At a classical orchestra, a conductor’s raised hands often means the start of a performance. Tracing shapes in the air could point to how each beat must come, and one’s free fingers can often signal a shift in dynamics.
Subtle hand signs likewise coordinate the hundreds of pounding drummers in each of the glitzy Carnival parades in Rio de Janeiro.
The roughly 70,000 spectators filling the bleachers each of the three nights of parades would be eager to see flamboyant costumes, towering floats and jaw-dropping dancers passing by, but for many samba fanatics, drums are the beating heart of the party. And the maestro’s hand swings, flicks, twists and pointing transform potential cacophony into transcendent synchrony.
Photo: Reuters
Percussionists play instruments known the world over — snare and bass drums — but also traditional local instruments such as the tambourine hand drum, the cuica friction drum, the double-sided repique, metal shakers known as chocalhos and the agogo, a two-headed cowbell originating in West Africa.
The Mocidade Independente samba school, one of Rio’s most popular, has 240 drummers in its section.
Based in the working-class Vila Vintem community, on the city’s west side, Mocidade is known for its trained drummers and legendary drum masters, like Jose Pereira da Silva, nicknamed “Mestre Andre.”
Six decades ago, he created the “little stop,” a percussion break during the parade while revelers continue singing. The technique is used to highlight key parts of a samba school’s lyrics.
“I can say that the drum section really is an orchestra, it’s greater than an orchestra, because all the people there are musicians, people who studied. Not in a samba drum section; they’re drummers,” said Carlos Eduardo Oliveira, Mocidade’s drum master for 14 years, known as “Mestre Dudu.”
Mestre Dudu signals to drum directors spread throughout the section, who relay commands to the drummers while making sure they are toggling seamlessly between the many grooves that make up a Carnival parade theme song.
“We understand each other. That’s our language. I have 16 directors in the middle of the section, in the core. I raise my hand, give a signal that will be repeated through them all, and the rhythmist understands,” Mestre Dudu said.
While some less traditional schools accept tourists into their drums sections, Mocidade only allows locals. They were to be the first school to parade in the Sambadrome last night — the final evening of Carnival.
Romualdo Gomes, a professional musician, drums for Mocidade out of love, like all his companions, but he never loses sight of the nearest director guiding the beat.
“You just pay attention to the director,” Gomes said. “You have to pay attention — there’s a way to show every groove.”
The drum section plays throughout a school’s entire parade, lasting between 70 and 80 minutes, striving to lose neither tempo nor flair. Carnival judges score parades on a 10-point scale for various categories, including drumming; it is assessed based on creativity, consistency and how well it suits each samba school’s theme and lyrics.
Classical music critic Irineu Franco Perpetuo said that artists like Mestre Dudu are indeed maestros, no less talented than those guiding orchestras. He said the drums section is the tiebreaking category whenever two samba schools have tallied the same total number of points.
“They are the conductors of this great popular opera that is our Carnival,” Perpetuo said. “They have the great challenge of being rhythmically constant during the parade. They can’t rush it, they can’t be too late, and they need to keep everyone playing at the same time.”
“A perfect 10 for the drum section carries as much weight as a Vienna Philharmonic in classical music,” he added.
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
THE TRAGEDY OF PUNCH: Footage of the seven-month-old Japanese macaque has gone viral online after he was rejected by his mother and formed a bond with a soft toy A baby monkey in Japan has captured hearts around the world after videos of him being bullied by other monkeys and rejected by his mother went viral last week. Punch, a Japanese macaque, was born in July last year at Ichikawa City Zoo. He has drawn international attention after zookeepers gave him a stuffed orangutan toy after he was abandoned by his mother. Without maternal guidance to help him integrate, Punch has turned to the toy for comfort. He has been filmed multiple times being dragged and chased by older Japanese macaques inside the enclosure. Early clips showed him wandering alone with
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday said he did not take his security for granted, after he was evacuated from his residence for several hours following a bomb threat sent to a Chinese dance group. Albanese was evacuated from his Canberra residence late on Tuesday following the threat, and returned a few hours later after nothing suspicious was found. The bomb scare was among several e-mails threatening Albanese sent to a representative of Shen Yun, a classical Chinese dance troupe banned in China that is due to perform in Australia this month, a spokesperson for the group said in a statement. The e-mail
RSS