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Today I will tell you a story that speaks with the voices of the Barbatuques
It is morning and I'm in the highway, sleep still pervades me, the sun is still low and I blind me a bit for which I have to pull down the parasol of the Doblò. "Dad put my song" says my daughter from the back seat "Search by author: Barbatuques Album: Ayu Song n.14 Galo Cantou.
Sing meu Povo, sings com muita alegria que Esso Folia não Teat Teat Pra Acobar Cheguei Meu Povo, Pra Cantar Com Alegria Nassa Folia, Cheguei Pra ComeMorar
Below the crushes but many other sounds have been added, mostly percussive, it is an orchestra that in an incessant crescendo arrives at Chorus:
"Você Chegou Pra Alegrar or Dia Você Chegou Pra Nos Trazer Alegria Nós Somo Como Tu Somos da Mesma Família nós Somo Como Tu Somos da Mesma Família"
My daughter sings her all, she does not know the Portuguese obviously but by dint of listening to her she learned her sounds and reproduces them perfectly. I sing with her, he is one of our daily rites.
I, my daughter, Uncle Charles and the Barbatuma ... what a story
"Dad but his uncle Charles also sings in this song !!!"
"Of course love, you're right, uncle Charles sings and plays with the Barbauques."
Uncle Charles is Charles Raszl, musician, dancer, performer of San Paolo experts expert in Brazilian dances and rhythms and I am lucky and the honor of studying and working on it when he is in Italy. The Barbatuques are my favorite body music group; They were founded by the Paulist musician who disappeared in 2021, Fernando Barba inspired in turn by the musician and researcher Stenio Mendes and his research on Brazilian popular music and sound dialogue, on the use of voice and body as communication tools. Barba for game had started his research on the transposition of the Brazilian rhythms on the body, mainly using chest, schiocchi, thighs, hands and sounds emitted with the mouth. The focus was at the beginning was pedagogical and had developed a series of games and activities that he shared with a first nucleus in a music school in San Paolo . The meeting with Stenio Mendes from even more strength to this research and at the end of the 90s the Barbatuques also officially arose as a performative group.
From my point of view, the Barbatuques embody the perfect combination of: work on the timbre research of the sounds of the body, body transposition of traditional Brazilian rhythms, balance between original songs and popular repertoire rearranged in a recognizable way and balance between the sung parts and the parts played In Body Percussion.
There is no part of body percussion in the Barbatuques repertoire that is tremendously technical and not reproducible by a common mortal with a little practice and this for me is a strength because their focus is not surprising with fireworks but Bring those who listen or see their performances on a sound journey made of voices, corporal rhythms and movement.
The fact that the background is the musical and not strictly performative pedagogical one makes this way of making music arrives to both children and adults and in reference to this I like to remember two albums that in my opinion are very important.
Tum PA (2012) a record for children but absolutely usable also by adults; Some of the songs accompany the Clapping Games; Of the song Tum Pa there is also a video that explains how to develop the game: an example of the magic that the Barbatums manage to create live is the traditional song Peixinhos do Mar contained in the same album; Here is a video of the performance.
Ayú (2016) An album with arranged songs, recorded and mixed very well, at times it looks like electronic music and it is incredible to think that there is not even a tool to play. The work of arrangement and distribution of the voices of the song Ayù, the atmospheres and the harmony of the song Totem.
But the song preferred by my daughter (and also by me) is Galo Cantou:
it is a concentrate of Brazilian musical energy, of voices and sounds of the body, you cannot stand still while listening to such a song. Fernando Barba was the creator of an unmistakable style of playing the body, he created a new way of conceiving music and reinterpreting the popular one and his work inspires many musicians, teaching, enthusiasts all over the world.
Thanks Barbatuques, thanks Fernando Barba for the inspiration you have transmitted to us with your passion and with your ability that only the greats have.
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