Currency of Cape Verde 1000 Escudos banknote 2014 Code di Dona
Bank of Cape Verde - Banco de Cabo Verde
Obverse: Composer and musician Codé de Dona (real name Gregório Vaz) playing accordian; Holographic patch with musical notes and bird in flight; vine; seashore; embossed bird.
Reverse: Musician holding ferrinho, a musical instrument typical of funaná genre; Bird in flight; sun and birds in flight. 4-mm windowed security thread with demetalized BCV 1000 and vine.
Watermark: Codé de Dona with electrotype vine, and Cornerstones.
Printer: Thomas De La Rue & Company Limited, London, England.
Dimensions: 136 x 66 mm.
Color: Blue, purple, green, yellow, and pink.
Date: 5 de Julho de 2014. Introduction: 23.12.2014.
Cape Verde Banknotes - Cape Verde Paper Money
2014 Issue
Code di Dona
Codé di Dona, nickname of Gregório Vaz, (July 10, 1940 — January 5, 2010) was a Cape Verdean musician and composer.
He was born in Chaminé near São Domingos and lived in the locality of São Francisco, in the same municipality he was born has another Cape Verdean music expert Ano Novo. He is considered one of the chief figures of funaná, a music genre once known only in his native island of Santiago and achieved universal renaissance today.
He was professionally dependent on agriculture as a farmer, he was also a flower keeper. Codé di Dona composed classic songs at the Cape Verdean National Repertory including "Febri Funaná", "Fomi 47" (Portuguese: Fome de '47, English: '47 Famine), "Praia Maria", "Yota Barela", "Rufon Baré", "Pomba" and eleven others. Codé di Dona felt Cape Verdeans with the singularity of its songs and poets of his letters. His composition "Fomi 47", for example, was about one of the most historic problems that struck Cape Verde, the 1947 drought, the famine and emigration to São Tomé e Príncipe. Image of a part of the ship "Ana Mafalda" was part of an imaginary collection of Cape Verdeans, it was sung as a hymn by other singers.
He later married and had children, one of them was Lúcio who would later become a singer.
Codé di Dona was a famous player of accordion (or harmonica), concertina, a paradigmatic instrument in funaná, ferrinho. This instrumental quality made him recorded two albums, the first Kap Vert in 1996 and second Codé-di-Dona in 1998 which achieved 1x gold in Portugal in the same year.
Codé di Dona performed in a couple of stages and concerts in Cape Verde as well as Europe, mainly Portugal, France and Switzerland. His music later appeared and was sung by other artists, including Bulimundo, Finaçon, Simentera, Zeca di Nha Reinalda, Lura, Mário Lúcio Sousa and more.
He died in 2010 at the age of 69, after his death, the Cape Verdean minister of culture Manuel Veiga said that "Codé di Dona" was a musician that marked the Cape Verdean culture in music. Also Cape Verdean president Pedro Pires said:
"Este artista conseguiu interpretar o sentir mais profundo da alma cabo-verdiana, através das suas composições com destaque para o género funaná, de que foi um dos seus maiores expoentes."
Ferrinho
The ferrinho is a musical instrument, more precisely a scraped idiophone. It is made up by a metal bar (generally of iron) that is scrapped by another metal object. The player holds the bar vertically, with its lower end in the palm of one hand and the upper end leaning against the shoulder. With the other hand, the player uses a metallic object, held horizontally, to scrape the bar with up-and-down movements. A custom-made ferrinho is usually 90 centimeters long, with a straight-angle section to ease handling.
The ferrinho is used to mark the rhythm in funaná, a musical genre in Cape Verde.
It is believed that the name “ferrinho” is an adaptation of “ferrinhos”, that is the name by which the triangle is known in popular music in Portugal. In spite of the name, the ferrinho is more similar to instruments like the güiro (scraped idiophone) than the triangle (directly struck idiophone).
One of the greatest musicians who used the instrument is Codé di Dona. Other musicians with the instrument include Bino Branco from the band Ferro Gaita.