Continental Drift

Welcome to Continental Drift, and Happy Halloween! Today we’ll be doing a Halloween special! (or I guess Halloween Eve?? Which is weird because Halloween is already All Hallows’ Eve, so I guess All Hallows’ Eve Eve?? Whatever.) This episode is gonna be a bit different from the others we’ve done this semester; last year, the host did Halloween traditions around the world, so obviously I can’t do the exact same thing; instead, I opted for something a little more somber: death mythology! I love love love mythology, so I figured today we’d get into some stories about death from different cultures around the world, both living and dead. Let’s get into it, yeah?

Danse Macabre: The Jivin’ Dead!

So this first song is called Danse macabre, by the French composer Camille Saint-Saens. It’s based on an old European legend that every year on Halloween, Death itself would pull up into town at midnight to raise the dead as skeletons while he plays a fiddle. Though the dead danced, they had until dawn when the rooster crowed, at which point they had to go back into their graves and wait for the next year. 

Interestingly, the Danse macabre song is actually based on a specific medieval artistic motif of the same name; of course, back in the day you had all sorts of art depicting saints and angels and things like that, meant to give the people a sense of security. But of course you also have to remember; everyone dies. Rich, poor, sinner, saint, adult, child, death comes for us all the same. And that’s what this motif is meant to do, it’s meant to remind the audience that everyone dies, to not forget that life is fragile and precious and impermanent. And so we get this song, a musical representation of that. Fun times!

We’re gonna stick around in Europe for just a bit, but we’re gonna drift on over to Finland! This piece, by Jean Sibelius, is called The Swan of Tuonela. The Swan of Tuonela is based on the Kalevala, the national epic of Finland. In Finnish mythology, Tuonela is the name of the Finnish underworld, which is ruled by the god Tuoni and his wife Tuonetar, and is separated from the living world by a great river. 

The title character of this song is the river’s guardian, a magical black swan who sings death spells to prevent the dead from swimming back to the living world. Specifically, this piece depicts an episode where the hero Lemminkainen is torn apart on his quest to the underworld to kill the swan. Word gets out to his mom, who then dredges the river to find every piece of him, sews him back together, and resurrects him. It’s an example of my favorite type of myth, called a katabasis, which I’ll talk about later.

First 2 Songs

Danse macabre // Camille Saint-Saens

The Swan of Tuonela // Jean Sibelius

This next song is called The Gallu Pursuit, by Connie Han. The story it’s based on is from Sumer, which was a civilization several thousand years ago in what is now Iraq. In Sumerian mythology, the goddess of love and war, Inanna, goes to visit her sister Ereshkigal, goddess of Kur, the underworld. Inanna tries to take over Kur, is killed on the spot, and stays there since she’s dead. Eventually she escapes, but she’s being chased by these demons called gallu whose job is to bring her back. She manages to permanently escape and come back to life by trading places with someone else. See, while Inanna was dead, the people in her life all mourned her. Except, that is, for her husband Dumuzid, the god of shepherds. He’s absolutely having the time of his life. So Inanna sics the gallu on him and they drag him to Kur. Don’t worry though, he gets better (sort of); Inanna relents a bit and decrees that instead of Dumuzid just being permanently dead, his sister, who wants to rescue him, gets to trade places with him for half of every year, and so they cycle in and out with the seasons. It’s meant to be a “changing of the seasons” myth, but the more mythology you learn, what you notice is that those types of myths very frequently involve some god dying or basically dying (like by being dragged to the underworld), so I think it fits to bring up here. 

Izanagi (with the spear) and Izanami creating land

Shinto mythology from Japan has the story of Izanami and Izanagi, the mother and father of a number of important gods, called kami. The story goes that they’re having a ton of kids, but eventually Izanami gives birth to Kagu-Tsuchi, the kami of fire. Problem is, bearing a flaming child is generally not considered good for your health, so Izanami dies from the burns she sustains giving birth. Izanagi goes to Yomi, the land of the dead, to rescue her, and the lovers reunite in the dark of the underworld, but Izanami has already eaten the food of Yomi, and is thus bound to the afterlife. She says that in the morning, she can ask for permission to leave, and so they rest for the night. 

Izanagi is impatient and wants to see his wife’s face, so he lights a fire and finds, to his horror, that she is decayed and maggot-ridden. He screams, then runs as Izanami wakes up and chases after him. Izanagi makes it out of Yomi alive and seals Izanami in with a boulder. Furious, Izanami vows that if Izanagi leaves her, she’ll kill a thousand people every day. Izanagi, in reply, says that he’ll allow 1500 people to be born every day to counteract this. And that’s the story that explains why people die! 

In Haitian Vodou, the spirits, called lwa (pronounced loh-uh) are separated into different groups based on their nature; today, though, the specific group I want to talk about is called Guede. The Guede lwa are spirits that are usually associated with death and fertility, and are known to be a pretty fun bunch, prone to raunchy humor and such. In Vodou ceremonies, it’s said that participants can be possessed by the lwa, and in order to encourage a specific lwa to possess someone, there’s these drum patterns and dances associated with different lwa groups. The drum pattern and dance associated with the Guede specifically is called banda, which is Vodou’s contribution to this evening’s music. Also, fun fact, in Haiti, the Guede have their own festival, Fet Gede, which is like this annual festival honoring the dead. It’s actually later this week, Nov 1. and 2!

Second Set of Songs

The Gallu Pursuit // Connie Han

Izanami and Izanagi // Izvnvgi (pronounced Izanagi)

Banda // The Drummers of the Societe Absolument Guinin

The story for tonight that is perhaps the most familiar to you comes all the way from Greece: the tragedy of Orpheus and Eurydice. Orpheus was a musician who married the nymph Eurydice. On the night of their wedding, Eurydice was chased by another man. Some say it was a satyr (half-man, half-goat), others say it was Aristaeus, god of beekeeping. Whoever it was wanted her for himself, and while running from him, she was bitten by a venomous snake and died. Orpheus, legendary musician that he was, sang his way into hell, which moved Hades and Persephone so much that they let him bring Eurydice back. 

Ah, but this story is a tragedy, and here’s why: the catch was that if he looked at Eurydice while leading her from the Underworld, he would be unable to bring her back. He’s plagued with doubt on the return journey, and the second he steps foot back in the land of the living, he turns around, sees Eurydice just behind him, and loses her once again to death. It’s a sad story, and similar to the story with Izanagi and Izanami, and multiple other stories from tonight, it’s an example of a katabasis: some figure makes a descent, usually into the underworld, and oftentimes with the intent of rescuing a loved one. Katabases are my absolute favorite type of myth, and I’m something of a hopeless romantic, so I like to think of the katabasis as how love perseveres even in the face of death, but obviously, even when love perseveres, it doesn’t always beat death. (That was weirdly melancholy, so let’s move on, shall we?)

This next song is the Ride of the Valkyries by Richard Wagner; awful man, good composer. Anyway, let’s talk about Valkyries. When you die in Norse mythology, a few different things could happen to you: you could go to Hel if you die a normal death, but if you die in combat, you go either to Folkvangr (ruled by Freya) or Valhalla (ruled by Odin). Valkyries are the ones who spot people dying on the battlefield and ferry their souls off to Valhalla. The word valkyrie itself means “chooser of the slain”. It’s like an army of grim reaper warrior ladies whose job is to make sure fighters get to the right afterlife. Which is absolutely sick if you think about it!

In a few different Latin American countries, but particularly Mexico, there’s a legend of a spectre called La Llorona. There’s different versions of the story, but as one of them goes, she was a beautiful woman who found her husband cheating with another woman. In a rage, she drowns her children in a river, then in her guilt, drowns herself. She isn’t allowed to pass onto the next life until she finds her kids, so she wanders the earth as a ghost, and will abduct children who stray near water on their own. The legend has inspired many works of art, including the song also called La Llorona!

Osiris (the zombie-lookin’ fella) and Set (the guy with the animal head)

Our final story comes to us this evening from Egypt. I’m talking about the story of Osiris. Osiris, god of fertility and agriculture, was the pharaoh of Egypt. His brother Set murders him for some reason that depends on the version of the story, but his body is hacked into pieces and scattered throughout Egypt. Osiris’ wife Isis collects his pieces and puts him back together, whereupon he becomes the first mummy and is temporarily revived. This revival isn’t permanent, though, and he returns to death once more, but now he’s gained a new role as god of the dead.

Third Set of Songs

Orpheus in the Underworld: Overture // Jacques Offenbach

Ride of the Valkyries // Richard Wagner

La Llorona // Chavela Vargas

Osiris and Set // Lonnie Plaxico

Once an episode I play an on-theme song at the end just because I can, and that’s what this last song is. This song is called Etemmu (Interludio) by Jay Cas. Etemmu is actually the Akkadian word for ghost! When someone dies, according to Mesopotamian mythology, they leave behind a ghost. If they had kids while alive, the family could pour sacrifices into the grave to keep them fed in the afterlife. If they didn’t have anyone to do this, they would become restless, hungry and thirsty, and haunt the living. And if their body is destroyed in a fire, or if they die alone in the desert (weirdly specific), then there’s no ghost at all. Nothing left. Anyway, here’s Etemmu (Interludio) by Jay Cas, and that’ll be our show! Happy Halloween!

Last Song Because I Can

Etemmu // Jay Cas

Welcome back to Continental Drift, all! It’s been a while, courtesy of that lovely Georgia Tech workload, but we’re back this week, and we’re drifting with a vengeance! So let’s head on over to Brazil today, shall we? You can find the playlist here and listen to the episode here.

The Federative Republic of Brazil is a country on the Atlantic coast of South America, bordered by literally all of South America (except Ecuador and Chile). Its capital is Brasilia, and you may have guessed from the fact that it borders almost the entire rest of its continent, but it’s also the largest country in South America, and with a population of a little over 203 million, it is the 7th most populous country. The official language of Brazil is Portuguese, giving it the distinction of being the largest Lusophone country and the only one in the Americas.

Being as diverse a country as it is, Brazil enjoys a wide variety in its folk music. Oftentimes you’ll see music for maracatu or capoeira, which are both Brazilian traditions that exist as fixtures of the cultural syncretism that arose from the slave trade and Brazilian slavery. Maracatu, at least the variant you hear in today’s show, is a performance genre that involves groups called nações (lit. “nations”), which traditionally group themselves around Afro-Brazilian religions like Candomblé or Jurema. And then capoeira is kind of like a combination of martial arts and dance that also has its origins among Afro-Brazilians. The first song of this episode is actually from a capoeira game; you don’t play capoeira without its associated music, and the music played can be improvised on-site or it can be prewritten.

Capoeira: note the instrumentalists standing by while the players play!

Folk Music Segment

Capoeira de são Salvador // Mestre Suassuna e Dirceu

Untitled Capoeira Song // Master Vermelho

Canto para Xango e Omolu // Nação do Maracatu Porto Rico

Ijexa for Oxum // Jorge Alabe

That last song in the segment was of the genre known as ijexá, which is traditional music for the religion Candomblé. Both it and the song before it, though the earlier song is secular music, invoke the names of spirits known as orixa; orixa are derived from the spirits in Yoruba religion (spelled òrìṣà in Yoruba), so already you can see how deeply impacted Brazilian culture is by some of the the earlier African traditions that made their way to South America.

Moving on, Brazil has loads more idiomatic music styles, so let’s talk about a few of ‘em. First one I want to talk about is called choro, which is an instrumental genre that came out of Rio in the 19th century; it usually involves a flute, guitar, and an instrument called a cavaquinho which is kind of like a Portuguese ukulele (in fact, the ukulele is actually based on the cavaquinho). The word choro can loosely mean “lament”, but as you’ll see in this section, the genre doesn’t really fall in line with that connotation, it’s pretty upbeat. Enjoy!

Jacob do Bandolim with his bandolim (mandolin)

Choro Segment

Brejeiro // Du Violão plus 1

Choro No. 1 // Heitor Villa-Lobos

Vibrações // Jacob Do Bandolim

In the mid-20th century, choro had largely been supplanted by newer genres of Brazilian popular music. One such music form was the family of musical styles known as samba. Samba had been around since the late 19th century, but really grew in popularity around the 1930s as radio broadcasting became more popular in Brazil. Samba is more of an umbrella term than anything, as there are multiple subcategories of what can be referred to as samba, and each samba song we’re gonna be playing is a different flavor of samba. The first song in today’s samba segment is actually widely considered to be the first samba song recorded in Brazil, but that also means its audio quality is very nice… in terms of how audio quality was 107 years ago. Sorry in advance for that, but hope y’all can enjoy!

Samba Segment

Pelo Telefone // Donga

Carinhoso // Pixinguinha

Estrada Do Sol // Antonio Carlos Jobim

So this next segment is interesting in that it’s not really a fully separate genre from the previous, but it’s perhaps the most prominent subgenre that I could talk about today; specifically we’re talking about bossa nova, which, in the 1950s, grew out of a sort of fusion of jazz with samba; you get the interesting harmonic characteristics associated with jazz but the core of the music is samba, and so we ended up with the style of bossa nova. It’s got a characteristic rhythm to it that sounds kinda like [fails to clap the rhythm because I’ve forgotten how to read music] but that’s more an artifact of samba, not unique to bossa nova itself.

A typical bossa nova rhythm

Bossa Nova Segment

Chega de Saudade // João Gilberto

The Girl from Ipanema // Antonio Carlos Jobim

Samba De Uma Nota So // Antonio Carlos Jobim

The show today will end with not necessarily a look into a genre, but a look at a particular artist that sort of caught my eye; his name is Caetano Veloso, he does a variety of things, some of ’em are pretty funky. I don’t actually have a lot to say about him, but his music’s a vibe, so that’ll conclude the show! (Note: if you’re listening back to the episode, I said there’d be one more song after this segment; there isn’t!)

Caetano Veloso 

Os passistas // Caetano Veloso

Parabens // Caetano Veloso

Welcome to Continental Drift, everyone! This week, we’ll be traveling to Ghana! You can find the playlist here and listen to the episode here.

The Republic of Ghana is a West African country bordered by Burkina Faso to the north, Côte D’ivoire to the west, Togo to the east, and the Atlantic Ocean to the South. Its capital is Accra, and with a population of around 34 million, Ghana is the 48th most populous country in the world and the second most populous African country, behind only Nigeria. The official language of Ghana is English, but Ghana is vastly multiethnic and contains various national languages recognized by the Ghanaian government such as Twi, Ewe, Fante, and numerous others.

Ghanaian traditional music differs based on which part of the country you’re in; in the north, traditional music acts very similar to other African countries in the same sort of geographic region; you get lots of melodic music played on a variety of instruments, and like other African countries, northern Ghana has a history of the performance of griots, who were kind of like a caste of bards who would alternately serve as advisors, storytellers, musicians, and oral recordkeepers. Very cool stuff! 

In the south, where there would be more urbanization due to being near a water source, you get music that’s more closely related to social functions, which means inevitably a good portion of it will be dancing music. Tonight’s first song is music for an adowa dance, and adowa is performed at all sorts of cultural events from weddings to funerals, with specific movements meant to communicate different emotional states. Other dances, like kete, exist as well, fulfilling different roles within the social atmosphere. 

Traditional Music Segment:

Adowa: Mpre // Yiadom Boakye and Manhyia Tete Nwomkoro

Kete: Kyenkyehene // Kete Children’s Group and Mr. PK Attah

In addition to traditional music, Ghanaian music of more recent origin also exists. Perhaps the best-known Ghanaian music genre is called highlife; it involves an underlying guitar melody played over a rhythmic percussion part that sounds very similar to the Cuban clave percussion pattern. Highlife particularly got really big after World War 2, and many groups began to emulate it, not just in Ghana, but also in Nigeria and London. 

E.T. Mensah (not to be confused with the politician of the same name), regarded as the King of Highlife.

Highlife Segment

Son of Africa // Kwamalah Quaye Sextetto Africana

205 // E.T. Mensah

Highlife // Yiadom Boakye and Manhyia Tete Nwomkoro

OK so in a sort of reversal of this last segment, we’re now going to feature a genre which isn’t native to Ghana, but which gained some level of prominence in it; specifically, we’re talking about Afrobeat, which is like this sort of mix of a bunch of different genres (including highlife!) but mainly influenced by funk and soul. It was developed in the ‘60s in Nigeria, but it definitely sort of diffused to other areas in Africa, Ghana included. 

Afrobeat Segment

Afe Ato Yen Bio // De Frank and His Professionals

Obiara Wondo // The Cutlass Band

In the ‘60s, when rock and roll made its way to Ghana, young musicians in Accra were like “hey I actually kinda like this” and developed kpanlogo (named after the type of drums used in the music), a new type of dance influenced by rock and roll, but still very much musically rooted in traditional instruments and performance styles. It was a bit of a mixing of the old and the new, sort of. And this would’ve been very soon after Ghana got its independence from Great Britain in the late ‘50s, so in a sense it can also serve as a sort of transitional marker for Ghanaian musical history and political history. 

Kpanlogo Segment 

Kpanlogo // Elikeh

Kpanlogo // The Peace Brass Band Drummers

Kpanlogo wasn’t the only adaptation of old styles of dance, though. One of the more recent music genres from Ghana is called Azonto, which is believed to have its roots in an older dance called Apaa, which is centered around hand movements that sort of mime everyday activities. I realize that maybe radio isn’t the best way to explain performance genres that heavily involve a visual component, but y’know what, that’s why we have this blog post, so it’s no skin off my back.

A group of Ghanaian youths performing an Azonto dance

Azonto Segment

You Go Kill Me // Sarkodie and E.L

Twaame Lala // Stay Jay

Move to Da Gyal Dem – Sarkodie Mix // Donae’o, Sarkodie

Honestly I Just Wanted An Excuse to Play This One

Waiting for My Baby // De Frank and His Professionals

Welcome back to Continental Drift, where today, we shall be drifting continentally to Denmark! You can find the playlist here and listen to the episode here.

The Kingdom of Denmark is a country comprising the Northern European mainland of Denmark, the Faroe Islands, and the North American island of Greenland. The mainland, simply called Denmark, lies south of the other 2 Scandinavian countries, Norway and Sweden, and is bordered by Germany to the south. Its capital is Copenhagen, and with a population of around 6 million, most of which is concentrated in the mainland, Denmark’s population is 112th in terms of size. The official language of Denmark is Danish, but other recognized languages throughout the kingdom include Faroese, Greenlandic, and German.

Bronze Age Lur found in Denmark

The musical history of Denmark dates as far back as the Bronze Age; there’s a type of horn called a lur and the first few to be discovered date back to 800 BCE. Of the 56 total lurs that have been discovered, 35 of them are Danish (and actually some of them are still playable!) I sadly do not have any lur music for you, however, so today’s episode will start with classical music.

Classical Music Segment

5 Klaverstykker, Op. 3: No. 1 // Carl Nielsen

Aquarellen, Op. 19, Book 1: No. 1. Elegie in E Minor // Niels Gade

Morgenstund har guld i mund // Thomas Laub

Champangegaloppen // Hans Christian Lumbye

Funny story about that last piece; basically the composer was invited to a formal celebration at some embassy, but then he flaked and never went, so when he came home and his family asked about the celebration, he went to his piano and improvised what would eventually become that piece. In other words, IT WAS FOUNDED ON A LIE (lol jk but that story is true)

Worth noting is that of the composers from this past section, half of them, specifically Carl Nielsen and Niels Gade, were some of the most powerful men in the Copenhagen music scene. They were both at one point directors of Musikforeningen, which was like Denmark’s most important concert hall from the 1830s to the 1930s, founded on a desire to preserve Danish musical works. Thomas Laub was also something of a conservationist, but in the sense of trying to preserve the integrity of various Protestant hymns. Just goes to show that the importance of music preservation isn’t an especially new concern.

Folk Music Segment

Entertaining Song // Hendrik Singerdât

Livsvandet // Phønix

Mítt føðiland tað fátækt er // Regin Dahl

So, the thing about countries like Denmark is that they aren’t localized to any one area. That means different groups native to the area are going to have different folk music. For instance, the last song in this segment was Faroese, and has a very different vibe from the song before it, which was from Denmark proper. Greenland also has this sort of unique musical landscape in that its traditional music can come from either the Danish population or the Inuit population of the island, the latter of which was played at the beginning of this segment. But now we must move away from tradition and into the clutches of the jazz era. 

Jazz Segment

St. James Infirmary // Theis Jensen

All the Things You Are // Max Brüel

Regnvejr Og Blaest // Erik Moseholm

Dansevise // Grethe and Jørgen Ingmann

The Danish jazz scene really began to flourish in the 1930s, but then in the 1940s, the Third Reich took control of Denmark, and that meant jazz as a musical practice was discouraged in the area, but this did little to stifle creativity, as many musicians would either escape to Sweden and perform there, or just continue to perform regardless. This point in time is actually considered Denmark’s golden age of jazz, and after World War 2 was properly over, Danish jazz musicians would sort of schism into 2 groups which preferred either New Orleans jazz or the then-new jazz style bebop. Ultimately, in the 70s, the popularity of jazz started to fall with the advent of rock.

Rock Segment

Den Dejligste Morgen // Gnags

Timmissat Taartut // Nanook

Lust // The Raveonettes

The Danish rock scene has always been somewhat closely intertwined with American and British musical stylings. Denmark started importing American rock and roll in the 1950s, whereupon Danish jazz musicians would bring the style before a new Danish audience. After this, Danish rock musicians, a new group in their own right, would begin to be influenced by British music, and then again by American rock, through the latter half of the 20th century. You can sort of see this in the way that it starts to be more common that Danish artists like The Raveonettes would perform with English lyrics. You also see a little of that in Danish pop that springs up, especially in the 21st century.

Pop Segment

Smuk som et stjerneskud // Olsen Brothers

Only Teardrops // Emmelie de Forest

I feel like I almost had to include these songs at the very end because as it turns out, Denmark won Eurovision 3 times, and all 3 of their winning songs have been featured in tonight’s show; two of them in this past segment, and the third being Dansevisen at the end of the jazz segment. One last interesting fact is that the first song by the Olsen Brothers has an English version that they used for Eurovision; it’s called “Fly on the Wings of Love” in English. 

That’ll be all for this week’s episode of Continental Drift!

Today, we’re switching back over to the Western hemisphere to talk about Cabo Verde! You can find the playlist here and listen back to the episode here.

The Republic of Cabo Verde is an island country off the west coast of Africa, consisting of a ten-island archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of almost 600 thousand, its population is 172nd in terms of size, but interestingly, far more Cabo Verdeans exist outside of Cabo Verde than in it. The official language of Cape Verde is Portuguese, though most Cape Verdeans additionally speak a Portuguese-based creole language which is actually significant from a linguistics standpoint as the oldest extant creole language.

The islands that make up Cabo Verde were actually completely uninhabited until the Portuguese set up shop on the island of Santiago in 1462. Eventually, as more Europeans started jumping on the transatlantic bandwagon, Cape Verde began to flourish economically, as their placement made them very useful for the slave trade. As tends to occur, the slave trade led to the fusion of European and African cultural elements, resulting in an emergent cultural identity that includes the music of today’s episode.

Funaná Segment

Bitori Nha Bininha // Bitori

Ká Bô Bem Dzoriental // Tchiss Lopes

Odio Sem Valor // Pedrinho

All 3 of the previous songs belong to a genre of music called funaná, which is very heavily associated with accordions that are usually accompanied rhythmically by an instrument called a ferrinho (literally, “little iron”), which is a metal bar that you can whack or scrape with another metal object. On top of that, though, it has a sort of characteristic rhythmic element to it. There’s multiple types of funaná, but the most popular type has a rhythmic setup that looks something like the picture below this paragraph:

A common funaná rhythm

All of this episode’s music genres have some kind of characteristic rhythm to them, as we’ll see the further we progress.

Batuque Segment

Dispidida // Mayra Andrade

Maria Julia // Gil Semedo

Batuque is characterized by a triple-meter rhythm that looks like this:

Batuque rhythm

Batuque encodes a 3:2 polyrhythm in the songs, either implicitly or explicitly, so there’ll be one percussion part keeping 3/4 time, and then either the rhythm of the song or a second percussion part will highlight a secondary rhythm that completes 2 evenly-spaced beats every time the main rhythm completes 3 evenly-spaced beats. The other Cabo Verdean genres don’t have this tendency, so it’s cool to see it arise somewhere!

Coladeira Segment

Tchapeu di padja // Simentera

Beju Cu Jetu // Rene Cabral

One of the more recent Cabo Verdean genres is coladeira, which tends to have a somewhat lively tempo and lyrics. Its rhythmic pattern can vary, but in general will tend to look like either of the following patterns:

Coladeira Rhythm 1

Coladeira Rhythm 2

Coladeira is unique among this episode’s genres because it actually gets its sound from a different Cabo Verdean genre known as morna.

Morna Segment

Petit pays // Cesaria Evora

Pontin Pontin // Bana

Both of the artists featured in this segment are well-known internationally; Cesaria Evora herself is the best-known Morna artist outside of Cabo Verde. Morna is like the “signature” music of Cabo Verde, simply because of how popular it and its performers are both inside and outside of the country. Morna tends to have a slow, somber feel, with wistful, emotionally heavy themes like love and longing and missing your home. Morna and coladeira are actually pretty similar rhythmically, it’s just that coladeira is played with a faster tempo.

Last Song Because I Wanted It But Couldn’t Easily Categorize It

Afeto // Mayra Andrade

And that’ll be the episode!