The morna (pronunciation in both Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole: ) is a music and dance genre from Cape Verde. It was proclaimed Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO on December 11, 2019.
Lyrics are usually in Cape Verdean Creole, and instrumentation often includes cavaquinho, clarinet, accordion, violin, piano and guitar.
Morna is widely considered the national music of Cape Verde, as is the fado for Portugal, the tango for Argentina, the merengue for Dominican Republic, the rumba for Cuba, and so on.
The best internationally known morna singer was Cesária Évora. Morna and other genres of Cape Verdean music are also played in Cape Verdean migrant communities abroad, especially in New England in the US, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, West Africa and parts of Latin America.
As a music genre
As a music genre, the morna is characterized by having a lento tempo, a 2-beat bar (sometimes 4) and in its most traditional form by having a harmonic structure based on a cycle of fifths, while the lyrics structure is organized by musical strophes that alternate with a refrain. The morna is almost always monotonic, i.e., it is composed in just one tonality. Compositions that use more than one tonality are rare and generally they are cases of passing from a minor to major tonality or vice versa.
Harmonic structure
In its most traditional form, the morna obeys a cycle of fifths. The harmonic progression starts in a chord (the tonic) of a certain tonality, the second chord is the lower fifth (the subdominant), the third chord is the same as the first and the fourth chord is the upper fifth (the dominant seventh). These chords — tonic, dominant seventh, subdominant — have in Cape Verde the popular names of “primeira”, “segunda” and “terceira” (first, second and third) respectively of the tonality in question. For example, if the music is being performed in an A minor tonality, the A minor chord has the name “primeira de Lá menor” (A minor's first), the E 7th chord has the name of “segunda de Lá menor” (A minor's second) and the D minor chord has the name of “terceira de Lá menor” (A minor's third).
However, this structure corresponds to the most basic and most primary harmonic sequence of the morna. First, this structure has been enriched later with the so-called passing chords (see below under History). Second, this structure is by no means mandatory. Several composers, specially recent composers, employ different chord progressions.
Melodic structure
thumb|right|300px|Rhythmic model of the morna, ± 60 [[Beats per minute|bpm.]]
The melodic line of the morna varies a lot through the song, not always agreed among scholars:
1st period: origins
It is not known for sure when and where the morna appeared. The oral tradition gives it for certain that the morna appeared in the Boa Vista Island in the 18th century, but there are no musicological records to prove this. But when Alves dos Reis says that, during the 19th century, with the invasion of polkas, mazurkas, galops, country dances and other musical genres in Cape Verde, the morna was not influenced, it suggests that by that time the morna was already a fully formed and mature musical genre.
Even so, some authors There is also a relationship between the morna and another musical genre that existed already in the islands,
The origin of the word “morna” for this musical genre is uncertain. However, there are three theories, each with its supporters and detractors.
For some, the word comes from English “to mourn”. For others the word comes from French “morne”, the name given to hills in the French Antilles, where the chansons des mornes are sung. But to most of the people the word “morna” would correspond to the feminine of the Portuguese word “morno” (warm) clearly alluding to the sweet and plaintive character of the morna.
2nd period: Eugénio Tavares
In the beginning of the 20th century, the poet Eugénio Tavares was one of the main people responsible for giving morna the romantic character that it has today. In the Brava island the morna underwent some transformation, acquiring a slower tempo than the Boa Vista morna, the poetry became more lyricised with themes focusing mostly on love and feelings provoked by love.
3rd period: B. Leza
In the 1930s and the 1940s, the morna gained special characteristics in São Vicente. The Brava style was much appreciated and cultivated in all Cape Verde by that time (there are records about E. Tavares being received in apotheosis in S. Vicente island