Documenti di Didattica
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Documenti di Cultura
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American Music Review / Revista de Msica Latinoamericana
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musical theme of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wag
as well as the principal theses of Max Weber, Theodor Adorno, and Fred
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The Xango belief system is based on three main categories of supernatural entities, with whom believers try to make contact by means of ritual
practice: the orixds, or "saints," who are deifications of natural forces; the
ori, or head, a type of individual vital principle; and the eguns, or ancestors.
angel in Christian belief. Literally, ori means head, and while the orixd
belongs to an atemporal dimension (since it refers to a deity), ori is the
supernatural dimension of temporal life, possessing the same life span as
each individual.
The eguns are the souls of the dead, mostly of those who belonged to t
cult. Sometimes they interfere in people's lives and can appear to anyone
under the form of specters or disturbing entities. The cult of the eguns is
far the most secret part of Xango life; it is the exclusive responsibility o
the trustworthy men of the group, and women are only permitted to repl
to the song of eguns during the ritual. This great separation of the world
the eguns in relation to the rest of the system is also felt in terms of musi
Ritual life is centered on three great areas of activity: (a) the sacrifices
of animals and the offerings to the orixas, the ori, and the eguns; (b) the
special rituals concerning the initiation process; (c) the great public festi-
vals, or toques, including those that close the initiation process and the
celebrations dedicated to the orixas, which are generally linked to the
Catholic calendar. In the same way that it is proper to qualify Xango as a
possession cult (for trance is undoubtedly the main mystical path offered
to the followers), it would also be adequate to call it a religion of sacrifice,
such is the intensity and quantity of sacrificial acts performed by members.
The three main sacrifice and offering rituals of Xango are: (1) obligation, or sacrifice and food offerings to the orixas. It is the most prominent
tradition that consists of the removal and elimination of cooked foods and
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animal parts left on the deposits of the orixds during the sacrifice. The
"amarracao de folhas" (tying of the leaves), a quite reserved yet musically
rich rite centers basically on the figures of the orixas Exu and Osanyin and
closes the entire offering cycle. (2) Obori, or feeding of the head. It is a
sacrifice destined to strengthen the ori of the person, preparing him/her to
endure the possession by the orixd, and at the same time, making the person
healthier. According to followers, the Obori is one of the most beautiful
rituals of Xango, especially for its music. (3) bale obligation (or bale sacrifice), or the obligation to the eguns. At least once a year, animals are sacrificed and food offerings are made for the most important eguns of a cult
house.
The fundamental, most secret or private initiation rituals are the "lavacao
de cabega" (head washing), a central act through which the orixd definitely
settles in the ori of the person. The head of the neophyte and the stone of the
saint are simultaneously washed in a liquid made of herbs and plants with
various magic powers that belong to the orixds. The vegetable world in
general belongs to the god Osanyin and it is with his main plant that the
ori of the neophyte is touched in the crucial moment of the washing. The
head washing is immediately followed by a more secret and famous ritual,
called "feitura de santo" (the making, or settling of the saint) or "raspagem
de cabeca" (head shaving). Here the neophyte is secluded in a room where
her hair is shaved, and then, with a razor, cuts are made on the head,
shoulders and arms, with the purpose of introducing under the skin some
prepared vegetable and mineral mixtures called axes. The novice remains
in this secluded room generally for a month, and during this period she
learns various kinds of information about the saint, including dances and
songs proper of the orixd who now govern his head. This classical scheme
of "rite of passage" ends, as can be seen in Van Gennep's model with the
aggregation phase, when the neophyte finally leaves the liminal state to be
reintegrated into the community of followers, as a complete initiate. This
final phase is completed with a great feast for the orixas, in which the new
iao (initiate) leaves the seclusion room ritually and in triumph, possessed
by the orixa, to join the crowd of followers who sing an exclusive song for
the occasion, called the "Iyawo's song." With the exit of iao, which can or
cannot be part of a public festival, the initiation cycle of a Xang6 adept is
formally concluded. Later, there will be time for complementary rituals,
even if without the symbolic (or musical) power of the two maximum
It could be rightly argued that a first contrast within the great divisio
of Xango music consists in the opposition between the repertoire of prai
songs for the orixds (of a public character) and the repertoire (of a priva
character) of the songs that accompany specific ritual acts, or functional
songs. This opposition occurs both in terms of meaning and of performanc
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Concerning the songs for the orixas (see Segato 1984), members make many
commentaries and appreciations, defining musically the personality of each
orixd. In the particular case of the orixas that "possess" followers, such as
Xango, Ogum, Orixala, Oxum, Iemanja, and Iansa, the capacity to project ascribed meaning in songs is very great. Although they no longer know
the literal translation of the songs (almost all are spoken in the Yoruba
language, no longer used in the cult), the members make their own translations, based principally in certain associations and phonetic concordances
with the Portuguese language. In the case of the most abstract orixas, as
Orumila or Osanyin, or those simply not allowed to "possess" people (as
Exu), the profile becomes less individualized, and the interpretations are
more general and homogeneous. On the other hand, the functional songs
cause less commentaries or "translations," and what is discussed, above all,
is the situation and precise moment they must or must not be sung.
A second contrast between the two musical domains occurs at the level
of performance. The songs for the orixds are much more emotional, dynamic, and energetic, especially during trance occasions, when the presence
of the gods is celebrated with joy. Instead, the purely ritual songs are always
sung in the same way. There is a sort of musical indifference for these songs
on the part of the followers and rarely do they show any variation of greater
expressiveness in the way they sing them. When the songs are repeated,
for example, there is no change in dynamics and the voices show hardly
special inflection. In other words, these songs remain quite distant from
the world of emotions that each ritual creates. Making use of a classical and
well adapted opposition by John Blacking in How Musical is Man?, one can
say, in general, that the songs for the orixds are an example of "music for
being," and those that go along with ritual acts are "music for having." By
means of concrete ritual acts, the continuity and good flow of cosmic and
psychic forces put in motion is assured. By means of the songs for the
orixds, they celebrate and guarantee the reward, for each individual, of
such a continuity.2
tiation in which the followers speak of each ritual as a totality; thus, the
Obori, for example, can be seen as a musical unit. At a second level, they
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praise songs), which accompany acts or sequences of acts that point out
significant moments of a ritual as a whole or that identify, through their
specific repertoires, each orixd in particular. Putting together these levels,
one can say that the identity of each ritual is recognized through the very
particular manner in which different types of ritual songs are combined
during their execution. If we consider all the rituals of Xango and all the
possible types of songs, we can construct a chart that shows clearly how the
correlations between rituals and songs were formed in the history of the
cult. For such purpose, I will first present the list of variables, being cau-
tious to include all possible cases of types of songs, including the subdivisions of a single type that would be relevant in differentiating a variation
of a certain ritual from another. For example, the songs for animal sacrifices
admit many variations, as well as some very rare songs that may remain
unheard by the majority of members for as long as ten years (like the song
for the sacrifice of turtles, an animal that is rarely sacrificed).
First, the list of all the possible rituals in the life of the cult.3
(i) Etutu
(1) Obligation for Orumila
(k) "Lavacao de cabeca" (or washing of the head)
(/) Initiation ("making" or settling of the saint with head shaving)
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
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1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
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s.
;:
X
x
^tx
~~~~~x
,,,,,'
:&'::~
19
-S$:x
*;17.
a::. xx
(b) In
are offered;
the
second
part
of
Another relevant observation is that there are very few types of songs
introduced in each new ritual. In general, only a single type characterizes
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th
that there is a high level of redundancy in the music of the Xango ritual
system, and that the musical identity of a ritual is generally given by th
a greater variety of types. On the other hand, the obligation for eguns, th
most secret of all the activities of the cult is, coincidentally, the most homo
geneous in terms of music and the one that contains less song types (only
two); thus, it only shares one type of song with other rituals-the so
of rejoicing.
The initiation ritual (the settling of the saint) has only one specific song,
repeated throughout the whole event. This is more comprehensible if we
keep in mind that the ritual activity in itself is extremely brief, and because
In the iyawo's exit, a single new song appears, despite the dozens of
songs in honor of all the orixds which are sung in many other rituals.
Finally (and despite all the previous discussions) it is significant to note
that the three principal songs of the three initiation rituals are the only
songs, out of the entire repertoire of Xango that the initiated follower
will hear, sung by the community especially for him, the only time in
life. This fact, obviously, reinforces its unique position within the total set
of ritual chants.
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Each Ritual
is Orixala (a calm saint), the music will probably end in a calmer stat
spirit. No other ritual presents such musical contrasts directly related w
execution (such as progress, intensity, repetition, and vocal tension).
(b) Obori. The extremely slow tempo of songs for the ori, enhancing
almost perfect unisonous singing, is more than sufficient to disting
this ritual from all others. The music of the Obori is very similar, in it
performance style, to Gregorian Chant (although I have no way of know
if this is due to any influence of Western music). At any rate, this simila
(d) Head washing. Just as in the obligation for the saints, the gen
musical character of this ritual varies according to the saint of the pers
whose head is being washed. Nevertheless, it possesses characteristics th
differentiate it a great deal from other rituals (as for example, the prese
of more than a dozen songs for Osanyin, all based on the anhemito
pentatonic scale, which is practically exclusive of the chants for this orix
Moreover, the songs for Osanyin tend to use anticipations and rhythmi
syncopations, within the binary signature which does not exist in any ot
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type of Xango music. Lastly (and maybe the most important factor, as I
will try to show further on), the key song of this ritual is surrounded by an
atmosphere of expectation and contained emotion that makes its performance a ritual act of specially unique significance.
(e) Iyawo's exit. Because this is a very special class of public celebration,
it includes a long presentation of dozens of chants in honor of all saints. It
also includes a very special chant, called the iyawo's song, that is interpreted
always in a dramatic way, with the leader striving to emphasize musically
the unique character of each iyawo's exit.
We have been able to detect, so far, the existence of singularities, from
the musical point of view, in each one of the mentioned rituals. On the
other hand, the musical parameters that reveal this singularity vary significantly from one case to another. In some rituals, it is the use of a certain
scale; in another, it is the presence of a certain type of recitative rhythm
tion, equally necessary, that the native categories of music are in some way
compatible with what we define as analytical categories. That is, not only
must one proceed from native categories (which is what every anthropologis
does), but also give credit to the capacity of the participants of any musica
tradition for being able to analyze their own music. For such purpose, we
must select from the purely technical elements we use for a classical musico
logical analysis (such as interval statistics, analysis of harmonic structures,
identification of modes, and rhythmic and melodic cells) those parameters
which most fit the musical distinctions and evaluations made by followers
of the style, even though the native vocabulary uses expressions taken from
cultural domains apparently distant from the musical language. The basic
assumption is that such distinctions, frequently formulated in religious,
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tion (like the harmonic structure), in detriment of others which are relevant
to other traditions, such as those related more directly to the process of
musical organization and performance. The novelty of the ethnomusicological approach (and Blacking's contribution has been fundamental here)
argues for the utility of selecting analytical parameters suggested by the same
behavior, and then analyze the style in terms of rhythm, tone, pitch, instrumentation, frequency of ascending and descending intervals, and other
essentially musical terminology, but describe both the music and its cultural
basis as interrelated parts of a total system"5 (Blacking 1971:93).
repetition and innovation (as one can see from the correlation table), a
vast repertoire of songs.
However, some time after having practically concluded my analysis of
this music, I was able to realize that one song (and only one) was repeated,
with a different text, in more than one different ritual. This song, which
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process. Later on, after the person has prepared his or her ori and made
offerings to the orixd, it is performed in its most dramatic form right
before the head is bathed in the sacred liquid, which is infused in plants
that carry the power of the orixds. Its presence here is a clear sign that, from
this moment on, there can be no return from a lifelong compromise with
the saints. Much later, the song appears again, three times, during the
amarrafao de folhas, when the cycle of offerings and sacrifices related to
initiation has ended.
Finally, it reappears once again as the first song of the ebo removal, as
sort of reminder that the ritual force, which it helped generate and concentrate in previous moments of the cycle, cannot last forever and must b
eliminated at the end of a certain period so as to prevent its effect from
becoming negative.
they are the only ones to introduce this parlando effect upon a single not
In short, this remarkable song seems to function as a leitmotiv, producing
a subliminal sense of musical unity for a repertoire that seems to be in fact
quite internally sectionalized, reflecting compositional processes that ar
extremely distinct from each other (it provides the contrast to the songs fo
ori, eguns, and Osanyin transcribed at the end to notice the differences).
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in a Xango house, since whistling is a taboo for Osanyin. And let us remember that whistling is a type of activity that can become analytical, as
it permits an independence from the text and an appreciation of the pure
of context are some songs of celebration and praise to the orixds; as for
ritual songs, no one sings them out of their specific context. We can add
other factors, more directly linked to the use of musical language: the songs
are tied to the contexts of rituals where they appear, performed with all
The sum of all of these factors contributes in concealing the only melodic
repetition in a repertoire of more than 180 songs, but that can surpass 300
if we include numerous songs for the orixds that are also present in private
rituals. Nevertheless, the most important factor in all of this is perhaps
that, from a native point of view, the songs are distinct because their texts
are distinct. What is similar, for us, is the melody, which introduces a level
of analysis that has no equivalent in native discourse.
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was able to learn how to sing and to accompany with drums the entire
repertoire of the cult. Despite this effort, I was only able to discover this
other levels of association and meaning can emerge (thus the essentially
polysemous character of the symbol), most of which are unknown (although
into the realm of surprise-or at least, into that which was only implicit
before-when not into revelation itself. In this context, Eudoro de Souza's
formulation, to the effect that the symbolic is what unites and integrates,
while the diabolic is what separates and disunites (Souza 1980: 83-84), is
adequate and revealing. It coincides in essence with Gadamer's formulation, taken from Plato, of the symbol as "pieces of recollection," that is, as
something with which what used to be united and later was separated by
forgetfulness (which is a form of unconsciousness) is finally recognized.
Not surprisingly, these conceptions, derived from the purely speculative
practice of these two philosophers, confirm perfectly Victor Turner's formu-
The melody common to these songs is not a symbol from the native's
point of view, but a mere reiterating sign, which certainly is articulated
with other signs to form the structure of rituals, although not forming part
of a larger play of meaning that these rituals establish. If we should want
a semiotic parallel for this situation, we could say that this melody is to
the songs just as the phonemes of a language are to a speaker who combines
them in an identical manner on homonymous words, without being
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sisted in pulling together the three mythical events where such a theme is
present, very distinct and chronologically distant in the plot, and piling
them together, in an attempt to understand them as if they were structurally
one and the same event. Every time the renunciation theme is heard,
Levi-Strauss concluded, there is a treasure that must be removed or diverted. The first is the gold buried in the Rhine, which Alberich conquers
after abdicating love. Then, the sword buried inside the tree by Wotan is
finally found by Siegmund. There is also the woman, Brunhilde, confined
by her father Wotan inside a fire circle, who is saved by Siegfried, who is
in turn disguised as Gunther. Through the analysis of the story's plot and
relation, in the strict mythical level, between gold, the sword, and the
woman (that is, if the relation revealed by him is also symbolic and not
merely semiotic), it could only be shown through more specific research
about the explicit intentions of Wagner (extensively formulated in numerous
theoretical essays); relevant medieval symbolism, found in literary sources
from where many concatenated stories of the plot arise; and the interpretations formulated by the four generations of appreciators of the work.
In my view this task has yet to be undertaken.
However, there is another issue, which he did not consider and which
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sitions" (1985: 236), he seems to suggest that Richard Wagner was also
overtaken by the vast myth he proposed to narrate and ended up individually
reproducing the collective cultural logic, by hiding some profound relations between narrative episodes, characters, and musical themes. This
issue takes us to another, which I will develop further on, about the utility
of continuing to apply the structural analysis (of which the main results
until now have come from studies of savage thought) of the comprehension
of individual works that were constructed by creators who perfectly dominate structural reason.9
tying of leaves
Ritual Value (b) Head washing
/ (c) Ebo
(a) Preparation of axe
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one could say that the Western discussion about music always leads to a
discussion of fundamentals. The analytic rationalization, common to com-
posers, instrumentalists, conductors, and musicologists, enables a deritualization of a repertoire wherever it comes from and its analysis from a
strictly formal point of view, as if this operation was just another type of
musical activity. Both the process of composition and the manner of reception of a new composition, especially in twentieth-century music, undergo
this rational operation that I call revision of foundations.
In the universe of Western musical values, it is understood that each
new musical piece brings a certain degree of creation (however small) and
the aesthetic impact of the work is linked to the mystery (or secret) of how
it was composed. The reaction of the receiver to the work (whoever it is)
is to try to understand how it was composed from a formal and technical
point of view, convinced that this comprehension is what will enable the
aesthetic enjoyment, or at least, intensify the enjoyment. All of this would
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be simple and trivial if it did not interfere with other values of this same
culture. Thus, the discovery of the "secret" of the musical work (suppose,
a certain concept of form, a certain disposition of sounds, a serial work,
and so on) weakens the efficacy of its message as an artistic piece, for it
makes its internal law accessible to everyone. That is, the revelation of the
technical-formal structure of the piece threatens to render as banal (banal
employed here in the sense of predictable, as opposed to new information)
its principal pretensions of originality.
As Fredric Jameson (creative interpreter of the musical ideas of Theodor
Adorno) affirms, the aesthetic novelty comes to be considered, principally
since the period of Romanticism, "not as a relatively secondary and natural
by-product, but rather as an end to be pursued in its own right" (1974: 19).
The musical effects start to age and become obsolete in an ever more accelerated pace, and any attempt to repeat or imitate is not efficient. One
into bland order; yet having grown familiar and tolerable over the
years, it now stands as a mere period sign of feeling and emotiveness, as a manner rather than a concrete experience of negation.
(1974: 21)
new work produced by his predecessor, and offers in exchange his own
structure, now renewed and supposedly with technical-formal originality.
Another consequence of this fight against banality is the rapid increase
This is why (especially after Wagner, whose theoretical writings are quite
vast) it is not possible to separate Western music from writings about it.
Taking recent examples, let us think of the volume of Karleinz Stockhausen
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compositions. The limits between the composer and the analyst become
more and more subtle. Thus, everyone is united-composer, conductor,
listener, and musicologist-in a single effort to explain and receive the
new music (if it is at all possible to continue to refer to an agent in the
traditional sense). Before this process, modern music was converted into
one of the main examples of how art functions in a "discursive society,"
to use a characterization of Michel Foucault (1973). In addition, in this
new music, the knowable unknown is what holds the aesthetic power; the
music casts to the listener an interpretative, rationalizing challenge, as or
more powerful than the challenge of sensibility and emotion.
I refer here (inevitably) to a theme that is very complex and upon which
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music (Zemp 1979); the metaphors about waterfalls of the Kaluli (Feld
1982); and even the mythical language used by followers of Xango to speak
about the music of the orixacs (Segato 1984)-all demonstrate a much greater
discontinuity (both symbolic as semiological) between the discourse about
music and the technique of creation or reproduction of the musical material.
The role of reason and its hegemony in the construction of a meaningful
world cannot be so easily matched between all of these societies, even when
and banality, destruction and denial, the ritual stands out precisely as
being a guarantee of the presence of form, which maintains its unknown
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In the case under analysis, the ritual preserves the mystery of the song,
impeding the emergence of the dimension of melody-if it is not entirely
discovered that the exceptionally dramatic song Osunbaoro has the same
melody as the plain and ordinary Edimd edimece, how can one hear it week
after week, year after year, without diminishing the emotion for the
mystery that betrayed its alleged singularity, now rationally destroyed?
proposes, to expand to the limits this same conscience that caused the burst
is quite problematic, because it postpones sine die the moment of reintegration and also hopes for a definite restitution of a lost innocence. The Xango
tradition, in turn, seems to opt for a return, if not constant at least temporary, to the origin, favored by ritual practice with its dialectic alternation
of reflection and sensory experience. That is, at the same time we detect
in modern Western attitudes concerning music an updating of the disinte-
gration myth, we postulate also that there still exist musical traditions,
such as Xango, that continue to embody the possibility of integration.
However, this is not the case for reacting anti-historically against this
movement of self-conscience that is already an essential part of Western
tradition and which cannot be changed by means of copies or superficial
and external imitations. It is also not the case, on the other hand, of proposing to bring Xango music to the rationalistic and self-reflective arena
of Western music, since this would mean to weaken voluntarily its magical
power. One of the reasons for trying to understand these most abstract
principles, which remain aloof to the musical dimension of our culture, is
to use them to establish a relativistic comparison and be able to propose
a new attitude towards musical analysis in general, be it from more
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sible, the path covered in the audition and participation of the musical
event. That is, we have to try to detach ourselves from the analytical atti-
My intention here was to show that this is precisely the essence of the
aesthetic experience of Xango and this is perhaps where we encounter not
only these two, but possibly all musical traditions.
Notes
(music for having) to a song for the ori (music for being) without
interruption. Here, both levels are only aspects of the musical behavior of followers and not (as Blacking seems to indicate for the
Venda) two distinct types of behavior, distant even in temporal terms.
3. It is not possible for me to even sum up all these rituals that were
analyzed in detail in another work (see Carvalho 1984). I can only
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hope that the central discussion of this essay, namely, the correlation
between ritual and music, can be grasped without the need to enlarge
this already extensive ethnography.
7. I based my study above all in the work of Peirce (1955) and Burks
(1949) for the fundamental distinction between sign and symbol;
Jung (1976) and Durand (1964) for the critical or occult dimension
of symbol; Turner (1967) for the emphasis on the polarization of the
10. The elaboration of this chart was inspired in two classic studies by
Victor Turner about the Ndembu symbolism: that of the Chishingh,
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argues that the musician needs them because he cannot retain the
complexity of combinations articulated in a piece (he refers, of
course, to Western classical music), and concludes that all these signs
represent the orders given by the society of musicians to its members
(1900: 183). Here, the Western score fulfills a role analogous to that
of the ritual: it saves the collective memory and stimulates individual
forgetfulness, which is only dialectically and paradoxically compensated by the frequent adherence to the community of musicians.
13. Let us be aware that his essay dated 1810 is already contemporaneous
with this disenchantment of the world that so much defines modern
Western culture.
Bibliography
Behague, Gerard
1984 "Patterns of Candomble Music Performance: An Afro-
Blacking, John
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1984 Ritual and Music of the Sango Cults of Recife, Brazil. Ph.
diss., Department of Social Anthropology, The Queen's
University of Belfast.
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Ribeiro, Rene
Zemp, Hugo
1979
Musical Examples
This is the transcription of the six ritual songs discussed in this article.
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K r f r r (
O
'B - o ,
P- r bt
I
o -k -
J, 0oXO
>
P-
o-
w--
,J
JJyJ
j ' ,J.
j- Ii
O-HA - >tL"
i J J.
I J
+ r,
-1
T J IJ 1 J
o0D ^ - , L- a- p- ha
I
-t
- t 6 Lr
r r-
E_-Q - AU A -* )t
Kiora fo - ?-XQ
A i NA- ,fo-
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Ritual Song
g G G r Ir r f '? r b f r : 1
o- ca--L -- -c- o- -o k-_ka _ a-
rfn',
SEa;~c-[
t rL
';tLu f J l1 ' '
, Q "~- 5-C^^ I-_-XO-X3 Y- o g --
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Tying of leaves
t Ji r r^j r n, y J 2 r G G 2
E-_ 6 fr AQ_L, m SOU _a a-Xte_;o a-Q E-ao o- e b ? -, c L-a. a - _u- e' - o _ oQ c-0
JF YU fAw AZ
; : , , ,,L5.r,'
, ,&; ,K u J
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