BRAZIL - · PDF fileBRAZIL YOUR PROJECT ... Chico Buarque and others fashioned ... when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral stepped onto the lush tropical coast

BRAZIL YOUR PROJECT

MUSIC COURSE

CHANGE HISTORY

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Brazil – YOUR PROJECT: Music Course - Page 2 of 15

brz-pd-music-percussion Issue 5

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHANGE HISTORY ...................................................................................................................................................... 1

BRAZILIAN MUSIC ...................................................................................................................................................... 2

AN INTRODUCTION & RECENT HISTORY......................................................................................................................... 2 THE ROOTS OF BRAZILIAN MUSIC .................................................................................................................................. 4 A MUSICAL MELTING POT ............................................................................................................................................. 7

MUSIC COURSE PLACEMENTS ................................................................................................................................ 8

WHEN YOU ARRIVE ..................................................................................................................................................... 10 COURSE DETAILS: ........................................................................................................................................................ 10

INSURING YOUR EQUIPMENT ................................................................................................................................ 11

USEFUL INFORMATION, REFERENCES & LINKS ............................................................................................... 12

PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................................................................................................ 12 WEBSITES ................................................................................................................................................................... 12 RADIO STATIONS ON THE WEB ..................................................................................................................................... 12

RULES AND REGULATIONS ABOUT YOUR PLACEMENT ................................................................................. 12

COMBINE YOUR PLACEMENT! .............................................................................................................................. 13

VOLUNTEER FEEDBACK: ........................................................................................................................................ 13

APPENDIX: BRAZILIAN MUSIC STYLES (IN BRIEF) ........................................................................................... 13

BRAZILIAN MUSIC

AN INTRODUCTION & RECENT HISTORY

Excerpted from the first two chapters of The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the Popular Music of Brazil by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha, Temple University Press, 1998

In Brazil, music is everywhere. You can find it in a complex rhythmic pattern beaten out by an old

man with his fingers on a cafe table; in the thundering samba that echoes down from the hills around

Rio in the months prior to Carnaval; and in the bars where a guitar passes from hand to hand and

everyone knows all the lyrics to all the classic Brazilian songs played late into the night

.

Music is part of the Brazilian soul, and rhythm is in the way people speak, in the way they walk, and in

the way they play soccer. In Rio de Janeiro, after the national team has won an important soccer game,

fireworks explode in the sky and samba detonates in the streets. On sidewalks and in city squares, the

celebration begins. Impromptu percussion sections appear, made up of all types of Brazilians, rich and

poor, black and brown and white. As participants pick up instruments - a drum, a scraper, a shaker - an

intricate, ebullient samba batucada (percussion jam) builds. Each amateur music-maker kicks in an

interlocking rhythmic part to create a groove that would be the envy of most professional bands in

other parts of the world. The singing and dancing inevitably go on for hours.

Music is a passport to happiness for Brazilians, an escape from everyday frustrations and (for most) a

hard and difficult material life. "There's an amazing magical, mystical quality to Brazilian music. Their

music is paradise," says jazz flutist Herbie Mann.

In the twentieth century more than a little of this paradise reached the outside world, and Brazil

arguably had more of an impact on international popular music than any country other than the United

States. It was successful abroad for as many reasons as there are types of Brazilian music. Just as the



U.S. has exported a wide variety of musical genres, so too has Brazil, even though very few countries

speak its national language, Portuguese.

Most Brazilian music shares three outstanding qualities. It has an intense

lyricism tied to its Portuguese heritage that often makes for beautiful,

highly expressive melodies, enhanced by the fact that Portuguese is one

of the most musical tongues on the earth and no small gift to the ballad

singer. Second, a high level of poetry is present in the lyrics of much

Brazilian popular music. And last, vibrant Afro-Brazilian rhythms

energize most Brazilian songs, from samba to baião.

Brazilian music first grabbed international attention with the success of the dance-hall style maxixe in

Europe between 1914 and 1922. The public was captivated by this vivacious and provocative song and

dance, much as Europeans were taken with lambada in the summer of 1989. The 1940s saw the first

exportation of samba, as songs like Ary Barroso's marvelous "Aquarela do Brasil" (known to most of

the world as simply "Brazil") reached North America. Barroso's tunes were featured in Walt Disney

films and covered in other Hollywood productions by a playful, exotic young woman who wore

colourful laced skirts, heaps of jewelry, and a veritable orchard atop her head. Her name was Carmen

Miranda and she sang catchy sambas and marchas by many great Brazilian composers in a string of

Hollywood feature films. For better or worse, she would symbolize Brazil to the world for decades and

become a cultural icon in North America and Europe, a symbol of fun and extravagance.

Samba became a fundamental part of the world's musical vocabulary. It would get another boost when

one of its variations, a sort of ultra-cool modern samba called bossa nova, entered the world spotlight

through the 1959 movie Black Orpheus, which won the Cannes Film Festival grand prize and the

Academy Award for best foreign film. In North America, a bossa craze was ignited by the 1962 smash

hit album Jazz Samba, recorded by guitarist Charlie Byrd and saxophonist Stan Getz.

Jazz artists also helped globally popularize the new sound, which had a breezy syncopation,

progressive harmony, and a deceptive simplicity. Bossa nova was the big pop-music trend of the early

1960s, until it was supplanted by the English rock invasion led by the Beatles.

Bossa, like samba, is now a solid part of the international repertoire, especially in the jazz realm.

Bossa's leading figure, Antonio Carlos Jobim, is one of the most popular songwriters of the century,

and his stature rivals that of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and other great composers of Western

popular music. Bossa nova initiated a widespread infiltration of Brazilian music and musicians into

North American music.

Beginning in the late 1960s, Brazilian percussion became an essential element of many jazz and pop

recordings. A new generation of talented Brazilian musicians began a long-term interchange with jazz

artists that would put Americans on dozens of Brazilian albums and Brazilians on hundreds of

American albums in following decades. Airto Moreira and Flora Purim were two of these artists, and

they performed on groundbreaking albums that helped establish the new subgenre called "jazz fusion."

At the same time that Brazilian music was influencing jazz in the Northern Hemisphere, a remarkable

new generation of singers and songwriters was coming to the forefront in Brazil in the late 1960s and

1970s. Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Ivan Lins, João Bosco, Djavan, Gal Costa,

Maria Bethânia, Elba Ramalho, Alceu Valença, Chico Buarque and others fashioned original sounds

from an eclectic variety of sources in and outside of Brazil. Their superb integration of rhythm,

melody, harmony, and lyrics resulted in one of the richest bodies of popular music ever to come from

one country.



At the end of the 1980s yet another Brazilian song and dance - the sensual lambada - gained

international currency. Although lambada was of more commercial than artistic merit, it became part

of an important musical movement sweeping Salvador that decade and the next. Axé music became the

name for samba-reggae and other updated Afro-Brazilian styles performed by Olodum, Carlinhos

Brown, Timbalada, Daniela Mercury, Ara Ketu, Luiz Caldas, and Margareth Menezes, among others.

Elsewhere in Brazil, many other notable artists also established careers during this time, including

Marisa Monte, Chico Science, Skank, and Chico César.

Today, as in past decades, Brazil's popular music can lay claim to a dazzling variety of song forms and

musical traditions. There are the troubadours who strum guitars and trade improvised stanzas back and

forth, each trying to top the other, in traditional desafio song duels. There are accordion virtuosos who

lead their bands in rollicking syncopated forró music. There are ritualistic afoxés, festive marchas,

frenetic frevos, and the leaping instrumental improvisations of choro. And there are the walls of sound

and waves of color that are the escola de samba (samba school) parades during Rio's Carnaval. Each

escola's rhythm section, comprised of some three hundred drummers and percussionists, works in

perfect coordination with thousands of singers and dancers to create an awe-inspiring musical

spectacle, the greatest polyrhythmic spectacle on the planet.

Whether manifested in these or other forms, Brazilian music above all has a profound ability to move

the soul. In its sounds and lyrics, it reflects the Brazilian people - their uninhibited joy or despair, their

remarkable capacity to celebrate, and the all-important concept of saudade (a deep longing or

yearning).

THE ROOTS OF BRAZILIAN MUSIC

Brazil's rich musical tradition derives from the profound mingling of races that has been going on since

April 1500, when the Portuguese explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral stepped onto the lush tropical coast of

what would later be southern Bahia.

Of course, Cabral was not the first human to arrive in Brazil, and long before his foot touched Bahian

sand, a long musical tradition had been at play for thousands of years. The ancestors of today's

Brazilian Indians migrated from Asia to the Western Hemisphere somewhere between twelve thousand

and forty thousand years ago and eventually made their way down to South America. When Cabral

first came to Brazil, the indigenous population probably exceeded two million. In their music, they

sang songs solo and in chorus, accompanying themselves with flutes, whistles, and horns. They beat

out rhythms with hand-clapping, feet-stamping, rattles, sticks, and drums.

Their music did not, however, play a major role in the development of Brazilian popular music. In

part, this is because so many tribes were devastated by Portuguese invaders, and the Indians that

survived often lost their cultural traditions when they left their native homes and went to live in cities

and towns. There is Indian influence in some Brazilian popular music, as seen in songs by musicians

like Egberto Gismonti and Marlui Miranda, instruments like the reco-reco scraper, and traditions such

as the caboclinho Carnaval groups. But generally one must journey to the remote homelands of the

Yanomami, Bororo, Kayapo, and other indigenous groups to hear their music.

THE PORTUGUESE The Portuguese brought their culture to Brazil; in the realm of music, this included the European tonal

system, as well as Moorish scales and medieval European modes. They also brought numerous

festivals related to the Roman Catholic liturgical calendar and a wealth of dramatic pageants such as

the reisado and bumba-meu-boi that are still seasonally performed in the streets. The reisado

celebrates the Epiphany, and the processional bumba-meu-boi dance enacts the death and resurrection

of a mythical bull. Both are autos, a dramatic genre from medieval times that includes dances, songs,

and allegorical characters. Jesuit priests introduced many religious autos that eventually took on local

themes and musical elements.



In addition, the Portuguese brought many musical instruments to Brazil: the flute, piano, violin, guitar,

clarinet, triangle, accordion, cavaquinho, violoncello, Jew's harp, and tambourine. The Portuguese had

a fondness for lyric ballads, often melancholy and suffused with saudade, and for brisk, complex

rhythms and used a lot of syncopation - two traits that would help their music mesh well with that of

the Africans brought to Brazil.

Portuguese song forms included moda, a sentimental song that became the modinha in Brazil in the

eighteenth century; acalanto, a form of lullaby; fofa, a dance of the eighteenth century; and fado, a

melancholy, guitar-accompanied Portuguese ballad. And along with their music, the Portuguese

brought the entrudo, a rude celebration that was the beginning of Brazil's Carnaval tradition.

As they settled the new land, planted tobacco and cotton, and built sugar mills, the Portuguese looked

on the native peoples as prime candidates for forced labor on the sugarcane plantations being

developed in northeastern Brazil. But the Indians were unsuitable - they either escaped to the forest or

died from the brutal work. So the colonizers of Brazil looked east, to Africa.

THE AFRICANS IN BRAZIL The first recorded importation of Africans into Brazil occurred in 1538. From that year until the slave

trade ended in 1850, historians estimate that four million to five million Africans survived the crossing

of the Atlantic to Brazil. (Hundreds of thousands died on route.) This was many times more than were

taken to North America. The institution of slavery continued until the Brazilian abolition of 1888.

Three main ethnic and cultural groups made the journey. The Sudanese groups (Yoruba, Fon, Ewe,

and Ashanti peoples) were brought from what are now Nigeria, the People's Republic of Benin

(formerly Dahomey), and Ghana. Bantu groups came from Angola, Zaire (formerly the Congo), and

Mozambique. And the Moslem Guinea-Sudanese groups (Tapas, Mandingos, Fulahs, and Hausa) were

taken from Ghana, Nigeria, and neighboring areas.

The African peoples brought their music, dance, languages, and religions, much of which survived in a

purer form in Brazil than in North America. In part this was due to the sheer numbers of Africans

arriving in Brazil, and the large concentrations of slaves and free blacks in coastal cities such as Rio,

Salvador, and Recife. It was also affected by Portuguese attitudes toward their slaves, the influence of

the Catholic Church, the existence of quilombos (colonies formed by runaway slaves), and other

factors.

The Mediterranean world had already experienced great religious and linguistic diversity by the time

Cabral first came to Brazil. On the Iberian Peninsula Christians and Moors had been enslaving one

another for hundreds of years. African influence in Portugal, in fact, predated the settlement of Brazil

by several centuries and was quite apparent long after Moorish rule ended in A.D. 1249. Thus,

compared with northern Europeans, the Portuguese were relatively more tolerant of, or indifferent to,

the native culture of their captives.

The formation of Catholic lay brotherhoods called irmandades, beginning in the seventeenth century,

also helped perpetuate African traditions. These voluntary organizations functioned as social clubs and

mutual aid societies, and were organized along social, racial, and ethnic lines. Thus, many slaves from

particular cultural groups in Africa belonged to the same irmandades in Brazil, thus helping them to

continue their traditions. In many cases, they syncretized elements of their own festivals and

ceremonies with those of the Catholic Church.

Many irmandades were located in large cities, which in general provided opportunities for enslaved

and free blacks to gather together. In her book Umbanda: Religion and Politics in Urban Brazil, Diana



Brown writes, "Until 1850, thousands of Africans per year were still arriving in Brazil, bringing with

them fresh infusions of the cultures of their African homelands...These populations were most densely

concentrated in the large coastal cities, which served as centers of slave importation." She continues,

"The numbers and density of Afro-Brazilian populations provided favorable conditions for the

maintenance of their cultural traditions; in addition, these large cities offered to these groups a

relatively greater degree of free time and movement than was true, for example, of rural plantation life.

Not surprisingly, it was these cities in which the various regional Afro-Brazilian religions first

developed."

Quilombos, colonies formed by runaway slaves in the interior of Brazil, also helped perpetuate African

culture. The largest and most famous of these was Palmares, established in the rugged interior of

northeastern Alagoas state in the seventeenth century. It lasted for several decades, had a population in

the thousands (some say as high as twenty thousand), and made an effort to organize a society based in

African traditions. To the Portuguese, Palmares was a threat to the established order, not to mention

the institution of slavery. Numerous armed expeditions were mounted against it by the Portuguese

crown, beginning in 1654. All were unsuccessful until the last major campaign, waged in 1694, which

overwhelmed and destroyed Palmares. Zumbi, the quilombo's famed war commander, was captured

and killed the following year. The legendary warrior is still celebrated in Brazilian music today, and

his birthday (November 20) has been a national holiday since 1995.

African heritage survives in modern Brazil in a variety of manifestations. Brazilian Portuguese has

incorporated many Yoruba and other African words. The cuisine in Bahia is quite similar to that of

West Africa. And Brazilian music, dance, and culture in general are heavily rooted in Africa. In fact,

Brazil has the largest African-descended population outside of Africa. In 1980, Brazil's population was

44.5 percent black or mulatto, according to the government census, and it is clear that more than half

of all Brazilians have at least one ancestor from the mother continent.

AFRO-BRAZILIAN RELIGION: KEEPING THE MUSIC ALIVE Afro-Brazilian religions, despite their suppression by the Catholic Church and Brazilian government,

became firmly rooted in the national culture and had a tremendous influence on the development of

Brazil's popular music.

The enslaved Yoruba, Ewe, and other peoples brought their animist beliefs from Africa to the New

World. These religions are probably thousands of years old, predating Christianity, Islam, and

Buddhism. Their belief systems were maintained for millennia, not on parchment or tablets, but as

living oral traditions in ritual and music handed down from generation to generation. The Yoruba, who

had the greatest influence on Afro-Brazilian religion, came primarily from what is now Nigeria.

Their òrìsà tradition, carried across the Atlantic Ocean, was transformed in Brazil into candomblé. It

became santería in Cuba and Shango in Trinidad. The Yoruba deities, the òrìsà, are called orixás in

Brazil and orishas in Cuba. In her book, Santería, The Religion, anthropologist Migene González-

Wippler estimated that as of 1989 there were more than 100 million people practitioners of Yoruba-

based religions in Latin America and the United States. Most of them are in Brazil.

In Haiti, the òrìsà religion also played a role in the formation of vodun, which incorporates many

traditions but is especially dominated by those of the Fon from Dahomey (which became the Republic

of Benin in 1975). In the American South, especially Louisiana, vodun became known as voodoo, the

subject of a great deal of outrageous legend and misunderstanding by outsiders.

In Brazil, macumba is a common generic name - mostly used by outsiders - for all orixá religions.

Candomblé is the closest to the old West African practices, while umbanda is a twentieth-century

variation with considerable influence from spiritist beliefs. Xangô, catimbó, caboclo, and batuque are

regional variations, with different sects reflecting influences from particular African ethnic or cultural



groups - nações (nations). The greatest influence of the Fon, and hence closest similarity to vodun, in

Afro-Brazilian religions can be found in the casa das minas religion (or minas) of São Luís, the capital

of Maranhão state.

The Afro-Brazilian religions began to take an organized form in the nineteenth century, and terreiros

(centers of worship) were first reported around 1830 in Salvador and 1850 in Recife. The religions

were syncretized in Brazil into new forms by their followers because of government and Roman

Catholic repression that persisted into the twentieth century. Devotees secretly worshipped their West

African gods during Catholic ceremonies. Blacks who prayed to a statue of the Virgin Mary often were

actually thinking of Iemanjá, the goddess of the sea. Saint George might represent Ogun, god of

warriors; Saint Jerome could stand in for Xangô, god of fire, thunder, and justice; and Jesus Christ

might really signify Oxalá, the god of the sky and universe. Catholicism, with its abundance of saints,

meshed well with the orixá tradition and inadvertently sheltered it.

In the Afro-Brazilian religions, a follower always has two different orixás, a male and a female that

"rule your head" and are seen as your spiritual parents. For example, you might have Xangô and

Iemanjá as the "masters of your head." The head priestess, the mãe-de-santo (mother of the saints),

typically discovers this and asserts that these two orixás, because of their specific personalities and

powers, are the natural guides for you and your life. During the ceremonies, the drums and singing call

down the orixás, and they or their intermediary spirits "possess" the bodies of the initiated sons and

daughters.

While the traditional sect of candomblé focuses solely on the orixás, umbanda has incorporated many

influences from espiritismo (Spiritism), a religion that formed in the nineteenth century around the

ideas and writings of the Frenchman Allan Kardec, the pseudonym of Léon Hipolyte D. Rivail. Today,

candomblé and umbanda are an accepted and integral part of Brazilian culture, with many leading

cultural figures counted among their adherents. One notable example is the novelist Jorge Amado, who

is a son of Xangô. Many Brazilian musicians praise or refer to Afro-Brazilian deities in their song

lyrics, and some have included invocation songs for the orixás on their albums.

Although Brazil is said to be 90 percent Roman Catholic, at least half of its population also follows

Afro-Brazilian religions. Rio, for example, has hundreds of umbanda-supply shops that sell beads,

candles, dried herbs, and plaster-cast figures of spirits and saints. Offerings of food for an orixá can

often be found beside flickering candles late at night alongside a road. And every New Year's Eve,

millions of Brazilian men and women dress in white and throw flowers and other gifts into the sea as

offerings to the goddess Iemanjá. Each orixá is called by a particular rhythm and song, and these

rituals have kept alive many African songs, musical scales, musical instruments, and rhythms.

The wide assortment of African-derived instruments still played in Brazil today include the agogô (a

double bell struck by a wooden stick); cuíca (a small friction drum) and atabaque (a conical single-

headed drum). The African influence also reveals itself in Brazil's traditional and folk music (as it does

in the rest of the Americas) through the use of syncopation and complex rhythmic figures, the

importance of drums and percussion instruments, certain flattened or "falling" notes, the so-called

metronome sense of West Africa, the use of call-and-response patterns, short motifs, improvisation,

and - perhaps most important - the tendency of music to play a central role in life. Religious,

ceremonial, and festive African music would form the basis of Afro-Brazilian songs and dances that

would eventually develop into various musical forms: afoxé, jongo, lundu, samba, maracatu, and

more.

A MUSICAL MELTING POT

Over the course of the last five centuries, Portuguese, African, and -to a lesser extent - Amerindian

rhythms, dances, and harmonies have been mixing together, altering old styles and creating new forms



of music. One of the most important early Brazilian genres was the lundu song form and circle dance,

brought by Bantu slaves from what is now Angola to Brazil, where it began to acquire new influences

and shock the Europeans.

The first recorded reference to lundu in Brazil was in 1780. The dance was considered lascivious and

indecent in its original form, which included the umbigada navel-touching movement, an invitation to

the dance that was characteristic of many African circle dances. By the end of that century, lundu had

made an appearance in the Portuguese court, transformed into a refined style sung with guitar or piano

accompaniment and embellished with European harmonies. By the mid-nineteenth century in Brazil,

lundu was performed both in salons and in the streets. As a popular style, it featured sung refrains and

an energetic 2/4 rhythm carried by handclapping. Both types of lundu would remain popular in Brazil

until the early twentieth century.

Another important song and dance, maxixe, was born in Rio around 1880 from the meeting of lundu

with Cuban habanera and polka (with influences from Argentinian tango coming later). Created by

Afro-Brazilian musicians who were performing at parties in lower-middle-class homes, maxixe was

the first genuinely Brazilian dance, created from a synthesis of the above forms with additional

voluptuous moves performed by the closely dancing couple. Maxixe gave as erotic and scandalous an

impression as lundu had one hundred years earlier and lambada would one hundred years later.

Maxixe and other Brazilian styles would be popularized by a native music industry that dates to 1902,

with the release of Brazil's first record: the lundu "Isto É Bom" (This Is Good), written by Xisto Bahia

and performed by the singer Baiano for the Casa Edison record company. In later decades, Brazil

developed a large music industry and began to export its songs all over the world. Domestic genres

such as choro, maxixe, samba (in its myriad forms), bossa nova, baião, frevo and samba-reggae have

been enormously popular and influential throughout the twentieth century. Musically, Brazil has

continued to reflect the great racial and cultural miscegenation of its history, and to absorb and modify

new ideas and styles. Marisa Monte, Chico César, the Paralamas, Daniela Mercury, Karnak and

Carlinhos Brown are among the latest exponents of a vibrant artistic heritage that stretches back

centuries.

MUSIC COURSE PLACEMENTS

SAMBA http://www.londonschoolofsamba.co.uk

Among the different styles that make up what is known as Brazilian music,

samba stands out as the most characteristic and popular, both in Brazil and

abroad.

Its origins can be traced to the 17th century Bahia, where slaves captured in

Angola and Congo landed, divulging their semba gatherings (at the time

called umbigada, or belly bumping). At the closing of the 19th century, the

city of Rio de Janeiro - at the time the country's capital - became Brazil

major cultural centre, where melting pot of rhythms of diverse origins, such

as the Polka, the Lundu, the Habanera, the Maxime, would blend with the

old African Rhythm from the semba gatherings…generating the samba in

the process.

In the beginning of the 20th century, the neighbourhoods adjacent to downtown Rio - Estácio, Saúde,

and PraÇa Onze, became the ultimate bastion of this genuinely Brazilian rhythm. That was where the

"baianas", affectionaly called "aunts" by the people, settled. They were based on the traditional figure

cut by heavy-set women from the state of Bahia. Wearing their wide, white garbs, swaying to their

http://www.londonschoolofsamba.co.uk/



own rhythms, they contributed to this "migratory movement", which hastened the blending of those

styles, culminating in the creation of samba.

In tradition to carrying traditional sweets and goodies, the "aunts" from Bahia brought along the

tradition of religious syncretism in their back yard celebrations, aligning profane and religious

traditions, always swayed by great music.

The most famous of those celebrations were held at Aunt Ciata's where young and talented musicians

and composers of that period, among them Pixinguinha, joão da Baina and Donga, would get together.

The latter, a habitué in those celebrations and son of famous Aunt Amélia, recorded in 1917 what

many believe to have been "the first samba to be recorded": Pelo Telefone. The music contrived in

Aunt Ciata's back yard was sort of a collective creation, the first part of which had permanent lyrics

(usually by an unknown author) and the second part made up of verses improvised on the spot.

Performed at batuque gatherings in Rio de Janeiro, several names where used to define it: caxambú,

jongo, partido alto, and, later, samba and batucada. Disseminated from Estácio to the rest of the city,

different kinds of sambas emerged, such as samba-cancáo, samba-exaltacáo, samba de breque, samba

de terreiro, samba the partido alto, samba enredo, etc.

THE MOST TYPICAL INSTRUMENTS FOR A PAGODE ARE: Pandeiro, Cavaquinho, Tamborim (played with a light wooden stick), Tan Tan, Cuica, Ganza (shaker).

SOME WISE WORDS FROM ‘THE LONDON SCHOOL OF SAMBA’ ON…

…HOW TO HAVE A GOOD OLD RODA DE SAMBA!!!

..Or Pagode, the popularised version of Samba is subtle and domestic; it's a private affair somehow,

with singers and each instrument beautifully in balance and equal in principle.

Some basic rules of thumb when having a good old Roda - Swing, expression, subtlety and of course melody – which should come top!

- Tantan instead of Surdo (ideally) and best only one main drum at a time.

- To keep the number of active players to a minimum, as if there are too many it could get

messy... especially if there are singers and/or cavaco without a microphone. This simply means

that players would mean to swap places, instruments, taking turns, etc.

- Tamborim players... Please use only a light wooden stick.

- No Chocalhos (Ganzas only).

- No Caixas please.

- If we need earplugs, we're definitely doing it wrong! (Remember, the audience hasn't got any.)

Because rules are boring...

- Let's keep it as flexible as a rubber band, but equally...

- Let's keep an awareness of these issues - We still can be crazy and have bags of fun. Even more

so! There will always be space for brilliant wild jams but we should try to...

- Cultivate some sweet swinging gentleness - then we can have it all. We need to rock like

seaweed in the ocean!



WHEN YOU ARRIVE

On arrival to the Airport, you’ll be met by our Organiser. You will then be taken back to your

accommodation, and where circumstances allow (i.e. it may be late at night) you will then be

introduced to you to fellow Travellers Students/Volunteers’. We will then do our best to ensure that

you have everything you need such as the key’s to your room, so that you can rest and recuperate and

begin to settle into your accommodation. We are all individuals and each person handles long distant

travel differently to the next – some of you will want to go and crash out whilst others may want to

wait up. Your Organiser won’t wont to bombard you as soon as you step off the plane, so if you have

questions please don’t hesitate to ask your organiser, as they will be very conscious of not wanting to

bother you where possible. They will of course be more than happy to help wherever possible.

COURSE DETAILS:

Almost all of the music teachers are full time musicians; whether this means that they are performing,

recording or teaching music to students. By the nature of their job their availability can often change -

sometimes at very short notice. Where this is the case all it normally means is that you will be

provided with a month-by-month timetable for your lessons. Your Organiser will help to arrange this

for you. This helps provide both you and the teacher with some flexibility to the times and days of

your lessons – where you are taking part in other additional activities that are offered such as the

Portuguese Course, Capoeira classes, or volunteering, your music course can be tailored to fit in

around your other activities whilst still leaving you with free time to travel etc.

Generally you can expect your lessons to be held during the afternoons, Monday through to Friday,

unless otherwise confirmed and/or stipulated within your Placement Details. The set number of

lessons per week is 10 in Florianopolis and 6 in Rio however this can be altered as you wish – please

just let your Project Co-Ordinator know.

We’ll arrange your timetable and teachers based on the information you provide us about the

instruments you wish to learn.

Lessons may be given individually and/or in small groups – this is to be determined at the discretion of

the tutor leading the class – it may often depend on factors such as the objective of the lesson – after

all much Brazilian music revolves around the group and the use of collective rhythm, it may also

depend on the ability of you – the participants.

Tutors will always vary in their language ability, you will find that some have a wonderful grasp of the

English language whereas others have to try their hardest to muster their best effort and they still only

manage simple broken English. You should therefore be prepared that there is every possibly that you

teacher may not be able to converse with you as freely as you would wish.

Unfortunately it is not always possible, due to changing schedules and circumstances, to confirm the

language ability of the tutor that will be taking you for the course of your lessons. However, please try

not to be intimidated as language is rarely much of a problem. Music is a universal language and much

can be conquered through a little patience. It can make some lessons quite entertaining to say the least,

but it is well worth all the energy and perseverance. If you’re struggling to understand your teacher,

break the tension with a smile and a shrug of the shoulders, whilst hinting that you would like them to

perform a demonstration. What your teacher lacks in language ability they should more than make up

for in musical talent. If you have any concerns please speak to your organiser at the first opportunity –

they will be able to help whether it’s simply explaining the situation to the teacher or making

alternative arrangements for you.

Why not take the big leap and dive right in and learn some Portuguese whilst your there!?! It’s

not only going to create a great impression with your tutor - by showing them that you are keen to



learn; it will help with your understating in your lessons, and its going to go on to benefit your whole

experience! You’ll soon see how it’ll help you to feel more settled, allowing you to grow in

confidence; whether its when you are out shopping, catching a bus or socialising with the locals. You

can take as little or as much time as you like to learn Portuguese - with courses offering flexible hours

and durations. Please speak to your project coordinator if you would like more information and for the

possible combinations available.

Occasionally from time-to-time a tutor may stand-in for your regular teacher as a replacement. This

will normally always be informed to you in advance by either your Organiser, your teacher and/or the

school.

N.B. Lesson Scheduling is subject to change. All changes are made at the discretion of the tutor and/or

school. Travellers will endeavour to keep all students as best informed if changes do take place.

ALL STUDENTS SHOULD WHERE POSSIBLE ENSURE THEY BRING WITH THEM: - Your own instrument (unless other wise advised).

- Sheet music & books: To give to your tutor background on your tastes and ability, but also

music that interest you and which you might want to improve on or base your lessons around.

- Sufficient pens & pencils, notebooks

- A good quality compact Latin American phrase book – this really can be a big help not just in

lesson time but to aid your day-to-day interaction and communication.

TAKING A MOBILE / CELL PHONE WITH YOU ON YOUR PLACEMENT:

It is a requirement that you take a mobile / cell phone with you on your placement. We will provide you with a

sim card on your arrival so that your mobile / cell is useable in Brazil. As with all our programmes, having a

mobile / cell phone with you at all times in case of an emergency is important and a requirement, so please

don’t forget.

You will need to ensure that your mobile/cell phone is unblocked before departing to allow the sim card to work

on arrival. If you phone your network provider they should be able to assist you with this further.

If you don’t take a mobile/cell with you, we will provide you with one but you will be charged a refundable

deposit against its return in the same condition it was when you received it, and you will be charged a fee for its

use.

INSURING YOUR EQUIPMENT

In order to ensure that your musical instruments are fully insured for your trip, you should first check

your (or your parents’) home insurance cover to see if it covers your valuables while you are away.

Travel insurance policies (including the Travellers/Endsleigh policy) principally deal with medical

issues, and although there are provisions for other things within them, they are not really designed to

cater for high value items. This is why home insurance or personal possessions cover is a much better

option, as this is precisely their field. When speaking to your insurance company, you should be

honest, tell them that you are planning to travel to Brazil and see whether your instruments will be

covered or not.

Once you have got confirmation about whether your home insurance can cover your instruments, you

will then be in a position to know whether you need to top-up on your insurance cover.

If you do want to top up your insurance, you can do so with a ‘specific cover policy’. These policies

are a very good way to top up your insurance, as there are no issues about split claims. If you wish to

do this, you should look at companies such as JLT Online (http://www.jltonline.co.uk/) who provide

http://www.jltonline.co.uk/



cover specifically to meet the needs of photographers. This site also provides cover for laptops,

mobiles and gadgets etc, should you wish to bring other valuables with you on your placement.

USEFUL INFORMATION, REFERENCES & LINKS

PUBLICATIONS

McGowan, Chris and Pessanha, Ricardo. "The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova and the

Popular Music of Brazil." 1998. 2nd edition. Temple University Press. ISBN 1-56639-545-3

Rosauro, Ney. “The ABCs of Brazilian Percussion”. 2004. Carl Fischer Music. ISBN: 0825856892

WEBSITES

There is simply a plethora of websites to browse through. Here’s a few sites which may be of interest

to those budding coaches out there! There are plenty more so do have a search these are just a few to

get you started.

http://www.londonschoolofsamba.co.uk- Need we say more: The London School of Samba

http://www.brazzilmusic.com/ - Search the web for downloads a plenty: Part of Brazzil.com

http://www.brazil.org.uk/culture/music.html - A great place to start: The Embassy of Brazil, London

http://www.maria-brazil.org/mpb1.htm - Music & Folklore: Maria-Brazil

http://www.carnaval.com/music/samba.htm - Mix & match, good-and-not-so-good, but okay to start!

http://www.ipanema.com/ - Great site that comes highly recommended

RADIO STATIONS ON THE WEB

Have a look out there – these are some of the first that sprouted up but we are sure that you can do

improve on them depending on your taste in Brazilian Music.

http://www2.uol.com.br/ipanema/

http://www.jovempanfm.com.br/

http://www.maringafm.com.br/

http://mixfm.terra.com.br/

RULES AND REGULATIONS ABOUT YOUR PLACEMENT

TAKING DAYS OFF: If you want to take a day off please ask you organiser, or their assistant, to request permission on your

behalf. When applying for permission, you should always endeavour to give plenty of advance notice. N.B. YOU SHOULD ONLY TAKE TIME OFF ONCE YOU HAVE RECEIVED PERMISSION.

If this rule is broken, you will be liable to having your placement terminated without recompense.

It is imperative to the continuation of your individual placement and for those of volunteers in the

future that you attend all classes that you have been assigned. Failure to turn up creates a bad

impression. You will have plenty of free time off over the other days in which you can enjoy all of the

opportunities that the country has to offer.

http://www.londonschoolofsamba.co.uk/

http://www.brazzilmusic.com/

http://www.brazil.org.uk/culture/music.html

http://www.maria-brazil.org/mpb1.htm

http://www.carnaval.com/music/samba.htm

http://www.ipanema.com/

http://www2.uol.com.br/ipanema/

http://www.jovempanfm.com.br/

http://www.maringafm.com.br/

http://mixfm.terra.com.br/



FINISHING EARLY: The same procedure applies to ending your placement early. If you feel you would prefer to cut your

placement short in order to do some travelling or for any other reason, please ask permission you’re

your organiser or their assistant well in advance. There will be no financial refund on cutting your

placement short.

NOT SURE WHAT YOU SHOULD DO? If you have any problems at all or if you simply need some help and guidance, please don’t hesitate to

speak to your organiser – this is exactly what they are there for – Travellers Organisers are all very

nice people and will do their very best to help you. We have had many volunteers travel with us over

the years and they have all enjoyed successful placements – we have no doubt that you will also

thoroughly enjoy your time in the country.

WHILE ON YOUR PLACEMENT:

Please complete the feedback forms as requested in your documentation – alternatively,

please email the feedback to us (email address below).

Also, when you have been on your placement for about three weeks, could you send us “A

typical day in the life of my placement”. These reports are invaluable to us in that they

enable us to continually expand and improve our projects, as well as being a source of

additional information which can be very helpful to future volunteers. Many thanks.

If you do take any photos and you are able to email them to us, we’d be delighted to enter

one or two into our photo competition.

COMBINE YOUR PLACEMENT!

Don’t forget if you haven’t already done so you can combine your course with one or any number of

our other placements on offer in Brazil! You might even want to think about combining destinations

by visiting both Foz do Iguaçu and Rio de Janeiro, if you haven’t already done so. Please speak to us

for further information and to book in your combination.

VOLUNTEER FEEDBACK:

Whether you have just arrived at your placement or are on your way to the airport to catch your flight

home, if you have any piece of information no matter how small and insignificant it is please get in

contact with us whether it’s by phone, fax, email or post. It really does help!

APPENDIX: BRAZILIAN MUSIC STYLES (IN BRIEF)

CARIMBÓ AND LAMBADA Eastern Amazônia has long been dominated by carimbó music, which is centred around Belém. In the

1960s, carimbo was electrified and, in the next decade, DJs added elements from reggae, salsa and

merengue. This new form became known as lambada and soon moved to Bahia, Salvador by the mid-

1980s. Bahian lambada was synthesizer-based and light pop music. French record producers

discovered the music there, and brought it back with them to France, where a Bolivian group called

Los K'jarkas saw their own composition launch an international dance craze. Soon, lambada had

spread throughout the world and the term soon became meaninglessly attached to multiple varieties of

unrelated Brazilian music, leading to purist scorn from Belém and also Bahia.

Another form of regional folk music, bumba-meu-boi, was popularized by the Carnival celebrations of

Parintins and is now a major part of the Brazilian national scene.



POPULAR MUSIC The field of Brazilian popular music can be traced back to the 1930s, when radio spread songs across

the country. Popular music included instruments like cuicas, tambourines, frying pans, flutes, guitars

and the piano. The most famous singer, Carmen Miranda, eventually became an internationally-

renowned Hollywood film star. Her songwriter was Ary Barroso, one of the most successful

songwriters in early Brazil, along with Lamartine Babo and Noel Rosa.

MÚSICA POPULAR BRASILEIRA Música Popular Brasileira Tropicalia eventually morphed into a more popular form, MPB (música

popular Brasileira), which now refers to any Brazilian pop music. Well-known MPB artists include

chanteuses Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia and Elis Regina and singer/songwriters Chico Buarque, Milton

Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Ivan Lins, Djavan and others.

CHORO In Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s a type of reserved and private music called choro developed out of fado

and European salon music. Choro was usually instrumental and improvised, frequently including solos

by virtuosos. Originally, a choro band used two guitars and cavaquinho, later picking up the bandolim,

the clarinet and the flute. Famous choro musicians include Joaquim Antonio da Silva Calado Júnior,

Valdir Azevedo, Jacob do Bandolim, Pixinguinha and Chiquinha Gonzaga; Pixinguinha's "Lamentos"

is one of the most influential choro recordings. In addition to composing choros, another composer,

Ernesto Nazareth composed tangos, waltzes and polkas. Nazareth was influenced by Chopin but his

music had a distinctly Brazilian flavor. Nazareth has also been compared to his contemporary Scott

Joplin. The late 1960s saw a revival of the choro, beginning in the suburbs of Rio de Janeiro, and

culminating with artists like Paulinho da Viola. Modern-day choro groups include Os Ingênuos.

BOSSA NOVA Bossa nova Antonio Carlos Jobim and other 1950s composers helped develop a jazzy popular sound

mixed with a smooth samba beat called bossa nova, which developed at the beach neighbourhoods of

Ipanema and, later, the Copacabana nightclubs. The first bossa nova records by João Gilberto quickly

became huge hits in Brazil. Bossa nova was introduced to the rest of the world by American jazz

musicians in the early 1960s, and songs like "The Girl from Ipanema", which remains the biggest

Brazilian international hit, eventually became standards.

TROPICALIA By the end of the decade, artists like Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil combined American and

European styles with electric guitars and different kinds of genuine Brazilian music, beginning a genre

called Tropicalia. These songs, not unlike the music coming out of Britain and America at the same

time, was often very politicized and was perceived as threatening by the establishment. The military

government of the time went as far as to exile Veloso and Gil to England.

MÚSICA NORDESTINA Música nordestina is a generic term for any popular music from the large region of North-eastern

Brazil, including both coastal and inland areas. Rhythms are slow and plodding, and are derived from

accordions and guitars instead of percussion instruments like in the rest of Brazil. In this region,

African rhythms and Portuguese melodies combined to form maracatu and dance music called baião

has become popular. Most influentially, however, the area around Recife, the home of forró.

REPENTISMO North-eastern Brazil is known for a distinctive form of literature called literatura de cordel, which are a

type of ballads that include elements incorporated into music as repentismo, an improvised lyrical

contest on themes suggested by the audience.

FREVO Frevo is a style of music from Recife. In the 1950s, it spread south, to cities like Salvador. In Salvador,

frevo bands began playing during Carnival, originally in trios called trios elétricos. Overtime, the



bands moved from playing on pickup trucks to fully amplified bands and stages. Trios eléctricos

remain a primary feature of the Salvadoran Carnival today.

FORRÓ Forró is played by a trio consisting of a drum and a triangle and led by an accordion. Forró is rapid and

eminently danceable, and became one of the foundations for lambada in the 1980s. Luiz Gonzaga was

the preeminent early forró musician who popularized the genre in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in the

1940s with songs like "Asa Branca".

SAMBA By the beginning of the 20th century, samba had begun to evolve out of choro in Rio de Janeiro's

neighbourhood, inhabited mostly by poor blacks descended from slaves. Samba's popularity grew

through the 20th century, especially internationally, as awareness of samba de enredo (a type of samba

played during Carnival) has grown. Other types of samba include: Samba de breque - reggaeish and

choppy, Samba-canção - typical variety of nightclubs, Samba pagode - modern popular variety.

CAPOEIRA MUSIC Three berimbau players - The Afro-Brazilian sport of capoeira is never played without its own music,

which is usually considered to be a call-and-response type of folk music. The main instruments of

capoeira music include the berimbau, the pandeiro and the atabaque. Capoeira songs may be

improvised on the spot, or they may be popular songs written by older mestres (teachers), and often

include accounts of the history of capoeira, or the doings of great mestres.

MARACATU This type of music is played primarily in the Recife and Olinda regions during Carnival. It is an Afro-

Brazilian tradition. The music serves as the backdrop for parade groups that evolved out of ceremonies

conducted during colonial times in honour of the Kings of Congo, who were African slaves occupying

symbolic leadership positions among the slave population. The music is played on large alfaia drums,

large metal gonguê bells, snare drums and shakers.

AFOXÊ Afoxê is a kind of religious music, part of the Candomblé tradition. In 1949, a group called Filhos de

Gandhi began playing afoxê during Carnival parades in Salvador; their name translates as Sons of

Gandhi, associating black Brazilian activism with Mahatma Gandhi's Indian independence movement.

The Filhos de Gandhi's 1949 appearance was also revolutionary because, up until then, the Carnival

parades in Salvador were meant only for light-skinned people.

SAMBA-REGGAE The band Olodum, from Pelourinho, are generally credited with the mid-1980s invention of samba-

reggae, a fusion of Jamaican reggae with samba. Olodum retained the politically-charged lyrics of

1970s bands like Ilê Aiyê.

OTHER AFRO-BRAZILIAN MUSIC GENRES Lundu, Axé music, Pagode, Brazilian funk, Afoxê, Carimbo, Maxixe, xote, Baião, Lambada,

Merengue, Ilê Aiyê: see – Olodum and Baile funk

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