These lines of Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935), the great poet of Portuguese modernism, may seem at first sight to invoke the principal element of fado, Portugal's national music: the element represented by that famously untranslatable word suadade, implying longing, nostalgia, homesickness … However, they hide far deeper resonances. Mensagen (Message), the poetic sequence from which they come, is a profound exploration of Portugal's history, a modern counterpart to Camoens's great 16th-century epic The Lusiads. It is connected to the nationalist Integralismo Lusitano movement, and to Sebastianism. Other poets, particularly Mario Sa-Carneiro (1890–1916), and plastic artists, notably Amadeo de Sousa Cardoso (1887–1918) and Jose de Almada Negreiros (1893–1970), similarly reflect the strength of these patriotic and mystical ideas in Portugal during the country's deepening social crisis in the early part of the century. But Pessoa, who famously split himself into several persons, each with their own name, style and poetic output, may also stand as a symbol of the different currents Portuguese composers have ridden in search of their national identity.

What might have happened to Roberto Gerhard had he not left Spain at the end of the Spanis Civil War will remain one of the great imponderables of his career. His voluntary exile to Britain released him from the role of ‘responsible artist of the Spanish Republic’ – and from the many activities (musicological, literary, pedagogical and administrative) which however vital to the cultural politics of Catalonia had inevitably limited his composing time. He came to view exile as a ‘blessing in disguise’ and eventually took up British citizenship.

These observations form a long-delayed epilogue to my article ‘Soirées de Barcelone: a Preliminary Report’ in Tempo 139 (December 1981), where I outlined the history of Roberto Gerhard's Catalan ballet, a major score which was then (and remains now) virtually unknown save for the performance of some excerpts. For the work's conception, and its commission from Colonel de Basil's Ballets Russes de Monte Carlo, readers should consult that article, and the article by Julian White in the present issue. This was the work-in-progress – apparently still at that stage bearing its original title Les Feux de la Saint Jean – which Gerhard took with him when the climax of the Spanish Civil War and the fall of the Republic forced him into exile in France in January 1939. He continued to work on it during the following five months he spent in Paris and Meudon.

Between 1947 and 1962 Roberto Gerhard contributed incidental music to eight Shakespeare plays for the Shakespeare Memorial Theatre (later Royal Shakespeare Company). Of these, easily the most controversial was George Devine's production King Lear for the Stratford Touring Company in 1955. A far cry from his very traditional The Taming of the Shrew (1953) and still relatively ‘safe’ A Midsummer Night's Dream (1954) – for both of which Gerhard also composed music – this was a thoroughly modern production. The sets and costumes were designed by the American sculptor Isamu Noguchi (of mixed American and Japanese parentage), and were his first theatre designs. The rationale behind the production was set out in the programme:

Our object in this production has been to find a setting and costumes which would be free of historical or decorative associations so that the timeless, universal and mythical quality of the story may be clear. We have tried to present the places and the characters in a very simple and basic manner, for the play to come to life through the words and the acting.

• ‘The Doctor of Myddfai’ Roderic Dunnett

• St Magnus Festival Report Michael Tumelty

• Robert Simpson's String Quintet No. 2 Matthew Taylor

• Cheltenham Festival: new piano music Calum MacDonald

• New music at the Brighton Festival Guy Rickard

• Recent premières in Germany John Warnaby

• Dmitri Smirnov's Cello Concerto Roderic Dunnet

• Roxanna Panufnik & Arnold Bax Guy Rickards

• Recent Bartók Books Maria Harley

• Webern Michael Graubart

• Milhaud's happy life Martin Anderson

• Schnittke's ‘Faust’ (Hamburg version) Ronald Weitzman

• Holmboe and Rautavaara Guy Rickards

• Ligeti piano music Mike Searby

• Peter Serkin in real time Nicolas Hodges

• Frank Martin Peter Palmer

• Schreker operas Erik Levi

• Estrada and Nunes Ian Pace

• Miklós Rózsa Bret Johnson

• Erkki-Sven Tüür and other Estonians Mike Seabrook

• Recent Rubbra Peter Palmer

• Violin music of Benjamin Lees Bret Johnson

• American Music Calum MacDonald