They sang these songs of praise in a little studio but those hymns resonated with people across Goa then. Now Fr Antonio Costa has compiled old Goan Sacred Music into a book, which should become a handbook of sorts for many across Goa. This is the story of Songs of Praise
Photo Credits: SUNDAY. LEAD. PAGE 1. _1
They came together 50 years ago to preserve Goan sacred music. A group of Goan priests at the Rachol Seminary formed The Society for the Preservation of Goan Sacred Music and selected hymns, practiced them and then broadcasted this sacred music over the airwaves from the Panaji studios of Radio Goa/All India Radio. One of the members of that group, Fr Antonio Da Costa, of Curtorim but now based in Tempe, Arizona for almost three decades, has compiled hymns in Konkani, Portuguese and Latin into a book with musical notations. Songs of Praise contains 159 hymns, litanies and some motets, the ordinary prayers in Konknni, prayers and hymns for the visitation of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal. Now he speaks about this labour of love, a book that he hopes will “serve as a manual of devotions for our faithful in their homes, little chapels in their wards or wayside chapels to continue these devotions via litanies and novenas.”
The Goan: How did the Society come about in the 1960s? What was the thinking behind it and what prompted everyone to find common ground?
Fr Antonio Costa: The idea came about when I became acquainted with a great Goan musician, Antoninho D'Sousa, who at that time was the Director of the Radio Goa studio musicians. He kept sending me invitations to go to the Radio Goa studio to sing and record genuine Goan songs, both secular and religious. At the time, being in the Seminary, I didn't think I would have gotten permission from my Superiors to go Radio Goa to sing secular songs. So I thought that the best alternative was to record and preserve our beloved religious songs (hymns and motets). The name emanated from there. Rachol Seminary had a special choir whose 12 members were selected among all the seminarians who could sing. The choir was named "Coro de Santa Cecilia" i.e. St Cecilia's Choir. In the Catholic Church, St. Cecilia is the patroness of singers. Being a member of this choir myself, I talked to my colleagues about the project of recording these hymns at Radio Goa. They all embraced the idea wholeheartedly and we named the group "Society for the Preservation of Goan Sacred Music". From June 1965 to April 1966 the group recorded three programmes of one hour each. The group did not continue with this program after I went to Pune to continue my studies at the Papal Seminary.
TG: Did you face any stumbling blocks along the way?
Fr Costa: Being in the Seminary at that time we needed to get permission from our Rector to go to the studio at the Emissora de Goa. We got no objection since it was religious music that we were recording.
TG: Who did what in the group (responsibilities) and how did you all put everything together?
Fr Costa: My colleagues helped me to copy the music, to arrange schedules and times to practice the music I collected and selected for the recordings. The members were asked to give up their free time to practice and to get ready for the recording. Some helped to copy the sheet music and make enough copies for all the singers. My main responsibilities were to collect and select the hymns, make contacts with the Goa Radio authorities to obtain the necessary contract papers and making the travel arrangements. With the remuneration that the Radio Goa paid us we established a scholarship for an annual reward to a seminarian who obtained the highest marks in music that year.
TG: What were the first reactions after your first show on AIR?
Fr Costa: We got positive reactions and encouragement from our superiors as well as the public in general. All we know is what we heard by word of mouth that the music was very much appreciated and enjoyed by many listeners . There was no write up on the newspapers those days. Whoever heard our program over the air, especially the motets, told us that they were very happy to hear it, praised our efforts to revive this beautiful music and encouraged us to do more.
TG: When did everyone go their separate ways? How many members are still surviving?
Fr Costa: In June of 1966 I was sent to the Papal Seminary in Pune to do my higher studies in Theology. The group could not continue the program we had started. All the original members are still living.
TG: Why did you decide to put all this together now?
Fr Costa: When I began to learn to read and write music at the age of 14, I was looking for written Konknni music but I found none. In Latin class I came across a proverb, " Verba volant, scripta manent" which means "Spoken words fly, written words remain (forever)". This proverb then became my motto and my inspiration to begin writing down in music notation every song in Konknni, in Portuguese or Latin I came across. I am still doing this up to now. Preparing music for printing takes time even though music writing software like Finale make the job easier. However there were time constraints due to my multiple duties until my retirement. Until four years ago I spent my time writing and editing the music for the books like "Song of Goa:Crown of Mando" (2010), an anthology of most beautiful mandos, and the book "Undra Muja Mama" (2011), an anthology of Dulpods. This was a joint effort of the late Dr Jose Pereira, the late Prof. Micael Martins and myself. Once that work was completed I began preparing for the current book in 2012 and completed this year in 2016.
TG: The Church, at the time, was very active in teaching and promoting music. It doesn’t do much of that now. Could you perhaps suggest reasons why?
Fr Costa: I do not think that the Church in Goa has stopped promoting music. May be you have some truth in saying that it stopped teaching since we have our music schools attached to the parish church no more. With the development of several professional music schools and teachers who prepare students for the Trinity College, London music exams, our parochial schools could not survive. These schools those days served a specific purpose. The Church choir masters taught music and the three Rs at the same time. Portuguese primary schools in the villages were established much later. The parish music schools prepared the future musicians for the Church and the whole world. All the bands in Portuguese and British India were conducted by Goans. My own uncle Rosarinho da Costa, with his brothers Milagres and Domingos and four other Goans, conducted his Excelsior Orchestra in Burma, Xangai in China, in Colombo, Sri Lanka and then in Bangalore, India beginning in 1927. Music is taught in all our Seminaries and I am the beneficiary of that.
--
“Fr. Bernardo Cota together with António Calisto Vaz, Fr. Nascimento Mascarenhas, Fr. Avinash Rebelo, Fr. Eufemiano Miranda, Fr. Agnelo Mendes, José António Dias Mendes, Fr. Francisco de Melo, Fr. Procopio de Sousa, Fr. Joe Fernandes and Manuel Lobo were the members of the group, The Society for the Preservation of Goan Sacred Music. We recorded some of these motets, such as Inundaverunt, for our broadcast on Radio Goa in 1965. I hope and pray that efforts will continue to be made to search for more of these lost gems of our Goan musical treasure and that they will be published and thus preserved for posterity”
- Fr Antonio Costa
I'm illiterate in the world of music, but it's not difficult to understand how important this is for a place like Goa. Due to a series of happy coincidences, I have also been associated with Pe Antonio's earlier (co-authored with Dr Ze Pereira and maestro Micael Martins) two books on the mando and the dulpod, called Song of Goa and Undra Muja Mama. Pe Antonio makes the work easy for us as he has mastered software programs like Finale, which allow him to typeset the music notations. Victor Da Costa's rendering of the music is magical. We are grateful to him for creating and sharing these. It would indeed be lovely if books could promote our traditions and culture. Or music could, in turn, promote books. I think that more than a little of both seems to be happening with Songs of Praise. We have a lot to be grateful for. It feels good that we can do a little to understand our past and preserve some of it for future generations.
Frederick Noronha, Goa 1556
--
Songs of Praise can be found in bookstores across Goa. The recordings by Victor Da Costa, of the hymns in the book, can be found at https://archive.org/details/VictorDaCostaGoa
--
San Francisku Xaviera is believed to be one of the oldest Goan compositions, done in 1890, by the then choir master of Se Cathedral in Old Goa, Raimundo Barreto of Loutulim
