Felipe Barão

Biography

Felipe Barão is a PhD candidate in Ethnomusicology at the University of Aveiro (DeCA-UA), where he also completed his Master’s degree in the same field. He holds a doctoral fellowship from the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2023.03687.BDANA) and is a researcher at INET-md, in addition to being a collaborator at the Museu Nacional da Música. He also holds a research fellowship (BI/UI72/10644/2023) for the project “EcoMusic – Sustainable Practices: A Study on Post-Folklorism in 21st Century Portugal” (PTDC/ART-FOL/31782/2017), in which he produced the documentary “Conta-me, Viola!”. His research focuses on plucked chordophones, with an emphasis on Portuguese wire-strung violas. He is also a curator of musical instrument exhibitions, such as ‘Instrumentos para Memória Futura,’ in partnership with the Museu da Música de Coimbra. He maintains an active artistic career as a multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and music producer.

Doctoral project

Title
Portuguese wire-strung viola: social and individual memories of an instrument-archive and post-revival perspectives

Advisor
Maria do Rosário Pestana

Co-advisor
Edward Ayres de Abreu and Thomas Caracas Garcia

Abstract
This project focuses on new approaches to the study of musical instruments, with a particular emphasis on the Portuguese wire-strung viola, a plucked hand-held chordophone that experienced revitalization processes in the last quarter of the 20th century. I aim to develop a study on the relationships between the museum-preserved violas, which served as references for the initial revitalization processes, and the current violas, identifying the tensions between the past and the future. To this end, I draw on concepts such as the “instrument-archive” (Rancier 2014), which refers to the capacity of musical instruments to store social and individual memories, and I emphasize the agency of these objects, which challenge both their makers and players. This study will be developed at the Museu Nacional da Música and will engage in dialogue with current instrument makers and musicians. I aim to describe a new panorama of the Portuguese wire-strung violas in the 21st century.

Keywords
Wire-strung viola; Revival; Traditional Portuguese musical instruments; Museum studies; Memory studies.

Funding
Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (2023.03687.BDANA)