Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
In the metropolitan region of João Pessoa, Paraíba, Brazil, until the 1980s, traditional music
groups had fundamentally community and participatory performances maintained by
donations. After this period, the presentational structures have been constituted as prevailing
model of performance. The groups incorporated a set of experiences and meanings emerged
from a cooperation network composed of participants themselves, institutions, folklorists,
academics and diverse political agents. This paper discusses relationship between such
contemporary processes and musical performance of Barca Nau Catarineta de Cabedelo. This
is a traditional music centennial group that has as main feature the scenic and musical
representation of Portuguese navigation in times of maritime expansion. The work is based
mainly on ethnographic research carried out in four years. The theoretical basis involves
studies on musical performance and popular culture [equivalent term to traditional music,
with deep social and political implications in Brazil]. The results points that processes and
events of performance are both based on sociocultural experiences of a broad network and on
social interactions of each musical practice. Therefore, I argue that musical performance of
Barca results from social and symbolic interaction between the subjects and their
collectivities in daily live, rehearsals and performance events. The interactions are mediated
by experiences and meanings emerging on social, aesthetic, political and economic traits.
Aesthetic traits, understood here as all forms of production, perception, apprehension and
interpretation of the musical environment, act as main mediators of the process, evoking past
experiences and constructing new experiences and meanings.