Charamba

A folk song frequently heard in Madeira, above all among country people. It is a simple, unassuming melody made up of eight bars in triple time at a slow pace, alternating with a lively ritornello in duple time. It is usually played in G on the braguinha (small Madeiran four-string guitar, ancestor of the ukulele), accompanied by the viola de arame (wire-strung folk guitar) and the rajão (Madeiran five-string guitar).

The charamba (Madeiran improvised folk song) is most often sung as a contest between two or more people, who trade improvised quatrains and take as their theme the lives of those present, with allusions that may be friendly, or barbed, or even offensive. If tempers are already frayed by frequent drinking and the verses are too provocative, the song may end in a brawl, with the instruments themselves broken over the singers’ heads.

The interesting book by Carlos Santos entitled Tocares e Cantares da Ilha, published in Funchal in 1937, contains a chapter headed ‘O Charamba’, which deals at length with this Madeiran folk song.