Undra Muja Mama: Folk Songs Of Goa
- Author: Fr. Jose Pereria, Antonio da Costa, Micael Martins
- Publisher: Broadway Publishing House
- ISBN: 9789380739267
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Dulpod. Song sung after the Mando, of quick rhythm, typically descriptive of everyday Goan life, particularly that of the Christians. A folk song of the nobility. Offered here is a collection of dulpods, dance songs depicting vignettes of life in traditional Goa. It is a collection more complete than the first one ever made of them (from 1866 to 1870) by the pioneer collector of Konkani folk songs, Miguel Vicente de Abreu (1827-1884). Abreu (who identified himself as um curioso ) compiled his collection while dulpods were still being composed; the present collection was completed when their period of composition had long ended. They portray an idyllic world which in our own lifetime has vanished past recall, and which some of us were privileged to witness while it still enjoyed some of its vitality. Inhabiting this world were characters like the advogad (lawyer), alfiad (alfaiate, tailor), beatinny (devout spinster), bikari (beggar), firngi (paklo, white man, Portuguese), forvoti (sawyer), harvi (fisherman), iscrivaum (scrivener), inglez (Englishman), kolvont (temple dancer), marinheir (seaman), maskany (fishwife), mistis (mestiço), padri (pad vigar, pad cur, patiu; priest, vicar, curate), poskany (female merchant), render (toddy tapper), rendenny (toddy tapper s wife), roper (clothier), sonar (goldsmith), tanddel (ferryman), and tovoi mest (carpenter). Not many researchers have studied the Dulpod. Among the few who have are Lúcio Rodrigues (1915-1973) and António Mascarenhas (1916-1993), particularly the former, who not ineptly termed it the song of joy, for its mostly anonymous Konkani authors describe joyous characters living in a stable world, with its tranquility disturbed by armed conflicts, ever increasing emigration, and the introduction of technology. But to some authors who wrote in Portuguese -- like Gip (Francisco João da Costa, 1864-1901) and José da Silva Coelho (1889-1944) -- it was a world of hypocrisy and pretense, features that it undoubtedly possessed. The Dulpod, though not ignorant of the darker side of Goan life, concerns itself mainly with the joyous existence which that life had to offer. The Dulpod is a dance song that originated in the aristocratic mansions in Goa after the introduction of ballroom dancing in the early 19th century. Goans became addicts to ballroom dancing, and continue to be so in this 21st century. They mastered the dances current in Europe, like the Waltz (in vogue from 1816), the Polka (originated around 1830), Lancers (from around 1860) and the Pas-de-Quatre (1892). But they needed to have dance songs of their own; they invented four: the Mando, the Mando-Dulpod, the Dulpod, and the Deknni. The Mando is a slow verse-and-refrain song, in six-four time, dealing with love, tragedy and contemporary events, both social and political. The Mando-Dulpod is a slower variety of the Dulpod (or a quicker sort of Mando), also in six-four time, facilitating the transition from the Mando s slow rhythm to the quicker one of the Dulpod. The Dulpod itself, in six-eight time, is typically descriptive of Goan life, particularly that of the Christians. The Deknni ( Song of the Deccan ) is a song imitating Hindu music in the musical idiom current among the Christians, in two-for or six-eight time, descriptive mostly of Hindu life, with special attention given to temple dancers. We have already published three volumes on the Mando, and one on the Folk Songs of Goa: Mando-Dulpods and Deknnis. The present volume is devoted to the Dulpod alone.
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