Portuguese Folk Music

Portuguese folk music encompasses the regional traditional repertories of Portugal — Minho viras and chulas, Alentejo polyphonic cante, Trás-os-Montes bagpipe and frame-drum traditions, island songs of the Azores and Madeira — and the modern folk revival that drew on them. Its modern canon was shaped by the música de intervenção generation: *José Afonso* and his peers rebuilt songs from regional sources into a nationally shared repertory during and after the Estado Novo dictatorship. Characteristic sounds include the twelve-string guitarra portuguesa, cavaquinho, adufe frame drum, gaita-de-foles bagpipes and close communal singing, in dance metres and slow polyphony alike.