"Moda do Pandeiro" - Portuguese/Mirandense Folk song (PT LYRICS + Translation ENG)

Origin: Moimenta de Vinhais, Vinhais, Bragança (Trás-os-Montes)
Artist: Arrefole
Album: ‘ARRE’ (2022)

Today I bring you another song about the Pandeiro!

This ‘Moda do Pandeiro’ (song of the tambourine, loosely translated) is an interpretation of the tunes recorded in Ernesto Veiga de Oliveira's audios***, collected in the frontier town of Vinhais, naturally influenced by the portuguese Lands of Miranda, and the neighbouring spanish regions of Castilla-León and Galicia. In some of the songs, you can hear the ‘Pandeiro’ (tambourine) accompanied by the bagpipes, a type of instrumentation that unfortunately seems to have disappeared. This song can also be heard, accompanied by the Mirandese pandeiro between each quatrain, in the album ‘Recolhas Musicais da Tradição Oral Portuguesa’ (Musical Collections of the Portuguese Oral Tradition), dedicated to the region of Trás-os-Montes (1982). The instrument was played by the women during the round games and parallel dances, which were common forms of socialising at the end of the farm work (e.g. ‘modas de serão’ in the north-east of Trás-os-Montes; ‘modas de adufe’ in Beira Baixa; ‘saias’ in Alto Alentejo). In fact, when the weeding was still going on, it was usual to see the girls carrying the pandeiro to play along the way, while the boys carried the realejo (barrel organ), the gaita-de-beiços (harmonica) and the pandeireta (small tambourine). The young people sang, played and even danced as they went to and from the fields.

The Pandeiro, in itself, is a generic term used to designate the family of instruments made up of a stretched skin attached to a frame, which is played by the hands of the performer, who can often place beads, rattles or seeds inside the instrument to enrich the sound. In Portugal, the square-shaped ones are called ‘adufes’ (timbrels) in the Beira Baixa and Beira Alta regions, while in Trás-os-Montes and Alentejo they are simply called ‘Pandeiros’ (tambourines). In the province of Trás-os-Montes, it is also commonly called ‘Pandeiro Mirandês’ (from the lands of Miranda). It differs from the 'adufe' not only because of its smaller size, but also because it varies in shape (triangular, hexagonal, pentagonal, lozenge-shaped and quadrangular, as shown in the photo). Today, the term pandeiro/pandero is still used in parts of Galicia, Asturias and Portugal to describe the square drum, while the round drum with a set of small metal discs (jingles) is known as a pandeira in Galicia and a pandeireta in Portugal.

Overall, the origins and traditions of the Pandeiro are fairly ancient. As I mentioned earlier, this instrument is often associated with women, having once been strictly made and played by them. Perhaps because it's a small, light and easily transportable instrument. On the other hand, this whole family of membranophones has been attributed a Moorish origin, albeit erroneous, whose belief is more a reminiscence of the 19th century romanticism than an accurate reflection of the historical reality. In fact, the presence of pandeiros is recorded in cultures around the broad Mediterranean basin, for example, in a mosaic from Pompeii popular musicians are depicted, including a round pandeiro, while biblical exegetes see pandeiros in the hands of Moses' sister and the women who followed her in a verse from Exodus.

Finally, the construction and use of these instruments has almost disappeared, so the current recording work is fundamental, namely the recent videos directed by the director Tiago Pereira, where you can watch Maria Helena Ventura** (the way she plays resembles the women playing the pandeiro in Galicia), and Fernanda de Lurdes Atanásio***.

Music:    • Pandeiro  

Audios by E. Veiga de Oliveira*
1st and 2nd Quatrain - https://www.memoriamedia.net/index.php/arq...
3rd and 1st Quatrain - https://www.memoriamedia.net/index.php/arq...

Maria H. Ventura** (‘Este pandeiro que eu toca’): https://vimeo.com/75814365

Fernanda L. Atanásio*** (Pandeiro player and maker): https://vimeo.com/196903075

Photo: Possible Folkloric Group from Trás-os-Montes, based on the women and bagpiper's costumes, characteristic of this region, and the various pandeiros (https://terramater.pt/pandeiro/)