Tocatinas and serenatas
- Music
The serenatas (serenades) were still an important artistic, cultural, social and romantic form up until a few decades ago. The film Ilhéu de Contenda (Island of Strife) leaves us a living testimony to this authentic institution that holds a special place in the memory of any older Cape Verdean. They express the impulses of irrepressible passion of someone who is in love. The lover walks to his loved one’s window at night, where the guitars, ukuleles and violins release the striking sounds of the morna, to frame the soft voice of the boy, who waits with bated breath to see if the feelings are mutual. If she felt the same, and her parents approved (which was important), her silhouette would appear at the window, filling the boy’s heart with happiness, spilling over into his voice, as feelings of tenderness would mount up in her breast. This was the way that engagements and weddings were often prepared in Cape Verde, and these would later be consumated in ceremonies and traditions that were equally laden with symbolism.
The tocatinas are still common across Cape Verde when the day ends, a breeze blows, and groups of musicians get together in cafés, yards and in doorways to play mornas, coladeiras and other forms of Cape Verdean music, which still have a living link to the day-to-day life of the population.
The serenatas (serenades) were still an important artistic, cultural, social and romantic form up until a few decades ago. The film Ilhéu de Contenda (Island of Strife) leaves us a living testimony to this authentic institution that holds a special place in the memory of any older Cape Verdean. They express the impulses of irrepressible passion of someone who is in love. The lover walks to his loved one’s window at night, where the guitars, ukuleles and violins release the striking sounds of the morna, to frame the soft voice of the boy, who waits with bated breath to see if the feelings are mutual. If she felt the same, and her parents approved (which was important), her silhouette would appear at the window, filling the boy’s heart with happiness, spilling over into his voice, as feelings of tenderness would mount up in her breast. This was the way that engagements and weddings were often prepared in Cape Verde, and these would later be consumated in ceremonies and traditions that were equally laden with symbolism.
The tocatinas are still common across Cape Verde when the day ends, a breeze blows, and groups of musicians get together in cafés, yards and in doorways to play mornas, coladeiras and other forms of Cape Verdean music, which still have a living link to the day-to-day life of the population.
