viking.com | 37
E X P E R I E N C E S I S S U E 2 3
LISBON, PORTUGAL
Any Lisboeta will tell you that one
of the city's must-do experiences is
to wander among the cobbled
alleyways, slip inside a tasca (tavern)
and listen to Portugal's haunting
national soundtrack: fado.
Translated as fate, fado is
renowned for its deeply expressive
and melancholic character. It
originated in the early 19th
century on the streets of Lisbon's
Alfama neighbourhood, and is
usually accompanied by a
Portuguese 12-string guitar. Each
ballad speaks of life, passion and
struggle, and evokes the
Portuguese emotion of
saudade—a longing for something
lost. Lisbon's Fado scene has
always been dominated by
women. In a homage to the
undisputed queen of fado, Amália
Rodrigues, most performers have
traditionally cloaked themselves in
a black shawl and donned red
lipstick before belting out songs of
heartache, lost sailors and
tempestuous passions as their
voices hover on the edge of a sob.
Fado is held in such high regard
that UNESCO recognised the art
form on its Intangible Cultural
Heritage List in 2011.
BERGEN, NORWAY
Edvard Grieg, the Norwegian
composer best known for his Piano
Concerto in A minor and Peer Gynt
suites, was born in Bergen in 1843
and the city is justifiably obsessed
with its most famous native son.
Bergen hosts an extensive concert
series of Grieg's music in the
beautiful surroundings of the
medieval Holy Church of the Cross
each summer (June to August) but
there's plenty to occupy classical
music fans year-round. The
composer lived in the same house,
in Troldhaugen, just outside
Bergen city centre, for 22 years
and wrote many of his best works
in a little hut overlooking the fjord.
Now a museum, it is open to
visitors all year and hosts daily
lunchtime concerts and Sunday
evening recitals from June to
September. Grieg served as artistic
director of the Bergen Philharmonic,
one of the world's oldest
orchestras, between 1880
and 1882.
Today the orchestra is based at
Grieg Hall in central Bergen, where
it performs a varied programme
of classical concerts, operas and
contemporary works.
XIAN, CHINA
While Western classical music is
known and loved in China, Chinese
traditional music is unfamiliar to
most in the West.
Xian, a capital of 10 ancient
dynasties and today one of China's
most visited cities, is a great place
for culturally curious travellers.
The Tang period (618–907), when
Xian (then called Chang'an) was
the most populous city in the
world, was a particularly fruitful
time for the development of music
in China. The dynasty's extensive
trade links with Persia, the Arab
world, India and the Malay
peninsula meant that Xian's
cultural community was in
constant flux, with both
commercial and courtly music
scenes reflecting the broad range
of styles.
One style of music thought to have
originated during that era is Xian
guyue, a type of ceremonial folk
music that features wind and
percussion. Placed on the UNESCO
Intangible Cultural Heritage
list in 2009, it is performed
both at indoor performances and
outdoors, in street parades and at
temple fairs.
2
4
3
Fado - Music of Portugal
Edvard Grieg's Bergen home
