Text on Évora Discalced Carmelite Soundscape

I published a text last July a text in the Portuguese journal Herança – Revista de Cultura e Património (volume 1, issue 1) about the Discalced Carmelite convent of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios in Évora.

This was an introductory study I made last year and presented in summary at the Carmelites Congress organized by the Geographical Society of Lisbon in July 2017. There is still much to know about the musical activity in the convent of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios of Évora since the documentation that survived is scarce on this matter. I have put together some elements that characterized, although superficially, the musical activity of this house together with some orientations of the Order’s ceremonial books.

The historical soundscape studies have allowed to understand Évora’s musical activity in a new and fresh way (in my opinion) since institution like this with few musical documental references can be integrated in the city’s musical network without compromising the house history. The Discalced friars participated in public events such as processions and other religious and civic manifestations, also being visited by the city’s other religious houses in events of this kind that they themselves organized.

One of the Évora composers I am working on my PhD thesis, Diogo Dias Melgaz, was linked to the convent of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios. He was buried there in 1700, probably because he was not a man of wealth and, as usual, the convents of S. Francisco, S. Domingos and, later, of Nossa Senhora dos Remédios (Franciscans, Dominicans, and Discalced Carmelites) would receive these “unwealthy” burrials.

The article is available at Humanities Commons