolo for strings is, in specific harmonic progressions, an orchestration proce- dure typical for the “ombra” topic. Furthermore, the juxtaposition of the musical materials of the “storm”, “ombra” and pastoral topics and subtopics results on an imbricate harmonic progression, which stresses continuously the dominant seventh, the augmented fourth and the minor second. The resulting trope seems to fit properly to the profuse locus horrendus descriptions of the stormy forest, the rough sea, and the hideous alley made, in the beginning of the last chapter, by Guerra Junqueiro.

Example 23 – Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, measures 221-256, woodwind, trombones, strings, timpani. Storm/Tempest.

19 Rui Magno Pinto

(example 23). Within this dense texture the brass section displays the common incipit of the first and second subphrases of the themes correlated to Dom João and Imperia, which is concealed (hidden, as were both characters in the literary narrative) through the augmentation of the rhythmic values (example 24). The apotheosis is concluded by the exposition, in unison, fortissimo, of the first theme. Finally, in the codetta, the abject’s theme is restated, which contradicts in part the conclusion of the literary work. Hence, it is safe to argue that Freitas Branco’s After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro aims to illustrate the dramatic characters and the central episodes of the literary narrative.

Example 24 – Freitas Branco, Depois de uma leitura de Guerra Junqueiro, measures 221-236, brass. Dom João/Imperia. In the notes to the concert program, commemorating the centenary of the birth of the composer, Alexandre Delgado (quoted in Delgado et al., 2007, pp. 195-96) de- fended the proximity between Freitas Branco’s Fantasia and Richard’s Strauss’s symphonic poems, stressing the interpretation, in Lisbon, of Tod und Verklärung in 1901 and D. Juan and Till Eulenspiegel in 1908, the latter directed by Strauss him- self. The common use of the myth of Don Juan by Freitas Branco and Richard Strauss is clearly noticeable. An intertextual analysis of the symphonic poems D. Juan and Till Eulenspiegel and of the fantasy After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro points several similarities, which suggest that Freitas Branco could have taken the two works of the German composer as a model. The construction of the melodic contour of the first theme and its motivic working are close to the treatment of the first theme in Till Eulenspiegel. Still, the closest relations are with the symphonic poem Don Juan. The orchestration of various themes (namely the first lyrical theme) re- calls several of Richard Strauss’ compositional methods used in that symphonic poem. Other stylistic and structural relations between Strauss’s Don Juan and Freitas Branco’s After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro are the use of a lyrical section in recitative with cadenza for solo violin, the recapitulation of themes presented in the initial sections and the use of the same compositional strategies in the final measures of the work. Indeed, the most striking evidence of the usage of Strauss’s Don Juan as model is the exploitation of the same procedures of harmonic progression, of melodic and motivic construction and recapitulation, and of orchestration in the last structural section of After a reading of Guerra Junqueiro. The apotheosis section of Freitas Branco’s Fantasia is concluded in the same manner as the reexposition of Strauss’s Don Juan, through the use of marked “hammer strokes” in fortississimo by the wind section, tremoli by the strings, and glissando by the harp. The following section (the codetta in Strauss’s symphonic poem and coda in Freitas Branco’s fantasia) is initiated in both works in the subdominant tonality, and uses

20 The Portuguese Symphonic Poem (1884–1909) the same musical materials for strings (harmonic descent in tremoli of two notes) and winds (harmonic progressions in long notes), which can be resumed within the category of signifiers for the topic ombra. Freitas Branco manages to insert, within this harmonic background, a final reexposition of the initial segment of subphrase b of the first theme, by solo bassoon. For the premiere of the work in 1916, Freitas Branco produced a second version of the Fantasia, making several stylistic and structural revisions. He re-orchestrated the work for a minor orchestra; composed a new introduction and a new lyrical section; reversed the order of the subphrases of the first theme; improved the allusion to the “storm”, altering the wind blows signifiers through the use of tuplets and sequen- tial repetitions; reformulated the structural model into a Da Capo form; finally, he omitted the second theme section, central lyrical section, recitative (with cadenza for violin) section, and codetta. I argue that the omissions, especially that of the recitative sections and codetta, were particularly relevant, given that these were the sections that might have betrayed Freitas Branco by their resounding similarities with Richard Strauss’s Don Juan. Nonetheless, I do not intend to devalue Luís de Freitas Branco’s initial production. It has been noted that the synthesis of the compositional characteristics of a particular renowned composer was a major compositional guide- line for the young Freitas Branco in his search for an improved learning, and, in that sense, I wish rather to point out the excellent ability of a Portuguese composer in understanding the dominant compositional strategies of the (by then understood as) great contemporary composers, and achieve, surprisingly in a stage prior to his musical training abroad, a long-sought update to the national musical production for orchestra.

8 Conclusions

As the result of an acute sense of decay of political and social institutions and of artistic praxis in the final three decades of the nineteenth century, the Portuguese intelligentsia promoted a serious debate on the procedures necessary for its improvement. Concerning music, this feeling of decay took on as its most significant measures an important renovation in Lisbon’s musical entrepreneurship— materialized in the establishment of a regular concert activity, in the promotion of “musical idealism” on press and events, and in the fostering of a major transformation of concert programming – as well as an investment in the musical training, especially in France and Germany, of national musicians and composers. I discussed here the results of such transformation and investment on musical composition, focusing on the Portuguese orchestral compositions with programmatic content produced between 1884 and 1909, a corpus that shares as its central characteristic the use of literary Portuguese works as paratext for music composition, and that can be understood as one of several examples of the contribution of composers such as Alfredo Keil, Viana da Mota, David de Sousa and Luís de Freitas Branco for a Por-

21 Rui Magno Pinto tuguese musical nationalism, profusely discussed by the musicians and critics at that time. It comes as no surprise that topoi should have been used in the prior works, even if they were examples of different stylistic trends, which ranged from Romantic to late Romantic styles. Nevertheless, it should be noted that in the later works of this programmatic genre, Portuguese composers had used more thoroughly musical materials that did not relate easily to established categories, to topoi known by the Por- tuguese audiences. Notwithstanding, they had the knowledge of the literary source that inspired the musical works, the intelligibility of the work and of the narrative within would have remained possible, and various interpretations (such as those that I have pointed out or alternative) would have been carried out. However, going through the reception and musical criticism of the Portuguese programmatic works of this period in the periodical press, it becomes clear that the understanding of the musical work consisted mainly on the exposition and discussion of its formal parameter, to the detriment of the study of its content. It can be argued that almost since the second decade of the twentieth century the understanding of the Portuguese programmatic works and notably of the symphonic poem was made in terms of absolute music. In the notes to the modern recording of Antero de Quental, João de Freitas Branco seemed to summarize and vindicate this long- established trend: “It is quite deliberate that this subjective view is not directly con- fronted with any presumably inspiring reading here. Today, some information about the score as an autonomous musical entity, even though succinct, offered for the objectifying correction of the mere psycho-auditory impressions of literary associa- tions, seems preferable to the more descriptive type of preparation of the listener” (Freitas Branco, undated). Offering a suggestion on the content and narrative of the Portuguese programmatic orchestral works composed between 1884 and 1909, my aim is to recall their poietic context and the possible correlations and stylistic appre- ciations made by the audiences that were lost in this process, certifying, thus, their even greater value as examples of the Portuguese artistic production within two allied artistic media, literature and music.

9 References

Branco, L. de F. (undated). [Caderno de esboços (1906-1908)], Espólio Maria Helena de Freitas/Nuno Barreiros. Biblioteca Nacional de Portugal. Camões, L. (1572). Os Lusíadas. Lisboa: Antonio Gõçaluez [António Gonçalves]. Camões, L. (1879). Os Lusíadas / Die Lusiaden. Leipzig: Reclam. Delgado, A., Telles, A. & Mendes, N. B. (2007). Luís de Freitas Branco. Lisboa: Editorial Caminho. Doderer, G. (2003). A constituição da Banda Real na Corte Joanina (1721-1724). Revista Portuguesa de Musicologia, 13, 7-34. “Geração de 70”, in Infopédia, Porto: Porto Editora, 2003–2015. Retrieved February 27, 2015, from http://www.infopedia.pt/$geracao-de-70 .

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Guerra Junqueiro, A. M. (1893). A Morte de D. João. Lisboa: Livraria de António Maria Pereira. Johns, K. T. (1997). The Symphonic Poems of Franz Liszt. Revised, edited and in- troduced by Michael Saffle. Franz Liszt Studies Series Nº 3. Stuyvesant, NY: Pendragon Press. Krauss, B. A. (1992). Beethoven and the Revolution. In M. Boyd, Music and The French Revolution. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. MacDonald, H. (2001). Symphonic Poem. In S. Sadie, New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Volume 24 (pp. 802–807). London: Macmillan. Melo, G. de (dir.) (01.11.1884). Noticiário. Portugal. Amphion: Chronica quinzenal Bibliotheca musical, Agencia de theatros e artes correlativas. 15. Monelle, R. (2006). The Musical Topic: Hunt, Military and Pastoral. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Monelle, R. (2000). The Sense of Music: Semiotic Essays. New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Nery, R. V. & Castro, P. F. de (1991). História da Música Portuguesa. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional Casa da Moeda. Quental, A. T. de (1943). Sonetos. Edição organizada, prefaciada e anotada por António Sérgio. Lisboa: Couto Martins.