SOUND LIBRARY SERVICE MUSIC WORKSHOPS

Within the framework of the Development of Artistic Sensibility Programme, the Lisbon Sound Library Service promotes various Music Workshops and courses for different sectors of the population as well as for different education levels. Benefiting from the richness and wide sellection of the Music Collection of the Sound Library Service, every year in these workshops, we try to provide families and schools with stimulating approaches to our musical patrimony, and to cross music with other areas of knowledge, culture and the arts.

Among the various workshops we have been promoting we can, for example, highlight As Canções que fizeram Abril ( The songs that made April), where, through music, archived images and films, we look at the history of Portugal from its dictatorship up to democracy reflecting on the vital role played by some of the protest lyrics and songs; Grandes Filmes, grandes músicas (Great Films, great songs) where we  analyse the decisive role of music in some of the major works of cinema; Songs of the Gypsy Diaspora, where we look at chants, instruments and dances which express the very strong gypsy identity and which have richly influenced the history of traditional, classical or pop music; or then again, Ponto, linha, desenho música – Cruzamentos entre a música e as artes plásticas (Point, line, drawing, music – an intersection between music and the visual arts), where we try to identify processes and concepts common to the visual arts and music in different historical contexts, establishing formal, conceptual and stylistic bridges and where we experiment the creative processes triggered by concrete musical stimuli through drawing. We believe that any approach to music in a workshop – which always entails different proposed themes designed for different levels of education, whether it be from a more historical, didactic or experimental angle –  needs to enlist the body, the handling of different sound producers and the activation of all the senses in order to enhance the development of the creative and artistic sensibility. Thus, in the Sound Library Service Music workshop, the public is encouraged to have an active and emotional involvement with the music through the body, the voice and the musical instruments that are made available. But they are also challenged to question and reflect in a critical way on what they see, experience and hear.

Finally, if all goes well, the public is touched by a curiosity and willingness to extend their musical horizons  and to build bridges with other communities and cultures.