Muito Beleza

Dr. Abigail C. Lindo

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MUSIC INTERVIEWS

Muito Beleza is a podcast about how sounds, mundane and grandiose, shape our identities and communicate cultural knowledge and values. It intertwines ethnomusicological, cultural, sound, ecofeminist, and gender studies, focusing on relevant figures in music research and interesting musical material in different performance settings to contextualize sounds and music-making as dynamic modes of cultural transmission.

18/06/2025 · BONUS

Ana's Hands: Postcolonial Gendered Legacies of the Viola da Terra

This is a bonus episode to Muito Beleza detailing how engagement with the viola da terra (a native chordophone instrument in the Azores) is used as a vehicle for rewriting Portuguese cultural scripts regarding femininity and feminine performance as an act of postcolonial imagining. It begins with my description of the island and Catholicism in musical performance, incorporating a close reading of group rehearsals with their accompanying sounds from rehearsals. Special attention is paid to the experiences of virtuoso viola player Rafael Carvalho and his eldest female student, Sra. Ana Margarida Rêgo, who describes her relationship with the instrument throughout decades of life in Portugal – from her youth during Estado Novo dictatorial regime, when women were not permitted to play, to her recent years, where the instrument acts as an intentional form of care and leisure she can enjoy among others. I additionally include my own experiences learning the instrument and detail the basic mechanics of the instrument and its suspected path to the island during the 18th or 19th century.

20 min
13/06/2025

Thoughts on Race and Queerness with Fado Bicha

This episode features segments from a 2023 interview with Fado Bicha, a Portuguese performance and activist duo blending conventions from fado and popular music genres to shape their distinct sound. They communicate understandings of the relation between the Azores and mainland Portugal, ideas of memory and place, the region’s racial past, and queer Portuguese identity as sounded in their work to signal futurity and promote inclusivity.

14 min
11/06/2025

Cue the Canon: The Maintenance of Sonic European Identity

The value of the western musical canon is enforced by the Regional Conservatory of Ponta Delgada on São Miguel. In this episode, I explore the impact of the conservatory, the lasting knowledge of European musical excellence as communicated through the instruction and performance of classical music in the region, and the benefits of the conservatory among traditional, folk music and more contemporary vernacular music practices on the island.

8 min
11/06/2025

Tremor & the Sonic Eco-cosmopolitanism of Ponta Delgada

Tremor is an annual boutique, alternative music festival occurring on the island of São Miguel. In this episode, I consider the unique use of space and sound in the geographical spaces used for performances and experiences during Tremor to theorize an intersectionally grounded framework for approaching understandings of environmentalism and musicking in our globalized landscape.

13 min
07/06/2025

Foliões in Feteiras: Colonial Legacies and Religious Musical Performance

In this episode, hear the sounds of a religious ensemble called a folia (foliões when plural or in reference to the songs they perform). I describe my experiences with a performance group in Feteiras, on the western coast of São Miguel, and detail the more recent inclusion of female performers in the traditionally all-male groups.

11 min
06/06/2025

Ranchos Folclóricos, Cultural Labor, and Embodied Citizenship

In this episode, we hear a rehearsal from the Ilha Verde ranchos folclóricos group from Ponta Delgada as I discuss the significance of the tradition as a form of embodied citizenship in the Azores following the end of the Estado Novo.

11 min
21/05/2025

Songs with Nena: Thinking and Listening Globally

My friend Nena takes the lead for this episode, discussing her listening preferences as she considers how listening and aging go hand in hand. I met Nena in Ponta Delgada in September 2021, when we both attended Tremor (music festival) following the COVID-19 lockdown. We become fast friends and I looked forward to seeing her every year when I returned to São Miguel. She is originally from Croatia and has lived many lives as a traveler and artist. Her openness in her musical tastes - in classical and vernacular realms - is mirrored by her openness with individuals and the warmth and knowledge she brings to conversations about culture and media.

17 min
26/06/2024

Rafael and Hugo: Labor and Pleasure in Sonic Cultural Preservation

In this episode, I consider the labor of cultural preservation in the Azores connected to the viola da terra, a native chordophone with two heart-shaped holes thought to signify the connection between two lovers or the diasporic relationship between Azoreans who have immigrated to North America and those who have remained in the islands. Blending interviews from Azorean luthier Hugo Raposo and viola da terra virtuoso and instructor Rafael Carvalho, I consider how both men approach their instrumental labor and find pleasure in the work of maintaining Azorean musical traditions through their creation, instruction, and performance of the viola da terra for locals and tourists.

18 min
22/05/2024

Defining a Sonic Autonomous Cosmopolitanism

In the first episode of the season, I describe the Azores as a space for articulating a distinct form of cosmopolitanism (relative to its European counterparts) through sound, complimented by insights from Dr. Jose San-Bento, a professor of international relations at the University of the Azores in Ponta Delgada. I also provide an overview of the season ahead.

15 min
SEASON 1 TRAILER

Season 1 Trailer

This brief introduction to Muito Beleza describes the origin of the podcast's title and its ambitions. This series is about music and culture, centered on sound as a guiding force for shaping realities of our lives. The first season is set in the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean. While I specifically focus on individuals and events occurring on the island of São Miguel, the themes I address are wide-reaching and observed in other geographical and cultural contexts.

3 min

TRAILER

Season 1 Trailer

This brief introduction to Muito Beleza describes the origin of the podcast's title and its ambitions. This series is about music and culture, centered on sound as a guiding force for shaping realities of our lives. The first season is set in the Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean. While I specifically focus on individuals and events occurring on the island of São Miguel, the themes I address are wide-reaching and observed in other geographical and cultural contexts.

S1

•

3 min

Muito Beleza is a podcast about how sounds, mundane and grandiose, shape our identities and communicate cultural knowledge and values. It intertwines ethnomusicological, cultural, sound, ecofeminist, and gender studies, focusing on relevant figures in music research and interesting musical material in different performance settings to contextualize sounds and music-making as dynamic modes of cultural transmission.

Creator

Dr. Abigail C. Lindo
Episodes

10
Copyright

© AT8 Productions & Abigail C. Lindo
Show Website

Muito Beleza