The research

During several days spent in many villages of Guarda, going near the Spanish border, there were a lot of precious testimonies given by people who spent their entire lives working hard, in a toil that means nothing to us today. These people talked about the hunger, the struggle of everyday life, the happiness of others. They talked about the festivals, the rituals, the beliefs. These people talked about life. And they sang it to us, like they have always done.

Maria Augusta Moleira was born in Quadrazais (Sabugal). She is eighty-six years of age, a difficult but happy life. She tells us that she has always sung. Like her countrymen, she started early in life to smuggle goods and to live from the small profits of that smuggling. Being illegal, smuggling had its risks, and so, people in Quadrazais developed a jargon, strictly functional and related to smuggling: the quadrazenho. It was a very complete jargon that used the grammar and some of the Portuguese verbs but that substituted most of the nouns. Maria Augusta Moleira spoke to us in quadrazenho and also sang us a song: Soenes crunhe penhar (José Franco)♫

António Pires was born and bred in Aldeia Velha (Trancoso). When he was only a little boy, only seven years old, his father bought him his first shepherd’s flute and he started to play. Growing up, he dedicated himself to the building of flutes, using elder tree wood. He accompanied the drums of Miguel Chôco when they went to the festival in Montes. Today, with eighty-six years of age, he can no longer accompany the drums, but he surely can play his flute and tell us stories and incidents of his life. He told us about the dances held in Aldeia Velha, at the sound of the flute. Everybody was happy when the music started and they began to dance. The hardships of life were soon forgotten.

He played to us the music of the drums of Miguel Chôco.♫

Gastão Augusto Rodrigues was, for almost his entire adult life, bailiff of the Solar dos Brasis in Torre do Terrenho (Trancoso). He told us that when he was just a little boy, he begged his father for a flute, until he finally got one. He devoted himself to its secrets, the way to play it and the way to build it. In his workshop, he spent long hours building shepherd’s flutes, castanets and other small pieces of handicraft in wood and stone, where he carved his name and the name of the beautiful monument he guarded. He sold those objects to tourists and curious people who visited the Solar dos Brasis. Gastão Rodrigues sang and told us what he kept in his eighty-six years old memory. He passed away in July 2004, taking with him the memories and the precious knowledge gathered in his long life.

Chuchurumel accompli aussi un travail de collectage de la tradition. Tout au long des diverses journées passées à parcourir plusieurs villages de la région de Guarda, jusqu’à la région qui fait frontière avec l’Espagne, nombreux - et très précieux - ont été les témoignages receuillis de personnes qui ont passé par une vie entière de labeur, ce qui aujourd’hui n’existe presque plus. Ces gens nous ont parlé de la faim qu’ils ont souffert, des fatigues du travail de certains jours, des joies de certains autres. Ils ont parlé de fêtes, de rituels, de croyances. Ces gens ont parlé de la vie. Et ils l’ont chantée pour nous, comme toujours ils l’ont fait.