Those Were The Days
Agostinho da Cruz via Facebook
Maestro late Fr Camilo Xavier School of Music, formerly known
as The Music Circle (Goa), Margao, founded in 1954, was a
music institution affiliated to the Trinity College of Music
and the Royal School of Music (London).
This was where we started our musical career,
studying to read and write music through solfego
and play instruments such as the violin, cello,
piano, guitar, clarinet, vocal training etc. etc.
We did so under the baton of late Rev. Maestro Fr. Camilo
Xavier, composer, arranger and conductor, who was the founder
of the music school.
It also had a polyphonic choir popularly known as the Goencho
Naad, which earned fame in Goa and India. It was known for
its regular performances in classical music, a choir of 40
singers (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass) singing in a
cappella style with regular rehersals twice a week.
Goencho Naad also had produced operas such as The
Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, HMS Pinafore,
etc. etc all of which were backed by its 40 piece
orchestra and 40 singers.
This school had a good team of teachers teaching violin,
guitar, piano, cello, clarinet and solfego.
Violin teachers: late Maestro Fr. Camilo Xavier, late
Jacinto Rodrigues, late Martinho Dourado, late Sebastian de
Veiga, Agnelo Carvalho, Alvaro Pereira.
Piano: Terezinha Gonsalves, Maria Xavier Carvalho, late Iona
Dias, Manuela Xavier Andrade, Mona Rebelo, late Thelma da
Silva, Lourdes Fernandes.
Cello: Álvaro De Assunção Pereira.
Solfego: late Fr. Camilo Xavier, Miguel Cotta, Maurelio
Cotta, Lisette Cotta.
Guitar: Late Jacinto Rodrigues, Agostinho da Cruz, Alvaro
Pereira, Celso Soares.
Clarinet: late Martinho Dourado.
When I yesterday passed by the Old Market, and had a glance,
I was sad to see our music school in shambles. This was the
very same place where once upon a time the sounds of musical
instruments were buzzing at the Old Market area right from 2
pm to 7 pm. Twice a week there would be the reverberating
sounds of voices from the Goencho Naad.
Today the sounds of instruments and voices are silenced.
Hundreds of students completed their diploma and graduated in
courses of music, which enabled them to become professional
musicians.
Actually, the Kala Academy could have taken over and
conducted regular classes at par, I had suggested in those
days to hand over the institution to Kala Academy after the
death of Maestro Fr. Camilo Xavier, but nothing came of it.
Instead, the curtains came down.
Very sad state of our School of Music, Margao.
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