Introduction to Samba
Agogo bells |
Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world
and is the birth place of Samba.
Modern
Samba was developed from an earlier Brazilian musical style called Choro. Both Samba the
dance, and Samba music can take many forms - from the vivacious call and response of Samba
de Enredo to the music of Carnival to Samba-Cancon or song Samba, a more relaxed guitar
and rhythm variant.
In the 16th century, the Portuguese discovered on the east
coast of South America, a place they called the January River (Rio de Janeiro). |
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Colonists soon settled and as the
colony prospered, slaves were brought from South West Africa to work in the plantations of
Bahia, in the North East of what became Brazil.
To adherents of the Afro-Brazilian religion, Candomble, Samba means to
pray, to invoke your personal orixa (god/saint). The African rhythms enveloped in Latino
music, came from the Yoruba, Congo and other West African people, who were transported to
the New World as slaves. |
Ganza (or shaker) |
Repenique |
In their homeland, the rthythms
were used to call forth various gods. It is these rhythms that has heavily influenced
Brazilian music making Samba a unique genre of music.
The Samba (as played in Rio for carnival) is marked by the absence of
melody instruments. However, a single escola de samba ("Samba school'"
group that performs Samba music and dance at carnival) may include hundreds of drummers
and percussionists, known collectively as the bateria, as well as many
dancers and marchers, and elaborately decorated floats. |
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The Samba bateria consists of the
surdo or large double-headed drum played using the hand and a beater, of
which there are three types: low, medium and high-pitched.
The repinique, a smaller double-headed drum which can also
serve as the internal conductor or leader of the ensemble.
The caixa or snare drum. |
Caixa (or snare) |
Surdos (Low, Middle and High) |
The tamborim, a
single-headed drum about 6" in diameter which is held in one hand and played with a
beater consisting of several thin sticks
The cuica
or friction-drum; the pandeiro or tambourine; plus agogo
bells, which are like different-pitched cowbells, and assorted types of ganzas,
shakers.
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Tamborim |
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