The Philarmonique Portugaise de Paris: Towards Representations of National Identity

In every country to which Portuguese people migrate, there are several cultural associations, musical or others, created by and for these migrants, with different goals. From a preliminary research, the associations that include a musical group tend to represent itself by a folkloric group similar to those in Portugal. For my PhD, I will explore the Philarmonique Portugaise de Paris, an exceptional case of the Portuguese associative movement in France; a wind band instead of a folklore group, the only of its kind known in a European country. The main
questions involve the way in which Portuguese migrants individuals with musical habits from the past in situations of the intercultural present. How do musical habits and practices relate with processes of adaptation / insertion / cultural acquaintanceship in several environments – seen as cultural interfaces in Paris? Which cultural associations and groups do these migrant musicians integrate? In which events, festive or others, involving music, do they participate? How is the Philarmonique Portugaise de Paris characterized? In what musical activities
engages? And in what social contexts participate? Why and how was it created? The notions of representation of identity, national consciousness, and emotional adaptation in new environments will be core targets in my work, observing motivations, exercises and related results. My study of relationships between music and human mobility, in an age in which migrant processes emerge as a social and humanitarian scourge, intends to contribute to the link between academic work and current social life.