Musical Tradition of Goa (western Tradition)

This Research Study on Goan Music is prepared by

Fr. Peter Cardoso Posted on 2nd March 2011

While the history of Goan Music on the lines of orthodox Indian classical music, may be said to be the same as that of the music of Hindustan, the History of Goan Music as cultivated by the Christian  section of Goa's population can be a subject of great interest  to historiographers of   comparative  music. If we try to represent the historical development and phases  of western musical art by  the names of the  most important  composers  such as Palestrina, Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart ,Beethoven , Weber, Schubert , Mendelssohn, Schuman , Wagner, and Debussy, then can safely conclude that the impact  of  western Music on Goa had begun to be felt at least a century before the rise of secular music in Europe , that  is about  fifteen  years  before the birth of Palestrina  himself.

Thus, right from the beginning of the sixteenth century  the evolution  of Goan  Music , through  the centuries, came under the influence of the successive stages of development of choral  Music, secular  music and instrumental music ,just like any other European country in the west likewise same  order, Goa came in  contact with instruments like the lute , organ ,guitar, violin and the pianoforte. Despite this early impact with western musical art, the new Goan music which resulted from the fusion therewith , retained all the strong features of its regional character , bearing at the same time distinctive traces of the early Italian Church music rather than of the Portuguese  folk song.

The reason is obvious. The mellifluous Italian  motets, hymns and masses taught  by the early Franciscan missionaries and usually sung in two voices a third  apart were introduced for religious service in the  remote village churches in the interior of Goa. The direct influence of this music on the Goan  folk song , known as the Mando , is  noticeable to this day- it being usually sung in thirds after the Italian  manner. The free parish -music-school introduced by St. Francis Xavier  and established after  in every Goan parish , popularized  the solfa-tonic system  and the cult of the violin-distinctive features these, which have characterized every Goan musician , with  that extra sense of musicianship, wherever he has made his mark.

The multipilicity of church choirs, string orchestras , military  and civil  brass bands, manned exclusively by  Goan singers and instrumentalists, provided the Goan musician with further opportunities  in the creative field of musical composition. Numerous masses , motets  and orchestral pieces, were composed by talented Goan musicians , some of whom emigrated and found their way into the important   cities of greater Indian and into the palaces of Maharajas  of the old Indian Natives States. Not only as performer of instrumental music but as teacher of music and director of string orchestras and military bands, the Goan musician made his contribution distinguished himself in greater  India but in the  principal cities of the  neighboring  countries. All these functions earned him the popular tile of ‘' The  Italian of the East''.

Till 1980, in the cosmopolitan city of Bombay , Goan musician constitute   an important element of Orchestral and Choral Society , a pioneer musical  institution of its  kind in Bombay , exclusively dedicated to the cultivation  of Goan music and musical dance-drama , is entirely manned by Goan  singers and instrumentalists. The  historical process of evolution undergone by Goan music in the course of its development  through the centuries has been the same as that of any cultural fusion of East and West anywhere  in Asia and particularly in India , namely :- Manila in the Philipines,  Hawaii in the Pacific, Saigon in Indo-china  and Java or Batavia in Indonesia. In Goa , in particular, the musical evolution could take place on lines similar  to those followed by Russian Music of strong Asiatic content or Spanish music of strong Arabic content.

At the advent of the Portuguese , the  thousand  and one ragas, modes  or scales, prevailing in Goa  at the time, in the traditional  Indian styles-which  are, incidentally, eminently well suited to the  melodic type  of music with  its filigree embellishments and complex time-patterns-gave way, restricting themselves  to only two scales out of the many available, namely Bilaval scale and the Assavari Scale, corresponding to the Major Mode and the Minor mode  of Western  Music, that is-the two principal scales on which  Western music is largely built today. To compensate for the loss of varying moods ascribed to the numerous ragas existing, harmonization was introduced to provide the third dimension of depth  with its consequent modulation involving chromaticism.

This course of events in the evolutionary process of universal music is only logical and rational. For precisely the same  thing happened to the melodic systems in  Europe , beginning with the ancient Grecian system and then  the Gregorian system  of Rome- a tradition of melodic  music right up to the end of the  13th century- which like the classical Indian music today consisted of numerous ragas and modes.

The Gregorian melodic system of modal music in Europe similarly gave way at first to modal harmonization in the contrapuntal style and ultimately to modern harmonization and orchestration, losing in the process the various modes of old, and limiting itself to only two   scales, the Bilaval and the Assavari , that is the Major and the minor modes, according to the demands of rationality involved in the  harmonic chord- progressions.

Coming back to Goan music, the same price had to be paid in order to derive the full benefit of harmonization, without losing, however, any of the truly regional characteristics of Goan music in the process. This was done by drawing upon the rich traditional repository of Goan folksong and folk dance music.

Sporadic attempts at harmonizing and orchestrating Goan music have been made at various times by known and unknown Goan musicians. But  the stupendous task of building up a solid structure of Goan music was truly made and well undertaken  by the  Goan Folksong and Choral  society , founded in Bombay years ago.

Formally established in May 1941,the Society  gave a series of full time concerts and stage shows in Bombay  and Poona, and also participated in the U.N.O. and UNESCO festivals , thus making a rich contribution to the cultural activities of India.

The Konkani music of Goa , where the impact of  western influences of art has brought about an unique and most interesting phenomenon of fused Eastern and Western culture , is made up of harmonized Goan melodies -these having easily yielded  to the treatment  because of centuries -old  historical  and  natural  evolution  of   harmony there.

The raw material utilized for the Society's performance was drawn  from the traditional Goan songs and dances , such as -(a) The Dekni,   a graceful  song-and -dance in ‘'Kerwa rhythm'' and (b) the Mando ,a social dance of Goan village-folk. Other interesting types of music used, are  the seasonal folk-dances of the fisher-folk and the ‘' Kunbis,'' the peasantry of Goa.

It was the Jesuit Gaspar Barzeu (1515-1555), native of Flanders and heir to a great tradition of Gothic mysticism and Renaissance music ,  who implanted  Western music in Goa , when he  instituted the post of choir master (mestre capela) and initiated the custom of sung mass  and of chants  accompanied by the organ. Some of the other activities he introduced also required musical performance, such as the Devotas, nocturnal chants for the  souls  in Purgatory ; the festival of Flowers, which included  a  procession to  commemorate the  birthday of the Blessed Virgin on September 8; and the  Passos ("sufferings", tableaux of  statues  displaying  the  Passion   of  Christ ).  Church schools taught  children to  sing the  catechism and it is said  that their chants,  echoing through Velha Goa  in the  evening,  made the city  itself  seem  " a chorus of music".

  Most assiduous  in training Goans  in Western  music were the   Jesuits  and their pupils had already a high proficiency  in the 17th century. In 1663,  in the basilica of Bom Jesus in Velha Goa, on the  feast of St. Ignatius Loyola,  seven  choirs  sang a  composition by Giacomo Carissimi (1605-1674),  the  greatest  master  of  early Italian oratorio.  Present  in the congregation was an emissary of Alexander ( Pope from 1655 to 1667) - one of the greatest patron of the arts in an age resplendent with  artistic  creativity- who felt  he was listening to the singing of  a choir  in  Rome.

Goan musical  culture  evolved  further  in  the  19th century. In 1831,  schools  offering  instruction  in singing were  elevated to the  rank  of  parochial  schools.  The Viceroy  Diogo de Sousa ( in office, 1816-1821) had  a palace  orchestra,  with a Eustaquio  Lobo  of  Margao  as first  violinist.  Church  music  was taught  in the Seminario de Rachol / Raitur.  There a  reform of  the style  of singing  the Gregorian chant was begun  by the Patriarch Antonio Sebastiao  Valente ( in office, 1882-1908).

In  these institutions  students  were  intensively  trained.  They  were expected  to read books  on  musical  theory  and to  study 10 to 15 difficult  masses by  great masters like Palestrina (c.1525-1594), Bach (1685-1750) and Mozart (1756-1791), and by  lesser ones like Marcos  Portugal (1762-1830) and Saverio Mercadante(1795- 1870).  The instruments they were taught  to  play  were the violin,  the guitar,  the mandolin and the piano and apparently also  the  clarinet  and  the clavichord.  Singers were required to give a good rendition of the Magnificat ( the hymn by Mary recorded in Luke 1:46-55,) especially its last line, Sicut  Locuntus est( "As He spoke of our father Abraham"), which was often  rendered in a  low  voice  for a  full half  hour.  The  singers  were assumed  to  have  familiarized  themselves  with a number of motets, examples of a musical form that  had  been  d  in France in the 13th century, and had been fashioned by Flemish composers  in  the 15th.  As  introduced  by the Flemish  Jesuit  Barzeu - " The Father of Goan  culture",  as we may call him - the motet was  a polyphonic  composition,  based  on  a  biblical  or  liturgical  text in  Latin, usually  sung by  four to six voices; these and other  features  in  the Goan  cultural  complex explain why  the music  of Goa  retained  elements of  the Renaissance  musical  tradition long after  the latter  had  become extinct  in  Europe.

Choruses, bands and orchestras  gave  public  performances:  inside  the  churches  during  Vespers,  which  sometimes  lasted   three  hours; and  outside  in  the  church  squares,  as musical  concerts.  Several pieces were  executed  in  these  concerts between  displays  of  fireworks; the  program  not  seldom  ending  in  the  early  hours  of  the morning.

In the  second  half  of  the 19th  century,  it  became common  for every  marriageable  upper  class girl  to  be  taught  music, and the teaching  of it  was assigned  to this  senhormestre.  The girl was required to learn the piano, and to play pieces  like the waltzes  of Johan  Strauss (1825-1899).  She was  also  expected  to sing  arias, apparently  from composers  like  Gounod (1818-1897),  but certainly  from  the very  popular  Verdi  (1813-1901);  the favorite  arias  were drawn  from three  of  his  works,  La traviata(1853), Un ballo in maschera(1859) and La forza del destino (1864). It was assumed that the damsel would also know the tunes of marches and of dances  like  Caledonians, Contredanse, Lanciers and Polka.

The expertise in performance  thus laboriously  acquired  was accompanied  more importantly  by creative compositions, in folk and art song.  Goan folk song had had half a millennium  of history before it received the impact of Western music, one which profoundly modified it.  But  few folk songs, if any can be precisely dated before the 19th century. At the time of Micael's youth, the chief song types current among the Goan Christians were the Nuptial Chants (Brahmin, Sudra and Kunbi); the Ovi (or Versos); the theatrical types  of the Fell and the Zagor; and the dance songs of the Dekhnni and the Dulpod. ( Micael Martins  began collecting Goan folk songs when he was 19, in1933, and ended garnering  about 11,000 numbers,  only  a few  of which  he was able  to publish.

Goan art  song types are principally two, the hymns  and the Mando.  To judge  by  the language, many of the hymns appear  to have  been  composed  in  the 17th and 18th centuries.  The Goan epic poet  Eduardo de Sousa (1836-1905, speaking  of them  remarks  that, " within a pure  and simple diction (typical of those hymns) , we see playing the most enchanting smiles  of a celestial  poetry". Most  of  the  hymns are anonymous, but  we can identify    the authors  of some of them ,like Dona Barretto  of Morhgoum, who flourished  in  the early years of the 19th century and composed the solemn  and melancholy Papianchi Xeratini ("Advocate of Sinners" ) and Raimundo  Barretto  of Lotill/ Loutolim (1837-1909)  author  of ‘Sao  Franciscu  Xaviera',  the most popular  of Goan hymns, and one of the most moving.

The other Goan art song type is the Mando,  a verse or verse-and-refrain  dance song in six- four  time, dealing with love, tragedy and contemporary  events.  It appears to have evolved from the Ovi, a type  which like the Mando's own early form, is a quatrain. A  refrain  or chorus  was added  to  the Mando later, doubtless  under the influence of Portugal's national song, the Fado, d  in  that country around 1840  and  thus contemporaneous  with  the Mando.  Martins, comparing  these two  types  of songs, once remarked  : O Fado  e triste, mas  o Mando e triste e profundo ( the Fado is sad, but  the Mando is sad  and profound).  Unlike the Ovi, however,  the Mando is dance song, d  only  after  the introduction of  social  of  ballroom dancing in  Goa in the 1830's.  As a dance song, as was noted, it conveys the emotions of love; a love yearning for (utrike), achieving (ekvott) or frustrated in its  yearning  and expressing itself in lamentation (vilap).  The Mando comments on contemporary events (fobro), many of  them  political.  In its musical  structure,  as Martins himself describes it,  the Mando  is modulated with  patterns  or  phrases  that follow  one  another  in  the  same  order.  Rhythmically it has six beats, with stresses on the first and (prominently) on the fifth.  It  is  rendered   by  two  voices,  the first  singing  the principal  melody   and  the  second  the contrapuntal one,  the two melodic  lines being  harmonically  and polyphonically combined.  The second   voice generally follows  the  first  parallel  motion,  in  thirds  and sixths,   and  is  sometimes  modulated in  contrary  motions.

Saxtty/ Salcete  is  the province  of  Goa  where the  Mando grew and flourished.  Martins classifies it into two areas, the "hilly land" (dogorgaum) and the "sandy plain" (renvott), to which Micael himself belongs.  There is considerable variety in the style of Mando composition, depending on whether the composer is from one area or the other.  A large stretch of the renvott is blanketed in coconut groves and immersed in a sort of penumbra.  Its Mando music is tranquil and crepuscular, and is instanced in the work of composers like Canon Antonio Joao Dias (fl.1914) and Roque Correia Afonso(1859-1937).

More productive is the dogorgaum- a panorama of wooded hills rising along the banks of the Zuari- particularly the villages of Rai/Raia, Morhgoum/Margao, Lottli/Loutolim and Kurhtori/Curtorim.  The oldest dateable composer is from Rai,  Frederico De Melo (1834-1888), author  of the sublime" Sorgo nitoll go nirmollu".  Morghoum has the popular Pascoal   Noronha (1872-1936, Paicha Maincha moreantulim), originally from Lottli.  The latter village itself has Eduardo de Menezes, (1862-1922), Anju tum Arcanju),   Milagres da Silva (1855-1931), Ek vorso bolanddilem) and the great Torquato  de Figueiredo (1876-1948), Adeus kortso Vellu Pauta)  practically Goa's anthem of that time.

But   most productive of all  is Kurthori,  home to Ligorio da Costa (1851-1919), Tambrhe rozanch'  tuje pole),     Azavedo Diniz (1860-1907), Oulleam ‘bitory oulli sundori, manddo-dulpod),     Arnaldo de Menezes(1863-1917), Motim'  sopnantum naxlolem),    Gizelino Rebelo (1875-1931), Suria noketranche porim porzolleta),  originally from Vernnem/Verna,  and Sebastiao Fernandes (1875-1937), Bollcavancheri  re bosoitam).  The two chief "schools" of  the Mando are those of Kurhtori and Lotlli.  Martins describes the music of Kurhtori,  whose star is Arnaldo as having a horizontal and undulant motion, reflecting the rolling scenery of dogorgaum's terrain,  and that of Lottli, whose luminary is Torquato as  having a movement that is vertical  and ascendant,  conveying the upthrust  of  some  of that  terrain's  peaks.