«Les contrepointistes de L’Ècole d’Évora». El Integralismo Lusitano y la Escola de Évora en el nacionalismo musical de Luís de Freitas Branco

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to identify the mechanisms by which the composer and musicologist Luís de Freitas Branco (1890-1955) designed and shaped a very particular Portuguese musical nationalism based on the theoretical framework provided by Integralismo Lusitano. A proto-fascist movement active in Portugal between 1916 and 1933, of a traditionalist and monarchical nature, it advocated a cultural project opposed to the Spanish dimension and the Italian interferences that devastated the Portuguese musical panorama during the 19th century. The integralist musical agents understood that the polyphonic counterpoint of the 16th and 17th centuries, associated with the so-called Escola de Évora, should be the model to follow in order to place Portugal once again in the European avant-garde of the 20th century. To this end, in this research he will address the case study of the chapter «Les contrepointistes de l’École d’Evora», published in the third volume of the Actes du Congrès d’Histoire de l’Art (1924). Testimony of his participation in the congress of the same name held in Paris in 1921, will allow us to see how the Portuguese musicologist constructs and spreads an imaginary national music according to the integralist doctrines in an international context.