Acoustic experience in the devotional scenology

ABSTRACT

Acoustic experience in the devotional scenology – This article discusses the acoustic universe of a scenic practice strongly anchored in devotion to São Benedito. Black tradition music and its relations with popular religiosities on the north coast of São Paulo are thought of as a context from which scenic practices are carried out. From sound, musical and morphological aspects we investigated the connections between symbolic elements of different religiosities present in representations of wars between mouros (Moors) and cristãos (Christians).

Keywords:
Marimba; Congada; Acoustic Experience; Sound Ethnocenology; Language of Devotion

RESUMO

Experiência acústica na cenológica devocional – Este artigo discute o universo acústico de uma prática cênica fortemente ancorada na devoção a São Benedito. A música de tradição negra e suas relações com religiosidades populares no litoral norte de São Paulo é pensada como um contexto no qual práticas cênicas se realizam. A partir de aspectos sonoros, musicais e morfológicos, investigam-se as afinidades entre elementos simbólicos de diferentes religiosidades presentes nas representações de guerras entre mouros e cristões.

Palavras-chave:
Marimba; Congada; Experiência Acústica; Etnocenologia Sonora; Linguagem da Devoção

RÉSUMÉ

Expérience acoustique dans la scénologie dévotionnelle – Cet article aborde l’univers acoustique d’une pratique scénique fortement ancrée dans la dévotion à São Benedito. La musique de tradition noire et ses relations avec les religiosités populaires de la côte nord de São Paulo sont considérées comme un contexte dans lequel prennent place les pratiques scéniques. Du point de vue sonore, musical et morphologique, les affinités entre les éléments symboliques de différentes religions présents dans les représentations des guerres entre maures et chrétiens sont étudiées.

Mots-clés:
Marimba; Congada; Experience Acoustique; Ethnocénologie Sonore; Langue de Dévotion

Context and scenic aspects

In this article I intend to discuss some of the expressive elements present in the practices of devotion to São Benedito. The empirical data was collected on several occasions over the last two decades (in particular 2005, 2010, 2019, 2023). The aim is to discuss some aspects of the acoustic universe, trying to trace specific aesthetic and morphological elements. The intention is to reflect on the elements of devotion to São Benedito and their affinities with certain aesthetic, scenic and religious frameworks. These expressive elements are part of what I call a language of devotion.

Congada is performed in various parts of Brazil in a wide variety of ways, but it is always related to the reign of the Congo and devotion to the so-called “black saints”, such as Santa Ifigênia and São Benedito, for example (Lima, 1954; ²⁵; Araújo, 1964; Rabaçal, 1976; Fernandes, 1977). In many places, the Congada is one of the main expressions of devotion to São Benedito. The Congada that takes place in the streets of Ilhabela (north coast of São Paulo) during the Festa de São Benedito (Saint Benedict Festival) lasts three days and is held every year in the middle of May.

The staging during the festival is presented as a war between the army of the Ambassador of Luanda and the army of the King of Congo. As discussed elsewhere (Cirino, 2016), the Ambassador of Luanda is convinced to convert to Christianity and worship the Catholic saint São Benedito. The staging, which takes place in three bailes (“balls”) lasting approximately 40 minutes (each baile would be something like an “act”), is carried out through songs, dances, speeches and scenes. Each of the armies occupies a point on the street, more or less 40 meters away from each other, with the “battle” field being the space between the two armies. The expressive elements have various connections with historical processes, power relations and ways of re-signifying the symbolic framework.

Image 1
On the left, one of the noblemen from the army above presents his embassy to the king flanked by his army. In the background, the army below follows in dance and sing; on the right, the army above (in shades of blue) performs choreography while the army below (in shades of red) stands around with swords raised. In the background, the Igreja Matriz de Nossa Senhora D’Ajuda and the Forum. Source: Ronald Kraag’s collection (2015).

At the bailes, the same plot is played out in a similar but not identical way: a war between the Ambassador’s army and the King’s army. At each baile, the Ambassador is arrested and brought before the King. After presenting and debating his reasons, he repents and asks for forgiveness. Over the course of the bailes, however, the King discovers that the Ambassador is his son, raised in another kingdom, and decides to forgive him. The participants can be classified as follows: those who play “protagonist” characters and those who play “extras” without specific lines. The characters are the King of Congo and the Ambassador of Luanda, the Prince, the Secretary, the Lower Guides and the Upper Guides. The extras are, on the one hand, the Nobles of the King, the Christian army, and on the other, the Lower Soldiers and the Ambassador’s army. Also important is the participation of the crowd, made up of devotees, mostly residents and family members of the congueiros, who gather on the sidewalks around the armies.

Some interpretations suggest that the staging reconstructs contexts from times such as Emperor Charlemagne [742 – 814] and the Crusades [between the 11th and 13th centuries] and the processes of conversion of native ethnic groups by the then European colonizers (Corrêa, 1981; Cardoso 1982, ⁶). In these interpretations, the army of the Ambassador of Luanda is seen as “infidel”, “atheist”, “Moorish”, while the army of the King of the Congo is seen as “Christian”. Although there is a practically unanimous interpretation of the Christian aspect and the conversion, when compared with the expressive elements it is possible to identify some contradictions.

Other authors argue that the performance is part of a scenic lineage started by the Jesuit priests, who would have used theater in an instrumental way for catechesis. As Décio de Almeida Prado (1993) suggests, the function of this dramaturgy was to replace the religious foundation and moral code of the indigenous people. Father Fernão Cardim (1980) is responsible, along with José de Anchieta (1977), for the first records of this “Jesuit theatricality”, which was directly linked to the so-called “reception parties” in which the settlers welcomed the Company of Jesus’ visitors to the colony’s lands. It is worth noting that Almeida Prado points out that the principles of this theatricality were based on the interactions between the scene and the reception party (Carvalho, 2015, p. 6). Some of these principles are still present today on the north coast of São Paulo.

With regard to the acoustic aspects of the Congada de São Benedito, some particularities will be focused on in order to highlight material and sound elements. The intention is to look for affinities between the musical instrument (the marimba) and its contexts of use, in other words, to take the marimba as an index in the sense suggested by Alfred Gell (2018, p. 40). This perception of Gell (2018, p. 44) takes “the index [as] the result and/or the instrument of social agency”, that is, the focus is on the acoustic aspects in the mesh of possibilities that act socially.

Despite being based on the empirical experience of making an ethnographic film (links below), it is worth noting that I do not suggest what is audible from what has been captured and which is reproduced in the movie. This would make it possible to think of a “soundscape” in the sense coined by Schafer (1977 as cited in Oliveira Pinto, 2001, p. 248), notably the cultural soundscapes that result from human activities, but I am more interested in the social agencies that are made possible through the musical instrument, and in this sense the musical (or sound) aspect needs to be taken as a phenomenon of experience. This means considering that sound itself is neither exclusively outside human beings nor exclusively inside.

Sound is the inherent result of the interaction between the physical aspect and our ways of considering and evaluating these sounds. So it is in this sense that it seems most interesting to take sound as a phenomenon of experience. As T. Ingold suggests, we see in light and not light, we perceive in time and not time, we hear in sound and not sound. Sound is the condition for our auditory perception in the same way that light is the condition for our visual perception (Ingold, 2015, p. 208-209). Insofar as the idea of landscape emphasizes the surfaces of the world, we think that the idea of experience is more suitable for pursuing our goals; we have chosen to use terms such as “acoustic aspect” and “acoustic experience” instead of “soundscape”.

Formas do Olhar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpCuk441ZCw&t=2s;

Vinho e Farinha: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjtf82b2oiY;

O Retorno: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1JKF4Rvax-g;

Família Congo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BNmKBMFQeo;

Cristãos contra Pagãos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Ip1ZwhIp8&t=1386s;

Reinados: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyEmpbk4rR0

(Links to the parts of Eduardo Kishimoto’s documentary about the Congada of Ilhabela. TV Documentary – USP, 2011).

Afro-Brazilian acoustics on the north coast of São Paulo

The north coast of São Paulo is a region full of musical manifestations. Between more profane and more sacred expressions, we find a very diverse repertoire: folias (folias de Reis, do Divino Espírito Santo and São Benedito), modas de viola, as well as various forms of dance (xiba, ciranda, tontinha, canoa, marrafa, quebra-chiquinha, caiapó), sambas, jongos, baladas and choros.

Kilza Setti, who has been researching the north coast since 1959, in her work Ubatuba nos cantos das praias: estudo do caiçara paulista e de sua produção musical (Ubatuba in the corners of the beaches: a study of the caiçara of São Paulo and their musical production) (1985), goes back and describes in detail the repertoires of the Folias in the municipality of Ubatuba. In this work, the author focuses above all on repertoires linked to what she calls “Iberian musical traditions”. For her, it was the dominant culture of the colonizer that was responsible for the deep marks visible in the religious sphere, in the social and moral order and in cultural practices (Setti, 1985; 1997, p. 148).

According to this reading, the region’s musical traditions are important practices of the caiçaras in the face of the social transformations brought about by the tourism industry, which developed rapidly from the 1970s onwards, leveraged by the opening of the BR-101 highway (known as the Rio-Santos highway). Linked to these social practices of resistance, the Catholic calendar also influences the agenda of certain musical practices¹.

Trying to define what she calls the caiçara musical system, Kilza Setti (1997, p. 151) argues that it was produced in the context of colonial Brazil, an environment favorable to the “continuity of musical models brought with colonization” or in later periods. I try to rethink this argument in order to reinforce the fundamental importance of the populations descended from enslaved people on the Brazilian coast.

The cultural practices of people from African countries imprinted their traits on the region, and this was made possible and reinforced by the slave policy. With the end of the sugar industry in the middle of the 18th century – the displacement of monoculture and the sale of slaves to other regions such as the Paraíba Valley –, Setti (1997) points to the “weakening and discontinuity of black musical traditions” in Ubatuba. However, I would reinforce the need to consider these cultural matrices when thinking about the acoustic universe and repertoires of the north coast of São Paulo. An example of this seems to be the weakening of the Folia de São Benedito as a phenomenon integrated into the Festa and the permanence of the Congada in the Festa de São Benedito as the biggest devotional festival in Ilhabela.

Kilza Setti also investigated practices related to what she calls “caiçara musical representation of black derivation”. The author points out that, even with the exodus of black population contingents to other regions after the abolition of the slave legal system, some black caiçara families retain African cultural elements that can be found in the “dances (moçambique) and jongo songs in Ubatuba and the dramatic dances (congadas) in São Sebastião, Caraguatatuba and Ilhabela” (Setti, 1997, p. 165). In the approach proposed here, we start with a material element and only then deal with acoustic expressive aspects. This choice, although purely heuristic, serves to historically contextualize certain practices and culturally situate our interlocutors. I will address the presence of one of the most important instruments in the devotion to São Benedito: the marimba.

In order to understand the importance that music plays in the Congada de São Benedito in Ilhabela, we need to delve deeper into the origins of the ethnic groups that settled on the north coast of São Paulo. The question posed in 1997 by Setti (1997, p. 165) seems pertinent to us to begin this journey:

[...] what tools do we have to explain certain musical facts, such as the presence of marimbas today on the coast of São Paulo – a region so close to development areas like São Paulo and the Paraíba Valley? Why not marimbas in Parati, Angra dos Reis or even Ubatuba?

Organology is one of the possible ways to help identify cultural matrices². Research that in 1997 already pointed to the very low incidence of the marimba, since no similar instrument had been found anywhere else in the country, is still valid. It could even be said that it became even lower with the suspension of activities in São Sebastião in 2016. The marimba has only been studied in its “supporting” role, that is, as an accessory or sound complement to the speeches in which it is used (Kubik, 1979; Setti, 1997, p. 166; Mukuna; 2000).

The relationship between the marimba and the context of devotion to São Benedito needs to be better discussed. These include questions involving the confinement of the marimba to the tutelage of the fourth generation of family members of the first reign on the island, the possible relationship of the marimba with insignia of power, or the tones and rhythms played on the instrument. From the organology of the instrument, as well as from the rhythmic patterns played, it is possible to infer geographical areas and cultural matrices present on the north coast, even without investigating the origin of the ethnic groups that settled in the region. According to Setti, based on personal information from Gerhard Kubik (1972, ²¹), the marimbas of São Sebastião and Ilhabela originated from the peoples who today inhabit Angola, Congo Brazzaville and Cameroon, while the marimba of Caraguatatuba is similar to those recorded in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zanzibar (Setti, 1997, p. 167).

In the images above you can see the morphological differences between the marimba of Caraguatatuba and São Sebastião. Image 2 (left) shows the marimba with the resonator box, while Image 2 (right) shows a marimba that uses gourds below the bars to perform this function. The marimbas of Ilhabela and São Sebastião show marked morphological similarities, differing, among other small details, only in the number of available bars. While in São Sebastião the marimba has ten bars, in Ilhabela there are only six. Image 2 (right) was also used in previous works by Gerhard Kubik (1979) and Kazadi wa Mukuna (2000).

Image 2
On the left, marimba made by Luthier Leopoldo Ferreira Louzada, Rio do Ouro, Caraguatatuba; on the right, marimba and atabaque, Bairro São Francisco – São Sebastião. Source: Memória Caiçara’s Collection, Kilza Setti (1989, 1972).

Mukuna (2000, p. 111) discusses the presence of various instruments of Bantu origin, such as musical bows (berimbaus), caxixis and cuícas. However, when dealing with the marimba, he only mentions that it has become a functional instrument used in the Congada de São Benedito and that, although simplified, it still retains the morphological aspect of those found in Africa. The idea of the functional instrument refers precisely to the fact that it is mobilized exclusively in the devotion to São Benedito, acting as a structuring element of the performance.

Gerhard Kubik (1979, p. 36-41), in turn, presents an entire chapter dedicated to the marimba (and lamellophones). After an introduction in which he presents the terms by which these instruments are known in different regions of Africa, Kubik reviews the bibliography produced in colonial Brazil on instruments of this type, citing Johann Baptist Ritter Von Spix and Karl Friedrich Philipp Von Martius (1981), Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi Da Montecúccolo (1965) and Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira (2006). It is from this bibliography that the author infers the presence in Brazil of marimbas (and lamellophones) morphologically similar to African marimbas.

Image 3
Details of the São Sebastião marimba, Congada do Bairro São Francisco, 10 bars.

Having been to Brazil on several occasions, in 1975 he taught a course at the Center for African Studies at the Universidade de São Paulo, where he was Kilza Setti’s teacher, Kubik would have come into contact with the field material from the north coast and in particular the São Sebastião instrument photographed by Setti in 1972 (Image 2, right). Regarding the custom of crowning Kings of Congo, the author states:

[...] among people of Congolese origin settled in southeastern Brazil some aspects of their ancient political organization were perpetuated for a long time to the point of establishing a fictitious type of Kingdom of the Congo on Brazilian soil (Kubik, 1979, p. 38).

When he was introduced to the photographs of the marimba of São Sebastião, Kubik immediately related them to those found in his own field research in Cameroon. Regarding the possible relationship between the marimba and insignia of power, Kubik (1979, p. 39) gives us a clue by stating that “[...] the oral tradition of the peoples of southern Cameroon states that four of these instruments were usually played together during a procession. These were chiefs’ instruments, and when the chief traveled, the xylophone band usually went ahead, announcing his arrival everywhere they went”.

In one of the most significant dictionaries of music, The New Grove Dictionary of music and musicians (2001), the entry for marimba is written by G. Kubik together with James Blades and James Holland. Here the authors designate the term as a group of idiophones of two types: lamellophones and xylophones. In Latin America, the term marimba refers to specifically xylophones with gourd resonators, but in the 19th century the term was also used to refer to lamellophones with gourd resonators of African origin³.

As a form of devotion, the perception of its practice often occurs through processes of subjectivation and the production of intimacy. The scenic presence of the marimba is no coincidence, nor is it random or arbitrary. It is necessary to emphasize the aspects that demonstrate the depth of time, because the marimba is the instrument through which the voice of the saint and the devotee resonates. As in a prayer, the sound is a mediation, a connection between the earthly and the sacred. For this reason, we also need to discuss the acoustic and musical aspects (rhythmic patterns, playing and singing) in the context of Congada.

The sound universe of the Festa de São Benedito is presented mainly in the Congada. But that’s not all, there’s the ringing of the bells, the singing and praying of the dawns, the conga mass, the procession, in short, various acoustic areas accompany the devotion. The music in the Congada consists of chants accompanied by the marimba and two atabaques (tambaque and tambú). The marimba is positioned in the center behind the King and Queen and the two atabaques behind it. As has already been pointed out, because of the importance, care and attention paid to it, the marimba suggests links with royalty and the court of the Congada king. The marimba used today⁴ is a replica of the one used by King Manoel Ciriaco da Silva, who in turn was a replica of the marimba used by King Ventura (who was a king before Manoel Ciriaco da Silva’s father, Paulino Manoel da Silva) (Corrêa, 1981).

Image 4
Details of the Ilhabela marimba with 6 bars.

The marimba of São Benedito is a wooden instrument made up of a series of six bars, each approximately 0.40 x 0.12m, with all the keys being the same size. The variation in the height and timbre of the sound is due to the fact that each bar is made up of wood with different densities. They are supported by a rectangular wooden structure that is open in the center and each bar is attached by a leather string that runs through two holes at the top and two at the bottom. At the bottom are a series of medium-sized gourds attached with wire. According to Corrêa (1981), the woods used for each of the bars were: canela, peroba, araribá, canela preta and jacaraúba (or jacataubae). An arch also made of wood (“guaracipó”) emerges from the ends of the rectangle. This bow is supported by the player’s legs (or waist) and a leather strap is attached to the back of the neck (or back). The bars are struck with two rounded wooden sticks with rounded tips.

According to Corrêa (1981), until the 1980s, atabaques were used that were carved in the shape of a cup (0.90m in height and 0.41m in diameter at the mouth), and the smaller one in the shape of a chalice (0.79m in diameter and 0.31m in diameter at the mouth). However, these drums have now been replaced by commercial drums bought in instrument stores.

Image 5
Photographs from the 1940s. The Congada performing in Rua Dr. Carvalho, Vila.

Some of the elements highlighted here point to clear links between African traditions and Congada. The presence of the marimba is undoubtedly one of these elements. It is an instrument whose morphology is associated with the region of Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon and Angola (Kubik, 1979; Mukuna, 2000) and, as mentioned above, there are frequent references associating this instrument with the royalty of those countries.

As you can see from the images below, apart from the differences in size, the morphology of African instruments is very similar to those found on the north coast of São Paulo. Although it is not possible to determine with absolute certainty which region gave rise to the instrument we find in Brazil today – which is certainly not the aim of this work –, morphology can be used to think about provenance.

Image 6
In a record from the 1950s, a marimba from the Sangine-Chiube region (Angola), where the instrument is also known as Njimba, with a shape very similar to the Ilhabela marimba. Source: Diamang photographs (1967).

Sounds of devotion

Devotion to São Benedito has sensory aspects that are remarkable. The atmosphere of the festival is full of aesthetic touches that bring devotion back to characteristics present in the manifestations of colonial Brazil. Among these aspects, the gift circuits related to promises and payments for graces achieved are among the most important motivations for devotees (Cirino, 2023).

The congueiros’ fardas (“unifoms”), the clothes used in the Congada, the accessories such as the hat, the chains, the swords, the cape, the lace and embroidered details, as well as the aesthetic elements present in the decorations set on the table for the São Benedito banquet: everything is crafted with rigor and care. In addition to the material aspects, the acoustic aspects are also carefully crafted.

This can be seen at various moments, especially: 1) in the way the chants (and choreographies) are mobilized during the bailes; 2) in the vocalizations that occur during the processions and Giro da Bandeira and; 3) in the particular sounds of the conga mass. In each of these moments, specific sound elements are mobilized, although this happens within a very dense and reduced repertoire.

The sound aspect of the festival has already been the subject of several controversies, as seen in the accounts of the interlocutors themselves. The initial trigger for the controversies is linked to disagreements over the religious practice itself and its meaning and significance for the devotees. Having a past directly related to the ritual and religious context, over time the Congada has come to be perceived from its “cultural” angle, as a tourist attraction during the so-called “Caiçara Culture Week”, an event promoted by the Municipal Departments of Culture and Tourism.

The oldest controversy concerns the filming of O Caiçara (1950), a movie produced by Vera Cruz and directed by Adolfo Celi. At the time, there was disagreement as to whether or not the group would record the scene because of the problems it could cause for the devotees’ beliefs. Like a prayer that only makes sense when it is performed, for some devotees the recording of the Congada would also lose its meaning and effectiveness.

In the 1980s, when the works of Corrêa (1981) and Cardoso (1982, ⁶) were carried out, other controversies were documented around the transmission of positions and the roles represented in the Congada. The importance of the speeches becomes even greater when the Secretary of Culture proposed that the congueiros use microphones so that everyone could hear them (the speeches often take place in large spaces used for staging). The majority of devotees were against the proposal. Microphone enthusiasts were seen as self-interested, as if the essence of devotion were being corrupted. On the other hand, the defenders of the traditional way of performing the Congada emphasized the connection with the sacred.

I’ve heard several congueiros say things like: “why put a microphone if I’m doing it for São Benedito, he doesn’t need a microphone to hear me”, or “São Benedito isn’t deaf”, “I’m not doing the Congada for tourists, I’m doing it for São Benedito, I’m doing it out of promise and devotion”. To this day, the Congada continues to be performed without any mediation from electronic equipment to amplify the sound of the atabaques and the marimba or the songs and speeches of the congueiros.

Elements that appear in these controversies around the sound aspect of Congada refer to the need for an approach that transcends ethnomusicology and is thought of in the context of the logic of the scene and the context of the ritual. It is based on the values considered fundamental by the devotees and for devotion that the acoustic experience is lived and perceived by people. The atabaques and especially the marimba also refer to these values. These terms are considered non-negotiable by many devotees. In order for this proposal to consider the expressive material present in Congada to gain some density, in addition to the information already mentioned about the marimba, it is important to also present other acoustic elements linked to devotion. I will then move on to analyze some rhythmic and musical elements.

The music played is mostly built on two rhythms, two toques (beats). Each one has a tempo, a “speed”. Because of their characteristics, they have different, well-defined and established functions. Some suggestions for transcriptions are useful for better visualization of the rhythmic patterns used. The transcriptions of the toques are based on the spelling developed by Gerhard Kubik (1972; ²¹) where the [X] represents the moment of impact and the [.] represents non-impact (or silence). Below these are the same rhythmic divisions as in the “traditional” Western score. As the patterns were transcribed from binary rhythms, in cases where the musicians modify this logic by using ternary divisions, it was necessary to adapt Kubik’s spelling to take account of the chiarrhythms. This was done using [X X X] for the eighth-note triplets and [X. X . X .] for the quarter-note triplets.

This transcription focuses primarily on some of the patterns present in the toque de guerra (corrido) at a tempo of 120 beats per minute (BPM). There is a rhythmic fluctuation in the playing of the instruments that can lead to other variations, producing an infinity of textures based on dynamics, phrasing, accentuation and even diction (Oliveira Pinto, 2002). It is worth pointing out that these patterns have many alternatives that are present in the playing of various marimbeiros. The second rhythm is the toque de canto (caído), reproduced below using the same spelling developed by Kubik (1972) at a tempo of approximately 82 BPM.

Two songs used at various moments during the Congada can exemplify the rhythm above:

Senhora Santana Santa Luzia (2x)
Dai o louvor da virgem Maria,
Hoje é nosso dia (2x)

Another is the song of exaltation of São Benedito, sung at the end of the bailes when the Ambassador is forgiven and the armies are reconciled, but also at the end of the procession at the top of the church steps, when the marimba, atabaques and chants cease as people settle in the nave of the church and prepare for the conga mass⁵:

Que Santo é que havemos louvar?
É São Benedito para festejar!!

In these graphic representations, the rhythmic fluctuations, which oscillate between fairly close and interchangeable patterns, may not be so evident. However, these rhythmic fluctuations orbit around an inherent pattern that is always one of the two marimba toques outlined above: the de canto (caído) and the de guerra (corrido). The transcriptions shown in Images 9 and 10 are approximate in that, in addition to the rhythmic fluctuations, there is an elasticity in the scales of the chants (Kubik, 1970, p. 18) as well as a flexible network of the musical plot (Oliveira Pinto, 2002, p. 104). These aspects, intrinsic to the acoustic universe of Congada, make transcriptions in the form of a graphic representation of Western music insufficient. In this sense, Images 9 and 10 emphasize the Iberian character, as Setti (1997) suggests, at the same time as they are articulated almost as counterexamples to this type of graphic representation, insofar as they prove to be insufficient.

Image 9
Approximate score of the song “Santa Luzia”. Source: Author’s transcription.

Image 10
Approximate score of the song “Santo Benedito”. Source: Author’s transcription.

In addition to the particularities of the associations between Catholic saints and orishas/inquices, there are several sound elements present at the Festa de São Benedito that are reminiscent of the typical sounds of West Central African countries. The organology of the marimba, as well as aspects of the analysis of the toques, show that there is a unique aspect to the music of the Festa.

[...] regardless of the hypotheses of miscegenation, cultural hybridity or Africanity, music shows us that there is no total fusion of its different cultural elements, a fusion that would be able to dilute marks and structures of origin and styles. Precisely because it retains its traces like few other areas of culture, music manages to be a manifestation of the present while simultaneously referring to the past (Oliveira Pinto, 2002, p. 88, emphasis added).

Some of the analytical aspects dealt with by Tiago de Oliveira Pinto (2002) are essential for characterizing the relationship between Congada music and the music of countries like Congo and Angola. Despite the absence of an evident time-line pattern in the toques (Nketia, 1974), since there is no percussive idiophone in the high register, there are inherent patterns (Kubik, 1962) in which certain rhythmic lines underlie, as shown in images 7 and 8.

Image 7
Toque de guerra (“war beat”). Six examples of options and rhythmic fluctuations used in the toque. Source: author’s transcription.

Image 8
Toque de canto (“singing beat”). Six examples of options and rhythmic fluctuations used in the toque. Source: Author’s transcription.

Another sound structure described by Oliveira Pinto (2002) refers to the crossing of sound lines and rhythms, in other words, the combination of different rhythms, phrases or motifs that are carried out in such a way that their accents do not coincide, resulting in new rhythmic combinations. According to the author, this intermingling of impulses is a constitutive aspect of African and Afro-Brazilian music that occurs in various instruments, such as the way the right and left hands complement each other when beating a drum or playing a marimba.

In the chants, there are also movements that contrast the voices of the two armies. These movements are sound montages that overlap voices based on euphonic principles, often simultaneously, voices that are relational but independent. The consonance of the voices acts as a principle that is complemented by the intonation of the speech. As well as the marimba, the chants also have connections with the West Central African region, especially the Congo regions (Kubik, 1970, p. 17).

The sound structures presented above – rhythmic fluctuations, inherent patterns and crossing sound lines – are aspects that help to highlight possible relationships between cultural universes of Africa and Brazil. Along with the structures, the main instrument of devotion to São Benedito is equally interesting for thinking about these relationships. The frequencies produced by each of the bars, the way the marimba is played based on the logic of crossing sound lines, as well as the ritual function performed, which refers to the instrument itself as an insignia of power; all these characteristics allow us to take the marimba as an index of social agency, bringing the religious aspect as a key to access the entire scenic system.

The relationship between thinking and doing in Congada refers to royalty and the saint. A tripod seems to be activated: the conceptual aspect (sound culture and its own style); thinking (the musical and sound structures, the grammar that represents the connection between the formal expression of music and its contents); and doing (the practical, procedural aspect, made up of dance, theater, singing, instrumental music; the musical form as the sound elements and their basic gestalt, the musical form as the result of this musical doing) (Cirino, 2009, p. 119). This tripod [concept: thinking: doing] produces indices of social agency: through the articulation of the elements of this tripod we have the creation of the material aspect (the index itself), but also the immaterial, the knowledge and experience arising from the acoustic spheres.

In an interview with Kilza Setti in 1989, Ana Esperança Silva highlighted some aspects of the marimba that emphasize this system. Rather than being just a statement about trajectories in the context of slavery, they are the driving force behind hypotheses, and at the same time they also present their own evidence based on her family’s trajectory.

KS: There are lots of marimbas in Africa, but the marimba like that looks like it’s from Angola.

AES: But was there a congada in those days in Africa, in Angola?

KS: Not Congada, but marimba. The marimba was brought by the Africans. Now that it got here, there’s this devotion to São Benedito.

AES It was brought by my great-grandfather. But my grandmother used to say that there (in Africa) was already devotion to São Benedito.

[...]

KS: What relationship do the marimba and tambaque instruments have with the king? Do they have anything to do with it?

AES: Yes, because the marimba belongs to the king.

KS: Does that chant have any meaning?

AES: No. That is the sound of the Congada. Without it they can’t dance, without it they can’t sing (Ana Esperança Silva in an interview given to Kilza Setti in April 1989. Full interview in the Acervo Memória Caiçara in Ubatuba).

Devotion is thus closely associated with the nature of this object: the musical instrument, the marimba. Without the object, one cannot sing or dance. Cardoso (1982) notes in his testimonies and interviews carried out in 1976 that the instruments had a distinct category among the objects present at the festival. Both the atabaques and the marimba could only be played during rehearsals and performances, and there was therefore a ban on their use on other occasions and at times classified as inappropriate.

Tambaques and marimba are made by the King himself, according to specific precepts which, among other rules, stipulate the measures and qualities of the wood used. [...] Asked why they don’t use instruments outside the ritual, the King of Congo revealed that: ‘they only play in the Congada because it’s a mystery’ (Cardoso, 1982, p. 39).

It came from there, from Africa, this marimba, the shape of the marimba was all from there, you know how it is, there’s a thin string and it came straight, beautiful, that rustic shape, it’s not very pretty, no, but it’s good, everything came from there, that shape, everything, so we just changed the gourds because it broke. [Ana Esperança Silva. Sister of former King Manoel Ciriaco da Silva, known as Rei Neco, and organizer of the Ucharia. Preinterview (Kishimoto, 2011)].

Alfred Gell suggests taking art objects as “people” to investigate production, reception and circulation. For the author, the mobilization of aesthetic principles in the course of the social process is a way of understanding the interaction between objects and the meshes of relationships that surround certain artistic forms in specific interactive sets (Gell, 2018, p. 34). The author postulates that artistic situations can be discriminated as those in which the material index (the visible, physical, ‘thing’) enables a particular cognitive operation identified as the abduction of agency (Gell, 2018, p. 42). The abduction of agency, as I understand it, considers the work in the contexts in which they are placed and not only in those in which they were produced. In other words, as the material index of the work is decontextualized, de-territorialized and reinserted into new social configurations, new possibilities of interpretations and social relations are given, expanding and carrying the index to other (and sometimes unexpected) forms of insertion into new social meshes of relations. The abduction of agency makes it possible to perceive new ways of producing affects in these other social meshes. Social agency is conceived by Gell as the principle of any event in which it is believed to have occurred because of some intention lodged in the person or thing that initiated the causal sequence (Gell, 2018, p. 44). Despite the fact that such a conception of anthropological analysis is refractory to verbal and musical art, I try to rethink the idea of abduction of agency by looking for alternatives to also deal with acoustic aspects within the circuit of production, reception and circulation of objects, especially those that are built specifically to produce sounds – such as musical instruments – and their relationship with the contexts of use.

To think of the marimba as an organum – an object or procedure through which a certain objective is achieved – is to think of it as an instrument that enables the production of devotion and expressions of ancestor worship. The instrument creates the conditions for an expressive procedure through which a connection with conceptions of the sacred is made possible. In the devotion to São Benedito, the marimba is not just an accessory and complementary object to the speeches and songs in the confrontation between opposing factions. Beyond the instrument and its materiality, the sounds emitted by the marimba (and atabaques) structure the scene, evoke an expression of devotion to São Benedito and are, in themselves, more than indications, they are indices, the result and instrument of social agency.

The Congada and the Terreiro

Despite having a façade related to Catholic Christianity, candomblé has a very significant connection with Congada. The zelador-de-santo (“saint’s janitor”) José Devanir Ribeiro de Lima from Terreiro Rancho Velho, an Angola candomblé terreiro, was the head cook of the Ucharia⁶ for two decades, and several of the terreiro’s filhos-de-santo (“sons/daughters of saint”) are congos and/or work at Ucharia. While working at the festival, José Devanir Ribeiro de Lima gave me an interview while he was stirring the afogado in a large pot that was boiling on the wood fire, the so-called tacuruba. His words reveal syncretic elements of his biography, as well as his own devotion to São Benedito.

Me: What is candomblé to you?

JDRL: Candomblé for me? I am Catholic. Candomblé for me is... I follow it as part of another religion that I [hesitates], how can I say? That I adopted, isn’t it [?], the spiritist part, of the saint, precisely because I was a bit ill, something, a manifestation of an orisha in my head, so I needed to go that way, isn’t it [?], something very serious. Because, as I’m a zelador-de-santo, to mess with the entity and to mess with someone else’s crown, it is very strong. I have to be very well prepared, calm, to know how I’m going to teach people, how I’m going to prepare... Because if I preparing at the wrong point, in the sect, I can make the other person bad, crazy in the head, vary [...] (José Devanir Ribeiro de Lima. Head of the Ucharia kitchen and Zelador of Rancho Velho, Angola candomblé. Preliminary cut Sobre a Congada de Ilhabela).

José Devanir then discusses one of the most striking characteristics of Afro-Brazilian religions: trance. While in Candomblé trance is generally described as something ecstatic and cathartic, in Congada and Ucharia another type of trance emerges:

Me: How do you see the trance in Congada? Is there any kind of trance in the Congada?

JDRL: Some people do enter a mediumistic manifestation without realizing it.

Me: Is it a trance in which the person still retains consciousness? Isn’t it a trance where the person totally loses consciousness?

JDRL: Exactly. It doesn’t make the person completely disconnect. That’s what we call a conscious medium. They don’t lose consciousness completely. They don’t fall asleep. Most people are sleeping mediums, so it’s unconscious. It’s the same when an orisha detaches itself from its body, it’s waking up at that moment, but there are conscious mediums who will do things consciously. There’s a vacuum in the memory at the time, so you do something, but then you think: Wow, why did I do that? I know I did it... but you haven’t completely mastered the impulse. These are the conscious mediums. And there are several conscious mediums, there are several people, and in the Congada there are several mediums who are conscious. But they don’t realize it. So they don’t even know they’re mediums.

Me: They don’t have such a clear perception of what’s going on?

JRDL: No, they don’t. All that they know is that they got [...] into that euphoria, you know, and danced out of tune, but they didn’t get tired. What? A sensitive person from the outside, a zelador, we can tell: the one there isn’t in his normal state, there’s a shadow on his side (José Devanir Ribeiro de Lima. Head of the Ucharia kitchen and Zelador of Rancho Velho. Sobre a Congada de Ilhabela. Chap. 1 “Formas do Olhar”. (18’50”), Kishimoto, 2011).

In order to better understand how the Congada can be interpreted from the “point of view and listening” of Candomblé, we took footage of the Congada bailes into the terreiro⁷. On this occasion, the relationship between the congada’s toques and choreography and those of candomblé were elaborated by the adepts themselves based on a session produced for the documentary. According to the information obtained from this session held at Rancho Velho⁸, each of the marimba toques is identified with toques used in the liturgical repertoire. The toque de guerra (corrido) is identified with the toque known in candomblé as barravento, while the toque de canto (caído) is identified with ijexá. Each of them is attributed all the qualities of the inquices/orishas with which they are associated.

The colors of the clothes worn by the Ambassador (red, pink and white) and the King (dark blue, light blue and white) were woven in, in addition to the references to toques, there are also relationships between the choreographies performed by the Ambassador in the congada and by Ogum in the terreiro; and also mythological relationships between São Benedito and Obaluaiê, as well as between the King of Congo and Xangô. In terms of colors and attributes, Xangô is associated with the colors red and white, vanity, royalty, wealth and justice as a human activity. Ogum, on the other hand, is associated with the colors dark blue and red, with violence, virility, war and metallurgy as human activities. Red is the common color between Xangô and Ogum, while blue is specific to Ogum and white to Xangô. On the other hand, in the interpretation of the colors related to the orishas/inquices, in addition to white, the colors used by the lower army (Ambassador) are red and pink, colors also attributed to Iansã, a deity related to sensuality, storm, courage and impetuosity, unquestionable qualities of the Ambassador. On the other hand, the colors used by the upper army are related to Ogum (dark blue), Iemanjá and Oxóssi (light blue) and Oxalá (white) (Silva, 2005, p. 94-96).

Ogum and Oxalá are present in both armies. The first because he is linked to the main colors of both armies, blue and red. The second because of the presence of white in both armies. It is also remembered for being the color of the Holy Spirit and the dove of the Divine Holy Spirit. It is interesting to note, on the other hand, that the relationships most pointed out from the choreographies and songs are opposite, that is, the Ambassador was associated with Ogum and the King was associated with Xangô. In this case, the relationships established were based much more on information from the mythology of each of these orishas and less on their relationship with the corresponding colors.

The association between São Benedito and Obaluaiê has an interesting meaning, since São Benedito is the patron saint of the festival and many stories revolve around him regarding his miracles, graces or punishments of infidels and unbelievers. The association with healing is also frequently mentioned in narratives about the saint. Related to the orisha Ogum, the Ambassador is interpreted through the sword and choreography. In addition, the toque de guerra (corrido) is related to the moments before the war and to the war itself, a passage in which the Ambassador and his army perform choreography similar to Ogum’s steps in the shed (Kishimoto, 2011, Cap. 1 “Formas do Olhar” [10’37”]).

The images commented on are from the Congada, precisely one of the sections that represents the war when two circles are set up and the swords clash while the congueiros turn clockwise. The chant is sung: “Ô mata, ô fere, ô sangue corre,/ O Pretinho de Angola não morre só” (Oh kill it, oh wound it, oh blood runs,/ The little black man from Angola doesn’t die alone). At another point after the war scene when the ambassador finally gives up fighting and is about to let himself be trapped, another, slower toque appears, the toque de canto (or toque caído). In this case, the associations are with ijexá and the orisha Oxum.

Final Considerations

It is noteworthy that the interpretations of the família-de-santo (“family of saint”) – taking the colors, toques and dances as parameters – present multiple meanings that sometimes seem contradictory. The interpretations mobilize certain elements of Congada to be “interpreted” within the religion’s own aesthetics⁹. These elaborations, made by the members of Rancho Velho, objectively show the possibilities of connections between signifiers and meanings, coming from different systems¹⁰. Thinking in Gell’s terms, these elaborations point to elements present in the prototype, in other words, the entities considered, by abduction, to be represented in the index.

Some aspects of the acoustic experience can help us understand the relationships that are built between aesthetics and the sacred. The relationship with Candomblé Angola is fundamental to interpreting in a broader way the meanings that acoustic aspects (but not only acoustic aspects) take on in the context of devotion to São Benedito. Thus, this sonority takes on new contours. It is certainly not just a “soundtrack” for the scene that concentrates the meanings of devotion, but, as a codified system that connects devotees to the sacred, it is a fundamental integral part of the language of devotion.

The details discussed about the morphology and origin of the marimba suggest some ways of interpreting the expressive elements. Like any religious practice, devotion to São Benedito allows us to get closer to processes of subjectivation, since the presence of the marimba on stage is not a coincidence, we need to reflect on the positioning of the acoustic experience in the construction of the dramaturgy. In other words, a religious dramaturgy, in this case, points to a dramaturgy in which the acoustic experience is structural. Perhaps it is necessary to think of a kind of scenic ethnomusicology – or a sound ethnocenology –, a search for the integration of the acoustic aspect with the scenic elements and their respective symbolic universes. Since the marimba is a musical instrument with such specific symbology and characteristics, it is the instrument that opens the door to understanding not only the relationship between African traditions and the practices of devotion to São Benedito on the north coast of São Paulo, but also the very mediation between the sacred and the profane.

Because of these characteristics, it is important to review Alfred Gell’s suggestions for the abduction of agency. If his theory is refractory to verbal and musical art due to the fact that they are purely performative arts, evanescent and devoid of material indices, the instrument engages the discussion again, but from another angle: the abduction of agency can be taken from the instrument. This brings the musical instrument – from the specificity of its indices of materiality – into the consideration of new contexts in which new agencies are produced, placing the object back into the meshes of relationships that surround its expressions in specific interactive sets. A second analytical round would then be required to argue about other possibilities for thinking of the musical instrument as an index. This procedure would force us to consider the acoustic aspects within the circuit of production, reception and circulation. It is not a question of circumscribing thought to the circuit, but of dealing with its functional aspects in the new contexts in which these materialities are employed.

By way of conclusion, it is worth noting the idea of the marimba as an organum, that is, an object or procedure through which certain objectives are achieved. The instrument that makes it possible to produce expressions of the cult of ancestors, kings and deities. The instrument makes the terreiro present in Congada and creates the conditions for connecting with conceptions of the sacred. That’s why, in the devotion to São Benedito, the marimba is no mere accessory. Beyond the instrument and its materiality, the sounds emitted by the marimba (and atabaques), as well as the knowledge to produce them, structure the scene, becoming indices that evoke and enable a relationship with the sacred.

Notes

• 1
  It is also worth noting that from the 1970s onwards, the caiçara community gradually joined the Pentecostal sects, leading to a number of developments, including in terms of cultural and expressive practices, since there were serious dilemmas over religious options, dividing families and hindering traditional musical activity (Setti, 1997, p. 151; Cardoso, 1990, p. 10).
• 2
  Organology is the discipline that deals with the description and classification of any musical instrument, taking into account the material used, the shape, the quality of the sound produced, the timbre, the mode of execution, among other criteria.
• 3
  The term marimba is made up of the word -rimba (or -limba) [pole; stem] and the prefix mawhich expresses an accumulation of objects. The limba instrument is found in southern Malawi, eastern Zambia and central Mozambique. The geographical distribution of the terms -rimba and -limba added to a multitude of prefixes covers practically the whole of southwest Africa, from southern Tanzania to northern Angola, where this type of xylophone is called madimba. Kubik also informs us that ‘l’ and ‘r’ are a single phoneme in many Bantu languages and are therefore interchangeable (Kubik 1979; Kubik; Blades; Holland, 2001). According to Alexandre Rodrigues Ferreira (2006) [1783-1792], a 16-note lamellophone existed in Brazil, recorded under the legend “Marimba, Instrumento q. uzão os Prétos” (“Marimba, instrument used by the Black”) (Kubik, 1979, p. 42). This is the same term we find today for the xylophone with gourd resonators used on the north coast of São Paulo.
• 4
  According to marimbeiros Flavio Maia dos Reis’ (32) and Marcos Cardial’s (47) information, two of Congada’s main marimba players, the instrument still has exactly the same characteristics and sound as the marimba they knew when they were children.
• 5
  During the conga mass, new acoustic experiences emerge which will not be dealt with here, but which are directly related to the senses of devotion that are expressed in the streets. Since 1956, the musical instruments of the congada have once again been allowed to play inside the church during the conga mass, after a ban that lasted approximately 10 years (Corrêa, 1981).
• 6
  Ucharia is the name given to the aspects of the Festa de São Benedito linked to the offering of the banquet. It involves collecting donations and paying promises to the saint, organizing the materials and utensils for the saint’s kitchen, processing and preparing the food, as well as organizing and carrying out other activities to serve the devotees.
• 7
  This shooting strategy for the documentary Sobre a Congada de Ilhabela (TVUSP 2010 was suggested by Vagner Gonçalves da Silva, whom we thank.
• 8
  The Terreiro Rancho Velho, candomblé Angola, is located in the Reino neighborhood in the municipality of Ilhabela. The session was attended by José Devanir Ribeiro de Lima (zelador of the terreiro), Isildo Souza Tataglione (alabê de toque), Bruna Souza (equéde, second mother of the house, responsible for the camarinha), Isanil Albuquerque (Maria da Silva Albuquerque) e Ana Firmino da Silva (both iabassés, coordinators and cooks of Ucharia), Daniel Pitu (ogã de sala), Dale (iaô), Jurandir Mora (ogã de toque), Maia (abiã). In addition to the família-de-santo, Eduardo Kishimoto (director of the documentary, interviewer), Gabriel Varalla (camera), Pedro Arantes (direct sound) and Isis Valenzuela (production) and the author were also present.
• 9
  On other occasions there were also suggestions for elaborations made by members of other religions who are also part of Congada/Ucharia, but only through the use of conversations and interviews. On these occasions, references to the past and to African and Afro-Brazilian traditions were practically diluted. Often, people had little knowledge of the origins of the Festa de São Benedito, its connection to the Church, and the nouns “congo” and “congada”. Due to the lack of structure and depth, these elaborations will not be dealt with here.
• 10
  For more information on the processes of producing conventions and indexations, see Cirino (2016), in which there is a more in-depth discussion of the possibilities of new connections between signifiers and meanings.
• Availability of research data: the dataset supporting the results of this study is published in this article.
• This original paper, translated by Thuila Farias Ferreira, is also published in Portuguese in this issue of the journal.
• The approval reviews for the publication of the article are available at: https://seer.ufrgs.br/index.php/presenca/libraryFiles/downloadPublic/1004

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• Editors in charge: Ana Wegner; Rafaella Uhiara

Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  20 Dec 2024
• Date of issue
  2024

History

• Received
  29 Jan 2024
• Accepted
  04 Sept 2024