Songs or ‘Kantaram’, although do not have any link to themain theme of the play, are very significant to the success of the tiatr on onehand, and for preserving the uniqueness of tiatr on the other. The importanceof Kantaram is attributed to the focus that each Kantar deals with a differentissue be it social, political or religious. Hence, if there are 12 ‘Kantaram’in the whole tiatr, they will project 12 different problems, other than theissue dealt with by the story of the tiatr. It is for this reason that‘Kantaram’ must be equally good so that the tiatr is considered a successfulpresentation.
There are different types of Kantaram namely ‘Solos’,‘Duets’, ‘Duos’, ‘Trios’ and ‘Quartets’. Such a package of songs does help inpreserving the characteristics of the tiatr. However, in the recent past it wasobserved that only solos started dominating the singing in tiatrs. Sometimes,the director started making use of a solo song to be sung as a duo, duet, trio,or quartet by using two, three or four singers respectively. Tiatr Academy Goa,whose main aim is to preserve the unique form of tiatr, had to intervene andcreate awareness among tiatr artistes of the need to preserve the true essenceof songs as presented in the past.
The exact nature of the types of Kantaram is as follows:
(a) Solo: Normally it was called a ‘clown’. Solos can be oftwo types. ‘Comedy’, as well as ‘Non-Comedy’. A solo is a song sung by onesinger. However, one singer singing a solo in front of the curtain and allowingsinging in different voices for one or two lines or for the chorus behind thecurtain was also permitted in the past. The same trend needs to bestrengthened.
(b) Duet: If a songis sung by a male and a female singer, then such a song is called a duet. Thelyrics of all duets sung on the tiatr staged in the past were an interactionbetween two different characters.
(c) Duo, Trio and Quartet: These are ‘kantaram’ sung by two,three and four singers respectively. The singers can be all males or allfemales or a mixture of males and females. These songs too can be of comic orserious nature. Lyrics of these songs too were of interactive nature as in thecase of duet.
(d) Choral Kantar: It is also observed that a trend onsinging a song in different voices on the tiatr stage is on the rise. Suchsongs are very pleasant to hear and enrich the quality of Konkani songs. Suchsongs should also be encouraged. Hence, there should be at least one choralsong in a tiatr which may be a choral duet, choral duo, choral trio, choralquartet.
The variety of songs presented on the tiatr stage is ofgreat importance to enhance the standard of performance as well as to preservethe uniqueness of tiatr. Our goal should be to preserve the identity of theGoan tiatr. If the uniqueness of tiatr is to be preserved then the tiatrartistes must take pain to see that there are enough number of duets, duos,trios, quartets and choral songs besides solos sung in the tiatr. There is nodoubt that it is very easy to compose and sing a solo kantar. It is also a factthat it is quite difficult to compose and sing a duet, duo, trio and quartetbecause it needs the involvement of two, three or four singers. Nevertheless, Iam confident that tiatr artistes have the potential and determination to includeall types of songs in the tiatr and preserve the uniqueness of Goan tiatr.
