"Vejam bem". José Afonso, Brecht y la vía moderna a la Canção de Protesto

Abstract

The encounter with Bertolt Brecht’s work and thought can be considered a turning point for the artistic development of the Portuguese singer, songwriter, and poet Jose Afonso (Aveiro, 2 August 1929—Setubal, 23 February 1987), setting a creative framework, to be expanded since 1967 as a theoretical and practical context in which much of his production can be understood. In this way, Jose Afonso takes to the field of popular music the vindication of Brecht as a model of cultural intervention by socialist opposition to Salazar’s dictatorship. Thus, it is possible to identify a conscious appropriation of Brechtian conceptions reflecting on his ideas as well as on his performance practice. This move not only has to do with the cultural and political role of musician and music aiming to break the monolithic fascist cultural order, but —on an intrinsically aesthetic dimension— with the very use of chronologically and stylistically multiple voices to assemble artifacts of a great expressive and mobilizing power. In Jose Afonso’s songs, particularly in those composed on Brecht’s texts, many of the principles and procedures that place the playwright on the modern and politically engaged side alike are present. It is especially remarkable the transfer to music of montage and musical languages interweaving methods. This transfer manifests itself in the ambivalent play between the traditional and the urban, the parodic and the tragic in order to promote a critical reconstruction of reality. Thus, we can characterize his production both as modern and popular.