Fado group "Rapsódia" performing at "Serenata Monumental" (2010, Coimbra, Portugal)
Coimbra Fado (Portuguese: Fado de Coimbra) is a genre of fado originating in the city of Coimbra, Portugal. While adopted by students at the University of Coimbra, and sometimes known as Student Fado (Fado de Estudante), it is usually considered the typical music of Coimbra itself. Developed from the Iberian lyric style of trovadorismo popular during the Middle Ages, the genre shares roots with Occitantroubadors.
Performed with the traditional Guitarra de Coimbra (a kind of Portuguese guitar originating in Coimbra), a modified version of Lisbon's fado guitar allegedly created by Artur Paredes, it is usually accompanied by classic acoustic guitar and male voices.
The Coimbra Academic Association (Associação Académica de Coimbra) has a fado section, teaching the genre to musically inclined students and promoting musical projects and events related to it. Its fame throughout Portugal has led to the creation of similar structures in other cities, such as Lisbon and Porto, where there are also Fado de Coimbra groups organized by students and local people.
Fado is a music genre that can be traced to the 1820s in Lisbon, Portugal, but probably has much earlier origins. Fado historian and scholar Rui Vieira Nery states that "the only reliable information on the history of fado was orally transmitted and goes back to the 1820s and 1830s at best. But even that information was frequently modified within the generational transmission process that made it reach us today."
Coimbra is a city and a municipality in Portugal. The population of the municipality at the 2011 census was 143,397, in an area of 319.40 square kilometres (123.3 sq mi). The fourth-largest agglomerated urban area in Portugal after Lisbon, Porto, and Braga, it is the largest city of the district of Coimbra and the Centro Region. About 460,000 people live in the Região de Coimbra, comprising 19 municipalities and extending into an area of 4,336 square kilometres (1,674 sq mi).
Portuguese music includes many different styles and genres, as a result of its history. These can be broadly divided into classical music, traditional/folk music and popular music and all of them have produced internationally successful acts, with the country seeing a recent expansion in musical styles, especially in popular music.
The culture of Portugal is a very rich result of a complex flow of many different civilizations during the past millennia. From prehistoric cultures, to its Pre-Roman civilizations, passing through its contacts with the Phoenician-Carthaginian world, the Roman period, the Germanic invasions of the Suebi, Buri and Visigoths, Viking incursions, Sephardic Jewish settlement, and finally, the Moorish Umayyad invasion of Hispania and the subsequent expulsion, during the Reconquista, all have made an imprint on the country's culture and history.
The Associação Académica de Coimbra – Organismo Autónomo de Futebol (AAC-OAF), also referred to as Académica de Coimbra or simply Académica, is a professional football club based in Coimbra, Portugal. As of the 2022–23 football season in Portugal, the club competes in the third division of the Portuguese football league system, and hosts home games at the Estádio Cidade de Coimbra. It also has a futsal department with men's and women's teams. The club's name derives from the footballing division of the Associação Académica de Coimbra, officially known as the Associação Académica de Coimbra - Secção de Futebol (AAC-SF), which fields its own amateur football teams as a second incarnation and belongs to the student association of the University of Coimbra like the professional AAC-OAF which is however an autonomous organization inside the student association and owns the entire heritage and historical records formerly belonging to AAC-SF until 1974.
The University of Coimbra is a public research university in Coimbra, Portugal. First established in Lisbon in 1290, it went through a number of relocations until moving permanently to Coimbra in 1537. The university is among the oldest universities in continuous operation in the world, the oldest in Portugal, and played an influential role in the development of higher education in the Portuguese-speaking world. In 2013, UNESCO declared the university a World Heritage Site, noting its architecture, unique culture and traditions, and historical role.
Carlos ParedesComSE was a virtuoso Portuguese guitar player and composer. He is regarded as one of the greatest players of Portuguese guitar of all-time.
The Associação Académica de Coimbra (AAC) is the students' union of the University of Coimbra (UC). Founded in Coimbra on November 3, 1887, it is the oldest students' union in Portugal. It is also the biggest Portuguese students' union belonging to an independent institution, since it represents all the students of its university, who gain automatic membership into the AAC as students of the University of Coimbra.
The Queima das Fitas is a traditional festivity of the students of some Portuguese universities, organized originally by the students of the University of Coimbra.
José Manuel Cerqueira Afonso dos Santos, known professionally as José Afonso and also popularly known as Zeca Afonso, was a Portuguese singer-songwriter. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of Portugal's folk and protest music scene. His music played a significant role in the resistance against the dictatorial Estado Novo regime, making him an icon in Portugal.
The Portuguese guitar or Portuguese guitarra is a plucked string instrument with twelve steel strings, strung in six courses of two strings. It is one of the few musical instruments that still uses watch-key or Preston tuners. It is iconically associated with the musical genre known as Fado, and is now an icon for anything Portuguese.
The Portuguese term praxe describes the whole of student traditions in universities or, more often, to the initiation rituals freshmen are subjected to in some Portuguese universities. Praxe is replicated by other higher education institutions across the country. Examples include Queima das Fitas and its parade, the Cortejo da Queima, the Festa das Latas and the Latada, where the freshmen walk throughout the streets with cans on their feet, and the ripping of the traditional academic suit of the students when they finish their first cycle of studies. Its roots go as far back as the 14th century, but it became most known in the 16th, under the name of the "Investidas", in the University of Coimbra, the oldest of its kind in the country. The praxe is meant to initiate the freshmen into the University institution and to encourage the loss of social inhibitions. Tradition, ritual, humor, joy and parody are some of the main ingredients of Praxe. Older students tend to produce funny situations and jokes with the freshmen; giving a warm welcome to them through initiation rituals. In most Portuguese higher education institutions, girls and boys have some gender-separated rituals to preserve dignity and respect. Most of the freshmen's rituals are performed collectively in order to avoid open ground for abusers. However, the older students sometimes take the Praxe too far, when the initiation rituals, jokes and traditions are degraded into humiliation and violence, a violation of the code and values of the praxe. The president of the Associação Académica de Coimbra and the Dux Veteranorum of Coimbra has described such incidents as a stain in its principles, and supports legal action being taken against perpetrators. One of the mottos of Praxe is Dura Praxis Sed Praxis. These incidents have led to criticism against the Praxe, and the creation of student organizations against it.
Orfeon Académico de Coimbra (O.A.C.) is the oldest and one of the most famous academic choirs in Portugal. It was established in 1880 by the then University of Coimbra's law student João Arroio, with the name Sociedade Choral do Orpheon Académico.
The Verdes Anos fado group is a Portuguese musical group founded in 1996, known for performing and popularizing Coimbra's Fado and the Portuguese guitar.
Pedro da Fonseca Caldeira Cabral was born on December 4th, 1950, in Lisbon, Portugal. He is a composer, published author and multi-instrumentalist who specializes in Mediaeval, Renaissance, Baroque and Iberian music. His primary instrument is the Portuguese Guitar. He is the recipient of the Degree of Grand Officer of the Order of Infante D. Henrique, awarded to him in 2018 by the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The Guitolão is a chordophone exclusively designed by one of the masters of Portuguese guitars making, the luthier Gilberto Grácio. He started to develop the prototype instrument, originally built for Carlos Paredes in 2001, and only 3 types were made. The term Guitolão, is a match from the lexical between Portuguese Guitar and Violão. Although, there are some connoisseurs who have tried to undo this neologism, but the use of the term makes sense because the initial idea was to create an instrument similar to a Portuguese guitar, but without the need of an accompaniment instrument. So while this is not the most correct terminology, however, is the one that makes more sense.
Artur Paredes was a Portuguese guitar player in the city of Coimbra. He was the natural son of Gonçalo Rodrigues Paredes and Maria do Céu.
FEUP Fado Group is a Portuguese student group that performs Fado
Dialogues is an album by guitarist Carlos Paredes and bassist Charlie Haden recorded in 1990 and released on the Antilles label.
The symbols of Portugal are official and unofficial flags, icons or cultural expressions that are emblematic, representative or otherwise characteristic of Portugal and of its culture.
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