How is this support?
RC: Teachers recognize the competence of Xarabanda in technical terms and know it is important to see, hear and talk about music and the origins of various traditional instruments. We played and comment. It is a process that results in time, due to our experience the persons or institutions interested come to us. There is also a center of musical documentation as part of cultural anthropology; we have a specific library on the Madeira culture. Students and teachers seek and find information for their theses, or articles, there is a whole research about the traditional culture is not just music. We support teachers in the area of the master's and doctoral thesis that come collect this information. We have a protocol with the regional directorate of education to develop cultural projects for the island. The first is that repertoire will be released after the systematization of the instruments and the third is the organization and study of traditional dances.
Let's talk a little bit of repertoire and the estate that is archived in this area, have any idea how many records have been made in recent years?
RC: I do not know, I have no idea, was never really counted. Two years ago we received two interns to organize all this collection, the library is scanned and to the service of those who wish to consult. The songbook is a collection of oral folk songs, collections made by the elements of Xarabanda in the decade of the 80s and 90s. The work is to be registered by me, by Jorge Torres, who is an anthropologist and also an ethnomusicologist. The repertoire is a systematic classification and study of traditional music from Madeira, which had not been done so far and has to be delivered this year. The repertoire will be published in a book form and made available to all people.
And the Internet?
RC: Not yet. Xarabanda, the association has a project to be presented this year to have immediate effect in 2013 which is a database of all the music and then the traditional Madeira songbook will be also available. In fact, everything from vinyl, lyrics and scores, which are critical for schools, universities and musicians looking for information in this area? In terms of tourism also, because you have to think that people do not visit only the hotels and the climate, but the culture we have and who we are as islanders, they are looking for a meaningful, representative of traditional music and our Madeira musical culture unique to the world.
These are collections of audio and video?
RC: Yes, essentially audio. The video has no collect material, because it was a job done at our expense and did not have any support. Then we started to realize that the government had a duty to support the cultural activities and then we presented some applications and projects to be support, some were, others were not. This year we have a series of activities, because Xarabanda is divided into two strands of cultural activity, research and dissemination. The first aspect is crucial because it is the knowledge base that serves the education, the public and interested persons. That is why we support arts through the documentation is in our premises.
What other projects promote Xarabanda?
RC: We have an agreement with the agency TUI already for four years; they send groups of German tourists who come to know our culture. They are taken to a museum and after they listen our traditional music for half an hour. That's what I call cultural tourism and is already a reality.
Let's talk about the new generations, notice an increase or decrease in the youngsters' interest in traditional music?
RC: I've noticed an increased interest in the young. These new generations have conditions that we hadn’t. My generation has paved the way for them. And I don’t just talk about the dissemination of the more modern traditional music that follows their taste. They prefer the type of instruments and sounds. It is a work of thirty years. Increasingly clear in terms of schools and teachers that acquire this training and information. I have always said that traditional music is well delivered in the new generations of musicians. I do not feel a barrier in relation to students leaving the conservatory of music, are much more open. Fall into other groups of more popular sounds. There is greater openness and acceptance; there is a new mentality that comes from the upper level teachers trained in music. The Xarabanda were a model that served as the basis for other groups. The process is continuous, because as a group we have a cultural project.
The people of Madeira are sensitive to this evolution? In the past there was a certain shame about the cultural roots. Noticed a trend?
RC: I noticed this; I must say that thirty years ago, when we came onto the music scene as a group of Madeira, was not common. We were all students and most students of the conservatory of music; we were strangers and had students with a more classic approach, with a pseudo-importance that looked at us in a derogatory manner. In our first gig we were booed, but it is necessary to separate a learned public, one that understood from the beginning our project. Maria Aurora was an educated person, who understood our importance, as it was indeed, she was the first. Soon after that came the other media. After they realized that everything was a copy for tourists, Xarabanda were different, not facing tourism in an era of diverse musical genres, this public with a particular culture notice and supported us. Then there are those who do not have that musical culture, which they did not realize just turned their eyes to pop and hiss, but twenty years later in a concert, people rose to their feet and applauded for several minutes and ask for more. This contrast reflects a change after years of mindsets, after the public realized that we are here to work with knowledge, surely, to value and recognize an insular culture. It was not easy. It was a long process, as Xarabanda it was not just for tourist activities, but had a cultural project. The revaluation of the traditional musical culture was important, as has already been in other countries, not just folklore. For almost fifty years the image of the island depended on the group Camacha when it is not. The repertoire of Madeira traditional music, focusing on an estate which is very rich and that happened in an annual cycle.
