Creolized European Music
Gláucia Nogueira and Graham Douglas
During the 19thcentury, European music (polka, mazurka, waltz, gallop, etc) and other expressions related to dance styles (cotillon, contradança, quadrilha) arrived in Cabo Verde and were the usual types of entertainment until the 1940s. From that point on, they were supplanted by new musical trends.
Some of them remained regional practices, such as the contradança (a dance suite, with origins in English country dances and French contredanse), on the islands of São Nicolau and Santo Antão, as well as the mazurka and the waltz. With the flows of migration, these dances returned to Europe carried back by Caboverdeans to Luxembourg, France and The Netherlands who promoted them as examples of their cultural tradition.
In general, music of European origin remains alive in the Caboverdean music scene but not very prominently. Certain songwriters – Tibau, Djinho Barbosa and Toy Vieira, for example – still compose mazurkas, among other styles.