Batuko

Batuque
Cultural origins	Cape Verde
Typical instruments	Vocals

The Batuque is a music and dance genre from Cape Verde.

As a music genre, the batuque is characterized by having an andante tempo, a 6/8 or 3/4 measure and traditionally it is just melodic, i.e., it is just sung, it has no polyphonic accompaniment. When compared with the other musical genres from Cape Verde, the batuque has a call and response structure, and it is the only genre that is polyrhythmic. In fact, analyzing the rhythm, one finds out that it is a 3-beat rhythm over a 2-beat rhythm.

In its traditional form, the batuque is organized as if it were an orchestral crescendo. It possesses two movements (if we may call them so):

In older times the music began with an introduction on the cimboa that provided the base musical line. Nowadays the usage of that instrument is extinct. The first movement is called, in Creole, galion [ɡɐliˈõ]. In this movement one of the performers (called batukaderas [bɐtukɐˈdeɾɐs]) executes a polyrhythmic hit, while the others execute a 2-beat hit, clapping hands or slapping a cloth. The lead singer (called kantadera proféta [kɐ̃tɐˈdeɾɐ pɾoˈfɛtɐ]) sings a verse that is immediately repeated (called ronca baxon [ˈʀõkɐ bɐˈʃõ]) in unison by the remaining singers (called kantaderas di kunpanha [kɐ̃tɐˈdeɾɐs di kũˈpaɲɐ]). These verses, improvised proverbs that talk about a variety of subjects such as praising personalities, social criticism, quotidian scenes, are called finason [finɐˈsõ]. This call and response structure goes on until the second movement.

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