Cante Alentejano

Cante is a chorus with no instruments in it. Twenty or thirty singers stand in a rough half circle; one voice, the ponto, starts a line alone, a second called the alto takes it up a register above, and the rest come in underneath in two parts. Nothing is conducted and nothing is amplified. The songs belong to the Alentejo plain and are mostly about work, the land, love and absence, sung slowly with long held notes. Serpa and the towns around Beja are the heartland, where groups rehearse in association halls and sing at the end of long meals. It was inscribed by UNESCO in 2014.

What you actually see

• The half circle - twenty or more singers, unaccompanied, shoulder to shoulder.
• Ponto and alto - the two lead voices that open and lift each verse.
• The association halls - the local clubs where groups rehearse and perform.
• The town festivals - Alentejo councils programme cante nights through the year.

When to go

Spring and autumn, when the Alentejo is bearable and town calendars are full. Serpa, Cuba, Beja and Castro Verde all programme cante evenings, often free and often starting late. Ask at a municipal tourist office for the month's list, because these are local events rarely advertised to visitors. It also happens unannounced at the end of long lunches.

Honest expectations

It is slow, repetitive and entirely in Portuguese, and it asks for patience rather than offering a show; some visitors last twenty minutes. Staged performances arranged for tour groups are noticeably flatter than a hall full of members. The scene is ageing, so what you hear may be a group of men in their seventies. Nothing is scheduled for convenience.

Nearby

Serpa, Beja and Moura sit within an hour of each other; Evora is further north.