O Fado de Coimbra e Património da Humanidade

Fado from Coimbra and World Heritage On 27 November 2011 fado – a traditional Portuguese music – was added to the World Site of Intangible Heritage UNESCO, which provided an opportunity to create this article. The following publication presents a history and origin of fado: the meaning of its name and its linguistic provenience. Article shows roots of this genre of music – its evolution from an African dance lundum to another called “fado”; its migration from Brazil to Portugal; its turning into a song full of melancholy and longing. The sense of Portuguese’s beloved word “saudade” is being explained, as well as the variations of fado music that have led it to the concert halls in the 21st century. The article, farther more, describes two common variations of this kind of music, i.e. fado from Coimbra and fado from Lisbon, concentrating on main differences, such as their subject matter, structure of pieces, key and manner of performance, the source of which can be found in their origin. The text considers whether “fado” is a proper name of a song of Coimbra, or not. The aim of the article is to introduce a dispute about the “real” fado, that has been going on between followers of both trends for years and to answer a question why the fado from Lisbon was added to the UNESCO list