Binaural / Nodar and
Associação Aldeias de Magaio

Present:

Vozes de Magaio Festival
Sheltering and Transhumating the Oral Tradition

20 a 22 Maio 2011
Oliveira, Fujaco, Macieira and Sul villages
(S. Pedro do Sul Municipality, Viseu District)

The voice is the main instrument of human communication. The voice draws and transmits content, creates links between subjects and involves listening and participation. The voice (ours and others) takes us out, frees us from the unbearable weight of repetition, which otherwise we would be confined to. Voice is sound, is a symbol of interiority otherwise inexpressible. The voice prepares the sense of place where the word will be said.

The voice is an archetypal force, it is a primordial image endowed with a powerful creative dynamism. It is the “place” where the language articulates, that goes beyond the voice with all its existential force, materiality and meaning. “The voice is a question not yet organized, pure and free significant that pointing, waving and alluding without saying. The voice says itself in the moment it is said: it is pure demand. The inarticulate shout, the pure groan, the wordless vocalization, the cry of the war are explosions of the being that identifies itself with its own voice: the voice is the desire to say and to exist.” (Paul Zumthor)

In the rural region of the Portuguese mountain range of Gralheira (S. Pedro do Sul Municipality), inhabited by communities that had subsistence agriculture and herding as dominant activities, and in which electricity and, consequently, TV, arrived only about 30 years ago, all knowledge and communication had the human voice as their medium. This fact was enough to give a dense richness to the whole oral discourse… the idiosyncrasy, the puzzling, the subliminal, the accents… issues that increasingly are being more standardized.

These rural villages, recently integrated in the “Aldeias de Magaio” (Magaio Villages) network, presently still retain traces of orality that manifest themselves in all aspects of practical, mental and spiritual life:

The voice that prays and confesses
The voice that sings the divine
The voice that carries the legend
The voice that calls the animals
The voice that sings the cycle of land
The voice that sings impromptu
The voice that proclaims the merchandise
The voice that convokes the community
The voice that denounces the condition
The voice that keeps the accent
The voice that perpetuates the vocabulary
The voice that echoes in the landscape
The voice that subverts the canon
The voice that auctions on a day of feast
The voice that rises in tone with the wine
The voice that repeats the litany
The voice that rocks the child
The voice that evokes the ancestral divinity

The Vozes de Magaio Festival proposes to create a dialogue between all forms of rural oral heritage and contemporary art forms centered in the human voice and that work with issues as origin, meaning, the relationship with the sacred (reconnected to its meaning and ancestral symbolism of mystery and symbol), the voice as a pivotal element of rituals, customs and superstitions, able to enchant the listener and bring deep changes to the reality, in the communities and territory, the voice as the protagonist of memories, myths, archetypes, folk wisdom handed down through the centuries, or even the voice of everyday, tool for work and life.

The festival will take place in three different periods of 2011 – May, June and September/October -, will include the presence of tens of national and international artists and will offer a vast program of activities directed to varied audiences: concerts, video screenings, environmental activities, activities of discovery of the local oral and musical heritage, traditional balls, gastronomy, handicraft and produce market, etc..

Program

Friday, 20 May

5.00 pm: The Voice That Echoes in the Landscape
Isabel Silvestre and Vozes de Manhouce
Chestnut Grove of Macieira (Sul)

6.00 pm – midnight: Galician-Portuguese Tavern Songs
With Ugia Pedreira, Uxía, Guadi Galego, Pedro Pascual.
Coordination by aCentral Folque (Galicia)

6.00 pm – Restaurante Salva Almas, Macieira
7.30 pm – Restaurante Típico O Rochedo, Fujaco
9.00 pm – Associação Cultural, Recreativa e Desportiva de Oliveira e Aveloso (includes dinner at the price of 10 Euros. Reservations: (+351) 232 723 160 / ana-binauralmedia.org)

Saturday, 21 May

10.00 am: Oral Memory of a Village
Interpretative Walk through the village of Macieira
Organization: Casa Recreativa Macieirense
(Price: 10 Euros including lunch / 5 Euros for children up to 12 years old). Reservations: (+351) 232 723 160 / ana-binauralmedia.org)

12.30 pm: The Voice of the Ingredients
Traditional Lunch
Stage of Casa Recreativa Macieirense, Macieira

2.30 pm: First Rural Video Screening: The Anthropologic Voice
Old Primary School of Fujaco

Videos to be screened:
Joana Nascimento – “SimLugares” (2009, 15’)
Sofia Borges – “Aldeia do Lado” (2009, 40’)
Manuela Barile – “Rheia Zoontes” (2011, 10’)
Luigi di Gianni –“Magia Lucana” (1958, 18’)
Gianfranco Mingozzi – “La Taranta” (1962, 20’)

5.00 pm: Presentation of “Magaio Voicescapes” International Artistic Creations
Headquarters of Associação Cultural e Recreativa do Fujaco (Old Primary School)
-C: Pedro Tudela and Miguel Carvalhais (Portugal)
Suzanne Barnard (United States)
Pierre Gauvin (Canada)

7.00 pm: Improvised Duels of Voices and Concertinas
Courtyard of Old Primary School of Fujaco

8.00pm: The Voice of the Ingredients
Traditional Dinner
Restaurante Salva Almas, Macieira

10.00 pm: The Voice of the Body: Traditional Ball
Sons da Beira Alta Orchestra
Casa Recreativa Macieirense, Macieira

Sunday, 22 May

9.00 am: Opening of the Village Market
Fruits | Vegetables | Smoked Sausages | Pastries | Handicraft | Activities for Kids
Main Square, Sul

9.30 am: Horseback Sound Ride
Sul Parish
Organization: Associação dos Produtores Florestais do S. Macário
(Price: 10 Euros per person, including traditional lunch in Sul)

10.30 am: The Voice that Prays and Confesses
Sunday Mass
Parochial Church of Sul

12.30 pm: The Voice of the Ingredients
Traditional Lunch
Casa do Povo de Sul
Organization: Rancho Folclórico da Freguesia de Sul and Associação Recreativa e Cultural dos Pesos de Sul

2.30 pm: Happy are the People who Sing and Dance

Grupo de Cantares de Candal (40 minutes)
Rancho Folclórico da Freguesia de Sul (20 minutes)
Rancho Folclórico Juvenil de Oliveira de Sul (20 minutes)
Rancho Folclórico dos Pesos de Sul (20 minutes)
Grupo de Concertinas de Lafões (1 hour)

Main Square, Sul

From 3.00 pm on: Traditional Afternoon Snack
Main Square, Sul
Organization: Rancho Folclórico dos Pesos do Sul

Organization
Binaural / Nodar and Associação Aldeias de Magaio

Financial Support
Portuguese Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for the Arts | Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation

Partners,
S. Pedro do Sul Municipal Council, aCentral Folque (Galicia), CLDS – São Pedro do Sul: O Futuro é Aqui, Pés na Terra, Cooperativa de Produtores Terras de S. Pedro do Sul, Casa Recreativa Macieirense, Restaurante Salva Almas, Associação de Produtores Florestais do S. Macário, Parish Council of Sul, Rancho Folclórico da Freguesia de Sul, Rancho Folclórico Juvenil de Oliveira de Sul, Rancho Folclórico dos Pesos de Sul, Associação Cultural e Recreativa do Fujaco, Restaurante Típico O Rochedo (Fujaco), Associação Cultural, Recreativa e Desportiva de Oliveira e Aveloso, Associação Recreativa e Cultural dos Pesos de Sul