KONKANI MUSIC AND OUR IDENTITY
Jose Lawrenco
8 February 2002
Goa’s beautiful and diverse landscapes and equally varied
and romantic history have given the world a kaleidoscope of
people, traditions and culture. But with the relentless onslaught
of western culture as well as the ever-increasing influx into
this youngest but highly popular Indian state, many Goan youth
sometimes end up asking whether there is a clear-cut Goan
identity. Such a sliding into a seemingly faceless people
happens when we forget what our roots or core values are.
And one of the greatest causes of this loss of identity is
the neglect of our own music.
Scattered in the villages of Goa are numerous folk music
forms which though still practiced by the village folk, are
largely unheard and almost forgotten by the general populace.
Hundreds of old music albums composed and performed by tiatro
and
classical Goan artistes have vanished through indifference
and neglect. Lyrics of old classic songs and notation of music
are barely available. Songs from the great Konkani movies
of yesteryear are difficult to come by and if you want to
pick up a comprehensive
song book with the lyrics and chords of old Konkani hits,
that’s simply not available. All over Goa, on dance floors
and wedding galas you will barely hear those lilting Konkani
songs being played. Rarely do families gather around after
supper to sing together.
Despite the tremendous success of dance bands albums featuring
original compositions of these talented musicians can be counted
on the fingers of one hand. Cassettes and CDs documenting
folk music forms are non-existent and the vast repertoire
of Mangalorean
Konkani music is not stocked in music shops in Goa.
Tiatro is flourishing today and is undoubtedly one of the
most commercially successful form of Konkani music in the
past as well as present. Chris Perry , one of the greatest
musicians Goa ever had, originally performed in tiatro before
he went on to create his
own brilliant and much loved style of Konkani music, blending
Latin and jazz influences into our own Konkani soul. Today
a lot of music is available on tiatro soundtracks and independent
artistes, but the mass-hits of the type Chris Perry and Lorna
had are sorely missing. Formerly only the songs that received
lusty applause and encores went onto the vinyl records, but
today such a popular merit criteria is not practiced. A record
can be performed and recorded in a matter of a few weeks with
the help of sophisticated equipment. The synthesizer and sequencer
have replaced the soulful blowing instruments. But still Konkani
music is throbbing in tiatro.
Why do the youth tend to freak out on bhangra , hindi-pop
and hip-hop rhythms on the dance floor with the traditional
Goan dance forms making only a token appearance for weddings
and on pleasure boat cruises ?
Because there is simply no material. Our popular Goan artistes
have failed to focus on the ethnic pulse and keep it beating
in sync with the racy trends of the youth. It would be impractical
to hope that youngsters would just suddenly get a kick out
of old Goan Konkani folk rhythms. That folk music was a refection
of those times, when life revolved around nature, relationships
and social scenarios. Today’s music should also revolve on
the same things, of today. The roots need to be the same,
but our folk music has to be developed forward, revitalized
to reflect the current generation. So that what we create
today remains as a legacy of our time. Or else there will
exist a huge gap between the old times and the future.
In his seminar on the Quest for Konkani Music, Pandit Bhasker
Chandavarker spoke of the need to form a Centre for Research
and Education in Asian Music to delve deep into the roots
of music in Goa and the historic influences from the Iberian
region, Africa,
Mozambique, etc. The keyboard first landed on the Indian
subcontinent on the west coast through Goa and subsequently
changed the face of Indian music as embodied in the harmonium.
All influences need to be taken into consideration without
bias, he said, as
they have all enriched our culture. The Konkani Bhasha Mandal
with the support of a lot of enthusiastic Konkani music afficionados
plans to indeed set up such a Music Academy, called perhaps
Konkani Sangeet-Natak Akademi, since theatre is really a vehicle
of all aspects of a culture including music.
The work of such an academy would encompass documentation,
research, preservation, and promotion of all forms of Konkani
music. Documentation would be in the form of audio, video,
script, lyrics, music sheets, commentaries and more. A lot
of newer forms of music could also emerge with the renaissance
of Konkani music. We may have young people arranging Konkani
musicals, in between tiatro and natak, a kind of opera style
musical on the lines of Annie, Sound of Music, etc. Wind instruments
could return with a vengeance to fuse with the dhol, gumot
and madhallem and produce a potent Goan music form. The solemn
chants of the ‘guduleam gani’ could enthrall the world the
way ‘acapella’ (music with only voices) and the philharmonic
choirs did. Dance bands could cut new Konkani pop albums with
accompanying videos racing to the top of the international
charts. The vistas thrown open are endless and mind boggling.
All the efforts of our stalwarts in the Konkani field will
be wasted if the populi do not embrace the cause of our identity
wholeheartedly. We are a diverse people growing in different
directions, but we should not end up looking back and finding
there is no identity back home. Music has the potential to
be the catalyst to fuel the Renaissance
and with the invigoration of Konkani music there will dawn
a new era of entertainment, bubbling identity and the exhilarating
joy of being a Goan.
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