The History of Tunas

 

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.

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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=