Symphony No.5 "Virtus Lusitaniae" - Joly Braga Santos

Portuguese Symphony Orchestra conducted by Álvaro Cassuto.
I - Preludio. Largamente: 0:00
II - Zavala. Moderato: 9:03
III - Largo: 13:15
IV - Allegro energico ed appassionato - Largamente: 23:40
Braga Santos' Symphony No.5 was composed between 1965-6, being commissioned by the Estado Novo Government through the National Broadcasting Station, for the commemoration of the 40th anniversary of the regime. It was premiered in Lisbon on 1966, performed by the National Radio Orchestra conducted by the composer. It was awarded a UNESCO award in 1968. Braga Santos never wanted to leave the country, and in order to survive in the regime, he was forced to write works to be performed by government institutions, despite the criticism received by opponents.
The Portuguese "Estado Novo" was one of the longest dictatorships in modern Europe. It was established in 1926 after a coup against the fragile first republic. The regime, incarnated by the prime minister António de Oliveira Salazar, was conservative, nationalistic and imperialist in nature. It opposed fascism, communism and liberal democracy. While the country greatly developed, it was also dragged to a long and extenuating series of colonial wars to defend the remains of an empire established in 1415. It wasn't until the "Carnation Revolution" of 1974 that Portugal returned to a democracy.
The subtitle "Virtus Lusitaniae" (The Virtue of Lusitania) is the two-thousand-year-old Roman designation for Portugal. After the period to which his first four symphonies as well as many other works, Braga Santos went abroad to study conducting with Herman Scherchen and composition with Virgilio Mortari. The period of travel and the time he devoted to conducting, mainly in Oporto (1955-61), provided him with what he described as a useful period of rest, decisive for the transformation of his musical style, which evolved toward increased chromaticism and less traditional form.
The first movement is an introduction to the following three. It begins with a menacing but mysterious opening, a long melodic line of asymmetric and wide intervals, presented by the violas, are the materials from which the whole work is built upon. This material is also based on an timpani ostinato and outbursts of tone-clusters, instead of the traditional harmonic support based on tonal chords. A series of fluid and continuous variations fleshes out the chromatic music, alternating lyrical passages with fierce and dissonant ones. An enigmatic coda ends the movement.
The second movement employs a large percussion section evoking the marimba players of Zavala, a region south of Mozambique the composer visited when it was a Portuguese colony. Through the movement, the percussion is tuned in different keys with different scales, some of which have an intervallic structure alien to European music. Strings and brass provide a harmonic background while woodwinds presented short melodic phrases. The music suddenly stops without a proper coda.
The third movement employs spaces, lines and masses of sounds moving through time and crossing one another, being impossible to analyse in a traditional manner. More melodic fragments are contrasted against tense and dissonant blocks of sound. After a bitter anticlimax, a melancholic passage for strings over percussion leads us to another outburst. An eerie flute solo lead us to a more tonal passage if full of tension. An unsettling coda ends the movement.
The fourth movement is the most straightforward. It begins with a brief but vigorous introduction, after which the main theme in its initial version is played by all six horns in unison. It is contrasted by more melodic ideas on woodwinds and percussion, followed by a complex interplay of all this material. A chaotic climax is followed by a slow section, in which a simple melodic line gradually grows to a massive, dissonant but grandiose coda. The work ends with a brilliant blaze.
Pictures (from left to right): Photograph of António de Oliveira Salazar (c1968). Three statues at the Science and Technology faculty of the University of Coimbra. "We are all Portuguese: Equal before the homeland, equal before the law” Portuguese propaganda poster from Angola during the Colonial Wars (1961-74).
Musical analysis partially written by myself. Source: rb.gy/7m4q4
Unfortunately the score is not freely available.

[@kuang-licheng402]

nice

[@sansovino4124]

This is a terrific symphony and deserves to be better known. It has aspects of Villa Lobos in the hot-jungle atmosphere. My only negative comment is the major key chord at the very end.

[@hardrada2620]

Not what Santos had in mind, but I heard/imagined this atonal, savage piece as depicting the conquest of the Aztecs by the Spanish. Great symphony! Though I too was bugged by that major key finale.

[@nav662007]

Excellent composition. And thank you for the extensive notes.

[@user-nm2or8dw1m]

Финальная часть напоминает первую брайана

[@yowzephyr]

So Santos was pressured by the Portuguese government to write music. And so somehow this elaborate music he wrote tells the story that the regime wants people to hear? So what is this music saying? I guess it's a compilation of struggle, grandiosity, and nobility. Something like that?

The composer himself said that the piece was absolute music, so there is no story to tell in the first place. Pherhaps the Zavala is a reference to the "lusotropicalism": that Portugal was a multicultural, multiracial, and pluricontinental nation, that it was not a colonial empire but a nation-state spread across continents.

[@yowzephyr]

@ Interesting. Thanks.