Looking to the past, projecting a different future: the revival of the viola toeira

Abstract

This paper focuses on the revival of viola toeira, a Portuguese wire-strung guitar that by the mid-twentieth century was threatened to disappear. In the mid-2010s, several Coimbra-based luthiers restarted this instrument's construction. Their workshops established a unique context for the emergence of revivals, which favored the approach to viola toeira as an 'ecological system' (Titon 2009), comprising construction, music teaching, participatory music-making (Turino 2008) and performances in local venues. Contrasting with initiatives undertaken in the 1980s, led by local authorities and scholars who intended to 'recover' the viola toeira to foster the 'truth' of local folklore, this post-revival cycle (Bithel-Hill 2014) emerged as a bottom-up dynamic that brought together people from different academic and professional backgrounds, working collaboratively to assure the sustainability of this instrument construction and performance. During fieldwork, I realized that these people draw on concepts such as 'authenticity', and 'historical fidelity', revealing an intention to connect with the past of the viola toeira and thereby establish their legitimacy as stewards of this part of the local musical heritage. Nonetheless, as supported by literature on music revival, this look at the past is guided by a desire to transform the present (Ronström 1996; Livingston 1999). Indeed, many revivalist agents defined their commitment to the viola toeira revival as activism, emphasizing the urgency of safeguarding diversity of local musical practices, threatened by rampant globalization and tourism. Moreover, these agents valued their participation in this revival as an opportunity to collectively build and reinforce the sense of belonging to the place in which they live. This study addresses the following questions: how can the revival of an 'ancient' instrument be an effective means of activism? in what way can safeguarding its music ecosystem establish opportunities for community-oriented relationships? and what should be the role of ethnomusicologists in supporting this ecosystem?