Modinha is the affectionate (grammatically called 'diminutive') form of the Portuguese noun "moda", meaning "fashion". The word "moda" is also used in Portugal, today, generally referring to traditional regional songs. In Portugal, "modinha" was, from the last third part of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century, a general term designating sentimental songs in Portuguese.
Modinha is the affectionate (grammatically called 'diminutive') form of the Portuguese noun "moda", meaning "fashion". The word "moda" is also used in Portugal, today, generally referring to traditional regional songs. In Portugal, "modinha" was, from the last third part of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century, a general term designating sentimental songs in Portuguese.
Under this designation were referred, in fact, in this time (from the last third part of the 18th to the beginning of 19th century), musical realities of very diversified characteristics, with grade of very variable poetic and musical complexities and cultivated in also very different social circuits. They designated 'modinhas' (aristocrats') salon songs of academic composers, many times with texts of Portuguese Arcadia poets, sometimes with one vocal line, others two voices in counterpoint, in both cases with a more or less elaborated accompaniment of a harmonic instrument, generally harpsichord. But the term was also used many times by foreign travelers referring to songs of farmers of Lisbon's neighboring regions and of blind beggars of the capital's street. In these cases most mentioned characters are the simplicity of guitar's harmonic accompaniment, the melancholic and nostalgic character of poem and of melody, and improvising nature of interpretation.
Discovered by embedding cosine similarity (sentence-transformers MiniLM, 384-dim).