and the Cante Alentejano

On November 27, 2014, the United Nations United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), declared Cante Alentejano as Intangible Culture Heritage of Mankind

 

It is in cellars and taverns that the most spontaneous and authentic cultural manifestations emerge, and it is also in them the privileged stage of men who, taking advantage of the leisure hours before or after work, release their voices in unparalleled unison, in which polyphonies find the natural stage of their emotions and genuine feelings. Divided between the Point, the High and the Seconds Voices, a group of cante alentejano has in its repertoire "modas" about work, love, contemplation, and nostalgia. Other characteristics that distinguish it are its slowness, accentuations, melismas, and certain harmonic anomalies.

 

The cante alentejano thus finds in the Wine of Talha the ideal partner for a irrefutable conviviality, in which men share the joys and sorrows of their daily lives and echo their personal, family and Community policies.

 

The wine and the cante, the cante and the wine. Old inseparable friends who live in the cellars and in the taverns, testify the laborious ability of human effort with musical and poetic creativity. They are the greatest interpreters, who justify the union of the voices of friends with the purpose of sharing the narratives of human effort and condition through the polyphonic songs.

 

If it is in the vineyard that everything starts when we talk about “Vinho da Talha”, and if it is in the grape picker and “almocreve” the source of the poetic and musical creativity where cante alentejano stories are born, is in the taverns and cellars that the pretexts and vocations, spontaneously and genuinely emerge under the common feeling that brings out the “moda” accompanied with a glass of wine. This wine tasted in a balanced way, following the silence that is established after a conversation that ended and introduced the pretext for the “moda’s” letter. Cante Alentejano and the Wine of Talha thus establish an intimate and an accomplice that is impossible to disassociate and untangle.

 

On November 27, 2014, the United Nations United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), declared Cante Alentejano as Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The video below, published by UNESCO, explains in a synthesized way, the reasons why this Heritage of Alentejo is one of the greatest treasures of Portugal.