Starting this month, the Loulé Criativo project will have another artisan and soon a Guinness record holder: Manuel Amorim, the chordophone builder who created the largest Portuguese guitar in the world, which was installed at Largo da Sé, in Porto, in 2001, when Invicta was European Capital of Culture, it will now open a workshop in the center of the Algarve city.
The artisan, who took a course in building traditional instruments at the University of Coimbra, moved to Faro in 2002, where he opened a workshop to continue building guitars, but «it was very difficult to survive from the activity and I also started teaching. I worked and taught music», he tells the Sul Informação.
The construction of chordphones ended up being left behind and the workshop closed. Manuel Amorim has taught music throughout nine academic years, but the “little animal” for a craft that, in the Algarve, is done by few people, has remained.
After a «180-degree turn» in his life, he moved again to another city and chose Loulé, which opened the doors to a new space for him to continue his work.
«I had this idea of opening a new cordophone construction workshop and went to the Câmara de Loulé. The idea was much cherished by the coordinator of the Loulé Criativo project, Teresa Mascarenhas. I presented a sketch and she was very interested and the possibility arose of having a shared space, side by side, with a goldsmith», says Manuel Amorim.
The idea is that «this month we can open the workshop», so that the master luthier can proceed with a 'very difficult profession'. Manuel Amorim even compares the construction of a guitar to the education of a child. “When we started, because my entire construction process is manual, we don't know how it will end. A small mistake in the beginning can turn out to be a big mistake in the end. We're never sure if it's going to be a good instrument until we put strings on it. That's why I usually say that it's like raising a child».
Also for this reason, says the artisan, “when I sold an instrument, it was like a pain. A piece that I used to spend several months with, from one moment to another, goes away».
Manuel Amorim has been building guitars for over 20 years and has «instruments spread all over the world». In terms of variety, «I've built almost all stringed instruments in mainland Portugal, from Portuguese guitars, classical guitars, campaniça guitars… I haven't built Azorean wire guitars yet, I haven't felt that challenge yet».
Despite building instruments and having been a music teacher, Manuel Amorim does not consider himself a musician. “I leave that ability to whoever is. Therefore, musicians are always welcome in the workshop. They are the ones who help me to always improve. They present new ideas and solutions for new sounds».
Who can also give new ideas and solutions are the designers, with whom the master luthier wants to establish partnerships within the scope of Loulé Criativo. "You designers they may, who knows, help create a new instrument. I would like people from other areas to pass through this new space. It would be fantastic, we can always transform or recreate something that already exists».
Establishing partnerships with schools is another of Manuel Amorim's bets, not least because of the link it has with education. “I would like to go to schools and show what I do. Talking about history, taking instruments, taking tools, taking the wood and having the kids play with it, bend it. Basically, to show how we can shape a board and turn it into a musical instrument», he reveals.
The artisan even leaves a challenge: «I would like to have three or four young people who wanted to spend mornings and afternoons in the workshop to start teaching how to work seriously with chordphones. Young people who went there to learn the dynamics of construction and then continue them».
Manuel Amorim says that, after having had the opportunity given by the Loulé Criativo project to «return to work seriously», he liked to transmit what he learned, «it was fantastic. And it is commendable that the Câmara de Loulé supports these activities that can be seen with different eyes by young people. It is a way of valuing the past, looking ahead to the future», he concludes.
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