EVERY GENRE PROJECT - October 20 - Desgarrada
Genre of the Day - Desgarrada 🇵🇹
Album of the Day - Portugal e sua formação (Cantado à desgarrada) by Cláudia Martins & Minhotos Marotos (2020)
Partnership in music is one of the most consistently alluring phenomena—to witness and listen in to the sound of two musical minds meeting in a dance is alluring, revealing the intricacies of joy of sharing our humanity with another person. The song that’s sat pretty upon the Spotify charts (though I don’t really find it up to par with either’s musical sensibilities, but they’ both seem to be in the doing-shit, sure-what-the-hell phase of their careers) for a couple of months now is a good old-fashioned duet, Bruno and Lady Gaga’s tender performance rapidly speeding towards a billion streams. Just as harmony and melody go together, we cherish pairings in music for their creative camaraderie, connection, and banter. Today, we set our sights on Portugal for one such humorous duet form.
Desgarrada hails from the hinterlands of northern Portugal, a hinterland known for its steep, terraced and lush green hills and musically for these mischievous and romantic musical exchanges. Those unaccustomed to the accordion generally might find it hard to imagine getting a word in edgewise over the instrument that certainly makes its presence known, but a concertina acts as the backing accompaniment to desgarrada’s debates. In desgarrada, typically a male and female singer playfully throw jabs, flirtations, provocations, and innuendos back and forth like an antique predecessor to Wild’n Out. However, sometimes two male singers square off, adding a dash of machismo to the mix. Just as with a rap beat, the backing is typically musically homogenous and consistent but upbeat throughout the whole song, allowing the focus to be more on the humorous words exchanged.
Desgarrada’s rebuttals can be cute and a little whimsical—one singer’s response to her opponent/partner insulting her freckles was to demur “the sky is also beautiful, and it has its stars.” Desgarrada requires a quick wit to think up these self-defenses and then immediately dish out a counterstrike. The tradition is beloved for being a core function of outdoor festivals and celebrations, meaning it’s not typically recreated in the studio—it’s best witnessed live to see two talents meet in an uproarious battle of the minds and hearts, using each other as springboards all while improvising their melodic strategies. One can only imagine the sheer amount of neurons activated in singing desgarrada.
Today’s album seems to take on an intriguing metanarrative by chronicling the formation of modern Portugal, and as a non-speaker I’m not sure how much humor was incorporated here, but it’s nonetheless a great glimpse into the rowdy realm of these merry musical rendez-vous. Every instrumental piece here wants a word in edgewise, the jumping cavaquinhos as in “Primórdios do Condado” having their own competition with the fast-paced bass. Both singers bring full force to their stories, simultaneously managing to sound near-operatic and conversational. The melodies and instrumentation remain consistent—it helps people lock fully into a form with a homogeneity that doesn’t deny creativity but sets expectations for the setting and challenges the singers to carry the show with their wit. And just in case you forgot where you were, the word Portugal was repeated on this album about as many times as the country has existed, a dual ode to a country as it is a testament to desgarrada’s lasting energy as a form.