Fr. Joaquim Loyola Pereira WhatsApp: +91 98221 81790 As a priest and a music enthusiast that I am, I have often been asked why the Church in Goa had to stop promoting music through its once-upon-a-time famous parish schools (escolas paroquiais). The last one to ask me this question was the author of the book you have in your hands. I met Joaquim Correia on the internet, as a fellow member of a virtual community of people from all continents, bonded by their common concern for the preservation of the Indo-Portuguese culture in Goa. He wanted to know if I had anything to say about the role of the Church in Goa in the promotion of Music in the land.
As a teaser, he sent me an article written in Portuguese language 61 years ago in the Goan daily A VIDA. It was authored by one of the most erudite Carmelite priests of the time, Frei Anastásio de S. José, and it was entitled Perder-se-á a tradição musical de Goa? (Will the musical tradition of Goa be lost?). The author rued the fact that the famous parish schools in Goa were facing extinction in view of the increasing number of government primary schools coming up in every Goan village and that music was no longer being taught in those centuries-old church schools. Intrigued by the increasing number of people who kept asking me the same question, I began to search for an answer myself and I was gradually led to an interesting discovery, which I am now sharing with my readers. THE PARISH SCHOOL (WITH ITS MUSIC CURRICULUM) AND EDUCATION IN GOA Right from the middle of the 16th century, churches in Goa had parish schools attached to them. They came into existence as a result of a decree by King John III of Portugal, dated March 8, 1546. They were primary schools meant for Catholic children, and their five-year syllabus included Catechesis (faith and morals of the Christian tradition), Reading and Writing, Arithmetic (the first four operations) and Music. These parish schools were financed and supported by church funds along with funds from the village communities or comunidades. Here we have to take into account that government primary schools in Goa began to appear only in the 19th century. Prior to them, elementary education was mainly provided by the Church, the Hindu temple (pattxalla) and by individuals or private institutes. Before the foundation of the Mathematical and Military School in 1841 and of the Medical School -- which, after a staggered progress for almost a century, was definitively established in 1842 -- secondary and higher education was generally administered only in the seminaries and colleges of the religious orders in the City of Goa, today, Old Goa. Although music was only one of the subjects taught in the parish schools, it is well known that some of the students of these schools went on to achieve great success in the musical field, better known to us since the second half of the 19th century. Thus the Church in Goa was instrumental in establishing a solid, albeit basic, structure of musical education, which, in the long run, produced quite some luminaries which shone in this field, both in Goa and in the rest of India as well as around the world. GOAN MUSICIANS OVER THE YEAR Most Goan musicians over the centuries have been products of the parish schools of Goa. They include the better-known composers of the Goan Mando, like Arnaldo de Menezes from Curtorim, Gizelino Rebelo from Verna and Torquato de Figueiredo from Loutolim and Maestros like Anthony Gonsalves from Majorda, who, in 1958, founded the Indian Symphony Orchestra of Bombay, with 110 members, António de Figueiredo from Loutulim, founder of the well-known Academia de Música, precursor of today's Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy and of the Orquestra Sinfónica de Goa, Micael Martins from Orlim, prolific composer and arranger of Goan folk and religious music, Camilo Xavier from Macasana and Lourdino Barreto from Galgibaga, both Professors of Music in the Patriarchal Seminary of Rachol and acclaimed composers and directors of secular choirs and orchestras. There were other luminaries like Mestre José Santana Cota from Santa Cruz, who taught solfeggio and various musical instruments to generations of students, going on to set up a band where the students he had trained got the opportunity to showcase their talent and also earn some money, besides forming bands for the Fire Services and the Don Bosco School in Panjim; Antoninho de Souza from Siolim, who played for the renowned Mehli Mehta Sextet in the Taj Mahal Palace in Mumbai and was later music director at All India Radio, Panjim; Joãozinho Carvalho, also from Siolim, who founded the well-known band Johnson and His Jolly Boys, which dominated the ballroom scene in Goa for more than four decades of the last century; 'Chic Chocolate' (born Antonio Xavier Vaz) from Aldona, who established himself as a popular jazz musician in Mumbai and earned for himself the sobriquet of 'The Louis Armstrong of India.' Among the living alumni of the parish schools we highlight Braz Gonsalves, 87 years of age, from Neurá, who rose to great heights in the world of Jazz and is internationally known as the best saxophonist in the whole of India. There were many others who contributed to the popularization of Western music in India, playing for or directing music ensembles particularly in the courts of the maharajas, hotels, film companies, social functions and even as music teachers. Most of them began their first steps in the parish or 'music schools' of Goa. THE RISE AND FALL OF THE MUSIC SCHOOLS These schools have had their ups and downs in the handing down of musical education. If, in the beginning, they would limit themselves to teaching the rudiments of the art of Mozart, in the following 17th and 18th centuries, their students were already expected to know how to read and write music at a much higher level. This was also the time when musical education rose to such importance, that heads of the parish schools were increasingly selected on the basis of their knowledge of music. With such musical proficiency among parishioners, Goa's main parish churches, not to mention seminaries and colleges of the religious orders, had noteworthy polyphonic choirs that performed Masses, motets, and other sacred music compositions by Mozart, Schubert, Palestrina, Turner, and other classical composers. It would not be out of place to mention here that, in 1622, when there were solemn celebrations in the Basilica of Bom Jesus on the occasion of the canonization of St. Francis Xavier, seven -- yes, seven -- choirs of natives, mostly Goans, placed at different points of the great Basilica, interpreted an Oratorio by Giacomo Carissimi, created by the great baroque composer for seven voices. The piece was executed with such éclat that the Legate of Pope Gregory XV, present on the occasion, exclaimed: "I am in Rome!" So high was the standard that Goan music schools had set over the years! Another, more recent, success story of the parish schools was that, until around 1970, most of the villages in Goa had their own brass band, all musicians having been students of our parish schools. It must be said, however, that, around 1950, just as Frei Anastásio de S.José had written in 1960, parish schools began to lose their importance in village life, mainly due to the growing number of government primary schools. And the subject of music was the first to get hit. It virtually disappeared from the syllabus. It was at this juncture that the church choir masters (mestris) were retrenched by the parish schools. Left to themselves, they began, like other musicians in the village, to teach music independently of the School. It was also at this time that, providentially, the Academia de Música of Maestro António de Figueiredo in Panjim and the Escola de Música of Maestro Camilo Xavier in Margão came to remedy the situation. The two institutions then took the lead – among a few others -- in teaching music in Goa and went on training musicians, some of whom continue to give of their best to the music scene in our State. AFTER 1961 And what happened to the Parish Schools after 1961, the year when the political administration of Goa changed hands from Portugal to India? Almost all of them were upgraded to English medium high schools. The remaining few were closed down. As a result, we have now 62 secondary schools attached to parish churches: all of them descend from the Escola Paroquial of the Portuguese era. There are also other schools, almost equal in number, which are annexed to convents of nuns and communities of religious priests such as Jesuits, Salesians of Don Bosco, Capuchins, Pilar Fathers, etc. In the early nineteen seventies the Department of Education of the Government of Goa introduced Music as an optional subject in English medium schools and developed a syllabus for the same. As a response, some Catholic schools began to teach music, depending on the availability of any teaching staff who had the ability and the desire to teach music. For the music teacher it was a purely honorary work that brought no additional payment. Thirty years later, in 2001, the Directorate of Art and Culture of the State of Goa began to offer financial assistance for the remuneration of these voluntary teachers. The number of music teachers then increased in certain schools and the situation of music teaching in Catholic schools improved considerably. By 2014, the same Directorate began to appoint and pay full-time individuals to teach music (Western and Indian) in schools that decided to opt for the establishment of this discipline. As a result, many secondary schools in Goa now have visiting teachers who devote three hours of the afternoon, once or twice a week, to teaching music theory (solfeggio), violin, piano/electronic keyboard, guitar and drums. Thanks, therefore, to the Goa Directorate of Art and Culture, around 70 Catholic schools in Goa administer at present free music education to interested students. A special mention is to be made of the Society of Pilar, which has been opening a number of 'Pilar Music Schools' in different parts of the territory. In this way, the Church in Goa has resumed the promotion and the teaching of music in this territory, although under new parameters. WHITHER WESTERN MUSIC IN GOA? Meanwhile, the capacity of the Goan Catholic to cultivate, compose and interpret music has not dwindled. We brag about music running in the veins of Goans. 'Italians of the East' has been one of the sobriquets attached to Goans for a long time. Catholic Goans continue to dominate the Western music scene in Goa and elsewhere. Nearly 70% of the parishes in Goa have their own polyphonic choir, some of them, two and even three choirs. More than five hundred musical compositions in Konkani are regularly heard in our vernacular liturgical celebrations. The Diocesan Commission for Sacred Music maintains a rich archive of musical compositions of Masses and other liturgical hymns in Konkani. It also regularly publishes new liturgical music compositions in a book form; each book is accompanied by the respective music album, to help people learn the new tunes. The Rachol Seminary Choir, founded more than a century ago, has been holding yearly concerts of sacred music, involving sometimes a 200-strong ensemble, including singers and musicians. All this to say that the Church in Goa is once again at the vanguard of the promotion of music in the State. Outside the church milieu, we have the Stuti Choral Ensemble, founded by Fr. Eufemiano Miranda in 2009 and the Goa University Choir, founded in 2013 by late Maestro Santiago Lusardi Girelli (Visiting Research Professor under the Western Music Chair of the University), which interpret both sacred and non-sacred music. Music bands -- including duos, trios and even one-man bands -- that play in hotels and dance floors in Goa have probably crossed the four hundred mark. If we add to these the Goan singers and musicians who perform across India and the globe, not forgetting the cruise ships, we could get lost in the counting. The number of recording studios in Goa is growing and new audio and video productions are launched by the week. A great many of all these singers and musicians began singing and playing in a church choir or have learnt music in a Catholic school or have been trained by a priest, a nun or a Catholic lay person. And the Church in Goa marches on.... -- An extract from Joaquim Correia's Once Upon a Time in Goa: Music and dance in a charming region and its diaspora (2022). Limited copies available at a special pre-release price at Saligao (+91 9822122436) and Chembur (+91 98670 74769). *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-