This
article is about the history of the Tunas. But what is a Tuna? It is a group of
musicians, with the fundamental characteristic of being made up of
chordophones. According to an explanation in the book “QVID TUNAE - A Tuna Estudantil
em Portugal”, from 2011 , by
the authors Eduardo Coelho, Jean Pierre Silva, Rocardo Tavares and João Paulo
Sousa, the first book in the world to try to explain the Tunas, the reason The name
“tuna” is because the “thunes” (hostels for poor people) probably received
students without many resources who stayed there when they passed through the
cities where they participated in musical activities. Other explanations are
also possible for the name.
A
tuna can be described according to its instrumental type, for example, using only
instruments (that's how it started) or also with singing (which is more common
nowadays). It can be a student tuna (the origins are in the students of the
19th and early 20th centuries) and the musicians can play sitting or standing
or even both ways. Academic or University Tunas are student tunas. In relation
to academics, they can be formations of high school students (which were
numerous from the 19th century until the 70s of the 20th century) and in the
case of university ones, they are formed by students from a University.
The
groups that gave rise to the tunas began in the 1830s, in Spain. They were the
“Estudantinas”, carnival groups who dressed like students. Characteristics
present in Spanish tunas also became part of Portuguese tunas, such as the way
of standing and carrying the banner and tambourines , the symbols on the
covers.
In
the mid-19th century or a little later, there were already records of tunas in
Portugal. The visits of the Tuna of Santiago de Compostela ( with its own
hierarchy, rules and organization ) and then that
of Salamanca to the University of Coimbra were important. Around this time, the
Estudantina de Coimbra emerged. Others were created by university or high
school students at that time, such as those in Porto, Viseu, Lisbon, etc. The
Tuna Académica do Liceu de Évora still exists from that early period of
Portuguese tunas .
At the end of the
19th century, Estudantina Espanhola and Estudantina Figaro stood
out , formed by professional musicians, who had an influence on the
formation of such groups throughout Europe and even in Central and South
America. These two “ studentinas ” also influenced the
musical repertoire: classical, popular and others. Interestingly, there
were students who didn't just have students as members and
some of them didn't even have a university connection. To move away from the
term e studantina , since there were groups of this type
that did not have students, students began to value the term “Tuna”. And as in
Portugal there were student tunas and others for non-students, the term
“Academic” began to be added to the student-only tunas. Most of the students
learned music in the tuna where they entered.
There was, in times before
the carnival students (who later gave rise to the tunas), the idea
of " corre la tuna " (which was another way of living
with characteristics such as deceit, begging, the search for sustenance),
with a prominent image of the bohemian student.
There
is a more romantic version about the origin of the tunas that talks about the
goliardos (Poor people of the Clergy, who studied at Universities and who
became itinerant, with a provocative manner and in the Middle Ages they walked
around taverns, University doors and other places, singing and reciting poems
(poems that could be satirical, erotic, cynical), denouncing abuse and
corruption. In the book "QVID TUNAE?" (book already
mentioned) , the theory of goliards is not accepted, nor that
troubadours, minstrels and minglers are ancestors of the Tunas.
Nowadays the members of an Academic
Tuna are mainly university students. Tunantes play classical music, adaptations
of themes, popular music and can be original compositions based on bohemia,
love, having a certain proximity to fado and even a style of music with a
humorous characteristic. Participants in these Academic Tunas wear the attire
of the educational institutions where they study or special attire that may be
inspired by student clothing from the past or adapted according to regional
characteristics.
Popular tunas, in Portugal and other
European countries, existed in rural and urban areas, and could be temporary or
more permanent. They could be amateur or more of a famous orchestra. They could
be made up of only men or only women or be mixed. They could represent
corporations (shoemakers, clerks, etc.) or villages or
neighborhoods. There were also tunas from political groups
(such as tunas linked to republican movements).
Nowadays, university academic tunas
still exist. This existence owes much to the resurgence of tunas since the
1980s. This current academic tuna has to do with a musical group formed by
students or former students of higher education. The main instruments used in a
Tuna are:Classical guitar, cavaquinho, mandolin, mandola,
acoustic bass or double bass, tambourine, accordion, bass drum, flute, violin
and viola. It is very common to have tunas among academic traditions and in
cities with universities. Tuna members often dress in black capes and students
sing ballads and serenades. There are tuna festivals, with the presence of
groups from the Iberian peninsula, South America and other places.
The Tuna Luso Brasileira club, in
Belém do Pará, emerged from a musical tuna. It was initially called Tuna Luso
Caixeiral (later called Tuna Luso Comercial), originating on January 1, 1903,
initially formed by 21 Portuguese traveling salesmen. Missing the land, the
group got together to play Portuguese music in Pará. The salesman Manoel
Nunes da Silva, who was at the port of Belém, was the leader of an orchestra
that played and sang songs to alleviate the longing for Portugal. The name Tuna
was because it was a musical group; Luso to refer to Portuguese lands; and
Caixeiral due to the founders being caixeiros (merchants). Tuna Luso from
1903 to 1906 dedicated itself to music, having even hired the Portuguese
orchestra Antônio Lobo, famous at the time. Only in 1906 did Tuna
Luso begin to carry out sporting activities, with emphasis on the sport of
rowing boats, having been called “The Queen of the Sea”, because of her triumphs
in this sport. Nowadays, Tuna Luso Brasileira continues to be a large club in
Belém do Pará and has several sporting titles.
Tuna Luso Brasileira.
__________________________________________
Márcio José Matos Rodrigues
Figura 1:
https://www.google.com/search?q=imagem+de+tunas+musicais&client=firefox-b-d&sca_esv=455241588eaade9a&ei=uZjSZdPcHqGr1sQPjsiYuAc&udm=&ved=
Figura 2:
https://www.google.com/search?q=Imagem+de+Tuna+Luso+Brasileira+clube&tbm=isch&ved=
