Country off West Africa. The archipelago of ten islands and five islets is approximately 620 km west of Senegal, with a total area of 4033 km2 and a population of 437,000 (2000 estimate). Cape Verde was a Portuguese colony until gaining independence in 1975. The islands were uninhabited until their discovery by Portuguese explorers in 1460 and were subsequently settled with slaves brought from the Guinea Coast as labourers. Over the centuries, a Cape Verdean Luso-African Crioulo (Krioulo) culture developed with distinctive music, literature, food, dress and language (also called Crioulo).
The islands proved valuable to Portugal because of their strategic maritime location rather than for natural resources. Indeed, the name Cape Verde is a misnomer; the islands suffer from periodic drought and support only limited agriculture. Beginning in the 18th century, many Cape Verdeans escaped famine conditions by enlisting as crew members on New England whaling ships working in nearby waters. Thousands emigrated to America and Europe over the centuries, and large communities exist abroad. Crioulo culture is transnational in character; the communities remain in close touch with each other through family ties and a strong ethnic identity in which music and dance play a central role. Cape Verdeans are predominantly Roman Catholic, and musical folk events correspond with religious celebrations (saints’ days, weddings, baptisms etc.). Cape Verdean music exists along a continuum with European influences on one end and African influences on the other. Archives of Cape Verdean materials are held at the Cape Verdean Collection, James P. Adams Library, Rhode Island College and the Center for Folklife Programs and Cultural Studies Archive, Washington, DC.
The musics from the northern islands resemble Portuguese folk traditions in their instrumentation (violin, ten-, six- and four-string guitars) and character. Melody is emphasized more than rhythm, and the vocal style and Iberian harmonies are similar to those found in Portugal. The primary music and dance genres are the morna and coladeira, although other European forms, including the polka, mazurka, waltz, march and contredanse, are also used. Although each island has distinctive musical traditions, the morna and coladeira are national symbols of Cape Verdean identity.
The morna has several defining characteristics: a moderate tempo in quadruple time; a strophic structure; a sustained, legato melody sung or played by a soloist, usually a violinist; syncopated rhythmic accompaniment figures played by a small four-string guitar (cavaquinho); melodic variations and rhythmic support played on the violin and guitar; and a bass line played on the guitar. Mornas are usually in minor keys and are built on the following chord progressions: i–iv–i–V7–i, i–v7–i–iv–i–V7–i, or i–I7–iv–VII7–i–VI–V7–i. The morna is thought to have derived in the 19th century from the Portuguese Fado and the Brazilian modinha. Morna song themes are serious and sorrowful, speaking in poetic terms of the pain of separation, the cruelty of destiny, a lover's beauty, the isolation of the islander and the nostalgia for places left behind. A typical example is Hora di Bai (‘Hour of Departure’), referring to the final moments when loved ones must part. It was written by Eugénio Tavares (1867–1930) from Brava, Cape Verde. His songs, along with those of Jótamont (Jorge Monteiro, b 1913), B. Leza (Francisco Xavier da Cruz, 1905–58) and others, form the core repertory of classic mornas performed today.
In contrast to the morna, the coladeira is faster and light-hearted in its subject matter, and the couple-dance style of performance is more animated. The songs often concern love, desire and infidelities, but tend to be humorous or ironic rather than tragic. Both the morna and coladeira have been adapted for popular dance band instrumentation (electric guitar and bass, drumset, keyboard, winds etc.) since the 1960s, although acoustic traditions continue to exist. The origins of the coladeira have not been conclusively determined, but the genre shares common features with Caribbean musics, including the beguine, cumbia and calypso.
In the 1990s, the singer Cesaria Évora brought Cape Verdean music to an international audience. Born in São Vicente in 1941, Cesaria sings updated arrangements of traditional mornas and coladeiras with a rich contralto voice and a silky singing style. She has toured Europe and America extensively and has made numerous recordings. Her unpretentious persona, superb musicality and her ability to convey the hardships of life in her performances have made her music beloved across cultural boundaries. Cesaria's substantial successes have focussed international attention on Cape Verde and have created opportunities for other national artists to reach a wider audience.
Since many African slaves were brought to work on the plantations of the southern islands of Santiago and Fogo over the centuries, the inhabitants (known as Badius) have strong cultural ties to West Africa. The most African-influenced musical genres include batuko, finason, funana and tabanka. They emphasize rhythm more than melody, feature call-and-response structures, include much repetition, have simple harmonic structures and are performed with an open, loud singing style without the use of vibrato. Batuko is performed by women's groups in Santiago. One woman (or occasionally a man) leads the ensemble in songs with call-and-response structures. The ensemble members sit in a circle and accompany themselves by beating duple and triple rhythms on rolled-up lengths of cloth held between the thighs just above the knees or with hand-clapping. The combined effect of the patterns produces a composite polyrhythm that is characteristic of batuko. As the group sings, at least one individual dances in the centre of the circle. The dance called torno is based on rapid movements of the hips, which are accentuated by a low-slung sash. In the past, a one-string bowed fiddle of West African origin called the cimboa was used to accompany batuko, but it has virtually disappeared.
Finason is a genre closely related to batuko that emphasizes a rhythmical, spoken text. Leaders often begin a batuko session with finason. The primary differences between finason and batuko are that finason features one person who relates an extended solo narrative in a rhythmic fashion supported by an ensemble beating a steady rhythmic accompaniment and finason generally has no accompanying dancing. Both finason and batuko singers use parables and allegory to comment on issues of community interest. They also function as informal oral historians, maintaining details of events, people and families through their stories.
Funana is an accordion-based dance music from Santiago that exists in both folk and popular electronic versions. Traditional funana is characterized by the use of the diatonic two-row button accordion and a home-made iron scraper. Two people, usually men, play the instruments and one of them doubles as a singer, presenting songs of topical interest. Funana is typically played in a fast, quadruple metre and is structured around the alternation of two, often adjacent chords (e.g. A minor and G major). People dance in pairs to funana with hips close together, moving in a style broadly similar to such dances as folk merengue from the Dominican Republic. Funana and other Badiu musical traditions became national symbols of Cape Verdean colonial resistance following independence. Bands fron Santiago created a new dance music movement based on acoustic funana in the 1980s, and funana has subsequently joined the morna and coladeira as a national, rather than island-specific, musical genre.
The name tabanka refers to mutual aid and religious societies in Santiago and to their activities. On designated saints' days, tabanka members assume the roles of colonial society members, from kings and queens to slaves, and parade through the town using props, costumes, conch-shell trumpets, drums, whistles and batuko-like music and dance.
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F. Monteiro: ‘Tabanka’, Claridade, vi (1948), 14–18; vii (1949), 19–26
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J.F. Monteiro, ed.: Música caboverdeana: mornas de Francisco Xavier da Cruz (Bê Léza) (São Vicente, Cape Verde, 1987)
J.F. Monteiro, ed.: Música caboverdeana: mornas de Jorge Fernandes Monteiro (São Vicente, Cape Verde, 1987)
J.F. Monteiro, ed.: 56 mornas de Cabo Verde (São Vicente, Cape Verde, 1988)
P. Manuel: Popular Musics of the Non-Western World: an Introductory Survey (New York, 1988)
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S. Hurley-Glowa: ‘Music’, ‘Batuko‘, ‘Funana’, ‘Tabanka’, Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cape Verde, ed. R. Lobban and M. Lopes (Metuchen, NJ, 1995)
S. Hurley-Glowa: Batuko and Funana: Musical Traditions of Santiago, Republic of Cape Verde (diss., Brown U., 1997)
S. Hurley-Glowa: ‘“Batuko Makes the Whole World Shake”: a Narrative Description of a Batuko Performance’, Cimboa, no.2 (1997), 29–33
V. Mortaigne: Cesaria, la voix du Cap-Vert (Paris, 1997)
Songs of the Badius, videotape, dir. G. Zantiger (Devault, PA, 1986)
Cesaria Evora: la diva aux pieds nus, Bleu Caraïbes 82453 (1989)
Chico Serra: Cap-Vert: le piano-bar de Mindelo, Buda Records 925282 (1989) [incl. notes by L. Silva]
Cape Verde Islands: the Roots, Playa Sound PS 65061 (1991)
Cesaria Evora: Miss Perfumada, Lusafrica 79540–2 (1992)
Cesaria Evora: musique du Cap Verde, Musique du Monde 82484 (1992)
Travadinha: la violon du Cap Vert, Musique du Monde 925562 (1992)
Cesaria Evora: distino de Belita, Lusafrica 79526–2 (1993)
L’âme du Cap Vert: a alma de Cabo Verde, Columbia Lusafrica Col 48663–2 (1996)
Cap-Vert: Kodé di Dona, Ocora C 560100 (1996)
Cesaria live à l’Olympia, Melodie 79591–2 (1996)
Cape Verde: Anthology 1959–1992, Buda Records 926142 (n.d.)
Funana Dance, Melodie 79527–2
SUSAN HURLEY-GLOWA