Brazilian Music and Culture - Essay Example

? Brazilian Music and Culture Introduction The Brazilian carnivals across the country are a rich combination of European Native, American and African cultures that have mixed over many centuries. Music is an important component of a society’s culture, every member of the society has his or her own personal preferences. Accessibility of music refers to the medium of listening to the music; there are different kinds of mediums that one can use in accessing music, radios, televisions, computers, concerts, street parties and amongst others. Apart from the medium, there are other barriers of music accessibility such as the cost, form, the availability, whether the listener is appreciating or loathing the piece(s) amongst others. Accessibility of music is thus a complex phenomenon that encompasses these features and others that will be explored by this paper with specific reference to the Brazilian carnival and how it relates to the social conditions of the country. Eisentraut asserts that to understand music, it can be categorized into physical, personal and participatory classes1. Accordingly, this paper will start the scrutiny commencing with a draft description of the Brazilian culture and music for the period of the carnival. Globalization has led to more contact with music and in particular to spread of the allure of the carnival across very many nations, with as much 500,000 guest attending the Rio de Janeiro carnival in the year 2013. Historical Background of the Carnival Brazil usually host some of the most vivacious and exuberant carnival celebrations in the world, though other countries most notably china also host carnival celebrations. The carnival celebrations in Brazil can be traced back to Catholic countries in Europe, these were parties hosted before the Lent (these were the forty days Jesus spent in the wilderness). The celebrations were customarily concluded on Ash Wednesday during which people appreciated the phase of non-indulgence for forty days. The term ‘carnival’ is said to have been derived from the Latin word carne levare, which means ‘to remove meat’, during the Lent eating of meat by Catholics is forbidden. The carnival has since moved from the religious nature of the party to a more of a street party composed of lots of music, dancing and elegant displays of costumes. It has retained the celebrations, as they take place before the Ash Wednesday that is between Saturday and Tuesday. The world’s most famous and arguably, the biggest street carnival is the Rio de Janeiro one, Salvador does also host a comparatively big street carnival. Street celebrations do take an array of styles throughout the country, different towns and cities across the country have street carnivals where live bands march along the streets playing sambas and marchas, and they are then followed by very many carnival enthusiasts. Music component in the carnival Music genres played during the festival varies across the country with each region’s style an indication of European, African and Indo-American influence2. The genres reveal significant differences in the styles and music played between the North Eastern region and that of the South Eastern region. The music performed in the North Eastern areas is generally samba, samba-reggae and axe. This music style derives a lot of influence from the African music more specifically from the Yoruba slaves brought from West Africa; they composed and performed their song in a bid to show union amongst themselves and to denounce slavery3. As early as in the late 1800s the black population in this region began commemorating the festival with their own unique style. In the streets of Olinda and Recife, the music played during the carnival is mostly the local favourite genre the frevo, in addition to this genre maracatu, samba, samba reggae, axe amongst others are also played. In the state of Bahia, during the carnival it is common to spot trio electricos- these are long Lorries full of musicians playing loud and deafening music passing through the city streets. Revellers and festival enthusiasts who sing and dance to the songs played out by the bands in the Lorries then follow them. This is the core of the street party in Brazil, it is commonly known as the ‘blocos’, it is where revellers follow live bands playing sambas or marchas, this is a custom going back several centuries. Rio de Janeiro style was originally influenced by the European cultures, but recently it has emerged as a blend of Indo-American and African cultures. The major significant component of the carnival in this city is samba parades; in fact, it is the key important part of the carnivals across the country. The blocos move across several streets all over the city and in the adjacent metropolitan areas performing classic, contemporary and popular samba songs and classic marchas songs. The samba parades have a theme and a storyline, these are performed by a samba school, and samba schools are the samba groups marching in the parades. . The ultimate showcase, after weeks or even months of preparations and planning, is the Sambadrome, this is stadium designed and built in Brasilia- the capital city of Brazil to display their performances, and only 14 samba schools are allowed to perform there. Popular music genres in Brazil are choro, samba, the musica popular brasileira, bossa nova in fact, this last genre has produced some of the huge international hits. Accessibility of music performed during the Brazilian Carnival Accessibility of music utilizes three levels first, the physical contact between the user and the listener, this is concerning potential of the listener(s) to hear the music played. From the account of music performed in the carnival and as has been explored above, it is important to note that physical contact with music at the carnival takes different formats, music during the carnival differs by the location that played in the streets, those in stadia and the parade area. Music performed in the main parade and the stadiums require tickets unlike the street parades that do not need tickets for one to attend. The ticket prices in the main stadiums and in the main parade have been increasing annually and they vary across the different regions in Brazil. Ticket prices in the city of Rio de Janeiro are very exorbitant compared to other cities across the country, cities such as Salvador, SauPaulo, Brasil, Olindo, Recife and others have ticket prices relatively expensive but not as expensive as the Rio de Janeiro one. The exorbitant ticket prices charged in the carnival is due to the large number of revellers that the festival attracts, in the year 2013 up to 5 million people attended the Rio de Janeiro carnival with approximately 500, 000 being foreigners. Accessibility of music through physical contact is therefore more prevalent to those who are endowed while the masses who are poor find it rare to attend such orchestra and performances in the stadiums and in the sambadrome. The only remedy that the members of the society who are less endowed have of a physical contact with music is that of listening to music played by the live bands who parade across the several streets in the city. The other condition affecting physical contact with music during the carnival is the manner in which tickets for these concerts should obtained. The tickets for the concerts especially for the Sambadrome in Rio de Janeiro and that in Brasil, must be booked well in advance, this normally happen several months away from the date of the Carnival. In addition to the live performance at the carnival, the carnival is also usually streamed live to audiences who are unable to take part in the festival. There is also recorded music available online and in DVD’s across the globe for a comparatively cheaper rate. The second level of determining accessibility of music to the listener is that of reception: how does the listener respond when he listens to music? The listener might be opinionated about the different genres that are being played during the carnival. The aspect of reception therefore entails such features as the aesthetic value of the music to the listener, the semiotics and the psychology of perception, cognition and behaviour (22)4 This simply prods the listener to determine the exact benefit or the implied benefit that the listener might be deriving from listening to the music. Further, it also entails the emotional component that the listener is attempting to draw from listening to music, the flow or the structure of the song and the general feeling for a particular song or different songs played. The restlessness and ecstasy that a person might be having for a particular type of song, at this level when an individual is experiencing either or one of these psychological arousals, they normally accompany the song with a dance or such other related activity. In order to understand thoroughly the concept of reception of carnival music it is imperative to understand Gestalt laws the laws that describe good continuation and the law on closure. Music properties evoke emotions just as good news evoke or arouse emotions in people; this assumption maintains that emotions are located in the listener and not in the music. The concept of persona is also used to describe the effect of music on an individual as he expresses it to another person or to an imagined being or object. Emotional contagion is also an important concept, it is the tendency to involuntarily imitate and harmonize facial expressions, sound, body language and actions with somebody else’s and accordingly to fuse emotionally. This concept is automatically and involuntarily instigated by the listener(s) or the participant, it is not in doubt that Brazilian music is very popular in Brazil and across other Latin American countries and as far as European countries to countries such as Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique and other countries that speak Portuguese. It is evident that from the numerous people that throng the parades listening and dancing to music across the country that, there is an emotional attachment to music amongst the performers and revellers alike. The capoeira genre played by the Afro-Brazilians and intricately linked to football, and popularly as they entail classic times. The major instruments used to produce the unique sounds are berimbau, atabaque and the pandeiro; they are popular with older members of the society. These sounds normally produce cheers and ululation from revellers intent on listening to the songs and that accompany the sound produced by the instruments. The most common genres of music that have been described by various experts and music enthusiasts are the samba and the bossa nova, it is a distinct and humble combination of smooth voice moving over and gloating over dynamic guitar chords. As soon as performers commence playing until they come to the end of the festivities, the partygoers take pleasure in these performances until they end. The melody are normally simple yet they seem close to perfection, performed in the most sensitive way with dancers accompanying the music with elegant displays of dancing styles that leaves the revellers wanting more and more of them. The music is also rich of association and performance, with a very typically delicate rhythm, and the voice charged with closeness and sincerity. Very many revellers who have gone to these concerts admit that they would have to attend the carnival annually, as the days of the carnival seem to pass so fast coupled with very good music. The third and one of the most important levels of accessing and appreciating music at the festival is founded on the ability to get involved, participate and enjoy the music together with fellow revellers. This implies the ability of the listener to sing along to the songs sang at the carnival and actually participates in a jig or two. This can also be extent of being influenced by a particular song to the extent that a person puts on certain clothes of the band or adopting the lifestyles of that particular band or pop group. This might also imply the ability to be influenced by the music to an extent that the reveller will be attending the carnival annually. The regularity of a person to be hooked up to the songs even after the end of the carnival is also a manner in which a reveller might exhibit participation to music. This level easily coalesces with the first two. Costumes worn by performers and revellers vary across different regions; in the country, these differences also include participation and rhythms. Cities of Rio de Janeiro, Victoria and Sao Paulo in the South Eastern region hold extensively planned parades displayed by various samba schools. These official processions are vied by the public from the comfort of their seats in the sambadromes while for the blocos; revellers are allowed to participate and actually allowed to dance along to music being belted out by the live bands. The situation in North Eastern areas of the country contrasts slightly with the other regions in that revellers in the cities of Salvador, Recife, and Porto Seguro are allowed to participate in the parades. The six-day party period, revellers follow the electrios, through the different avenues singing and dancing after the tunes from the bands in the Lorries. It is very difficult to attribute numerical values to rate of accessibility of music during the Brazilian carnival, however from the discussion above one would certainly say that the music played in the carnival is relatively accessible given the different levels of accessibility of the music in the carnival. Impact of the carnival: the social conditions in the country The culture and heritage of the festival has been estimated to have become in the early 20th century, this was a result of an approximate four million slaves brought into the country from west and central Africa, in fact they owe most of their tradition to Congo and Yoruba5. The carnival has a lot of impact to the social conditions in the country; its impact on education, health, social security and others is immense. Brazil is one of the countries with the widest economic and social disparities with a larger percentage of her citizens living below the poverty line. There are the emerging and increasingly wealthy middle class living in affluent neighbourhoods and there are the poor ones living in shanties doted across the nation, with the city of Rio de Janeiro accommodating millions of poor people. During the carnival people who live in the shanties come out to participate in the enjoying the celebrations to their fill, it has been observed that by their participation, their general level happiness rises. The carnival is a multimillion-dollar generating activity, with the income generated going to different hands, first, the local authorities in charge of the cities and towns where the carnivals take place. Secondly, the local gangs and such other local gangs engaged in illegal activities across the country, but who during the carnival come out to participate and organize the different samba schools taking part in the parades. This festival is a huge tourist attraction, with over 1 million visitors annually; the national government earns millions of dollars from the festival. The carnival therefore, has a huge impact over the social conditions of the country this arises out of the huge economic benefit that the carnival gives to the country. Socio cultural practices of any society are not fixe, they change with the change in time attributable to a lot of cultural mix, and the carnival across the country is influenced by a variety of cultures and rituals. The social conditions in Rio de Janeiro are as important to its carnival just as those in the State of Bahia are, even though the latter the carnival spread from Bahia to the rest of the country. Experts argue that the Brazilian carnival has no particular characteristic as it includes a vast range people in the society, the carnival does not seclude any member of the society, and no discrimination whatsoever is fathomed. Unlike other carnivals in the world, the carnival in Brazil allows the participation of lower urban classes, they also aid in the production of the carnival. The carnival is compatible with and takes into consideration the economic and cultural attributes of all groups participating in the festival. There are different groups who argue on one hand that the Brazilian carnival momentarily erases social inequalities and inverts social values and hierarchies. Other experts argue that the Brazilian music, dancing, and staged symphony generate a feeling of togetherness in a social order that has profound social and racial disparity. The Brazilian carnival inverts social positions as the poor take centre stage as elegantly costumed nobles, in particular the royal-like couple composed of male leader dancer and a female flag bearer in each of the competing parade groups and talented musicians in the percussion orchestra who provide the string rhythms. The Brazilian carnival provides a promise of a more egalitarian society; simply put this is a ritual that ultimately leaves social inequality intact. The carnival embodies popular culture derived from regional folklore and beliefs; this gives each region its unique identity displaying their own history and traditions. However, the carnival demonstrates immense and mostly passionate enthusiasm. Conclusion The music composed and performed in  the country  includes a number of local music genres inclined by African, European and native American features. The history of music development in the country took about five hundred years6 ; the music in the country has come to encompass some unique, original and authentic styles, such as samba, RAP among others. Samba is the most known genre from the country, as it is known from every corner of the globe; this has specifically been propelled and fuelled by the carnivals7. Moreover, the genre of bossa nova, which is produced by Antonio Carlos Jobim,  has produced high numbers of international hits8; it has produced some of the most acclaimed performers and composers as this genre has led to a worldwide attention from the mid-20th century. Varieties of instruments accompany the songs performed by the musicians in the country, the instrumental music performed in the country range from classic to contemporary popular jazz. Modern music influences such as hip-hop and rock have begun to diverse contents of music in the country; this is in addition to the electro-acoustic music. Culture, music and the society mix at the annual carnival, with the festival being s hiding point for the Brazil’s extreme and diverse unequal society. The accessibility of music in the carnival is a complex phenomenon that is dependent on physical contact, perception and participation. Bibliography Crook, Larry. Brazilian music: northecstern traditions and the heartbeat of a modern nation. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2005. Eisentraut, Jochen. The accessibiliry* of music: participation, reception and contact. Cambridge: CUP, 2013. Fryer, Peter. Rhythms of resistance: African musical heritage in Brazil. London: Pluto Press, 2000. McGowan, Chris & Pessanha, Ricardo. The Brazilian sound: samba, bossa nova and the popular music of Brazil. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1998. Olsen, Dale A & Sheehy, Daniel A. The Garland handbook of Latin American music. New York: Garland Pub. 2008. Vianna, Hermano. The mystery a;f samba: papular music and nationat identity in Brazil. Chapel Hill:University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Read More