Ronda dos Quatro Caminhos appears at the end of 1983. For some years now, musicians have been devoting their attention to popular culture, instruments and traditional music.
Although in line with deep respect for the essential characteristics and specificity of each Region, they embarked not so much on the simple reproduction of their songs as on a work of recreation. It is in this perspective that the first LP, “Ronda dos Quatro Caminhos”, appears in 1984, which would be very well accepted and was published in several European countries.
The album “Cantigas do Sete – Estrelo” was published in 1985. The shows were already a constant in the life of the group, which in July of that year represented Portugal in an International Festival in the south of France. This is the band’s last album with the collaboration of Vítor Reino.
At Christmas 1985, the third album, “Canções Tradicionais Infantis”, is published, a work that aims to bring traditional Portuguese music to the youngest.
In 1986, the group receives the award from the magazine “Nova Gente”. His fourth album entitled “Amores de Maio” is edited.
In 1987, live shows followed one another and put an old idea into practice: making a record of traditional fados. This is how the album “Fados Velhos” appears.
In 1988 they traveled to Canada for a series of presentations in Toronto and Montreal, and to Holland, performing in Amsterdam.
The compilation “O Melhor da Ronda” was published in 1989. This year they performed in Cape Verde.
In 1991 the album “Romarias” is edited. They perform 25 shows in Belgium (at the invitation of Europalia) and some shows in France (Paris, Bordeaux, Poitiers, Montmorillon). That year they put on about 70 shows, in the country and abroad.
As a corollary of his tribute to popular and traditional music, in May 1993, at the Teatro Municipal de S. Luiz, in Lisbon, the show “a night of traditional music” took place, which achieved a notable success.
The album “Uma Noite de Música Tradicional”, recorded live, is released in 1994.
In 1995, ten years after its original edition, the album “Canções Tradicionais Infantis” is released on CD, through Polygram.
In 1997 “Recantos” was published, an album marked by a new sound achieved by a more urban instrumentation based on violins and acoustic piano. The group’s first album is reissued this year by Movieplay and the group participates in the 8th Intercéltico Festival.
The album “Outras Terras”, released in author edition, is published in 1999.
On the 24th and 25th of November 2000, Ronda dos Quatro Caminhos gives two shows at Teatro Garcia de Resende, in Évora.
The album “Alçude”, recorded live at shows in Évora, was released in May 2001. The album was released at Fábrica da Música, in Évora. The disc includes six original songs.
In 2003, the album “Terra de Abrigo” was released, featuring the Cordoba Symphony Orchestra, seven Alentejo choirs and the voices of Katia Guerreiro, Esperanza Fernandez and Amina Alaoui. This year the group celebrated its twenty years of existence in the dissemination and recovery of Traditional Portuguese Music.
In January 2004 the group presented the project Terra de Abrigo in the large auditorium of the Centro Cultural de Belém, in two concerts that led to the publication of a DVD with the same name.
In 2007, with the participation of Adufeiras de Monsanto, the Grupo Coral Guadiana de Mértola, the Cantares de Évora, the Coro Polifônico Eborae Musica, and the String Quartet Opus 4, the CD Sulitânia is published, following an invitation from the Municipalities from Évora, Mértola and Idanha-a-Nova.
In 2014, the group recorded the CD Tierra Alantre, once again rediscovering classical music. The disc, dedicated to regional music from Trás os Montes, Minho, and Galicia, was entirely recorded with the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and with the Opera Choir of the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos.
Also in 2014, the group performs live at the Teatro Nacional de S. Carlos, accompanied by the Portuguese Symphony Orchestra and the National Theater Opera Choir. The concert, sold out, was broadcast live worldwide by RDP, and was one of the most memorable nights of the group’s career.
In these more than thirty years of intense activity, Ronda dos Quatro Caminhos has given hundreds of concerts throughout the country and abroad, recorded 15 albums, and made its modest contribution to the preservation and dissemination of the Traditional Songbook and Regional Instruments.
In 2017 the group released the CD Sopas do Espírito Santo, dedicated to traditional music from the Azores, with the participation of Orquestra Regional Lira Açoriana, and musicians and Polyphonic Choirs from all the islands of the Archipelago, in a production in which around 300 musicians participated. and singers.
Fifteen years after his first album, some chords from this album emerged between Cape Verde, Alentejo and Galicia. The quatrains of the Cancioneiro Popular were selected and adapted by António Prata to the fashions of the Azores, Alentejo, Beiras and Trás-os-Montes.
António Prata is the only one of the group’s founders who still remains in the current formation.
