Capoeira music

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A capoeira bateria led by Mestre Cobra Mansa featuring three berimbaus and a pandeiro

In capoeira, music sets the rhythm, the style of play, and the energy of a game. In its most traditional setting,
there are three main styles of song that weave together the structure of the capoeira roda. The roda represents
the most strict and traditional format for capoeira and is ideally suited for an introduction and discussion of the
music. Though we may consider the music traditional, because it has been passed orally from one to the next
until the early - mid 20th century when songs and rhythms began to be notated and recorded, there is no
record of to what extent and exactly how the music has evolved over time. Capoeira's Brazilian heritage plays a
heavy role in the way capoeira is perceived by its practitioners and understood at a subconscious level. It is a
common feature of many Brazilian ethnic groups, for instance, as well as others throughout the world, that
music is not so much a form of personal entertainment as it is a medium to bring about group cohesion and
dynamic. Music in the context of capoeira is used to create a sacred space through both the physical act of
forming a circle (the roda) and an aural space that is believed to connect to the spirit world. This deeper
religious significance exists more as a social memory to most capoeira groups, but is generally understood as
evidenced in the use of ngoma drums (the atabaques of Yoruba candomblé), the berimbau whose earlier forms
were used in rituals in Africa and the diaspora in speaking with ancestors, the ever-present term axé which
signifies life force, the invocation of both Afro-Brazilian and Catholic spirituality, and certain semi-ritualized
movements used in Capoeira Angola that bring "spiritual protection". The instruments are:

up to 3 berimbaus

up to 2 pandeiros

1 agogô

1 reco-reco (notched wooden tube similar to a guiro)

1 atabaque or conga

Not every roda will contain all these instruments. Mestre Bimba, for instance, preferred only one berimbau and
two pandeiros in his rodas, but there will always be at least one berimbau in any roda.
The berimbaus preside over the roda, their rhythmic combinations suggesting variations in movement style
between the two players in the roda. Some capoeira groups insist that among the three berimbaus, the lowest-
toned (called a gunga or berraboi) is the lead instrument, while other groups follow the lead of the middle
(medio or viola) berimbau. The roda begins and ends at the discretion of the lead berimbau player, who may
determine who plays next, can stop games, set the tempo of the music, and calm the players if they get too
rough. There appears to be agreement that the treble-most berimbau (viola or violinha) is an accompaniment
instrument, freely improvising based on

Ladainha

The roda commences with the ladainha (litany), a solo often sung by the most senior member present, usually
the one playing lead berimbau. These songs may be improvised on the spot, but are most often chosen from a
canon of extant ladainhas. The ladainha varies in from as little as two lines, to 20 or more. Topics for this song
type include moral lessons, stories, history, mythology, can be topical for a particular occasion as well as pure
poetry, and almost always metaphorical. The song is loosely strophic and the melody is pretty much the same
throughout the entire ladainha repertoire, with some variations here and there. The ladainha uses quatrain
form as a template, with the first line almost always repeated.

Iê...ê

Eu já vivo enjoado

Eu já vivo enjoado

de viver aqui na terra

amanhã eu vou pra lua

falei com minha mulher

ela então me respondeu

que nos vamos se deus quiser

Vamos fazer um ranchinho

todo feito de sapé

amanhã as sete horas

nos vamos tomar café

e o que eu nunca acreditei,

o que não posso me conformar

que a lua vem à terra

e a terra vem à lua

todo isso é conversa

pra comer sem trabalhar

o senhor, amigo meu, colega velho

escute bem ao meu cantar

quem é dono não ciuma

e quem não é vai ciumar

camaradinho

Ieeeee

I am sick

of living here on Earth

Tomorrow I'll go to the Moon

I said to my wife

And she responded

Then we'll go, God willing

We'll have a little ranch

All made of straw

Tomorrow morning at seven

We'll have some coffee

What I never believed

Nor could I ever confirm

The moon would come to Earth

And the Earth to the Moon

This is just talk

to eat without working

Sir, good friend, old colleague

Listen well to my song

He who is the master of his land doesn't envy

And he who isn't certainly will

Camaradinho

An interpretation of this song could be: Nothing comes easy without hard work. The person who sings the
ladainha cries out "Ieeeeeeee" (pronounced YaaaaaaaaY) to call to order the attendees of the roda, that the
roda is starting. The ladainha ends with "Camará", "Camaradinho" (fits better rhythmically), or conversely, "É
hora, hora" (It's the hour). This tagline marks the end of the ladainha and the beginning of the chula, or more
properly louvação (praise).

Louvação

The louvação begins the call and response section of the roda. The louvação invokes God, Mestres, capoeira,
and gives thanks. This section are also called "Chulas. "(Italicized line is the chorus)

Iê, Viva meu Deus

Iê, Viva meu Deus, camará

Iê, Viva meu Mestre

Iê, Viva meu Mestre, camará

Iê, quem me ensinou

Iê, quem me ensinou, camará

Iê, a capoeira

Iê, a capoeira, camará

É Água de beber

Iê, Água de beber, camará

É ferro de bater

Iê, ferro de bater, camará

É ngoma de ngoma

etc...

Long live my God

Long live my Master

Who taught me

Capoeira

It is water for drinking

It is Iron for striking

It is from the sacred drums

The content of the louvação can be improvised as well, so having a good ear is critical to singing the chorus. The
louvação, just as the ladainha, is strophic, but there is no variation in the melody from one louvação to another.
However while it is most often sung in a major tonality, sometimes it can be heard in minor if the ladainha is
also minor. The chorus is sung in unison, though an occasional harmonization, usually a third above, is
sometimes used as a punctuation by one of the singers.

The two players/jogadores having sat at the pé-de-berimbau, or foot of the berimbau, during the ladainha,
begin the game at the start of the corridos.

Corrido

The corridos are overlapping call and response typical of African singing, and influenced by, and borrowing from
the Sambas de Roda of Bahia. Unlike the Mexican Corrido which is a form of folk ballad, the Bahian corrido is a
short song with a usually static response. The chorus is often indicated by being used as the first line in the
song:

Ai, ai, aidê

oiá Joga bonito que eu quero ver

Ai, ai, aidê

oiá Joga bonito que eu quero aprender

Ai, ai, aidê

oiá nossa senhora quem vai me protejer

Ai, ai, aidê (a girl's name)

Play beautifully so I can see

Play beautifully so I can learn

Our Lady will protect me

The corrido communicates with the action in the roda (though without the level of interaction in a traditional
samba de roda) to inspire the players, to comment directly on the action, invokes, praises, warns, tells stories,
and teaches moral values. There is a corrido for welcoming the roda, for closing the roda, asking for the players
to play less aggressively, more aggressively, to not grab the other person, and the list continues. Corridos can
also be challenges (desafios). The lead will sing a corrido then after some time sing one very similar, requiring
the chorus (everyone else save the two playing in the roda) to be paying close attention to sing the correct
response or two singers can switch corridos on a certain subject. This use of the corrido in a roda is more rare,
requiring a bit more expertise on the part of the singers than normal. The desafio/challenge can be used with
ladainhas as well. The corridos have the broadest melodic variation from one to the next, though many corridos
share the same melodies. Thus a vast repertoire of corridos can be learned and improvisation within corridos
becomes a less daunting prospect. Like the louvação, the corrido response is sung in unison, and like the
louvação an occasional harmonization, usually a third above, is used as a punction by one of the singers.

Quadra

An innovation of Mestre Bimba, quadras take the place of the ladainha in some Regional and Contemporânea
capoeira schools. They are four verse songs sung solo followed by the louvação. The main difference between
the ladainha and quadra is that the quadra, like the corrido, doesn't have a standard melodic model and
exhibits a greater variety melody. Quadras also exist as a special type of corrido with four line solo verses
followed by the choral response, such as the following:

O meu mano, o que foi que tu viu lá

Eu vi capoeira matando

Também vi maculêlê, Capoeira!

É jogo praticado na terra de são salvador

Capoeira!
É jogo praticado na terra de são salvador

Eu sou discipulo que aprendo

E o mestre que dá lição

Na roda de Capoeira

Nunca dei meu golpe em vão, Capoeira!

É jogo praticado na terra de são salvador

chorus

É o Manuel do Rei Machado

Ele é fenomenal

Ele é o Mestre Bimba

Criador da Regional

The Chula controversy

The term chula is often given to the call and response louvação immediately following the ladainha. By
comparison, traditionally in Bahia the chula is the free form song text of the Samba de Roda sung between the
dances (as in the samba parada) and defines the structures of the various other "styles" of samba de roda,
while the samba corrido lasts as long as the singer feels like singing it before moving on to another. The chula is
a poetic form based on the quadra (quatrain) form (which may have influenced Mestre Bimba's replacement of
ladainhas with quadras) with its roots in Iberia. The word chula comes from the word chulo meaning "vulgar",
common, rustic (similarly the Spanish word chulo/chulito is used for peasant Indians in the Americas), being
often pastoral and sentimental.

How the term chula came to refer to the louvação isn't currently known. But its similarity to the ladainha and
the use of corrido songs from the samba de roda tradition probably played a large role.

Melody and Rhythm

For the berimbau toques, see the articles Berimbau and capoeira toques

The melodies range from a fifth above (sometimes up to a sixth) and a third below the tonic: A (B) C D E (F) G
(A), where C is tonic, the leading tone (B), fourth (f) and the sixth (A) are generally avoided. See Degree (music).
The ladainha may include the fourth below the tonic at the cadence as a tagline with "camaradinho" to signal
the beginning of the louvação. Rather than a tonic-dominant relationship, the ladainhas exhibit a tonic-
supertonic progression (incidentally bossa nova exhibits a similar tendency for unrelated reasons) where
harmonic tension is always on the 2nd scale degree, D in the key of C.

NB. The berimbaus have a harmonic potential, but are not necessarily tuned to the singers' voices. If they are,
then it will be generally the high note of the gunga as that is where the ladainha begins and as such doesn't
create a dissonant 2nd interval between the two. That's not a strict rule in that many examples can be found
where the singer tunes his or her voice to the low note instead. This has the effect of categorizing the music as
mixolydian, a common feature of Brazilian music in the Northeast of Brazil. Whether or not one hears it in
mixolydian or major is debatable. The beginning yell of Iê is commonly a fifth above the tonic and this sets the
key (music).

Rhythmically, the music is in 4/4 time, common for music in the Angolan region of Africa, where the rhythms of
both Brazilian samba and Cuban guaguancó have their origins. The singing is in Portuguese with some Kikongo
and Yoruba words and phrases. The lyrics align themselves with the rhythm of the music, sometimes coming in
on the strong beats, sometimes on the weak beats and pickups, depending on the vagaries of the song. It is
theorized that the rhythms of capoeira are indeed from Angola, however, the introduction of the berimbau to
capoeira was relatively recent (at least since the late 19th century) and the original songs, instrumentation, and
rhythms are now lost. Capoeira in its earlier form was accompanied by omar in kikongo, hand clapping, and
percussion accompaniment on a transverse hand drum. Since then, a number of instruments, including
whistles, castanets, and violas (small Brazilian guitars), and likely any instrument available, have been used into
the early 20th century.

The berimbau itself has been a folk instrument for solo song accompaniment and worship and became a
mainstay of the roda when metal wire was widely available for use as a string. Before then, berimbaus were
strung with plant fibers and thus could not project as loudly as with metal (nowadays, the wire is culled from
used car and bicycle tires). Brass wire was observed being used on berimbaus, though, as early as 1824 in Rio.
The caxixi's inclusion with the berimbau is another recent innovation that gives the berimbau an extra bit of
punch. A theory goes that berimbaus were fitted with metal blades at the top which made them a defensive
weapon when playing capoeira openly (which was essentially outlawed until the 1930s) was a dangerous affair.

Minor Tonality Ladainhas

The minor tonality ladainhas are rarer but have precedence. Mestre Traira demonstrates their use in his CD,
Mestre Traira: Capoeira da Bahia. He uses a minor pentatonic scale:

(G) A C D E G (tonic at A)

This produces an interesting variation on the more common Ladainha melody. The Louvação is in the same
pentatonic with the correspónding corridos reworked in the pentatonic as well.
Syncopation

Unlike the majority of Brazilian music, the syncopation in this music is a bit more subtle, relying on the interplay
between the rhythm of the lyrics and the weak and strong beats of the isorhythmic cells played by the
instruments, shifting the feeling of the downbeat from corrido to corrido, and interlocking/overlapping call and
response driving the music forward. Below are two musical bars separated by the bar line |. The downbeats are
defined as 1 and 3, the upbeats as 2 and 4, and the anticipation, or pick up, lies between 4 and 1.

1.2.3.4.|1.2.3.4.

The Angola and São Bento Pequeno rhythms for which capoeira Angola is known for, create a syncopation
through silence on 3, and stressing 4 with two short buzzed notes (see berimbau). The São Bento Grande
rhythm stresses both downbeats on the berimbaus which has the effect of a driving march (played in a quick
double time tempo). The atabaque serves as the heart beat of the music, providing a steady pulse on 1 and 3
with open tones, often with an anticipation to 1, and a muted bass on 2.:

O.B.O..O|O.B.O..O, O = open tone, B = bass.

The agogô, a double bell tuned to an open fourth or fifth, plays:

L.H.L...|L.H.L..., L = low bell strike, H = high

Reco-reco, likewise

X.X.X...|X.X.X..., X = scrape

The pandeiro, has a bit more freedom than the other instruments

O.S.O.xx|O.S.O.xx, O = open tone, S = slap, xx = shake.

Another version provides

O.S.Otpt|O.S.Otpt, where t = strike with ring, middle, and index finger near the rim, and p = palm

The final t can be replaced with an open tone using the middle finger a little further away from the rim.

The effect of the supporting instruments together, is to build tension from an anticipation just before 1 (the
third open note played by the atabaque) to 2, and resolution on 3, which then pushes the cell forward with the
anticipation at the pick up to 1. As the berimbaus play with and against this framework along with the song
verses, a surprising amount of syncopation results, despite the simple nature of the patterns. There is very little
room allowed for improvisation in these supporting instruments. To allow otherwise would tend to distract too
much from the content of the songs and the action inside the roda, as well as compete for attention with the
berimbaus. There is still room, however, for occasional variations on the basic rhythms by the supporting
instruments, especially when the overall energy of the roda is fairly high.

The berimbau toques follow the pattern of the supporting instruments, but with a broad arena for improvising.
The above on syncopation also follows with the berimbau. In the case of the Angola toque (the half notes
below in this case represent unmuted quarter notes):

Berimbau Angola.JPG

The silence at 3 gives a lilt to the feeling of resolution, while the São Bento Grande toque

Berimbau Sao Bento Grande.JPG

contrasts with a greater sense of finality at 3.

The viola berimbau, the highest pitched of the three, adds a layer of rhythmic improvisation, similar to the role
of the quinto in Cuban rumba, though without the layer of rhythmic possibilities allowed for in rumba (which
uses at least nine subdivisions of the bar). The following illustrates the possible subdivisions for improvisation in
capoeira music in a single four beat bar:

0_______0_______0_______ 1/2 time triplets

0_____0_____0_____0_____ Melodic Pace (0 represents 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively)

0___0___0___0___0___0___ Triplets

0__0__0__0__0__0__0__0__ Basic subdivision

0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_0_ Double time triplets (used in calls by the Gunga, tempo permitting)

N.B. The performance of the supporting instruments, and indeed the berimbaus and songs themselves can and
have changed over the years, becoming highly codified, while exact performance standards can still vary from
group to group. Mario de Andrade's Missão de Pesquisas Folcóricas recorded in 1938 show an interpretation of
the music that is slightly different, with two atabaques with a more active role in one example. For better or for
worse, one is not likely to see two atabaques in one roda.

References
Balfour, Henry (1976) [1899]. The Natural History of the Musical Bow; a Chapter in the Developmental History
of Stringed Instruments of Music: Primitive Types. Portland, Me.: Longwood Press. OCLC 1819773.

Crook, Larry, A Musical Analysis of the Cuban Rumba from Latin American Music Review, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring,
1982), pp. 92–123, UT Press

Desch Obi, Dr. Thomas J., Combat and Crossing the Kalunga from Central Africans and Cultural Transformations
in the American Diaspora edited by Linda M. Heywood Published, c2002 Cambridge university Press ISBN 0-
521-00278-8

Downey, Greg (November 2002). "Listening to Capoeira: Phenomenology, Embodiment, and the Materiality of
Music". Ethnomusicology. Ethnomusicology, Vol. 46, No. 3. 46 (3): 487–509. doi:10.2307/852720. ISSN 0014-
1836. JSTOR 852720.

Graham, Richard (1991). "Technology and Culture Change: The Development of the "Berimbau" in Colonial
Brazil". Latin American Music Review / Revista de Musica Latinoamericana. Latin American Music Review /
Revista de Música Latinoamericana, Vol. 12, No. 1. 12 (1): 1–20. doi:10.2307/780049. ISSN 0163-0350. JSTOR
780049.

Mason, Otis T. (November 1897). "Geographical Distribution of the Musical Bow". American Anthropologist. 1.
10 (11): 377–380. doi:10.1525/aa.1897.10.11.02a00030. ISSN 0002-7294. JSTOR 658525.

Taylor, Gerard, Capoeira: The Jogo de Angola from Luanda to Cyberspace, vol 2 C 2007, Blue Snake Books,
Berkeley, California ISBN 978-1-58394-183-6

Waddey, Ralph, "Viola de Samba" and "Samba de Viola" in the "Reconcavo" of Bahia (Brazil) Part I, II from Latin
American Music Review, Vol. 2, No. 2. (Autumn - Winter, 1981), pp. 252–279.

Brincando na Roda, music LP Grupo Capoeira Angola Pelourinho, Mestre Moraes, c 2003 Smithsonian Folkways

Eh Capoeira, music LP Mestre Acordeon e Alunos, C 2004 Panda Digital

Mestre Traira: Capoeira da Bahia, music LP Produced by Xauã, C 1964

Missão de Pesquisas Folclóricas, music LP, C 1997 Rykodisc