Cape Verdeans in the Atlantic: the formation of Kriolu music and dance styles on ship and in port
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1224Abstract
Working from the premise that Cape Verde is a member of the Black Atlantic musical family whose styles flowed freely from port to port, this study has delved deeper into the styles and time frames that figured into the mix, verifying that periods of intense transatlantic port activity correspond to the emergence of new genres. Cape Verde's musical history might be viewed as a sandbar on the beach that is continually reshaped and born a new by waves of musical influences circling between the continents. The ideas of individual Cape Verdeans ultimately created the music, of course, and a comparative approach is not meant to lessen those musicians' importance, or detract from the beauty and perfection of Cape Verde's greatest treasure. The footprints of transatlantic connections in Cape Verdean musical styles can be found in its rhythms, instruments, vocabularies, scores, and ship route patterns. People create styles, and musical communication happens on the personal level - through sailors sharing a tune at sea, through encounters in harbor dancehalls, and through ideas brought back home. Generations of seafarers found safe harbor in Cape Verde, carrying music round and round the Atlantic, and this process is still shaping the local forms, although the travel is now by jet, and the exchanges are often over the worldwide web. While some details about musical communities on the high seas may be lost to us, there is still information to be gained about Cape Verdean musical forms through a study of the multi-directional movements of musicians, artifacts, repertoires, and ideas around the Atlantic rim.References
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Almeida, Raymond Anthony. 1978 Cape Verdeans in America: Our Story. Boston, MA: TCHUBA-American Committee for Cape Verde.
Arenas, Fernando. 2011 Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816669837.001.0001
Austerlitz, Paul. 1997 Merengue: Dominican Music and Dominican Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Baldacchino, Godfrey, ed. 2011 Island Songs. Lanthm, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press.
Batalha, Luis and Jorgen Carling, eds. 2008 Transnational Archipelago: Perspectives on Migration and Diaspora. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University. Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789053569948
Behague, Gerhard. 2001 Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil (review). Notes 57(4): 931—933. Music Library Association. Retrieved July 31, 2014, from Project MUSE database.
Bermudez, Egberto. 2012 "Beyond Vallenato: The Accordion Traditions in Colombia." In The Accordion in the Americas, Helene Simonett, ed. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: U. of Illinois Press, 199—232.
Bolster, W. Jeffrey. 1990 "To Feel Like a Man": Black Seaman in the Northern States, 1800—1860. The Journal of American History 76(4): 1173—1199. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2936594
Bolster, W. Jeffrey. 1997 Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.
Brito, Margarida. 1998 Os Instrumentos Musicais em Cabo Verde. Praia-Mindelo: Centro Cultural Portugues.
Cabral, Amandio. 2013 Interview, Oct. 2013. Personal correspondence.
Carr, James Revell. 2008 "Global Pop in the Nineteenth Century: Transnational Music Making Aboard American Whaling Ships in the Pacific." Unpublished SEM conference paper.
Carr, James Revell. 2014 Hawaiian Music in Motion: Mariners, Missionaries, and Minstrels. Urbana-Champaign, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Carreira, Antonio. 1982 The People of the Cape Verde Islands: Exploitation and Emigration. London: C. Hurst & Company (trans. by Christopher Fyfe).
Cidra, Rui. 2008a "Cape Verdean Migration, Music Recordings and Performance." In Transnational Archipelago: Perspectives on Migration and Diaspora. Luis Batlha and Jorgen Carling, ed. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 189—203.
Cidra, Rui. 2008b "Produzindo a musica de Cabo Verde na diaspora: Redes transnacionais. world music e multiplas formacoes crioulas." In Comunidade(s) Caboverdiana(s): As múltiplas faces da imigração cabo-verdiana, Pedro Gois, ed. Lisbon: Alto Comissariasdo para a Imigracao e Dialogo Intercultural (ACIDI).
Connif, Michael L. & Thomas J. Davis. 1994 Africans in the Americas: A History of the Black Diaspora. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Creighton, Margaret S. 1995 Rites and Passages: The Experience of American Whaling, 1830—1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dawe, Kevin, ed. 2004 Island Musics. Oxford, New York: Berg Press.
Davis, William M. 1874 Nimrod of the Sea; or, The American whaleman. New York: Harper and Brothers. http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.55088
Dunn, Christopher. 2000 Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 37, No. 2, Special Issue: State, Society, and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (Winter, 2000): 142—144.
Farr, James. 1983 "A Slow Boat to Nowhere: The Multi-Racial Crews of the American Whaling Industry." The Journal of Negro History 68(2): 159—170. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2717719
Fryer, Peter. 2000 Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.
Gilroy, Paul. 1993 The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Guilbault, Jocelyne. 1993 Zouk: World Music in the West Indies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Livingston-Isenhour, T. E. and T. G. C. Garcia. 2005 Choro: A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Manuel, Peter, ed. 2009 Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
McMahon, C. S. 2007 "Embodying diaspora: ambivalence and utopia in contemporary Cape Verdean theatre." Theatre History Studies 2007: 110—138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ths.2007.0004
Meintel, Deirdre. 1984 Race, Culture, and Portuguese Colonialism in Cabo Verde. Syracuse: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University Press.
Monteiro. F. 1948—1949 "Tabanca" Claridade 6: 14—18; 7: 19—26. Nogueira, Glaucia Aparecida 2015 Batuku de Cabo Verde — Percurso Histórico-Musical. Praia: LPC - Livraria Pedro Cardoso.
Lobban, Richard A. & Paul Khalil Saucier. 2007 Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cape Verde. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
Palmberg, Mai. 2002 "Expressing Cape Verde: Morna, Funana, and National Identity." In Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa. M. Palmberg and A. Kirkegaard. Uppsala; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet in cooperation with The Sibelius Museum/Dept. of Musicology, Abo Akademi University, Finland.
Rehm, B. M. 1975 "A Study of the Cape Verdean Morna in New Bedford, Massachusetts.". Masters Thesis. Providence, Brown University.
Seigel, M. 2005 "The Disappearing Dance: Maxixe's Imperial Erasure." Black Music Research Journal. The Free Library. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=160229998 [accessed 9 January 2008].
Schmidt, Ben. 2013 "American Whaling Mapped." http://kcsluis.tumblr.com/post/72597710244/american-whaling-mapped-by-ben-schmidt.
Semedo J. M. & M. R. Turano. 1997 Cabo Verde: o ciclo ritual das festivadades de tabanca. Praia: Spleem edicoes.
Simonett, Helena. 2012 The Accordion in the Americas. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
Starbuck, Alexander. 1878 History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876. Waltham, A.
Tavares, Manuel de Jesus. 2005 Aspectos evolutivos da música cabo verdiana. Praia: Centro Cultural Portugues/ Instituto Camoes.
Vasconcellos, Ernesto J. de C. e (Ernesto Julio de Carvalho), 1852—1930. 1916 Archipelago de Cabo Verde. Estudo elementar de Geographia phisica, economic e poltica por Ernesto J. de C. d Vasconcellos. (Lisboa, Tip. Da Cooperativa militar, 1920.
Almeida, Raymond Anthony. 1978 Cape Verdeans in America: Our Story. Boston, MA: TCHUBA-American Committee for Cape Verde.
Arenas, Fernando. 2011 Lusophone Africa: Beyond Independence. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5749/minnesota/9780816669837.001.0001
Austerlitz, Paul. 1997 Merengue: Dominican Music and Dominican Identity. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
Baldacchino, Godfrey, ed. 2011 Island Songs. Lanthm, Toronto, Plymouth: Scarecrow Press.
Batalha, Luis and Jorgen Carling, eds. 2008 Transnational Archipelago: Perspectives on Migration and Diaspora. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University. Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.5117/9789053569948
Behague, Gerhard. 2001 Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil (review). Notes 57(4): 931—933. Music Library Association. Retrieved July 31, 2014, from Project MUSE database.
Bermudez, Egberto. 2012 "Beyond Vallenato: The Accordion Traditions in Colombia." In The Accordion in the Americas, Helene Simonett, ed. Urbana, Chicago, Springfield: U. of Illinois Press, 199—232.
Bolster, W. Jeffrey. 1990 "To Feel Like a Man": Black Seaman in the Northern States, 1800—1860. The Journal of American History 76(4): 1173—1199. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2936594
Bolster, W. Jeffrey. 1997 Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. Cambridge, London: Harvard University Press.
Brito, Margarida. 1998 Os Instrumentos Musicais em Cabo Verde. Praia-Mindelo: Centro Cultural Portugues.
Cabral, Amandio. 2013 Interview, Oct. 2013. Personal correspondence.
Carr, James Revell. 2008 "Global Pop in the Nineteenth Century: Transnational Music Making Aboard American Whaling Ships in the Pacific." Unpublished SEM conference paper.
Carr, James Revell. 2014 Hawaiian Music in Motion: Mariners, Missionaries, and Minstrels. Urbana-Champaign, Chicago: University of Illinois Press.
Carreira, Antonio. 1982 The People of the Cape Verde Islands: Exploitation and Emigration. London: C. Hurst & Company (trans. by Christopher Fyfe).
Cidra, Rui. 2008a "Cape Verdean Migration, Music Recordings and Performance." In Transnational Archipelago: Perspectives on Migration and Diaspora. Luis Batlha and Jorgen Carling, ed. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 189—203.
Cidra, Rui. 2008b "Produzindo a musica de Cabo Verde na diaspora: Redes transnacionais. world music e multiplas formacoes crioulas." In Comunidade(s) Caboverdiana(s): As múltiplas faces da imigração cabo-verdiana, Pedro Gois, ed. Lisbon: Alto Comissariasdo para a Imigracao e Dialogo Intercultural (ACIDI).
Connif, Michael L. & Thomas J. Davis. 1994 Africans in the Americas: A History of the Black Diaspora. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Creighton, Margaret S. 1995 Rites and Passages: The Experience of American Whaling, 1830—1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Dawe, Kevin, ed. 2004 Island Musics. Oxford, New York: Berg Press.
Davis, William M. 1874 Nimrod of the Sea; or, The American whaleman. New York: Harper and Brothers. http://dx.doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.55088
Dunn, Christopher. 2000 Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 37, No. 2, Special Issue: State, Society, and Political Culture in Nineteenth-Century Brazil (Winter, 2000): 142—144.
Farr, James. 1983 "A Slow Boat to Nowhere: The Multi-Racial Crews of the American Whaling Industry." The Journal of Negro History 68(2): 159—170. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/2717719
Fryer, Peter. 2000 Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil. Hanover, NH: Wesleyan University Press.
Gilroy, Paul. 1993 The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
Guilbault, Jocelyne. 1993 Zouk: World Music in the West Indies. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Livingston-Isenhour, T. E. and T. G. C. Garcia. 2005 Choro: A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Manuel, Peter, ed. 2009 Creolizing Contradance in the Caribbean. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
McMahon, C. S. 2007 "Embodying diaspora: ambivalence and utopia in contemporary Cape Verdean theatre." Theatre History Studies 2007: 110—138. http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/ths.2007.0004
Meintel, Deirdre. 1984 Race, Culture, and Portuguese Colonialism in Cabo Verde. Syracuse: Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University Press.
Monteiro. F. 1948—1949 "Tabanca" Claridade 6: 14—18; 7: 19—26. Nogueira, Glaucia Aparecida 2015 Batuku de Cabo Verde — Percurso Histórico-Musical. Praia: LPC - Livraria Pedro Cardoso.
Lobban, Richard A. & Paul Khalil Saucier. 2007 Historical Dictionary of the Republic of Cape Verde. Lanham, Maryland: The Scarecrow Press.
Palmberg, Mai. 2002 "Expressing Cape Verde: Morna, Funana, and National Identity." In Playing with Identities in Contemporary Music in Africa. M. Palmberg and A. Kirkegaard. Uppsala; Nordiska Afrikainstitutet in cooperation with The Sibelius Museum/Dept. of Musicology, Abo Akademi University, Finland.
Rehm, B. M. 1975 "A Study of the Cape Verdean Morna in New Bedford, Massachusetts.". Masters Thesis. Providence, Brown University.
Seigel, M. 2005 "The Disappearing Dance: Maxixe's Imperial Erasure." Black Music Research Journal. The Free Library. http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=160229998 [accessed 9 January 2008].
Schmidt, Ben. 2013 "American Whaling Mapped." http://kcsluis.tumblr.com/post/72597710244/american-whaling-mapped-by-ben-schmidt.
Semedo J. M. & M. R. Turano. 1997 Cabo Verde: o ciclo ritual das festivadades de tabanca. Praia: Spleem edicoes.
Simonett, Helena. 2012 The Accordion in the Americas. Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press.
Starbuck, Alexander. 1878 History of the American Whale Fishery from Its Earliest Inception to the Year 1876. Waltham, A.
Tavares, Manuel de Jesus. 2005 Aspectos evolutivos da música cabo verdiana. Praia: Centro Cultural Portugues/ Instituto Camoes.
Vasconcellos, Ernesto J. de C. e (Ernesto Julio de Carvalho), 1852—1930. 1916 Archipelago de Cabo Verde. Estudo elementar de Geographia phisica, economic e poltica por Ernesto J. de C. d Vasconcellos. (Lisboa, Tip. Da Cooperativa militar, 1920.
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2015-11-01
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“Cape Verdeans in the Atlantic: The Formation of Kriolu Music and Dance Styles on Ship and in Port”. 2015. African Music : Journal of the International Library of African Music 10 (1): 7-30. https://doi.org/10.21504/amj.v10i1.1224.
