Contributos para um Estudo Comparativo das Danças no Espaço Atlântico (1821-1930): o Caso da Ilha da Madeira

In recent research, carried out on instrumental music in Madeira, a vast dance repertoire was found and it was possible to acknowledge that these occupied a prominent place in the madeiran musical repertoire of the nineteenth century. The found repertoire is mainly influenced by European dances, but at the early twentieth century it also began to emerge american origin dances – although it is not always easy to conclude if these influences came directly from America or came across other countries in Europe. A significant part of the observed types of dances is common to other regions and countries of the Atlantic area, such as the Azores, Cape Verde and Brazil, but also to other European countries. The dances that have survived to the present day are composed and musically arranged for different instruments and instrumental constitutions - piano, machete (a kind of cavaquinho), viola, mandolin groups, bands and small ballroom orchestras -, being possible to find a varied repertoire consisting on waltzes, polkas, quadrilles, mazurkas, contra dances, dances with geographical indications (african, spanish, turkish, pastoral , etc.), one steps, maxixes, tangos, among others. A huge proportion of dances in the context of the found repertoire allows us to conclude that this type of instrumental music was the most played in the social and private gatherings of Funchal. Its importance became so central that became part of the education of Madeira's urban society, being common to find reference to colleges that taught children and young people to dance. Part of this repertoire was recently recovered and implemented within the framework of the Madeira Music Collection.