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Rogrio Budasz

Black guitar-players and early African-Iberian music

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in Portugal and Brazil
Without Angola there is no Brazil with the royal instructions for the Angola cam-
paign, Salvador de S brought with him the guitar-
L eaving Rio de Janeiro in 12 May 1648, the
15-ship fleet of Salvador Correia de S e
Benevides carried an expeditionary force of about
player Francisco Rodrigues Penteado, originally
from Pernambuco, and left him in Rio with the task
2,000 men, most of them Brazilians. Their mission of instructing in music and instruments his son
was to expel the Dutch from Angola, and so regain Martim and daughters Teresa and Joana.3 The last
control of the sources of hand labour that were vital of these was the offspring of Salvador de S and a
to the Brazilian agriculture. In 1646 a Jesuit had sum- black woman.
marized the economic interdependence between The fact that the guitar was highly appreciated
Angola and Brazil in the expression Without Angola by aristocrats and the wealthy bourgeoisie did not
prevent it from experiencing some sort of double life.
there is no Brazil.1 In exchange for Brazilian manioc
Francisco Manuel de Melo, exiled in Bahia from 1655
root meal and the national liquor, cachaa, Angola
to 1658, deplored what he regarded as a downgrading
exported human beings. The economic health of Rio
of the guitar: being an excellent instrument, it was
de Janeiro depended on a steady inflow of slaves, not
enough now that blacks and scoundrels knew how
only to work in the sugar cane plantations but also to
to play it, that honourable men no longer wanted to
be re-exported to Buenos Aires, in exchange for the
put it in their arms.4
always-needed silver from the Andean mines. Thanks
to Salvador de Ss military campaign, in August Black guitarists and the Diaspora
1648 Angola returned to Portuguese administration. Resembling stock characters, black guitar players
For decades after that, Angola was virtually ruled by are found in Iberian literatureautos, entremeses
Brazilian officials, thus ensuring the continuity of and novelsas early as the late 16th century. An
slavery in Brazil for more than two centuries. obvious reason for this was the possibility of includ-
One of the strongest figures in colonial Brazil, ing a musical number, played, sung, or both; but it
Salvador Correia de S e Benevides (160288) par- also allowed the playwright to compose dialogues
ticipated actively in the Iberian administration in in Portuguese or Spanish Creole languagethe
South America, first under the Spanish Habsburgs, so-called fala da Guin, or lngua de negrosor
and later the Braganas of Portugal. Between some caricature of it, thus extracting laughs from
1637 and 1662 he intermittently administered Rio the audience.5 In colonial Brazil most actors and
de Janeiro (illus.1). During most of that time Por- musicians on stage were black, but it is not yet clear
tugal was ruled by the music-loving King Joo whether black actors appeared on Spanish and
iv (160456), and, as was usual in the Iberian Portuguese stages. (It is possible that in some con-
highest social strata, Salvador de Ss family also texts whites performed dressed as blacks.) Regard-
displayed some interest in music. One of his sons, less of the racist tone of most of those texts, black
Salvador, even reached the position of chantre in actors and musicians who were trained in the Ibe-
Lisbon Cathedral.2 In early 1648, back from Lisbon rian tradition could have explored the possibilities

Early Music, Vol. xxxv, No. 1 The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1093/em/cal117, available online at www.em.oxfordjournals.org 3
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1 Rio de Janeiro in the 17th century: Froger, Relation dun voyage (Paris: Michel Brunet, 1698)

of combining the structures, rhythms and timbres


of Iberian, Central African and Western African
musical styles. Of course, one needs to be cautious
when examining that particular repertory, for a
huge amount of European music of past centuries
incorporated and distorted exotic elements with
satirical or demeaning purposes.
An example of a black musician well adapted to
the Portuguese culture and speaking fluent Portu-
guese is to be found in the Auto da natural inveno
by Antonio Ribeiro Chiado (c.152091) (illus.2).
The black actor and guitar-player is first reminded
of his subservient condition when he is asked to
cede his chair to a visitor, but that order is revoked
when he performs and proves his talent; he is then
acclaimed as a black Orpheus. Social accommoda-
tion was possible if blacks succeeded in assimilat-
ing the standards of culture and behaviour of their
oppressors, anticipating a fundamental aspect of
race relations in Brazil in the following centuries.6
From the 15th century Portuguese merchants
were the main suppliers of African slaves to Europe
and later to the Americas. The massive presence of
Brazilian ships in Angola during the 17th and 18th
centuries also shows that there was a lucrative com- 2 Antonio Ribeiro Chiado, Auto da natural inveno
merce directly between Angola and Brazil. Rivalling (n.p., c.1580)

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the trade in silver and sugar in the 17th century, and Gradually to the chulas [lower-class women],
gold in the 18th century, the slave trade was one of Step by step to the mulatos.
the main business activities in the South Atlantic. Raphael Bluteaus Portuguese dictionary, printed
Whereas slaves were the main commodities, many in the 1720s, defines the term som, or sound as a
of them would work as sailors and dockworkers after piece that one plays on the viola. As Jos Ramos
being sold, along with free blacks and mulattos.7 Tinhoro has noted, the sounds arrive barefoot
Gerhard Kubik, and more recently Peter Fryer, at the Alfama because slaves brought from Brazil
have noticed that during the 17th and 18th centuries walked unshod.10

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many dances of African influence appeared almost Since the five-course guitarknown in Portugal
simultaneously in different points of the so-called and Brazil as violawas the main instrument for
Atlantic triangle, a region that comprised coastal playing those sounds, their music was notated in
cities of the Congo-Angola, Iberian Peninsula and tablature. Some of the most interesting and puzzling
Latin America.8 As these contacts took place across 18th-century guitar sources are the Portuguese
the sea, sailors and dockworkers played an important codices at Coimbra and at the Gulbenkian Foun-
role in this cross-fertilization between the sounds dation, which display a fair amount of music
and rhythms of three continents. Coming originally of supposed African origin, along with Iberian
from different musical cultures in Africa, slaves and dances, usually composed over melodic, rhythmic
free blacks came into contact with Africans from or harmonic formulae (illus.3).11 While the Afri-
other regions and with blacks already born in the can influence of some of their content is suggested
Iberian Peninsula and the New World, and gradually by literary sources, historical context and musi-
incorporated elements of their new environment. In cal features, dances such as the arromba, cozinho,
such a scenario, Iberian secular musicespecially cubanco, gandu, sarambeque, cumb and paracumb
the guitar repertorywould be enriched with struc- also reveal a strong connection with Iberian forms
tures, rhythms and melodic formulae from Central of the period, such as the canario, villano and
and Western African music traditions, resulting in a
kind of musical lingua franca, comparable to the lan-
guage used by Iberian merchants and their suppliers
along the African coast.

Black sounds in the Luso-Brazilian world


Throughout the 17th century foreign visitors were
impressed by the black presence in the streets of
Lisbon. Although many were born in Portugal, there
was a constant inflow of slaves from the Portuguese
colonies in Africa and Brazil. Even after 1761, with
the prohibition of slave trade between Africa and
Portugal, they would continue to arrive from Brazil
when their Portuguese masters returned home, or
just temporarily, when their ships docked in Lisbons
harbour.
In that context a Portuguese pamphlet of 1758
described how African-Brazilian sounds and rhythms
arrived at the Alfama harbour quarter, and from there
propagated among Lisbons lower classes:9
From Brazil in procession
The sounds arrive barefoot,
Breed there, they grow up there, 3 Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, m.m.97,
And from there they pass first page

early music february 2007 5


jacaras. Despite its place of originAfrica, Iberia or six courses (known in Spain as the vihuela) and,
Americamost of that repertory was shared by musi- later, five courses (sometimes called a Baroque gui-
cians in different places of the Iberian dominions. tar) (illus.4).14 The last of these would develop into,
In the Luso-Brazilian world this is exempla- among other instruments, the Brazilian folk guitar,
rily illustrated in the poetry of Gregrio de Mattos or viola caipira, several Portuguese regional guitars,
(163696).12 Born in Bahia, Mattos wrote about and the much later six-string Spanish guitar.
music he heard in the streets, homes, convents and In a single stanza of one of his poems, Mattos
brothels of 17th-century Brazil. Many of his descrip- mentions seven dances from 17th-century Bahia:15

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tions and opinions deal with the music of slaves, free
eight service pieces
blacks and mulattosthe music one would hear in
The Canrio, the Cozinho, the Pandalunga,
African-Brazilian religious ceremonies such as the
the Vilo, the Guandu, the Cubango, the
calundus and in the syncretic feasts of the Catholic
Espanholeta, and Um Valente Negro em Flandres
Church of Bahia. Mattos also made paraphrases and
[a Brave black man in Flanders].
parodies on Iberian romances and tonos. He had a
predilection for profane modas or, in his own words, The last line refers to a play by Andrs de Claramonte;
vulgar songs that coarse people sang. In 1728 the most of the other names would appear again in Rap-
moralist writer Nuno Marques Pereira credited the hael Bluteaus 1728 definition of som, or sound:16
composition of such songs to the Devilan excel- A piece one plays on the viola. The more common sounds
lent guitar player:13 or pieces one plays on the viola are the following: arromba,
arrepia, gandu, canrio, amorosa, marinheira, cozinho, pas-
But I am persuaded that it is the Devil who teaches them most sacalhe, espanholeta, marispola, vilo, galharda, sarau, fanta-
of these songs [modas], because he is a great poet, a musician sia. In this Supplement, the reader shall find the definition of
skilled in counterpoint, and a guitar-player, who knows how each of these in its alphabetical place.
to invent profane songs [modas] to teach those who do not The arrepia, which Bluteau describes in another
have a fear of God. Father Benito Remigio tells us in his book
Moral Practice of Healing and Confession (page 9, and in an-
entry as so distorted and provocative that it looks
other book entitled God Momo) that the Devil having entered like an invention of the Devil, is not found in Mattoss
into a rustic woman, a priest went to conduct the exorcism writings.17 Yet he was well acquainted with the ar-
of the Church, and, curious, he asked the Devil what did he romba. His brother Pedro, suffering from scabies,
know. He answered that he was a musician. Soon he asked
for a guitar, and he played it in such a manner, and with such
danced it in a brothel with feet and hands, but with
dexterity, that it seemed as if a famous player was playing it. his behind always in one place, which Mattos found
somewhat curious, since in Bahia that part of the
The Hells Mouthas Mattos became known body was always dancing.18 Some decades later, the
was a guitar-player too. Manuel Pereira Rabello, arromba reappeared in Minas Gerais in a denuncia-
Mattoss first biographer, attested that the poet tion against the scandalous conduct of some priests.
had a group of inseparable musician friends and One of the witnesses testified:19
used to sing his stanzas accompanying himself
that in the feast given this present year [1738] to the Divine
on a gourd guitar. This was probably the instru- Holy Ghost in this parish [of Our Lady of Nazareth of the
ment formerly known as banza, an ancestor of Waterfall], one day a float decorated with palms came down
the gourd-guitar, still common in some parts the street carrying several laymen together with Father Frei
of Brazil, and the North American banjar, later Loureno Justiniano, a Dominican, and Father Frei Pedro
Antonio, a Carmelite, along with Father Manoel de Bas-
known as the banjo. tos, Canon of Angola, all of them residents of the Village of
Ouro Preto, whence they came to the feast, and they went on
The Luso-Brazilian viola and its repertory the aforesaid car playing guitars and, among them, a black
woman named Vicencia, singing dressed like a man and
Known in Brazil and Portugal as the viola, the guitar who came from the Village of Ouro Preto as well, causing
was a versatile instrument. Praised for its qualities much admiration to everybody, which the witness knows by
as a solo instrument, it was also the instrument of seeing and hearing singing, and he said not a word more.
choice for the accompaniment of romances, cantigas, Another witness declared that Vicencia sang the
tonos and modas. From the 16th to the 18th centuries arromba and other modas of the country. As a result
its variants included instruments with four courses, the judge gave Father Manoel de Bastos eight days

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4 Leandro Joaquim, Vista da Lagoa do Boqueiro e do Aqueduto de Santa Teresa (oil on canvas, c.1790) (Rio de Janeiro,
Museu Histrico Nacional)

to leave the village. Besides showing the propaga- versions extant in two Portuguese guitar codexes.
tion of that dance in remote corners of the interior, The music is unusually dissonant, and the performer
the document also exemplifies how mixes of gender is asked to use strumming techniques to convey the
and race were among the biggest concerns of secular noisy effect suggested by the titlein Portuguese
and religious authorities. Unlike the mulatas depicted arromba means a forced entry or the breaking down
by Mattos, Vicencia was not seen dancing, swinging of something (see illus.5 and ex.1). One of the pieces
her hips, or lifting up her skirt; dressed as a man, she in the Gulbenkian codex is even called Arromba do
represented an even greater danger, evoking unspo- inferno, or hells arromba
ken sins associated with sexual ambiguity. Even if At the feast of the brotherhood of Our Lady of
her choice of clothing was motivated simply by some Guadeloupe, Mattos saw the mulata Lusa Sapata
prohibition related to the place of women and blacks dance the cozinho (literally little dog):20
in religious processions, her solution scandalized con- Right after this appeared Sapata,
servative spectators, who later denounced the priests. And trying to bare her teeth
In the early 18th century the arromba also app- She did not have any to bare;
eared in Portuguese literary and musical sources. To make up for that, however,
She started dancing the cozinho,
Bluteau and Morais Silvas dictionaries describe it as And, since over the mill
brisk and noisy, which seems to agree with musical She took so many umbigadas [belly blows]

early music february 2007 7


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5 Arromba (Lisbon, Fundao Calouste Gulbenkian, Servio de Msica, no catalogue number, f.34)

She ended up transforming There is very little information about the cubanco
Wine into pure vomit. (also spelled cobango or cubango), which Mattos
lists among Iberian guitar pieces such as the canrio,
The umbigada, or belly blow, was a basic feature of
espanholeta and vilo. Perhaps it was not a baile
many dances imported to Brazil and Portugal from
but only a som or sound, as instrumental pieces
the Congo-Angola region. It was one of the details
were often called. Portuguese settings reveal that
that made such dances appear so obscene to Euro-
cubancos were composed over a few melodic-
peans. Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi describes dances
harmonic modules, in a process similar to what
he witnessed in Congo in the 1650s as indecencies
happens in jcaras and other forms.22 A report by
around a bonfire. It is interesting though, that
Frei Lucas de Santa Catarina dated 1755 gives us
Cavazzi points out that many dances, such as the
more information:23
mampombo, the mpambuatadi and the quitombe,
were named after their inventor or the region they Close to the Cross searched the mochilos [lackeys, lower-class
boys] for shelter with their gandum por pontos [ponteado, or
came from.21 fingerstyle, as opposed to the rasgado, strummed style]. And
The Coimbra codex contains two pieces called that night mochilo there was who broke two machinhos [small
cozinho de Sofala, and another one called simply guitars] with sheer cobango: no wonder, because in that func-
cozinho. Sofala is an early designation of a mining tion I saw a mulatto who, by singing the amorosa without tak-
ing breath, was already with a candle in his hand [i.e. dead].
region in Mozambique, which would become
a major slave exporter in the second half of A gathering of lackeys in Lisbon provides one of
the 18th century, in the context of a phenomenon the contexts in which cubancos and gandus used to
sometimes described as Mozambiques atlan- be played, and the short excerpt even relates them
tification (ex.2). to specific instruments and playing techniques.24 At

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Ex.1 Transcription of Arromba (Lisbon, Fundao Calouste Gulbenkian, Servio de Msica, no catalogue number, f.34)

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least one of those lackeys was a mulatto, who sang a cumb, related to the processions of King and
piece called amorosaa song or guitar work found Queen of Congo that used to be organized by
in both the Coimbra and Gulbenkian guitar codex- black and mulatto Catholic brotherhoods. On
es, although only in instrumental settings. A 1708 one occasion, the cumb was danced in Lisbon
Spanish source associated the amorosa with another by blacks in the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary,
dance of African influence, the paracumb. The Por- accompanied by drums, guitars and violins,
tuguese connection is also clear, for the paracumb and making a well-concerted dissonance, as
was mentioned as coming from the Portuguese col- described in a 1730 pamphlet.26 According to the
ony of Angola. It is danced in the Portuguese man- 1737 Diccionrio de Autoridades, cumb was a baile
ner in the description that follows:25 of blacks, to the sound of a joyful tune of the
What? You do not know me? same name, which consisted of many swings of
I am the Paracumb from Angola, the body from one side to the other.27 Still, there
Citizen from Guinea, is some controversy as to the origin of the word,
Married to the Amorosa, and the interpretations include rituals of coming
Whom I chose as my wife.
If you want to know me, of age (from the Kimbundu kikumbi), witchcraft,
Be present at the baile bravery, physical skills and roaring (kumba),
And listen to my romance among others.
In Portuguese style.
The terms paracumb and cumb surely refer
The text that follows switches from Spanish to to the same dance type. The first is used in the
Portuguese, even containing a suspicious voc, a typ- Gulbenkian codex; the second in the Coimbra and
ical Brazilian colloquial way of using a third-person Conde de Redondo volumes. They all share important
pronoun to address the second. This usage occurs melodic and harmonic features with those found in
also in Portugal, but to a much lesser degree. Spanish and Mexican sources for guitar and harp.
In colonial Brazil some sources mention As seen in the cubancos, the cumbs and paracumbs
quicumbis and cucumbeslikely variants of the seem to follow a modular structure (see below).

Ex.2 Cozinho de Sofala (Biblioteca Geral da Universidade de Coimbra, m.m.97, f.72)

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6(a) Carlos Julio, Coroao de um Rei nos Festejos de Reis (watercolour, c.1776) (Rio de Janeiro, Biblioteca Nacional); (b) detail

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7 Carlos Julio, Cortejo da Rainha Negra na Festa de Reis (watercolour, c.1776) (Rio de Janeiro, Biblioteca Nacional)

Around the mid-18th century the cumb was that the introduction of this dance in Spain and its
already going out of fashion in the face of new colonies was mediated by Portugal. Not only do the
dances; this is shown in a 1750 pamphlet:28 earliest references to this dance appear in Portuguese
sources, but its Portuguese origin is also reaffirmed
The fofa is a ne dance, in an 18th-century entremez.31 Peter Fryer argues that,
It makes you tap your feet [it is shaken with the feet]
And makes better harmony
even before its appearance in Portugal, the dance
Than dancing the cumb. could be found in its African colony of Mozambique,
for among the Chuabo, Yao and Nyungwe, the terms
Neither Mattoss writings nor Portuguese guitar saramba, salamba and sarama mean practically the
sources help us understand what this dance called same as the Portuguese sarambequea dance with
fofa (literally soft, fluffy) was, possibly because its swinging motions of the hip.32
popularization was a later phenomenon. Notably, Already in 1651 in the Carta de guia de casados
there is explicit mention of the Bahian origin of the Francisco Manuel de Melo warned husbands that
fofa in a 1752 pamphlet, as Jos Ramos Tinhoro first if a wife knew how to dance the sarambeque and
noticed.29 carried castanets in her purse, those were danger-
The sarambeque has been the most common dance ous signs of unrestraint.33 Gregrio de Mattos also
of African influence in the Iberian-American world used the word in some of his poems, but always
during the last four centuries, being mentioned in with an erotic connotation, rather than a musi-
Portuguese, Spanish, Mexican and Brazilian sources. cal one. In Brazil the dance persisted into the early
The Diccionrio de Autoridades (1737) defines zaram- 20th century, when music historian Guilherme
beque as an instrumental piece [tanger], and a very de Almeida mentioned it, and Ernesto Nazareth
joyful and lively [bulliciosa] dance very common composed and published a sarambeque for the
among the blacks.30 Again, there is reason to believe piano (1916).

early music february 2007 11


The Coimbra and Gulbenkian codexes register ten Whites appear to have resorted to the calundus
sarambeques. One of them, in the Coimbra codex, when their own religion seemed ineffective, as
is assigned to a certain Frei Joo (f.58r), who is also when they wanted to undo some feitio, or witch-
the author of several fantasias and one batalha in the craft cast upon them. Additional reasons would in-
same volume. Although the codex seems to originate clude finding lost objects, gaining sexual favours,
from the Santa Cruz de Coimbra monastery, Frei or curing their slaves when they were ill. Besides,
Joo is the only composer referred to as a monk. the calundus provided excellent opportunities for
Gregrio de Mattos placed the gandu (also spelled socializing and having some fun in a freer and, in

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guandu or gandum) in contexts of debauchery, even the white mans perception, more sexualized envi-
rhyming it with Berzabu, or Devil.34 He mentioned ronment. As white Brazilians were cured and re-
it once in connection with the brothel he used ceived answers from black diviners, their contact
to visit, alluding to the viola player of the house, a with African styles of music and dance was marked
certain Ferno Roiz Vassalo. Jos Ramos Tinhoro by a similar attraction for what was forbidden, sin-
and Peter Fryer suggested that the gandu was a fore- ful and pleasant. The music associated with the
runner of a later and much better-documented calundus and the tolerant attitude of white land-
African-Brazilian dance, the lundu (also spelled owners provoked the indignation of priests and
landu or landum).35 However, the music of five moralist writers, such as Nuno Marques Pereira,
early 18th-century gandus notated in the Coimbra who complained:40
and Gulbenkian guitar codexes does not appear to I could not sleep the whole night [] because of the blasts of
confirm that connection. These settings lack most of atabaques, pandeiros, canzs, bottles, and castanets, with such
the features that define the late 18th-century lundu, horrible outcries that they sounded to me like the confusion
of hell. And the owner told me there was no better sound to
such as the perpetual alternation of tonic and domi- sleep quietly.
nant harmony, the use of arpeggio or strummed
chords, and the overall variation structure. The landowners complacency followed a more
or less accepted unwritten rule of the colony: let
Exchanges the slaves enjoy themselves in dances and gather-
ingsthat is, in certain controlled situationsto
Early 18th-century sourcesfrom satirical poems
avoid greater evils such as rebellions.41 More than
to Inquisition recordsassociate gandus and
that, Pereiras host could not hide his enthusiasm
lundus or lunduns with African religious practices
for those sounds, making a perfect counterpoint
that were often regarded as witchcraft by the Euro-
to Mattoss verses, where he describes whites and
peans of those times. The last line of a 1736 sonnet by
blacks going to the calundussome seeking the
Jos Cardoso da Costa talks about the dark realms
guidance of African priests or trying true love, some
of Gandu,36 and in a 1694 Inquisition report lun-
seeking fun:42
dus are identified as demons or malignant spirits.37
Always in the plural, the word lundus was sometimes I know of quilombos
used as a synonym of calundus, deriving from the With superlative masters,
In which they teach at night
Kimbundu word quilundo, a generic name for any Calundus and witchcraft,
spirit that possessed the living, as shown in a recent One thousand female subjects
book by James Sweet; rituals of cure were often con- Attend them with devotion,
ducted in the form of feasts honouring the quilun- Besides many bearded ones
Who think of themselves as Narcissus.
dos.38 Accompanied by dances and drumbeats, the []
African-Brazilian calundus were rituals of posses- What I know is that in such dances
sion and divination often attended by whites, as Joo Satan is engaged,
Calmon observed in 1715:39 And that only such a master-father
Can teach such raving.
[in Bahia] the witchcraft and merriment that the Negroes There is no scorned lady,
make, which they call lundus or calundus, are scandalous and Or disfavoured gallant,
superstitious, without it being easy to avoid them, since even Who misses going to the quilombo
many whites can be found in them. To dance his little bit.

12 early music february 2007


Although these verses might suggest otherwise, that deserve such reprobation are those that the blacks of the
Mattos was no moralist. What bothered him was coast of Mina perform furtively [] having a black woman as
their master, an altar with idols, and adoring live goats []
the change of habits, the breaking down of the old These are the two kinds of bailes that I have seen during the
institutional order, and the fact that the old aristo- time I have ruled that Captaincy, and I am persuaded that the
cratic families of Bahia, including his own, were Holy Inquisition talks about one type and the Governor talks
being replaced by a new mulatto and mestizo lite. about the other type, for I cannot believe that the Holy Inqui-
sition condemns the first one and the Governor excuses the
And the fact that whites and mulattos were going second one.
to the quilombo to dance with black people to the

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The discussion lasted for some months. On
sound of drums contributed to an effacing of social
3 October 1780 Governor Menezes answered a letter
and racial boundaries in a much more important
from the king, in which he asked for the eradication of
way than his encounters with the mulatas in the
black dances. He promised: from now on I will take all
brothels of Bahia.
measures that I find conducive in order to start eradi-
On the other hand, missionaries and priests unfa-
cating, bit by bit, that entertainment so contrary to our
miliar with the multiple aspects of African-Brazilian
good manners.45 He obviously had no intention of do-
culture had some trouble distinguishing between the
ing that, and despite efforts by conservative lites since
music associated with the calundus and the music that
that time, African-Brazilian dances and choreographic
black brotherhoods in Brazil performed during their
dramas, such as the congado, candombe, moambique
religious processions. That seems to have been com-
and catimb still represent important features of many
mon even in Portugal, where the perplexity and incom-
Catholic feasts in Brazil.
prehension before African music and instruments in
The gandus, cumbs and cubancos from
Catholic feasts appears in a 1730 chronicle describing
Portuguese guitar codexes should not be regarded as
the musicincluding a cumbthat accompanied the
accurate transcriptions of dances performed in the
feast of Our Lady of the Rosary, in Lisbon:43
calundus or in Catholic processions by slaves and
one has never seen so peaceful a feast with so many blasts: free blacks in Portugal or its colonies. Rather, they
there was a sequence of minuets, and many discant sing-
were instrumental pieces recomposed over musi-
ers because for their part, the blacks of the Rosary, making
a well concerted dissonance with guitar, gral [?], and violin, cal patterns or motifs of those dances. When trans-
and playing the horn by the cumb [] for at the same time posed to the guitar, those motifs were combined
they played among them pandeiros, stones, arranhol [may- with idiomatic elements of that European instru-
be a scratching board], board-shaped guitar, cocoa-violin,
whistle, berimbau and rattles, and the mixture made such a
ment, such as strumming techniques and harmonic
disconcert that, if it was that way in the village, one wonders progressions. These are features that made those
how it would be in Hell! In short, the feast was grave but God pieces understandable to early 18th-century Euro-
protect us from it next year. pean ears. Whether such a fusion had occurred in
White Brazilians and Portuguese newcomers in Bra- the hands of black or white musicians, that does not
zil could hardly differentiate the music of African alter the fact that the music had to be tamed in some
religions from the music of black Catholics, and waypurged of its demonic features, or rescued
sometimes that confusion was translated into a from savagery, so to speakin order to be accepted
heated political or religious debate. Complaining in the European repertory. The European ration-
about what he regarded as an unfair decision made ale behind that cleansing surfaces in the sermons
by the Holy Inquisition to eradicate all black dances, by Jesuit Antonio Vieira (160897) to black audi-
against a more permissive stance of the Governor of ences. Reminding them how they were rescued
Pernamboco Jos Csar de Menezes, the Count of from paganism when brought to Christian America,
Pavolide reasoned on 10 June 1780:44 Vieira, who was himself a mulatto, even suggested
that they should thank God for being slaves:46
the blacks, separated by nations and with their own instru-
ments, dance and make circles like harlequins, and oth- Oh! If the black people, taken off from the Ethiopian forests
ers dance with different motions of the body, which are not and brought to Brazil, realized how much they owe to God
more indecent, but look like the fandangos from Castille and and to His Most Holy Mother for that, which might seem
the fofas from Portugal, and the lunduns of the whites and exile, bondage, and disgrace, but which is nothing but a mira-
mulattos of that country [Brazil]; I understand that the bailes cle, and a great miracle!

early music february 2007 13


Ex.3 Cumbes (Mexico City, Codex Saldivar no.4, private collection of Gabriel Saldivar, f.43)

Even so, there was some space for resistance, and a purposes, but also to provide spiritual, medical and

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struggle between European and African musical lan- economic assistance, as well as to give a Christian
guages is sometimes perceptible. Percussive effects funeral to their members. Slaves, free blacks and
on the guitar soundboard, such as those prescribed mulattos had their own brotherhoods, honour-
in Santiago de Murcias setting of cumbes, are abso- ing Our Lady of Rosary, Our Lady of Guadalupe,
lutely unique in the guitar literature before the 19th Saint Iphigenia, Saint Benedict the Black, and Saint
century. In addition, Murcia seems to establish Elesbaan. It was customary for each brotherhood
rhythm and timbre on two levelsthe strummed of slaves and free blacks to elect its king and queen,
chords in triple time and the percussion in duple who would parade in the feasts and processions
timethus replicating on the guitar a very common escorted by an entourage of dancers and musicians
Western African polyrhythm (ex.3). The emerging (illus. 6,7). A priest in the northern Portuguese city
pattern would then become the rhythmic founda- of Braga described one such parade in 1731:48
tion of many Latin-American dances (ex.4). a Black party [folia preta] comes in ninth place, with pleasant
In some pieces of the Coimbra and Gulbenkian music and organized in a different way. As their components
codexes, harmonic priorities and melodic behaviour are very skilled, they perform a nice and joyful dance [baile].
A dance [baile] of blacks features a king and a queen, six black
move away from European standards, while phras- men, six black women, two puppets, accompaniment and
ing hardly agrees with the European taste for sym- musical instruments of the same nation.
metry. Most settings of paracumbes and cumbs from
In Lisbon in the previous year, on the feast of Our
Portuguese, Spanish, and Mexican sources are based
Lady of Rosary, a witness mentioned a bizarre dis-
on the same compositional modules. That structure,
sonance in the churchyard, made up of three mar-
though common in many Iberian forms, as pointed
imbas, four fifes, two violins and more than 300
out by Craig Russell,47 sometimes acquires a distinct
berimbaus, pandeiros, congos and canzs.49
character in a non-functional harmonic context,
Such feasts promoted by the religious brother-
along with a certain emphasis on the lowered sev-
hoods provided an important space for sociability
enth degree and the insistence on very small modules
and interaction between the sexes, as the Bishop of
(ex.5). Many of these features resemble structures
Rio de Janeiro complained in 1747:50
found nowadays in the traditional music of both the
Iberian Peninsula and West Africa, such as flamenco gatherings with people of one and other sex, under the pre-
text of honouring the Most Holy Mary or any other image,
music and Mandingo Griot songs, in which small and for that purpose they decorated the altar with music and
modules are played as ostinatos and varied in each instruments and other displays of pomp, and after such ac-
repetition while sustaining the singing voice. tions the aforesaid people of one and other sex engaged in
dances [bailes], drumbeats [batuques], parties [saraus], and
kinds of entertainment that are far from the honour of God
Decent modications and his Most Holy Mother, in which many people concurred,
As in Portugal, many irmandades, or religious broth- causing scandal.
erhoods existed in Brazil not only with devotional As whites also enjoyed and often took part in such
gatherings, this was a much more democratic and
Ex.4 Polyrhythm in Murcias cumbes
consequently dangerous form of racial convergence
than the model of ethnic bleaching promoted by
the colonizer, and later called racial democracy.
The latter model, founded on the sexually abusive
encounters of the white colonist and the female

14 early music february 2007


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15
february 2007
early music
Ex.5 Modules
Ex. 5 Continued

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slave, allowed the social rising of generations of were not willing or competent enough. In some of
mulattos, as long as they rejected their mothers reli- his poems Gregrio de Mattos, a survivor of the old
gion and culture and adopted those of their Portu- aristocracy of Bahia, seems to be resentful exactly
guese fathers. about this state of affairs, when he criticized the new
On the other hand, the acceptance of the standards mixed-race lite that occupied positions previously
of the hegemonic culture might have happened only assigned only to people of pure Iberian lineage.
in appearance. By incorporating and learning the Likewise, this partly explains how a large number
instruments of their aggressors and by integrating of mulattos in 18th-century Brazil, especially in
themselves in that environment, mulattos would Minas Gerais, successfully took advantage of similar
be capable of successfully confronting or surpass- mechanisms of social accommodation and excelled
ing them. Nevertheless, the colonial society had to as composers of sacred music. During the second
create instruments of racial and social accommoda- half of the 18th century some Brazilian mulatto
tion in order to function properly and to perpetu- guitar-players such as Manuel de Almeida Botelho,
ate itself. Through social gaps, mulattos could be Joaquim Manuel da Cmara and Domingos Caldas
incorporated into the system, performing tasks Barbosa, could even afford to live in Lisbon and
and occupying positions to which the Portuguese enjoyed a certain level of success there.

16 early music february 2007


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8 Brazilian modinha, Ningum morra de cime; text and music by unknown author (Modinhas do Brazil, 54/x/37 42,
Lisbon, Biblioteca da Ajuda)

early music february 2007 17


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9 Brazilian modinha, Eu nasci sem corao; text by Domingos Caldas Barbosa, music by unknown author (Modinhas do
Brazil, 54/x/37 31, Lisbon, Biblioteca da Ajuda)

18 early music february 2007


Manuel de Almeida Botelho moved to Lisbon in the syncopated rhythmic accompaniment in strum-
1749, and probably never returned to Brazil. Accord- ming chords, or rasgado (illus.8), and the offbeat
ing to a contemporary, he became a protg of both phrasing of melodic accents (illus.9).53
the Patriarch of Lisbon and the Marquis of Marialva. Like the sarambeque, the fofa and the cumb in
Besides sacred music for choir and instruments, the early 18th century, the lundum rose in the 19th
Botelho composed several sonatas and toccatas for century to the salons and theatre stages of the Luso-
the guitar and for harpsichord, as well as cantilenas, Brazilian bourgeoisie, after borrowing musical
duets, minuets and tonos.51 Since he was a guitar- instruments and structural elements from Iberian

Downloaded from http://em.oxfordjournals.org at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro on May 31, 2010
player, the absence of ethnic titles among his com- music. However, as an anonymous British traveller
positions might seem strange. However, it might explained in 1826, that rising up, or that appropria-
be simply that his biographer did not find them rel- tion of an African-Brazilian genre by higher social
evant, just as he failed to mention any of the stand- strata, could happen only after it was subjected to
ard Iberian guitar pieces of that time. Nevertheless, certain decent modifications, which probably
Botelho managed to find his way into the lite circles meant a more restrained choreography and a less
of Lisbon, in which he would be followed decades percussive accompaniment.54
later by Domingos Caldas Barbosa and Joaquim When gandus, cumbs and sarambeques were
Manuel da Cmara, bringing with them a reper- recomposed and played on the guitar by the
tory of modinhas and lunduns, and an unequivocally musician monks of Santa Cruz de Coimbra, social
African-Brazilian style of playing, singing and writ- interactions mediated by music had already been
ing poetry. going on for a while in ports, convents and broth-
The library of the Ajuda Palace in Lisbon holds els, and at religious feasts of Iberia, Africa and the
a late 18th-century collection entitled Modinhas do Americas. About a century later the population of
Brazil (P-La 54/x/37 2655), which contains poems Pernambuco did not find it strange when a cer-
by Caldas Barbosa and other authors set to music by tain Jesuit brother in Olinda was described as a
unidentified composers.52 These modinhas, some- well-known dancer of the fofa,55 nor that lundus
times identified as lunduns in contemporary printed and modinhas used to be played by the organist of
editions of the poetry, are scored in a way similar Recifes main church during the intervals of the
to those found in Manuel da Paixo Ribeiros Nova mass.55 It was through the mediation of mulattos,
Arte de Viola (Coimbra, 1789): the guitar accompani- such as Botelho, Cmara and Caldas Barbosato
ment is in the bass clef, and displays only a bass line whom creating art was a way of surviving in a racist
that the player is expected to harmonize in perform- and cruel society while expressing an identity that
ance. In a 1968 article Gerard Bhague pointed out was neither African nor Portuguesethat lunduns
several distinctive Brazilian features in this reper- and modinhas brasileiras could be accepted by white
tory, both in poetrythe reiteration of the negative, lites to the point of being recognized as the most
the conspicuous use of diminutives and expressions characteristic late 18th-century genres of dance and
from black Brazilian speechand in music, such as song in Portugal and Brazil.

Rogerio Budasz received his PhD in musicology from the University of Southern California in 2001.
His main research interests include the secular music of Brazil during the colonial period and issues of
cultural circularity, ethnicity, power, and representations of the other in Latin-American culture. He
has been Assistant Professor of Music at the Federal University of Paran (Curitiba, Brazil) since 2002.
As a performer on the Baroque guitar and lute he has made two CDs, and is director of the early music
ensemble Banza. rogeriobudasz@yahoo.com

early music february 2007 19


I am grateful to Dr Bruce Alan Brown number); codex FCR Ms. Ne 1the shelf Z, year 1738, ff.107r, 109r. I thank
and James Tyler (University of so-called Livro do Conde de Redondo Paulo Castagna and Maria Teresa
Southern California), Dr Rui Vieira at the Biblioteca Nacional, Lisbon. The Gonalves Pereira for bringing this
Nery (Fundaa~o Calouste Gulbnkian) last of these was published in facsimile source to my attention.
and Dr Manuel Carlos de Brito by J. M. B. de Azevedo, Uma tablatura
20 Mattos, Obra potica, ed. Amado,
(Universidade Nova de Lisboa). para guitarra barroca (Lisbon, 1987).
p.482.
Facsimile editions of the Coimbra and
1 The expression was coined by the
Gulbenkian codices by Manuel Morais 21 Giovanni Antonio Cavazzi da
Jesuit Gonalo Joo; quoted in L. F. de
are forthcoming. Some African-Iberian Montecuccolo, Descrio histrica dos
Alencastro, O trato dos viventes (So
pieces were included in R. Budasz, A trs reinos Congo, Matamba e Angola

Downloaded from http://em.oxfordjournals.org at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro on May 31, 2010
Paulo, 2000), p.226.
msica no tempo de Gregrio de Mattos (Lisbon, 1965), i, p.163.
2 Alencastro, O trato dos viventes, (Curitiba, 2004). The main Hispanic-
22 As discussed by C. Russell, El arte
p.365. For a comprehensive biography American sources containing African-
de recomposicin en la msica
of Salvador de S, scc C. Boxer, Iberian guitar music are the codex Ms.
espaola para la guitarra barroca,
Salvador de s and the struggle for M 811 at the Biblioteca Nacional,
Revista de musicologia, v (1982),
Brazil and Angola 16021686 (London, Madrid, and the so-called Codex
pp.523.
1952). Saldivar no.4, attributed to Santiago de
Murcia (private collection, Mexico 23 Festas Heroicas Da Sobrelevante
3 P. T. de A. Paes Leme, Nobiliarchia City). Facsimile editions by M. Irmandade da Vera Cruz Dos Poyae
Paulistana historica e genealogica (So Lorimer, Saldvar Codex no.4 (Santa in Frei Francisco Rey de Abreu Matta
Paulo, 1953), iii, pp.23940. Barbara, 1987), and C. Russell, Cdice Zeferino [Frei Lucas de Santa Catarina
4 F. M. de Melo, Carta de guia de Saldvar no.4 (Urbana, 1995). For (16601740)], Anatomico Jocoso
casados (Lisbon, 1992), p.67. descriptions of all these sources, see J. (Lisbon, 1755), i, p.278. Quoted in J.
Tyler and P. Sparks, The guitar and its Ramos Tinhoro, Os negros em
5 See R. Stevenson, The Afro- music (Oxford, 2002). Portugal: uma presena silenciosa
American legacy (to 1800), Musical (Lisbon, 1997), p.212.
quarterly, liv (1968), pp.475503; A. C. 12 The musicological importance of
de C. M. Saunders, Histria social dos Mattoss writings was pointed out in 24 The machinho, later known as
escravos e libertos negros em Portugal the pioneering article by R. Stevenson, machete, was a guitar-like instrument
(Lisbon, 1994), pp.1369; J. Thornton, Some Portuguese sources for early of dimensions approximating those of
Africa and Africans in the making of the Brazilian music history, Anuario- the modern ukulele. See the
Atlantic world (Cambridge, 1998), yearbook-Anurio Instituto comprehensive study by M. Morais,
pp.21118. Interamericano de Investigacin Coleco de peas para machete (Lisbon,
Musical, iv (1968), pp.143. 2003).
6 Antonio Ribeiro Chiado, Autos
(Lisbon, 1968), i, pp.1967. 13 N. Marques Pereira, Compndio 25 E. Cotarelo y Mori, Coleccin de
narrativo do peregrino da Amrica entremeses, loas, bailes, jcaras y
7 For an essay on slave sailors in (Rio de Janeiro, 1988), ii, p.138. Pereira mogigangas desde fines del siglo xvii
colonial Brazil, see L. G. Silva, refers to books by Benito Remigio mediados del xviii (Madrid, 1911), i
Escravos das guas, Nossa histria, xv da Noydens: Pratica moral de no.1, p.ccxx.
(Jan. 2005), pp.6671. curasy confessores (Madrid, 1653)
26 Folheto de Ambas Lisboas (Lisbon,
and Historia moral del Dios Momo
8 G. Kubik, O intercmbio cultural 1781), no.3 (Aug 1730), no.7 (Oct
(Madrid, 1666).
entre Angola e Portugal no domnio da 1730).
msica desde o sculo xvi, Portugal e 14 For an extensive and updated
27 Diccionrio de Autoridades (Madrid,
o encontro de culturas na msica discussion on the topic, see Tyler
1737; r/1963), i, p.700.
(Lisbon, 1987), pp.381405. P. Fryer, and Sparks, The guitar and its
Rhythms of resistance: African musical music. 28 Relaa das cantigas da fofa:
heritage in Brazil (Hanover, NH, compostas pelo memoravel e celebrissimo
15 Gregrio de Mattos, Obra potica,
2000), p.137. estapafurdio Manoel de Paos (Lisbon,
ed. J. Amado (Rio de Janeiro, 1990),
c.1750); English translation from Fryer,
9 Frei Francisco Rey de Abreu Matta p.828.
Rhythms of resistance, p.128.
Zeferino [Frei Lucas de Santa
16 Raphael Bluteau, Supplemento ao
Catarina], Anatomico Jocoso (Lisbon, 29 A diplomatic transcription of this
vocabulario portuguez e latino (Lisbon,
1758), iii, p.209. pamphlet, entitled Relao da fofa que
1728), ii, p.220.
veyo agora da Bahia, appears in Fryer,
10 J. R. Tinhoro, As origens da cano
17 Bluteau, Supplemento, i, p.74. Rhythms of resistance, pp.1767; English
urbana (Lisbon, 1997), p.121.
translation on p.127.
18 Mattos, Obra potica, ed. Amado,
11 Codex m.m. 97 at the Biblioteca
pp.4546. 30 Diccionrio de Autoridades, iii, p.562.
Geral da Universidade de Coimbra;
codex at the Gulbenkian Foundations 19 Arquivo Eclesistico da 31 Cotarelo y Mori, Coleccin de
Music Division, Lisbon (no catalogue Arquidiocese de Mariana, book Z-01, entremeses, p.cclxxiii.

20 early music february 2007


32 Fryer, Rhythms of resistance, p.107. 49 Folheto de Ambas Lisboas, 7 Oct
The definition is from J. T. Schneider, 1730. Quoted in Lahon, As festas
Dictionary of African borrowings in religiosas, p.146.
Brazilian Portuguese (Hamburg, 1991),
50 Quinto, L vem o meu Parente, p.115.
p.267.
51 D. L. Couto, Desagravos do Brasil e
33 Melo, Carta de guia de casados, p.44.
glrias de Pernambuco (Recife, 1981),
34 Mattos, Obra potica, pp.882, 1026. p.376, manuscript at Lisbon, Biblioteca
Nacional, Ms. F.G. 873.
35 Tinhoro, Os negros em Portugal,

Downloaded from http://em.oxfordjournals.org at Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro on May 31, 2010
p.361. Fryer, Rhythms of resistance, 52 A facsimile of manuscript P-La
p.116. 54/x/37 26-55, can be found in E. de
Lima, As modinhas do Brazil (So
36 Tinhoro, Os negros em Portugal, Paulo, 2001), pp.21174. There is an
pp.2056. extensive bibliography about the
37 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do modinha and the lundu, reviewed in M.
Tombo (Lisbon), Inquisio de Lisboa, Veiga, O estudo da modinha brasileira,
Cadernos do Promotor, no.68, Livro Latin American music review, xix/1
262, ff.176183v. Quoted in J. H. Sweet, (Spring/Summer 1998), pp.4791. Three
Recreating Africa (Chapel Hill, 2003), important anthologies have recently
pp.21920. been published: Modinhas, lundus and
canonetas: 18th and 19th centuries, ed.
38 Sweet, Recreating Africa, p.144. M. Morais and R. Vieira Nery (Lisbon,
39 Arquivo Nacional da Torre do 2000); Jornal de modinhas: ano I, ed. M.
Tombo (Lisbon), Inquisio de Lisboa, J. D. Albuquerque (Lisbon, 1996);
Cadernos do Promotor, no.83, f.202; Domingos Caldas Barbosa, Muzica
translated and quoted in Sweet, Escolhida da Viola de Lereno (1799), ed.
Recreating Africa, p.146. M. Morais (Lisbon, 2003).
40 Pereira, Compndio narrativo, ii, 53 G. Bhague, Biblioteca da Ajuda
p.145. (Lisbon) MSS 15951596: two
eighteenth-century anonymous
41 M. del Priore, Festas e utopias no collections of Modinhas, Yearbook of
Brasil colonial (So Paulo, 1994), p.85. the Inter-American Institute for Musical
42 Mattos, Obra potica, i, p.42. Research, vi (1968), pp.4481.
43 Folhetos de Ambas Lisboas, folheto 3 54 A.P.D.G. Sketches of Portuguese Life,
(Aug 1730); quoted in Os negros em Manners, Costume, and Characters
Portugal: scs. xv a xix (Lisbon, 1999), (London, 1826), p.288.
p.169. 55 Quoted by P. da Costa, Folk-lore
44 Quoted in A. A. Quinto, L vem o pernambucano, Revista do Instituto
meu parente: as irmandades de pretos e Histrico e Geogrfico Brasileiro, xx/2
pardos no Rio de Janeiro e em (1908), p.221. Pereira da Costa has
Pernambuco (So Paulo, 2002), pp.11617. never disclosed his source.

45 F. C. Lange, Documentao 56 Lopes Gama, O carapuceiro, lv (25


musical pernambucana, Barroco, ix Aug 1838), p.2.
(1977), pp.7-52, facsimile at unnumbered
plate.
46 A. Vieira, Sermes (Oporto, 1993),
iv, pp.73369.
47 Russell, El arte de recomposicin,
pp.523.
48 Augustissimo Triunfo, que a Augusta
Braga prepara em obsquio do
Santssimo Sacramento em Maio de 1731.
Quoted in D. Lahon, As festas
religiosas e profanas das confrarias, Os
negros em Portugal: scs. xv a xix,
p.148.

early music february 2007 21


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february 2007
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22

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