By Valmiki Faleiro
Valmiki Faleiro is a great writer based in Margao, Goa and has also served as its Mayor. He is a great admirer of Alfred Rose as he tried to educate and reform our society as much as entertain through his gift of music, the pen and the voice.
[First published in Herald, in 2008]
Alfred Rose must be the most prolific of Konknni 'cantarists' (singers). He wrote and sang so many songs that he lost count of them. No chronicler can fix the number of 'cantaram' he penned. He set most of them to music himself, sang a few hundred, solo or in duet with wife Rita, or others. Most, however, were sung by other artistes.
Alfred did a wide variety of songs, from serious to satirical, melodic to mournful. Like Alexinho de Candolim before him, many of his songs carried a strong social message, even if at times he sounded like a Sunday 'sermao.'
Some despised the nasal in his otherwise versatile soprano voice. And, even though original most of the time, Alfred sometimes borrowed popular Western tunes. But, as one of his greatest fans and my friend Filipe Dias of Madel-Margao says, "Alfred's music was customer-oriented. When fans requested him to set songs to particular Western tunes, Alfred obliged."
