Ritual and Trance & Music in Brazil

Trance

• transports participants out of reality

• unifies the universal and the particular

Trance Behavior

• voluntary

• behavior of someone in a trance is expected

  • learned behavior (can be fake)

• lose their self conciousness

• amnesia involved

Types of trance

• possession- a deity takes control over a person

• shammanism- associated with healing

• communion- intimate exchange/communication with God

Trance participants

• officiate

• musicians- outsiders to the ritual, often do not believe

• Musicant- assistants, may play and sing, may or may not trance

• audience- people of the community, usually

Tovil Healing ritual

• buddhism

• sinhalese hierarchy of dieties and demons

  • yaka- demons

  • Preta- ghosts

• ritual is to make a deal with demons/gods to heal the person

• sri lanka

Yakadura

*part of tovil healing ritual in Sri Lanka

• ritual specialist

• first try western medicine

• the herbal medicine-ayurvedic medicine

• comes from lower class, usually

  • fear associated with them- dealing with demons

  • needs knowledge of charms and religion

Structure of Tovil Healing Ritual

• morning preparations

• beginning in afternoon

• make structures from palm leaves

• maha samayama- high point in afternoon or early evening

  • torch dancer

• Dahkata Palapaliya- high point after midnight

  • possession of demons- mahakola

• role of humor

  • demons are ridiculed

This ritual uses Yak Bera drums

Gamelon Orchestra

• gamel (hammer)

• primarily percussion ensemble

• intruments made mainly of bronze

Instruments:

• Gong

• Suling (bamboo flute)

• metallophones

Purpose:

• accompanies dance, theater, rituals

• no standard pitch

• every village has their own one of these

• ritualistic and spiritual while forging the instruments

Colotomic Musical Structure

Gongan- gong cycle

Balungan- “skeleton” (lower bass, chord changes)

Koteka- fast interlocking parts

• build up in pitch until koteka enters

Balinese Concept of Time

• different length weeks, 5, 6, 7

• when the days align, usually a celebration

• days either

  • full- something important happens

  • empty- nothing happening

• someone’s birthday determines their fate

Barong Ceremony

• brings together the spirit world and the everyday

• takes place when something is out of balance

• cycles from gamelon usually shorter

Barong- made of palm fibers, sagging body, gold glitter

• long tusks

• mouth can open

• offer food to ensure loyalty to the people

Rongda- bulging eyes, long jeweled tongue, long coat, long nails

• associated w/ death

• costumes not able to touch the ground, dangerous to touch

• kriss dancers, men with swords in trance, stabbing themselves

Qawwali ceremony

sufism

• sufi poetry

Takes place at saints tomb, on day the saints died

Focus on listening

Heirarchy

1. sheikh (spiritual leader)

2. spiritual and senior devotees, wealthy devotees

3. poor devotees, musicians

4. women and children

instruments of Qawwali

• harmonium

• tabla

• dholak

Qawwali Song text

• Devotional love, love of/from Allah

• sufi poetry

  • Rumi (1207-1273)

Sama

• 1.5 hours long

• song sequence

• watch listeners for reaction

• sheik and lead singer watch audience for signs of trance

• lead singer has vast knowledge of Islamic texts

• repetition of material that cause the trance

• people start giving offerings to sheik when someone trances

  • sheik passes offerings to musician

  • helps musicians get paid

Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

• 1948-1997

• famous singer

Form:

• naghana (instrumental prelude)

• Alap (free introduction)

• Bandish (main body of composition)

• uses raga and tala

Improvisation:

• sargam (solfege syllables)

• sa re ga ma pa dha mi

Songs:

“Allah Hoo Allah Hoo”

“Mustt Mustt”

Choro

*Brazil Music Genre

• - “Gaucho”

• - composed by Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847-1935)

• - Fire brigade Band of Rio de Janerio

Samba

*Brazil Music Genre

• - Praca Onze (plaza Eleven) Neighborhood of Rio

  • - Brazilian “aunts”

• - “Pelo telefone”

  • - Tia Ciata

  • - Pix Inguinha

  • - Danga

  • - Joao de Baiana

Samba CanCao

*Brazil Music Genre

• - “Alvorada” (Dawn)

  • - Cartola (1908-1980)

• - Entrance of Instruments

  • - surdo

  • - tamborim

  • - ganza

  • - cuica

  • - cavaquinho

  • - violao 7 corda

Carnival

• - Escolas de Samba (Samba Schools)

  • - Deixa Falar (1928)

  • - Magueira, portela

• - Carnival Parade

• - Gov. sponsorship and control

• - Alas (sections)

  • - People dancing in colored costumes

  • - Mestre sala and Parta Bandeira (Master of ceremonies and Flag Bearer)

Carnival Parade Competition

Categories:

• - Alegrias (floats and scenery)

• - Enredo (Theme)

• - Samba Enredo (Theme Song)

• - Hermania (Music Performance)

• - Costumes

• - Evolucao (Choreography)

• - Bateria (Percussion Section)

Bossa Nova

*Brazil Music Genre

1950s-60s

Characteristics:

• - integration of voice and guitar

• - understated, speech-like singing

• - Jazz influenced harmony

• - Themes of romance and nature

Song Festivals

• - Festival Brasileiro de Musica Popular (Sao Paulo)

• - Festival Internacional de Cancao

Jovem Guarda

*Brazil Music Genre

• - Covers of Pop Songs

• - Attacked on both sides

• - Used electronic instruments

• - “ie-ie-ie” (yeah, yeah, yeah)

• - “Quiero que va pro inferno”

  • - Roberto Carlos (1941)

Televised Song Festivals

• - 1960s

• - National Events

• - Held in a large hall, many people watched

Audience:

• - Vaia (booing)

• - “Beto Bom de Bola”

  • - Sergio Ricardo (1930-2020)

Tropicalia

1967-68

• - Music, art, poetry movement

• - Foreign influence

• - Revival of Anthropofogia

• - 1967 Festival International de Cancao

  • - “Alegria Alegria”

    • - Caetano Veloso

  • - “Domingo no Porque”

    • - Gilberto Gil

Caetano and Gilberto

• - Caetano Veloso

• - Gilberto Gil

• - Played with Os Mutantes

• - “E Proibido Proibir” (It’s Prohibited to Prohibit)

1968 Festival International de Cancao

• - Caetano accused people of being apathetic toward authoritarian gov.

  • - After singins “E Proibido Proibir”

• - First prize went to “Sabia”

• - Military interferance in judgind

• - “Pra nao dizer que nao falei das flores”

  • - Protest song

  • - singer: Geraldo Vandre (1935)

  • - tries to calm to crowd before his song, says “life cannot be reduced to festivals”

Military Crackdown

• - 1968

• - 100k March

  • - Mainly students

  • - brought the future president

  • - musicians with them (Caetan0 and Gilberto

• - Institutional Act. No. 5

  • - widespread censorship

  • - artists jailed, tortured, exiled

  • - Habeas Corpus Dismissed

• - Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil fled to England

Musica Popular Brasileira

(MPB)

• - Music and censorship, found ways around the censorship

• - “Construcao”

  • - Chico Barque (1944)

  • - 1974 banned his records

    • - recorded under a pseudonym

Abertura

(opening)

• - Late 1970s

• - military allowing more freedom

• - “O Bebado e a Equilibrista”

  • - composed by Joao Bosco

  • - Performed by Elis Regina

Bossa Nova

*Brazil Music Genre

• Major musica figures:

  • Joao Gilberto (inventor of Bossa Nova, taught Caetano and Gilberto)

  • Antonio Carlos Jobim

• - Orfeus Negro - 1959 film set during Carnival

  • - “A Felicidade” - Joao Gilberto

• - “Aguas de Marco” (Waters of March)

  • - Composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim

  • - Performed by Ellis Regina

Music from Minas Gerraes

(Music from Gem Mines)

• - Milton Nascimento (1942)

• - Clube da Esquina (corner club)

  • - group of musicians

• - “San Vicente” - Milton Nascimento

Race and Identity in Brazil

• - The “whitening” ideal

• - 19th century European ideal about race

  • - branqueamento (whitening)

  • - Brazilian immigration policies

  • - Micegenation

  • - racial categories

Modernist Movement

1920

• - Mario de Andrade (ethnomusicologist, creates Brazilian Classical)

• - Modern art week

Anthropologica

(cultural cannibalism)

• - The Manifesto Anthropologica

• - Oswald de Andrade

• - “Tupi or not Tupi, that is the question”

  • - Tupi was an indian tribe that practiced cannibalism

Myth of Racial Democracy

• - Gilberto Freyre

• - Brazil as a mix of European, Indigenous and African Cultures

• - Comparison to racial revolutions in US

• - criticisms

Jackson do Paneiro

1919-1982

“Chiclete com Banana”

Caetano Veloso

b. 1942

“Joia”

Samba Instruments

• - Surdo

• - Ganza

• - Chocalho

• - Agogo

• - Reco-Reco

• - Apito

• - Repique

• - Tamborim

• - Caixa

• - Cava Quinho

• - 7 String Guitar