Julie McDonald/Liane Knapp
BWS/MUS204 Final
Paula Gandara
9 December 2015
Chico’s Beat:
“A Praieira” Through the Lense of Recife History and The Mangue Beat Movement.
In the 20th century, there were many developments in Brazilian popular music. In the mid-1990s, in Pernambuco, mangue beat began to develop. Artists associated with this movement identified with the cultural roots of the northeast, but refused to remain “premodern”. That is, they wanted to take their roots and expand them into the present through global pop ideas. “The mangue beat movement explicitly sought to forge a new musical aesthetic by mixing US popular music forms (funk, rock, metal, punk, rap & hip-hop) and world-beat influences with a variety of musical traditions from northeastern Brazil, especially the percussion-heavy Afro-Pernambucan Carnival tradition known as maracatu de baque virado, or the turned-around beat” (233). In order to understand these roots though, we must look at the history behind the music.
While the origin of the word maracatu isn’t clear, the history behind the concept known as maracatu is. During the 17th century, Catholic churches wanted to bring black Brazilians into the religion and sought to attract them through their love of music and “grandiose positions”. They allowed the election of black kings and queens (the “King of the Congo” or “Rei de Angola”). These kings and queens acted as mediators between while masters and the enslaved blacks. They helped keep order while presiding over black religious and secular activities. During festivities outside of the church, the blacks processed with their kings and queens dressed in regal attire and held dramatic dances with African drumming and singing. The Church was okay with African practices as long as they didn’t directly conflict with the Catholic religion. However, the separation of black and white churches became the mechanism for maintaining African practices under the disguise of Catholicism.
During the 19th century, the African processions started facing public opposition. The drumming was called “barbaric beating” and seen as threatening. It is speculated that the term maracatu originated as a representation of the sound of the drumming. There were many diverse groups, though, and each had its own practices. “The diversity of African ethnic groups in Brazil and the maintenance of their associated religious practices and cultural identities along ethnic lines led to the designation of these processional groups and to specific Afro-Brazilian houses as nações (nations)” (235). These groups further became known as nações de maracatu. After the abolition of slavery in 1888, maracatu nations began performing in Recife’s Carnival street parades. Their procession of royal courts dressed in European regal attire and the deep sound of the powerful drumming became fixtures in the parades.
In the 1970s there was an increase in black consciousness of the historical legacies of slavery and post-abolition racial discrimination. There was a sort of Renaissance of African culture spreading through Brazil. At the center was Salvador, Bahia. From this renaissance of sorts, afoxe was revived, blocos afros emerged, and the 1980s musical style samba-reggae developed, a style that served as a potent symbol of black identity among young Bahian blacks that spread to other Brazilian cities, including Recife, Pernambuco. There (in Recife), groups similar to Bahia’s blocos afros began to emerge. At first, these groups were met with criticism and xenophobic opposition. There was hesitation to participate from middle-class people due to the historic link to African-based religious practices and lower-class aesthetics. That is, until the new music began to relate to social awareness of issues regarding race and class, which is what the mangue beat movement tried to maintain as well.
The performative style of maracatu became a means to teach and maintain knowledge about African heritage, the legacy of slavery, and the discrimination and socioeconomic inequality the existed post-abolition. The music is typically polyrhythmic, featuring a gongue articulating a syncopated rhythm around which all of the other layers are organized, a constant stream of notes on a mineiro and tarol, and a highly syncopated against-the-beat groove on alfaia or bombos.
Much of the characteristics of maracatu can be seen in the song “A Praieira” by the spearheaders of the movement, Chico Science and Nação Zumbi, especially in videos from live performances. You can clearly see the use of three maracatu drums, as well as a tarol. The polyrhythm is complex and underlies the entire song, but the beat is still capable of being followed and therefore danced to. It is also easy to see the elements of the mangue beat movement in this song. Just seconds into the song you can hear the use of electric guitar, electric bass, and a drumset. These are all elements of US popular music styles that have been incorporated into the traditional Brazilian maracatu music.
The lyrics of the song are a testament to the attitude of the Mangue beat movement itself. Entitled, “A Praieira”, it refers to the Praieira revolt of 1848-1849 in Pernambuco. This liberal revolution is a critical element of Recife’s social and political history, and represents a unification of the region’s common people in response to international influences; particularly that of the recently successful French Revolution. Increased global awareness inspires Brazilians to strive for advancement, and applies ideals from overseas to their own culture and circumstances. In this sense, the Praieira Revolt is a veritable historic representation for the Mangue Beat Movement in the 1990s. The movement strives to interpret the globalized popular music genre with the most simultaneously traditional and untamed Brazilian rhythmic flavor of maracatu.
In addition to the Praieira revolt, the Ciranda appears as a critical theme of the song. A simple dance of the beaches (especially those of Pernambuco), it represents the working class historic culture in the Northeastern region, given the nature of its participants, and the general locations for its occurrence. The dances were generally held only in working-class public meeting places like beaches and bars, and the dancers most often worked in agriculture and other forms of manual labor. The dance operates with a basic idea of unity and inclusion, welcoming “latecomers” into the circle of held hands, and treating increasing and excessive numbers with a simple, concentric circles solution. Its message is stated as simply, “happiness for all:” a clear parallel to the ideas of unification and equality surrounding the Praieira Revolt, as well as a representation of Recife’s sense of union through Mangue Beat in the face of globalization and the modern world. Chico Science’s movement welcomes all who share in its message and ideology, to join in the movement and contribute their own creations, just as the circle opens its arms to newcomers; and just as the circle continues when a participant leaves, so does the movement continue after Chico’s tragic death (in a car accident at only 30 years old).
Coming from modest means and a history of manual labor in the mangroves, Chico Science personifies the type of Brazilian to whom his movement caters, and his perspective is filled with insight into the life, history and culture of Recife. In “A Praieira,” he paints a picture of people joined together in a ciranda on the beach, just at the ocean’s edge. Looking out into the world beyond their borders, people have come together to dance this Pernambuco children’s dance of freedom, solidarity, and happiness. This, he says, is Praieira. This is the revolution. While there are borders within which they are confined, and obstacles of traditionalism, xenophobia, and oppression which they face, they recognize the importance of recognizing and remembering the past in order to move forward. While he “remembers the revolution”, he remarks, “there are frontiers in the gardens of reason.” There are still frontiers to be crossed and explored. There are advancements to be made, and the world must continue to change for the better as we look to the future. This is the musical movement’s inherent philosophy. Sparked by an age of cultural stagnance, it embodies the combination of a modern desire to move forward, with the Brazilian prioritization of authenticity. Mangue Beat acknowledges the past without dwelling in it, and in the process creates another “revolution” of life and culture in Recife, and Brazil at large.
Bibliography
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"Ciranda - Regional Dance or Pernambuco." The Recife Guide. City of Recife, n.d. Web.
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Crook, Larry. "Turned-Around Beat: Maracatu De Baque Virado and Chico Science."
Brazilian Popular Music & Globalization. By Charles A. Perrone and Christopher
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