The musicians of the portuguese National Woodwind Quintet: ordinary or extraordinary workers?

Abstract

The Portuguese National Woodwind Quintet has its activity between 1950 and 1976, during the Estado Novo Dictatorship, and it was constituted by the flautist Luiz Boulton (1908-1994), the oboist José dos Santos Pinto (1917-2014), the clarinetist Carlos Saraiva (1910-2001), the bassoonist Ângelo Pestana (1919-2002) and the horn player Adácio Pestana (1925-2004). Their musical apprenticeship started in a local context (Riley & Brucher 2018) of philharmonic and military bands, in which they constructed a “wide and multifaceted” profile of musicians (Cardoso 2019, 16), which means that they learned to play an instrument, to compose and to conduct. In the decade of 1940, they moved to the “world” (Becker 1982) of the professional musical practice in Lisbon, obtaining recognition as orchestral and chamber wind players and also as specialized instrument teachers. In this categorized context (Pestana 2012, Castelo-Branco 2008), also promoted by the corporatism of the regime and with a lot of power games made by several agents, some facets/dimensions of the musicians were not recognized, such as their activity as composers, arrangers or conductors. In this sense, this paper wants to reflect on how these musicians became “ordinary workers” (Clonnan 2014, Menger 2005) for their pairs and the Music History, besides their extraordinary and multifaceted profile (Cardoso 2019, Perenoud 2009). For that reflection, I support myself on the bibliographical and archivist research, but also in interviews made to family, friends, students and other people who met the musicians.