British Forum for Ethnomusicology

Review: [untitled]
Author(s): Elizabeth Travassos
Reviewed work(s):
Voices of the Magi. Enchanted Journeys in Southeast Brazil by Suzel Ana Reily
Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 12, No. 2 (2003), pp. 120-123
Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30036854
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BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.12/ii 2003
The city of the musical memory is a
book to be enjoyed. It is an intellectually
sophisticated, gracefully written and beau-
tifully researched study that deserves a
close reading. Each one of its pages shows
Waxer's passion for the music and the
profound love and respect she felt for the
people she worked with. Her untimely
passing is a tragedy for her many friends
and for the field of ethnomusicology; her
absence leaves a breach that is impossible
to fill. However, her work stands as an
inspiration for us, an outstanding example
of how someone can immerse herself
sensitively in a music culture to the point
where she, the music, and the people who
make and enjoy that music vibrate in a
perfect unison.
References
Ulloa, Alejandro (1992) La salsa en Cali.
Cali, Colombia: Ediciones Universidad
del Valle.
Wade, Peter (2000) Music, race, and
nation: musica tropical in Colombia.
Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
CAROLINA SANTAMARIA
Department of Music,
University of Pittsburgh
cas44@pitt.edu
SUZEL ANA REILY Voices of the Magi.
enchanted journeys in southeast
Brazil. Chicago & London: Univer-
sity of Chicago Press, May 2002.
Pp.266. Hardback $40. Paperback
$21. ISBN 0226709418
Catholic traditions of lay devotees in
Brazil have been extensively studied by
folklorists and anthropologists. Among
them are the folias de reis, groups who
walk around in cities, small towns and
rural areas during Christmas season. They
sing, collect alms for a festival, and reenact
the mythical journey of the Three Kings
to Bethlehem. Although a good collection
and transcription of the musical repertoires
sung and played by the "companies" has
been made, Voices of the Magi is the first
ethnographical study to articulate the
descriptions of both the ritual and the
musical processes. If there was no other
reason - and there are many - this one
would suffice to secure the book a special
place in the literature on Brazilian folias
and popular rituals.
But the book can call the attention not
only of readers interested in the thematic
area of Brazilian popular culture. Voices of
the Magi deals also with some major
concerns of the anthropology of music: the
analysis of sound structures as objects
resulting from social practices; the rela-
tionship between culture and the subjective
dimension of experience; and the possible
contributions of the study of music for a
theory of ritual.
The text is divided into nine chapters,
each one entitled after a main ritual step or
a symbolic element related to the Kings'
companies: "Preparations to the journey",
"Folias", "Banners", "Rehearsals",
"Departures", "Adorations", "Visitations",
"Arrivals" and "Visions". This last chapter
summarizes the main arguments devel-
oped through the preceding parts. Detailed
descriptions of particular events and cere-
monies are intertwined with analyses and
theoretical interpretation. In the tradition
of the modern anthropological studies, the
text reflects the close relationship between
the scholar and her collaborators, as well
as her ethical commitment of solidarity
with the social groups which are taken as
object of study.
Three years of fieldwork (done in
"homeopathic doses", says the author, who
lived in Sao Paulo at that time) and the
cultivated friendship with folioes are
responsible for the sensitive observations
about people's behaviour and forms of
expression. As examples of the careful
attention to subtle aspects of the popular
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BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.12/ii 2003
ethos, I point out the description of the nego-
tiations taking place during a rehearsal (88
passim) as well as the atmosphere of the
event, and the comments on the conversa-
tion the author had on the phone with
folido Alcides (91). Particularly interesting
is the discussion of the "social relations of
musical production" (110 passim) and of
folioes' appreciation of music, guided first
and foremost by the quality of their socia-
bility: instead of an aesthetic listening
to music, folioes adhere to a sociology
of musical interaction. Those moments
are rich in methodological suggestions
and show a well-balanced alternation of
involvement and analytical distance.
It is worth noting that part of the field-
work was done in Sao Bemardo do Campo
(State of Sao Paulo), the cradle of the
working-class that developed with the
industrialization of the country in the
twentieth century. In fact, one of the
folioes was a member of the metalworkers'
union - the same working-class organiza-
tion which gave the country its first
President coming from the lower classes
(Luis Inicio Lula da Silva was elected in
October 2002). This is not just curiosity
(even if membership in unions was not
the rule among folioes) and helps to under-
stand Suzel Reily's argument: an "old"
tradition can be politically active in the
present.
The journeys of folioes give life to a
worldview which stands in opposition to
the impersonality of social relations and
the market exchanges of the modem urban
society. Nevertheless, there has not been
a serious discontinuity in the tradition of
the Kings' companies. Their permanence
in an adverse environment signals how
strongly some sectors of the urban work-
ing-class can be attached to the traditional
"moral order" whose main principles are
the mutual obligations and the personal
reciprocal exchanges. In this sense, Reily's
conclusions add some evidence to the
"sociology of the Brazilian dilemma"
(Da Matta, 1983): the oscillation between
the poles of modem individualist and hier-
archical societies.
To reach that point, Reily followed the
path pioneered by Carlos Rodrigues
Brandao, who first analysed the folias'
journeys in terms of reciprocal exchanges.
Walking from house to house, folioes
weave the fabric of their "moral commu-
nity". Committed to join a company by
their personal devotion or due to a promise
to the Three Kings made by some relative,
the folioes become part of a group that
distributes songs which transmit God's
blessings to the faithful. As spokesmen to
the Magi, the singers receive the compen-
sation during their visits in the form of
housing and alms for the final festival. All
this cycle is founded in a mythical recit
which explains how Our Lady gave the
Magi their musical instruments (viola,
tambourine and drum) in exchange for
their gifts to the newborn Jesus. As they
received the instruments, they were
obliged to continue their journey singing
God's blessings. The chain of gifts shows
the triple obligation of giving, receiving
and restituting which was first analysed by
Marcel Mauss in his essay on the ancient
forms of exchange (Mauss, 1974).
The book shows greater originality in
the description and analysis of the musical
styles recognized by the folioes in the geo-
graphic area of the fieldwork: the mineiro,
paulista and baiano styles, called after
their supposed origins in the (now) States
of Minas Gerais, Sao Paulo and Bahia.
The differences in the vocal organization
of the first two styles set on a series of
extra-musical associations which are dis-
cussed by the author in Chapter 2. Such a
systematic presentation of the folias' vocal
traditions has never been proposed by any
scholar before.
Reily suggests that the multi-part
mineiro style has developed in the urban
centres of the former mining region, in the
time of colonial Brazil. Besides this hypo-
121
BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.12/ii 2003
thetical origin, the accumulation of up
to eight voices, producing an increasingly
dense texture, evokes the progressive
integration of the faithful through their
participation in the chain of exchanges.
The paulista style, on the other hand - an
antiphonal structure in which two duos
alternate - is associated with the coopera-
tion between equal peers that prevailed in
the subsistence farming in the caipira area
(State of Sio Paulo). There is a certain
degree of speculation about those associa-
tions, but the lack of empirical proof is
compensated by the stimulating ideas on
the origin and diffusion of musical styles.
The paulista and mineiro styles high-
light different aspects of the Catholic
morals: equality of all men as Christians
and their hierarchical subordination to
God's law. This would explain the conti-
nuity of the musical styles in spite of
the substantial change in their original
social settings. They are no longer "sonic
representations" of the luxury of Baroque
religiosity in the mining area, nor of
the reciprocity between small farmers.
Asfolias reenact the mythical visitation of
the Magi, they perform today an utopian
vision of the social life.
Reily relies on the idea of "enchant-
ment" to translate her interpretation of
ritual and music. The word evokes Max
Weber's concept of disenchantment - the
withdrawal of the belief in magical forces
operating in the world - but Reily doesn't
propose a discussion of his theory of the
rationalization process. She seems to
conceive of enchanting as part of an
"affective" theory of ritual in which music
and other sensorial stimulation play a
central role. Ritual and music-making
"enchant a space", i.e., create a separated
space from the ordinary world. In fact, she
prefers the verb (to enchant) to the noun
(enchantment): "... any setting which
promotes experiences of communitas
through music making enchants an alter-
native social reality into existence" (14).
And also: "By performing their music in
their annual visitations, humans can re-
enact the mythic journey of the Wise Men,
temporarily reenchanting God's vision
among humans"(185).
According to her, ritual is an "ocean of
fragmentary sensory stimuli" (13), a realm
of "charged affections" aimed at making
men believe - this is how cultural repre-
sentations become meaningful and true to
every individual:
Through the highly charged enact-
ment of a complex exchange system,
blessings enchant experiences that pro-
mote a sense of commitment to the
divine "natural laws" of reciprocity,
the very source of the King's protec-
tive power to preserve life (189).
Reily also brings some information on
the new opportunities for some folias in
the urban milieu: they may be invited to
sing in public spaces, sponsored by local
authorities; they may be proud of having
recorded a disc; they seek support to buy
new uniforms and instruments. The author
sees their participation in the "folkloriza-
tion of tradition" as part of a political strat-
egy, as she stresses the role of the journeys
in the construction of a subaltern identity
"in opposition to the privileged sectors of
society" (212). It is true that the perceived
harmlessness of the folias can be instru-
mental to the leaders in their demands for
financial support and recognition as active
cultural producers. But given the scarce
evidence of their opposition to the wealthy
sectors, one might ask whether the rela-
tionship with local authorities is not part of
another strategy: the integration of new
partners into the traditional system of
exchanges, a process that is inscribed in
the mythical foundation of their mission.
Could not the checks be understood as
gifts exchanged for God's blessings
mediated by the Magi? When folies per-
form before the manger scene in front of
the town hall, aren't they visiting another
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BRITISH JOURNAL OF ETHNOMUSICOLOGY VOL.12/ii 2003
"family"? In other words, the political
strategy (from the observer's point of view)
may be the conquest of new faithful and
the expansion of the folioes circuits (from
their point of view). These remarks high-
light the relevance of Voices of the Magi in
the debate on class and culture.
A few general statements in the book
are not valid for allfolias in the southeast:
for instance, the mineiro style is not
dominant in Rio de Janeiro State, where,
in addition, the accordion reigns. And
although the author is right in stating that
Brazilian scholars avoid identification with
folklorists, the political reason she invokes
sounds strange: "many folklorists had
become directly associated with the
projects of the military dictatorship" (9).
I do not know what "direct association"
means exactly in this sentence. In any case,
it should be remembered that Edison
Carneiro, President of the Campaign for
the Defense of Brazilian Folklore, was made
destitute after the military coup d'etat in
1964 precisely because of his Marxist
inclinations. The unquestionable distance
between folklorists and social scientists
can be better understood in the context of
the intellectual clash between competing
conceptions of scientific priorities (see
Vilhena 1997).
These are, however, uncompromising
ethnographic and historical details. More
important is the author's convincing
demonstration that "anthropological per-
spectives on ritual and ritualization can be
significantly enhanced by close attention
to ritual music and music making" (3).
References
Brandao, Carlos Rodrigues (1981) Sacer-
dotes de viola. Petr6polis: Vozes.
Matta, Roberto da (1983) Carnavais,
malandros e her6is. Para uma socio-
logia do dilema brasileiro. Rio de
Janeiro: Zahar.
Mauss, Marcel (1974) "Ensaio sobre a
dadiva. Forma e razao da troca nas
sociedades arcaicas" [1923-24]. In:
Sociologia e Antropologia. Sao Paulo:
EPU/ EDUSP, vol. II, pp. 37-178.
Vilhena, Luis Rodolfo (1997) Projeto e
missdo. 0 movimento folcl6rico
brasileiro (1847-1964). Rio de Janeiro:
FUNARTE; Fundacao Getilio Vargas.
ELIZABETH TRAVASSOS
Instituto Villa-Lobos, Programa de P6s-
Graduacdo em Musica, Universidade do
Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO)
etravas@ alternex. com.br
etravas @ unirio. br
SHEMEEM BURNEY ABBAS The female
voice in Sufi ritual: devotional prac-
tices of Pakistan and India, 2002.
Austin: University of Texas Press.
209pp, photographs, tables, maps,
glossary, notes, bibliography, index.
Hardback $45. ISBN 0-292-70515-8
This book highlights some important
aspects of female culture in Sufi tradi-
tions of Pakistan. Shemeem Burney Abbas
is a Pakistani-born lecturer in English
Language and Applied Linguistics. She
has developed her 1992 Ph.D. work on
oral texts from Indo-Pakistani Sufi tradi-
tions so as to focus on female issues but
unfortunately undermines her project with
over-exaggerated claims. Her opening
sentence states: "This book documents the
place of women in Sufi practice in the sub-
continent of Pakistan and India", setting up
expectations that are disappointed. More
accurately, on the next page she describes
her work as a "linguistic anthropological
study of discourse and poetry used in
devotional settings" (xviii). This tendency
to blur her definitions and aims detracts
from her work.
Running to less than 150 pages of main
text, this is quite a short study. It has four
main chapters and a shorter closing
chapter. There are good data on the female
123