(Afro-Brazilian) Maracatu Nação Music and Dance Performance Genres (information & video of )

Tale of Two Nations, Feb. 22, 2013

Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante is one of  Brazil's  oldest and most respected traditional maracatu groups.  Founded in 1906,  Estrela Brilhante  ('Bright Star')  has become one of the most renowned and respected traditional maracatu groups in the world.  Their music and performance reflect not only more than a century of history, but the entire history of the Afro-Brazilian people of northeastern Brazil.  It is a history condensed into a colorful and vibrant ritual, an ancient Carnival art filled with pulsating rhythms, call and response songs and infectious dance. Led by the legendary Mestre Walter and Queen/President Dona Marivalda  since 1993, Estrela Brilhante has accomplished several remarkable achievements including releasing  the first maracatu recording,  Amazônica (Sony Music), in 1996 and contributed a track to the live CD Pernambuco em Concerto (África Produções) in 1998.  They have performed throughout Brazil and hold numerous Carnival competition championship titles in Recife.  Over the last decade they have performed throughout Europe including EXPO 2000 in Hanover, Germany and other prestigious festivals.

****
Edited by Azizi Powell

This is Part I of a pancocojams series on Brazil's Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante group.

This post provides information about Brazil's traditional maracatu music and dance and showcases a video of Estrela Brilhante Maracatu Nação Group that was published in 2013. 

Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2021/02/two-more-videos-of-brazils-estrela.html for Part II of this pancocojams series. Part II showcases two additional additional videos of "Two More Videos Of Brazil's Estrela Brilhante Maracatu Nação Group (2011 & 2014)". 

The content of this post is presented for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to all those who have performed or are performing maracatu music and dance. Thanks to all those who are associated with this video and all those who are quoted in this post.

****
WIKIPEDIA EXCERPT
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maracatu
"The term maracatu denotes any of several performance genres found in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil. Main types of maracatu include maracatu nação (nation-style maracatu) and maracatu rural (rural-style maracatu).

 Maracatu Nação

Maracatu nação (also known as maracatu de baque virado: "maracatu of the turned-around beat"), the most well-known of the maracatu genres, is an Afro-Brazilian performance genre practiced in the state of Pernambuco, mainly in the cities of Recife and Olinda. The term, often shortened simply to nação ("nation", pl. nações), refers not only to the performance but to the performing groups themselves.

 Maracatu nação’s origins lie in the investiture ceremonies of the Reis do Congo (Kings of Congo), who were slaves who were granted leadership roles within the slave community by the Portuguese administration. When slavery was abolished in Brazil in 1888, the institution of the Kings of Congo ceased to exist. Nonetheless, nações continued to choose symbolic leaders and evoke coronation ceremonies for those leaders. Although a maracatu performance is secular, traditional nações are grouped around Candomblé or Jurema (Afro-Brazilian religions) terreiros (bases), and the principles of Candomblé infuse their activities.

Traditional nações perform by parading with a drumming group of 80–100, a singer and chorus, and a coterie of dancers and stock characters including a king and a queen. Dancers and stock characters dress and behave to imitate the Portuguese royal court of the Baroque period.

The performance also enacts pre-colonial African traditions, like parading the calunga, a doll representing tribal deities that is kept throughout the year in a special place in the nação's headquarters. The calungas, usually female, are traditionally made of either wax and wood or of cloth. They may have clothing made for them in a similar Baroque style to the costumes worn by the other members of the royal court. The calunga is sacred, and carrying this spiritual figurehead of the group is a great responsibility for the female Dama de Paço (Lady-in-Waiting) of the cortège.

The musical ensemble consists of alfaia (a large wooden rope-tuned drum), gonguê (a metal cowbell), tarol (a shallow snare drum), caixa-de-guerra (or "war-snare"), abê (a gourd shaker enveloped in a net of beads), and mineiro (a metal cylindrical shaker filled with metal shot or small dried seeds). The song form is call and response between a solo singer and (usually) a female chorus.

Today there are around 20 nações operating in the cities of Recife and Olinda. Although several have an unbroken line of activity going back to the 19th century, most have been set up in recent decades. Well-known nações include Estrela Brilhante, Leão Coroado, and Porto Rico. Each year they perform during the Carnival period in Recife and Olinda. Maracatu Nação Pernambuco, while not a traditional maracatu, was primarily responsible for introducing the genre to overseas audiences in the 1990s.

The genre has inspired the establishment of performing groups in a number of cities outside Brazil, including Lisbon, Toronto, Quebec City, New York City, Austin, Washington, D.C., Cologne, Berlin, Hamburg, Vienna, Lyon, Stockholm, London, Edinburgh, Brighton, Madison, Oakland, San Diego, Portland, Manchester, Bristol, Oxford, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Madrid.”…

Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante  is one of  Brazil's  oldest and most respected traditional maracatu groups.  Founded in 1906,  Estrela Brilhante  ('Bright Star')  has become one of the most renowned and respected traditional maracatu groups in the world.  Their music and performance reflect not only more than a century of history, but the entire history of the Afro-Brazilian people of northeastern Brazil.  It is a history condensed into a colorful and vibrant ritual, an ancient Carnival art filled with pulsating rhythms, call and response songs and infectious dance. Led by the legendary Mestre Walter and Queen/President Dona Marivalda  since 1993, Estrela Brilhante has accomplished several remarkable achievements including releasing  the first maracatu recording,  Amazônica (Sony Music), in 1996 and contributed a track to the live CD Pernambuco em Concerto (África Produções) in 1998.  They have performed throughout Brazil and hold numerous Carnival competition championship titles in Recife.  Over the last decade they have performed throughout Europe including EXPO 2000 in Hanover, Germany and other prestigious festivals."...

****
This completes Part I of this two part pancocojams series.

Thanks for visiting pancocojams.

Visitor comments are welcome.