The mass of almost one hundred thousand is edgy. The night is hot, humid, and alive with a feeling in the air so palpable you can almost trace it with your finger. The bleachers are filled to maximum capacity, along a mile-long stretch of paved roadway adjacent to an old brewery. People from all races, classes, and countries are celebrating together at the culmination of the orgiastic, pre-Lenten, hedonistic festival of Carnival. Soon, the first marchers proceed down the corridor to the booming cacophony of bass, snare, and friction drums. The rattling of tambourines, bells, and scrapers add flavor and accent. Like a bird set free, the singing cavaquinho (ukulele) emits its high pitched cries, adding to the frenzy. The marchers and dancers, with their quick, physical movements, undulating hips and heel steps, embody the living sound. It is time for the annual celebration once again in Brazil, time for Carnival, a time once again for the ultimate physical expression of joy: Samba.
Samba can be heard all throughout Brazil. It is a musical genre accompanied by song and dance that includes an ensemble of percussion instruments and guitar. The puxador (lead singer) initiates the samba, sometimes singing the same song for hours at a time. The responsibility of keeping thousands of voices in time with the drum section rests on his shoulders. Gradually, the other members of the escola (samba group) join in, and with a whistle from the mestre de bateria (percussion conductor) - the most exciting moment of the parade occurs as the percussion section crashes in. The surdos (bass drums) keep the 2 / 4 meter, while caixas (snare drums) and tamborins accent the second beat. This percussion ensemble, referred to as the 'bateria', often i...
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...ew Carnival themed parties. It's always wild. And even with the alcohol thats always flowing, the people are in good spirits. There are no drunk guys fighting, just a lot of singing, clapping, and dancing, people just having a good time. I don't think it would be right to say that its the music that does it - but you don't get that same shared spirit at a rock concert, rap concert, etc. It's just a good feeling, the more you listen, the more you play or participate, the more you get it.
Works Cited
DeCouto, N. Personal Interview. November 2, 2011.
McGowan, C. and Pessanha, R. The Brazilian sound: samba, bossa nova, and the
popular music of Brazil. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 1998.
Page, J. The Brazilians. Addison-Wesley: New York, 1995.
Smith, T. Brazil: People and Institutions. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press,
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Over the years, the Calle Ocho festival has brought hundreds of smiles to thousands of people. Behind the smiles, the laughter, and the dances, there is a serious side to the festivities. In the beginning, Willy Bermello just wanted a little backyard get-together that would bring neighbors closer, but the festival turned into something much, much bigger. With the festival's growth and inevitable commercialization, Bermello increasingly felt that its importance was being forgotten. He wanted to let people know this was more than just a big party. He wanted people of different races and different ethnicities to be able to feel comfortable with each other, and not just for one day. He wanted Calle Ocho's influence felt throughout the year.
Cumbia originated in the coastal region of Colombia in the early 1800’s. There were three predominant cultures in Colombia at that time: the indigenous peoples, the Spaniards, and the African slaves. The cumbia began with the essential instrumentation of the tambor drums and the gaita flutes, which derive from both indigenous and Congo-based African roots. The genre was entertainment for the slaves, beginning as a courtship dance. It later became an outlet for national resistance and protest as Colombia was contesting for its independence. The music was able to diffuse throughout the nation, spreading from the coast, primarily for the reason that many African populations were scattered in various regions. Barranquilla, a port city in Colombia, was the core of where the music became established and played for the masses, and where instruments such as horns and bass began to be incorporated into cumbia, giving it a more Latin feel. As cumbia evolved and spread to Mexico around the 1930’s, it changed from the influence o...
Contrary to the traditionalists who dominated the Brazilian music scene, Veloso and his friends wanted to “universalize” and modernize Brazilia...
The documentary “Rize” by David LaChapelle, focuses on the lives of Black Americans who live in South Central Los Angeles and the struggles they go through in their daily lives. Moreover the film also introduces two types of dancing groups that they have in the community. These dance groups are meant to keep the youths and children occupied and distracted from all the problems that have been going on in their community, such as the LA riot. The two styles of dancing are Clowning and Krumping. Clowning was created by Tommy the Clown in 1992. Tommy used to be a formal drug dealer, he went from having his life together to losing all his money and house. However, instead of doing nothing productive with his life, he decided to help his community by changing the lives of others through entertainment. In addition, not only did this dancing group help him get to a better place in life but also the group members are like his family. His main goal was to help put similes on people’s faces and help get some of these children and youths away from gangs. On the other hand, Krumping was also generated from Clowning, however Krumpers believe that their form of entertainment is different from clowning. Moreover, these dancing groups main focus is to distract the youths and children in the community by giving them the opportunity to do something they love, which is dancing. Furthermore, passion, spiritual connections and connection to the African culture are conveyed through the film by Clowning and Krumping.
The first festival was held in 2000, an early street parade with only a small number of participants, now however it has evidently grown- there must be around 3000 plus participants and thousands more spectators roaming around happily amongst one another. By means of their bodies, the participants demonstrate and highlight awareness about various campaigns that involve social and economic challenges such as poverty, homelessness, gender issues, HIV/ AIDS, refugees, xenophobia, human trafficking, greener more ecofriendly cities and children's rights in hopes of attaining social justice. All of this is done while ceremonially exhibiting and making use of local art as a tool for activism, celebrating diversity, and building cohesive bonds amongst the communities and residents of central Tshwane. With all of this in mind, I set off to study the participants and spectators of The Feast of the Clowns through interviews. Some interviewees were residents of the inner city of Tshwane, either as spectators or participants; while others were simply spectators from different districts surrounding Tshwane. The interviews were conducted using a standard questionnaire relating to the ‘Feast of the clowns’ and the interviewees understanding
The music style has roots in Spanish and African music, with the basic structure beginning as a basic melody and transitioning into a “Coro” section where musicians improvise. The sound is characterized by a leading percussive instrument, and is embellished by trumpets, trombones and guitar. Depending on the artist, this can be accompanied by piano, bongo, conga, and timbales. Bands will typically include around 12 members; a band leader, 2-4 horn players, one or more choral singers, vocalists and others to play the accompaniments for the montuno sections of the song. This structure allows for the music to provide a rhythmic ground for the musicians to make their own musical phrases. The music is incredibly lively, with bright tones and fiery accents that ignite the listener.There are usually few lyrics, as the main mission is to focus on the music and the dance that it evokes. Salsa is typically done to eight beat music, while the dances move on three beats, pause for one, dance for three, pause for one. The movement patterns generally follows a
One of the many styles of music at the market was a four-man drum band. This band played very rhythm based music and had an almost improvisational feel to their music. They would start a song and then let the music guide them from melody to melody. The drummers also played their own individual melody which resulted in a polyphonic piece and a perfect example of surface rhythm. Each performer’s own melody, although different individually, combined to form one melody and rhythm that permeated throughout the performance. The music, which was primarily in quadruple meter and ranged in tempo from andante to allegro, was also very happy and consonant sounding with no feelings of instability. This consonance was due the music being percussion music with no
Cantoria of Brazil Caboclo can be defined by different music styles that have born during the last two hundred years. Cantoria music is mostly sung in duets with the two singers improvising their verses and alternating their strophes in a rhythmic way. The improvisation doesn’t take place just in-between the two singers but even with other participants of the singing occasion. The two contenders are already introduced with the melody of the song before the start of the singing contest, to give them the opportunity of thinking about the improvisation. The contenders make a great effort to get the appreciation of the audience, as the goal of
During this time multiple schools or groups of Samba dancers will dance along with hundreds of floats down the streets of Rio.
The phenomenon of folkloric festivals and cultural identity in the contemporary Senegal region of the Casamance provides a unique opportunity to experience and describe customs that have dictated creative and functional experiences for over a thousand years in the western mid enclave of African continent. In seeking to understand this subject we are made aware of the changing textures of time and space and the beauty of physical universe existence, as well as the challenge of continental mapping and composite humanity. This is so because the essence of African identity can be sensed through its integration of individual and communal 'zones of experiences as well as the blending of multiple planes of consciousness (i.e. reception /hearing). This same sensibility can be viewed in African music as well and the spectra of this phenomenon encompasses the role of creativity as a transcendent factor that underlines (and 'cements') the aesthetic imprint of summation cultural identity and vibrational dynamics. The folkloric festivals of this region of the African continent has an added significance when seen in the total context of a changing African landscape and constantly shifting geo-political world order. Slowly but surely, the future of contemporary research into the aesthetic spiritual and/or functional components of African continental experiences (dynamics) will be based on examining the collected isolated fragments and recorded documents that were gathered through actual encounter experiences from the first and second wave of scholars that partitioned Africa- (starting from the second wave of documentation and travel records from the sixtieth century extending to the present era) as opposed to the po...
In the Brazilian Amazon, the young men of the Xicrin tribe observe a rite of passage to prove their manhood and gain the right to be called warriors. The young females take on the nurturing role. They help prepare the feast ...
The chapter begins with the Genesis of what begun the influential disparities in carnival. The reintroduction of the middle and upper class citizens or settlers into the street mascaraed, because of colonization of Trinidad and Tobago by the British. With it, they came with their European values and embarked on removing the heavily misunderstood traditions and symbolisms of African culture. This would have been compounded by the already preconceived stereotype about the uneducated, violent, vulgar, aggressive nature of the African. This was done as an attempt to keep the classes and races from interaction with each
...resses of everyday life, or looking to have a fun time/experience, EDM festivals can provide a place to feel “free” and be happy.
In contemporary times, we can observe a process of spectacularization and touristification of the June festivities in some Brazilian cities, especially in the Brazilian Northeast, which perform festive events of large physical proportions and with a strong factor of media coverage of its realization.
Imagine you are in your room and it’s about 1:00 in the morning. It’s pitch black outside and you’ve been lost for hours. There’s nothing good on the radio. You’re dying of thirst and you’re drenched with sweat. You’re just about to turn around and open your window for some fresh air and you hear it. The bass is in sync with your heartbeat and the lights are flashing everywhere. So you follow this music and you arrive at your destination: A rave. It is the vibe that is so commonly talked about within this culture.