From the sprawling green campus of Kala Academy along the
river Mandovi to the summer palace of Adil Shah, the students of the Department
of Western Music are absorbing the education they are receiving irrespective of
its location. The melodious voice, the strumming of the classical guitar and
the students practicing on the violin all can be heard at the
five-centuries-old palace where students are studying music with their mind,
heart and soul.
“Since the Kala Academy complex is under renovation, the
classes of the Department of Western Music of the Kala Academy are at present
being conducted in corridors and four rooms of what was formerly the Adil Shah
Palace, Panjim. The teaching faculty of the Department of Western Music
consists of seven lecturers, six teachers and nine teachers on lecture basis,”
says the current director of the Department of Western Music, Fr Romeo
Monteiro.
Maestro Antonio Fortunato Figueiredo was the founder
director of Academic de Música da Índia Portuguesa, India’s premier
full-fledged school of western classical music. He was born on August 20, 1908
in Loutulim. He breathed his last in 1981 and since then Kala Academy established
its annual programme, Founder’s Day, which is held in his memory.
Maestro Antonio Figueiredo began his musical education in
his parochial school, in his home village of Loutulim. He went to Portugal and
studied at the Conservatório Nacional de Lisboa, graduating with a Higher
Education Degree in Violin in 1932. He also went to Paris, where he took
classes in Musique et Musicologie in France. Returning to Goa, in 1936, he was
engaged in choirs and ensembles in Portuguese Goa. He convinced the Portuguese
regime to begin the Academia de Música da Índia Portuguesa, modelled on the
musical education given at the Conservatories in Europe. Thus began, in 1952,
the Academia de Música, the first school that taught western classical music in
a systematic and scientific method in India.
In 1970, the Academia was absorbed into the Kala Academy Goa
and is, since then, supported by the Government of Goa, under the aegis of the
Directorate of Art and Culture. The Department of Western Music of the Kala
Academy is presently headed by Maestro Fr Romeo Monteiro. Fr Romeo, is a
diocesan priest who was a former student of the Kala Academy Goa, and studied
under the then director, Maestro Lourdino Barreto. He then proceeded to Rome,
where he obtained degrees in Composition and in Church Music at the Pontificio
Istituto di Sacra Musica and at the Pontificio Ataneo di Sant Anselmo, besides
his ecclesiastical degrees of theological and canonical sciences at the
Pontificia Università di San Tommasso (Angelicium). He was also formerly
Professor of Music and Conductor of the Santa Cecilia Choir and Orchestra, with
which he has given several performances all over Goa.
Currently, 359 students are offered classes with each course
including solfeggio as well as theory of music. It continues to impart holistic
musical education to students. Children as young as 7 years can join the
classes in January and can continue studying music for 13 years which is Grade
12 or a licentiate degree. The classes are held from 2 pm to 6 pm, attracting mostly
students from North Goa. Many of the present music teachers have also been
former students of Kala Academy’s Department of Western Music.
On August 22, the annual Founder’s Day will be held at
Institute Menezes Braganza, Panjim at 6 pm. The programme will consist of
solos, duos and ensembles by the students studying in the various disciplines
offered by the department: strings, pianoforte, classical guitar, electronic
keyboard and voice. The junior and senior choirs of Kala Academy Goa will also
be in attendance. Young violinists will also perform in the Junior String
Orchestra.
The highlight of the evening’s programme will be Haydn’s
Symphony No 70, conducted by Maestro Romeo Monteiro. A symphony, played by a
full-fledged symphonic orchestra, with all the sections – strings, reeds, brass
and percussion – is something that Goa has not heard for the past several
years. The Kala Academy Symphony Orchestra, composed of staff and students
under the baton of their director, is presenting this intricate work (Symphony)
written in 4 movements.
This Symphony is the work of Franz Joseph Haydn, an Austrian
composer of the Classical period. Haydn has written over 100 Symphonies and was
the most celebrated composer during his times (end of 18th century). He is
considered as the ‘Father of the Symphony’. He is said to be the mentor of
Mozart and Beethoven.
“A symphony is a lengthy form of musical composition for
orchestra. It is divided into many movements, 3 or 4 or even 5. The movements
are composed in different forms: sonata form, rondo form, etc. Symphonies, in
this sense, began to be composed during the Classical period of European
musical history (1750–1820). The early part of this period and the decade
immediately preceding it are sometimes called pre-Classical, as are the
symphonies written before about 1750. During the 19th century, which included
the Romantic period of music, symphonies grew longer, and composers concerned
themselves with ways of unifying the movements. Later, even choral parts were
included in the Symphonies, like the Choral Symphony no 9 of Beethoven,”
explains Fr Romeo.
Interestingly, this will be the first time in over a decade
that a complete symphony, with a full-fledged symphony orchestra will be
performed in Goa.
Goa had a Symphony Orchestra, called the Goa Symphony
Orchestra, founded by Maestro Antonio de Figueiredo and then continued by
Maestro Lourdino Barreto. The Goa Symphony Orchestra, of which Fr Romeo
Monteiro was a member, performed also in Pune and Bombay, besides regular performances
in Goa.
“Somehow, in the 1990s, I was told that the direction of the
Goa Symphony Orchestra was removed from the direction of Fr Lourdino and given
to someone else. Thus began the decadence. Later, Jerome Fernandes, an
ex-military musician, was called on to revive the Goa Symphony Orchestra. It
did give some concerts, but the revival did not last long. Now, since there is
no Goa Symphony Orchestra, I thought of gathering together students and other
musicians and present a Symphony,” adds Fr Romeo. The programme on Tuesday will
also include the distribution of prizes to meritorious students who studied in
the previous academic year from January to December, 2022.
On a more positive note, after over five decades of
providing the best of Western Music training in North Goa, the children in
South Goa too will have an opportunity to gain through music. “We have good
news that, as discussed in the recently concluded Assembly session, the
Government is keen on opening a branch of the Kala Academy’s Department of
Western Music in the South, for the benefit of students from the southern parts
of Goa,” concludes Fr Romeo.