Vasco Martins

Last updated
Vasco Martins
Born1956
Queluz, Portugal
Origin Cape Verde
Occupation(s)Musician
Instruments Guitar, Piano, Synthesizer
Years active1976–present
Website http://www.vascomartins.com

Vasco Martins is a Cape Verdean musician and composer. Born in Queluz, Portugal, in 1956, [1] he lives now in Calhau, Cape Verde.

Contents

Biography

Self-taught, he began his studies in 1974. He was a member of the band Colá in 1976, but then went to Portugal where he studied with Fernando Lopes Graça and later to France to pursue his musical education with Henri-Claude Fantapié. In 1979 he recorded his first LP. He returned to Cape Verde, and it is there that he has created most of his work as a composer and instrumentist, but also as musicologist and producer, he organized and founded the Baía das Gatas Music Festival along with his friends in 1984, the first music festival in the nation. He released more albums including Quinto Mundo (1989), Eternal Cycle (1995), Memórias Atlânticas (Memories from the Atlantic) (1998) and Lunário Perpétio (2001). He released 4 Sinfonias in August 2007 which is related to his first four symphonies he made. [2] His album Lua água clara (Clear Moon Water), a CD was recorded in Paris in 2008. He later made Li Sin which was released in June 2010, one of his singles were first heard on Praia FM, [3] nearly two years later in January 2012, he released Azuris, the Latin name for Blue [4] His recent album released was Twelve Moons released in Spring 2014 [5]

Other works

Vasco Martins is the first Capeverdean to ever perform symphonies, the first one was related to the Spring Equinox, the second symphony started in 1998 and completed in 2002 and titled Erupção (Eruption), one of them the last eruption at the time which was on Fogo, it was revised in 2004. The third one was titled Arquipélaco magnético, the Magnetic Archipelago, the fourth one was titled Buda Dharma (Buddha Dharma) made in 2001. The fifth one was set in the Eastern parts and divided into six parts, the first four were the directions, the other two were in space titled nadir and zenith. The sixth one was set in his family's island's tallest summit Monte Verde which was also Pandion halieatus. The seventh one was Alba, the eighth was titled A Procura da Luz (The Search for Light) and the ninth one was for Orchestra which was performed with the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Martins also made works related to instrumentals including 4 Notes on the City of Mindelo using a solo clarinet. He also performed chamber music, piano works including Piano Azul (Blue Piano) in 1998, guitar works including the Subtle Desert and electro music.

In 2008 he performed the opera play titled Crioulo (Creole), it premiered at Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB) in Lisbon on March 27, 2009, he was componist and performed the cantata "Lágrimas na Paraise".

He also made three poems including Universo da Ilha (Island Universe) in 1986, Navegam os olhares com o voo do pássaro, in 1989 and Run Shan in 2008.

Interviews

He was interviewed on October 10, 1997 with FM Stéreo and later with the major newspaper A Semana on April 23, 2005 [6]

Musical styles

In the Cape Verdean musical panorama, Vasco Martins may be considered unique. A composer who refuses to be labeled, he may be considered a classical musician [6] because of his incursions into symphonic orchestra music, but he may also be considered as a new age musician [7] because of his instrumental compositions, mostly using synthesizers, but in both cases, always inspired by traditional Cape Verdean music.

Compositions

Symphonies

Instrumental music

Other works

Discography

Albums

Chamber music

Piano works

Guitar works

Electronic music

Musicals

Operas

DateTitleActsPremiereLibretto
2008Crioulo27 March 2009, Lisbon, Centro Cultural de Belém (CCB)as componist, with cantata "Lágrimas na Paraise"

Literary works

Poems

Related Research Articles

Mindelo Settlement in São Vicente, Cape Verde

Mindelo is a port city in the northern part of the island of São Vicente in Cape Verde. Mindelo is also the seat of the parish of Nossa Senhora da Luz, and the municipality of São Vicente. The city is home to 93% of the entire island's population. Mindelo is known for its colourful and animated carnival celebrations, with roots in Portuguese traditions later influenced by the Brazilian culture.

São Vicente, Cape Verde Island in Cape Verde

São Vicente is one of the Barlavento Islands, the northern group within the Cape Verde archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, off the West African coast. It is located between the islands of Santo Antão and Santa Luzia, with the Canal de São Vicente separating it from Santo Antão.

Music of Cape Verde

Cape Verde is known internationally for morna, a form of folk music usually sung in the Cape Verdean Creole, accompanied by clarinet, violin, guitar and cavaquinho. Funaná, Coladeira, Batuque and Cabo love are other musical forms.

Eugénio Tavares

Eugénio de Paula Tavares was a Cape Verdean poet. He is known through his famous poems (mornas), mostly written in the Creole of Brava.

Baltasar Lopes da Silva

Baltasar Lopes da Silva was a writer, poet and linguist from Cape Verde, who wrote in both Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole. With Manuel Lopes and Jorge Barbosa, he was the founder of Claridade. In 1947 he published Chiquinho, considered the greatest Cape Verdean novel and O dialecto crioulo de Cabo Verde which describes different dialects of creoles of Cape Verde. He sometimes wrote under the pseudonym Osvaldo Alcântara.

Ovídio de Sousa Martins was a famous Cape Verdean poet and journalist. He attended high school in his home country, he went to pursue studies in Portugal and did not achieve studies due to health reasons. He was one of the founders of the Cultural Supplement Bulletin of Cape Verde in 1958. He lived in exile in the Netherlands due to his pro-independence activities in his native land and produced 100 poems there.

Manuel António de Sousa Lopes was a Cape Verdean novelist, poet and essayist. With Baltasar Lopes da Silva and Jorge Barbosa he was a founder of the journal Claridade, which contributed to the rise of Cape Verdean literature. Manuel Lopes wrote in Portuguese, using expressions typical for Cape Verdean Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole. He was one of those responsible for describing world calamities of the droughts that caused several deaths in São Vicente and Santo Antão.

Corsino António Fortes was a Cape Verdean writer, poet and diplomat. He served as the first Ambassador of Cape Verde to Portugal from 1975 until 1981 following his country's independence.

Jorge Barbosa

Jorge Vera-Cruz Barbosa was a Cape Verdean poet and writer. He collaborated in various reviews and Portuguese and Cape Verdean journals. The publication of his poetry anthology Arquipélago (Archipelago) in 1935 marked the beginning of Cape Verdean poetry. He was, along with Baltazar Lopes da Silva and Manuel Lopes, one of the three founders of the literary journal Claridade ("Clarity") in 1936, which marked the beginning of modern Cape Verdean literature.

Adriano Gonçalves, known by his stage name Bana and called the "King of Morna", was a Cape Verdean singer and performer of the morna style, the plaintive, melodic lament which is a staple musical style of the country.

Belinda Lima Francis, on album cover simply Belinda, is a Cape Verdean-American singer based in Mindelo.

Festival de Baía das Gatas

The Festival de Baía das Gatas or the Baía das Gatas Festival and the Baía das Gatas Music Festival takes place on a full moon weekend in August in Baía das Gatas, a village and a bay in the northeastern part of the island of São Vicente, Cape Verde. It is the most popular music festival in Cape Verde and are likely being the first, in its early years, it was the only music festival in the country until the Festival de Gamboa which was established in 1992 in Praia in the island of Santiago. It is nicknamed the Woodstock of Africa.

Francisco Xavier da Cruz, also known as B. Leza or Beleza was a Cape Verdean writer, composer and a singer.

Symphony No. 4, titled Buddha Dharma or rarely Buddha Dhamma was a symphony made by Vasco Martins in 2001. It was the first fourth symphony made by a Cape Verdean and the fourth symphony made by a Cape Verdean. The symphony was inspired by reading a book by Buddha. He composed it slowly, the one-piece work took two weeks and was made in and around the island of São Vicente. The first performance was premiered on September 3, 2001 in São Paulo, Brazil by Lutero Rodrigues and the local cultural symphony, its length is 19-20 minutes. It was performed in France in 2007 and was done by Henri-Claude Fantapié. This work can be listened via the MP3 format via the website, this was done by the composer. The symphony is also available on YouTube. The work covers around 500 sizes and forms about five crescendos.

Leão Lopes is a Cape Verdean director, writer, plastic artist and professor.

The 2016 Cape Verdean Football Championship season was the 37th beginner level competition of the first-tier football in Cape Verde. It started on 14 May and finished on 9 July, it started five days later than last season and finished two days earlier, the season was a week shorter than last. The championship was governed by the Cape Verdean Football Federation. The scheduling was completed on November 16 and the group system was kept instead of becoming a one portion season without playoffs and was the last time. CS Mindelense won the record breaking title and became the second club after Sporting Praia to win four in a row, the highest ever, also it was Mindelense's last. Mindelense chose to not participate in the CAF Champions League competition in 2017, Académica do Porto Novo did not participate in the 2017 CAF Confederation Cup, both of the clubs due to financial concerns, of any club, it is the eighth consecutive time and becomes the recent African nation not to bring a champion to the continentals for the most consecutive years, in the cup competition, Cape Verde is the longest for not bringing a club in Africa lasting for more than 15 years straight, not even the three national cup winners competed. Mindelense qualified and participated in the 2017 National Championships.

Mário Lúcio Musical artist

For the Brazilian footballer, see Mário Lúcio da Silva Junior

Literature of Cape Verde

The Literature of Cape Verde is among the most important in West Africa, it is the second richest in West Africa after Mali and modern day Mauritania. It is also the richest in the Lusophony portion of Africa. Most works are written in Portuguese, but there are also works in Capeveredean Creole, French and notably English.

The following lists events that happened during 2001 in Cape Verde.

1910s – 1920s – 1930s – 1940s – 1950s – 1960s – 1970s – 1980s – 1990s – 2000s

References

  1. ↑ Sudplanete (South Planet), diversité culturelle
  2. ↑ ""4 Sinfonias", o novo disco de Vasco Martins" ["4 Symphonies", A New Disc by Vasco Martins]. A Semana (in Portuguese). 25 August 2007.
  3. ↑ "Vasco Martins — Lin Sin". Praia FM. 19 June 2010.
  4. ↑ Fortes, Teresa Sofia (25 January 2012). "Vasco Martins "Estou de novo pronto para o contacto com o público"". A Semana (in Portuguese).
  5. ↑ "Revista: Vasco Martins lança novo disco, "Twelve Moons" (in Portuguese). RTC. 2 May 2014.
  6. 1 2 A Semana online - Interview with Vasco Martins
  7. ↑ Interview with Carlos Martins & Vasco Martins (in Portuguese)
  8. ↑ Symphony No. 9, performed by the "Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra" with Vit Micka
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.