Brazilian Culture

    Three important instruments used in Brazilian music are the cavaquinho, ganza, and alafaia. The cavaquinho is small guitar with only four strings. The website Jam Addict compares the cavaquinho to the ukulele. The ganza is a cylinder-shaped instrument with beads on the inside; it can be made from several types of materials. The cylinder part can be made from metal, wood, or plastic; the beads can be sand, plastic beads, or metal beads. The alafaia is a drum that is made from macaiba wood and the covering is from goat or cow skin . 




CAVAQUINHO MARQUÊS CA-63 - AT PROAUDIOBrazilian Musical Instruments » Natal     Alfaia - Wikipedia

Cavaquinho                                             Ganza                                         Alafaia



    A popular style of music in Brazil is Choro music.  Three key elements in making choro music consists of a flute or clarinet, guitar, and drum. Choro music is mostly instrumental music that has no lyrics or singing. I picked this video to represent choro music because it not only has all the key instruments, but because of the spirit in the video. The music was described as spontaneous and joyous, and I think the men in the video captured the essence of choro music. It looks like they were all hanging out, decided to pick up their instruments, and start playing with no plan of ending. 





    An interesting festival I learned about was the Parintin's Folklore Festival. It is celebrated in late June for three days in the Amazon. It is a competition about who can tell the folklore story best. The story is about a woman and resurrected ox. The woman asked her husband to kill his boss's bull so she could eat bull's tongue. Her husband kills the ox and his boss is determined to get revenge for his bull which scares the husband. The bull is brought back to life when the husband asks a priest to resurrect the bull. The competition is very serious and demands much respect to the opposing team. The teams are called the Garantido and the Caprichoso. 











 
Sources for more information: 

https://jamaddict.com/what-is-the-traditional-music-and-instruments-from-brazil/

http://www.rio.com/vacation-planning/parintins-folk-festival

https://saintpaulsunday.publicradio.org/features/0109_choro/

Comments

  1. faith sidesSeptember 19, 2020 at 3:19 PM

    This is all so interesting. Your second paragraph really reminded me of Key West because you mentioned that the people were all in a circle together and playing like there was no end. Whenever someone is walking around down there, music is always being played like that. It is really great.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Mackenzie WeatherfordSeptember 21, 2020 at 7:55 PM

    I loved your blog. I went to Punta Canta, Dominican Republic a couple years ago and they loved their music. They were always playing music always, because it made them cheerful and happy.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Terri JSeptember 22, 2020 at 4:59 AM

    I love learning about other cultures, particularly their folklore because it is always so amazing to see how similar and different they are. With that being said, I'm definitely going to spend some time researching more about the Parinthin's Folklore Festival. It sounds kind of familiar, but I can't be sure.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Grace MontgomerySeptember 22, 2020 at 1:37 PM

    The instruments that they use are very interesting. I love that they use one that is like a uke they are so cute and I love their sound. I love the video of the Choro music, they really do look like they are just hanging out and playing. The story for the festival is very interesting, as well as the festival. I love all of the costumes that they are wearing, the dances, and music.

    ReplyDelete

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