Elmano Gomes

Abstract:
[Funchal, Madeira 09/10/1934 – *]
Musician, composer, lyricist and teacher. Elmano Gomes was founder of the Orquestra de Câmara da Madeira and the Banda dos Canudos. Musician performer in the Septeto Passos de Freitas, he composed repertoire for tunas and magazine theater in Madeira.

Biography:
Elmano Gomes was born on October 9, 1934, in the city of Monte and grew up in a family associated with the musical and artistic community. His grandfather, Francisco Gomes was a musician in the Banda dos Guerrilhas (Banda Distrital do Funchal), directed the Banda de São Jorge, played trumpet and violin. Carlos Fernandes Gomes, father of Elmano, played saxophone, clarinet, Madeira traditional string instruments and mandolin. Carlos Fernandes Gomes was also a musician in Banda dos Artistas (Banda Municipal do Funchal) and Banda dos Guerrilhas.
For the musical instruments that were part of the musical training of Elmano Gomes, the musician has always demonstrated versatility. With eight years of age he learned mandolin with his father and played with score. Afterwards, Carlos Fernandes Gomes, conscious of the musical capacities of his son, transmitted him for the study of the violin with the professor Lami Reis. Then he had as teachers João Augusto Nogueira and Jorge Madeira Carneiro.
Elmano Gomes attended the Funchal High School in the field of sciences in 1945, the Academy of Music, Fine Arts and Languages ​​of Madeira for three years and after, for six years, studied in the National Conservatory.
As the orchestra of the academy of Madeira needed interpreters of viola, Elmano Gomes was prepared to fill this role and had viola lessons during a month, with Jose Luís Duarte, of Orquestra da Gulbenkian. This teacher wanted to take Elmano for Germany with a scholarship, but for family reasons, Elmano Gomes did not accept.
The musician also played saxophone in the Banda Distrital do Funchal, also known as Banda dos Guerrilhas, but never appeared to the public, because he didn’t wanted to wear uniforms. The saxophone performance was just recreational, since the musician played normally with his high school friends.
Elmano Gomes also had lessons in harmony with the captain of the army and musician Gustavo Coelho, during the period he attended the Academy of Music, Fine Arts and Languages. According to Elmano Gomes the captain demanded a lot from him and remained unsatisfied with his exercises, because he (the captain) thought his abilities (of Elmano) allowed him to perform better.
About his personal life, Elmano Gomes married Maria Inês Pereira Gomes, with whom he has two sons: Rómulo and Marco Gomes. Any of his sons, no dedicated career to music, just Rómulo learned guitar at home.
Since the age of 14 Elmano has been a public official in the secretary of the Academy of Music, Fine Arts and Languages ​​of Madeira, later with the founding of the School of Hospitality, in Conde Carvalhal Street, he became chief of administrative services in the secretary. However, despite his professional activity in the regional government, his strong point in Madeira society in the twentieth century asserts himself as a musician, composer, lyricist, teacher, founder and artistic director of certain musical groups.
As composer Elmano Gomes has created the repertoire for tunas mandolins and magazines presented in the theaters of Madeira. Also distinguished himself as a poet, especially in the composition of bells.
Between the groups he has been part of, Elmano Gomes has been a member of the Juventude Antoniana where he has reactivated the tuna of the association, composed and was in charge of the artistic direction of the tuna and the choral group. He also founded the Orquestra de Câmara da Madeira, where he played first viola, directed by Jorge Madeira Carneiro.
Elmano Gomes also played in the Tuna da União and Fraternidade and after he went to the Banda Recreio Musical União da Mocidade, where he organized a tuna with ten elements, taught solfege and instrumental practice. The musician says that this tuna was the first one playing in a church: the Church of São Roque.
The musician still directed the theater group of Juventude Antoniana after Vicente de Abreu and integrated the cast of Um rosário de cantigas magazine, with prose by Teodoro Silva and music by the Freitas brothers. Beyond this magazine, Elmano Gomes has taken the stage, along with other artists and with the Tuna da Juventude Antoniana three magazines, among which the famous É Assim a Madeira.
Elmano Gomes also integrated the second generation of Septeto Passos Freitas, as a bandoleta performer, but did not compose or make arrangements in the septet. Finally he distinguished himself as regent of the Tuna do Centro Cultural de Santo António.
Throughout his performance as a musician he has contributed to the training of students who has distinguished himself in the Madeira culture of recent decades, such as Eurico Martins whom he has taught solfeggio and guitar and has sent for the conservatory.
On his published work, the musician was enrolled in the society of authors, edited a cassette with his repertoire and a claid out the music for the 1957 Março Anthem 19 played in the Anniversary of the Juventude Antoniana. Elmano Gomes also marked the difference in the musical culture of the region as founder and member of the Banda dos Canudos. This group appeared around from 1944, created in the vicinity of Sítio do Terraço in Santo António, by a group of children and young people with ages between eight and thirteen, among which Elmano Gomes.
The musician says that “the group was born from a game of children, taken very seriously, and which has aroused a lot of interest in adults”, especially for his musical characterization, comparing to the harmony orchestra, although his instruments were quite homemade made from cane.
Elmano Gomes says that, afterwards, “Jorge Nazário, who had a lot of hand agility, started making instruments with wood, to imitate trumpets, euphoniums, trombones, saxophones, etc. These instruments were afterwards wrapped in paper bags of cement and we adapted the straw, of cane.
The musician further emphasizes that “there were different parts” and the group was made up of eighteen elements. The pieces they performed were decorated through the repertoire of harmonies, which plays in the novenas. The Banda dos Canudos had, included, a room for rehearsals in the house or garden of Elmano Gomes, where there was a kiosk. This group has managed to gain profit, through the interpretation of Hino da Banda dos Canudos.
About the style of his own repertoire and musical genre, Elmano Gomes says that it has always been his goal to create simple compositions, which remain in the memory of the people, like marches and music for magazine theater, in which represented the society of Madeira in century XX.

Authors:
Gomes, Catarina (2011). “Elmano Gomes”. Conducted within the scope of the Music Sciences Course VI, integrated in the curricular plan of the Licenciatura in Music Education, of the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Madeira.

Update:
Ventura, Ana (2011). “GOMES, Elmano.” Online Dictionary of Musicians in Madeira. Funchal: Division of Research and Documentation, Coordinating Office of Artistic Education, updated to 06/09/2011.

Music:
É Assim a Madeira; Hino 19 de Março de 1957, Juventude Antoniana; Hino, Banda dos Canudos.

Bibliography:
Gomes, C (2011). “Interview by Catarina Gomes to Elmano Gomes”. Conducted within the scope of the Music Sciences Discipline VI, integrated in the curricular plan of the Licenciatura in Music Education, of the Higher Institute of Educational Sciences, University of Madeira.
Sardinha, V. & Camacho, R. (2001). Faces and Traces of Madeiran Philharmonic Bands. Funchal: Musical and Cultural Association Xarabanda, p. 22-24.