Myth, Music, and Ritual in The Xangô Cult

Aesthetics of Opacity and Transparence: Myth, Music, and Ritual in the Xang Cult and in
the Western Art Tradition

Author(s): Jos Jorge de Carvalho
Source: Latin American Music Review / Revista de Msica Latinoamericana, Vol. 14, No. 2
(Autumn - Winter, 1993), pp. 202-231
Published by: University of Texas Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/780175
Accessed: 19-08-2016 16:55 UTC
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at
http://about.jstor.org/terms
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted
digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about
JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
University of Texas Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Latin
American Music Review / Revista de Msica Latinoamericana
This content downloaded from 200.130.19.143 on Fri, 19 Aug 2016 16:55:47 UTC
All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms
Jose Jorge de Carvalho
Aesthetics of Opacity and
Transparence: Myth, Music,

and Ritual in the Xang6 Cult
and in the Western Art
Tradition
In this article, I propose to present first an
ethnography of the musical life in the Xang6 cult of Recife, focus
primarily on the correlation between the various musical styles practice

and the organization of its complex ritual universe. Secondly, I will com
pare some classical ethnomusicological approaches to the understand

of traditional musical systems (as in the case of Xango music) with
proaches considered specific or exclusive for the understanding of West
music. In this context, I will discuss the analysis by Levi-Strauss o
musical theme of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung by Richard Wag
as well as the principal theses of Max Weber, Theodor Adorno, and Fred
Jameson concerning the increasing rationalization of the technical
compositional procedures of modern Western music, seeking to reread a
of these ideas-strongly Western-in light of the Xango musical mater
Finally, through the articulation of these various ethnographic and inte

pretative schemes, I will attempt to offer a small contribution to a theor
the interrelations between myth, music, and ritual. My intention is to
continuity to the theoretical challenge proposed by John Blacking (1974
who advocated for ethnomusicology the role of enriching and suggesting
themes and central issues for the humanistic disciplines in general.
General Characteristics of the Xango Cult
The Xango cult of Recife pertains to the traditional Afro-Brazilian relig

standard, an equivalent except for some differences of the candombl
Bahia. The predominant African tradition in Recife is the Nago Nati

very similar to the Ketu Nation of Bahia.1 For the sake of the mus
discussion to be introduced here, I will very synthetically present
fundamental characteristics of the cult.
Latin American Music Review, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall/Winter 1993

?1993 by the University of Texas Press
Jose Jorge de Carvalho : 203
The Xango belief system is based on three main categories of supernatural entities, with whom believers try to make contact by means of ritual
practice: the orixds, or "saints," who are deifications of natural forces; the
ori, or head, a type of individual vital principle; and the eguns, or ancestors.
The orixds function primarily as mediators between an abstract God

(nowadays assimilated to the Catholic God) and men. They are called
"saints" precisely because of their mediating role upon which the phenome-
non of syncretism, or the significant equivalence between the African

deities and some of the most idolized Catholic saints, was established.
The ori is an entity that fulfills a role analogous to that of the guardian
angel in Christian belief. Literally, ori means head, and while the orixd
belongs to an atemporal dimension (since it refers to a deity), ori is the
supernatural dimension of temporal life, possessing the same life span as
each individual.
The eguns are the souls of the dead, mostly of those who belonged to t
cult. Sometimes they interfere in people's lives and can appear to anyone
under the form of specters or disturbing entities. The cult of the eguns is
far the most secret part of Xango life; it is the exclusive responsibility o
the trustworthy men of the group, and women are only permitted to repl
to the song of eguns during the ritual. This great separation of the world
the eguns in relation to the rest of the system is also felt in terms of musi
as its music preserves very idiosyncratic traits in relation to other reper

tories of ritual music.
Ritual life is centered on three great areas of activity: (a) the sacrifices
of animals and the offerings to the orixas, the ori, and the eguns; (b) the
special rituals concerning the initiation process; (c) the great public festi-
vals, or toques, including those that close the initiation process and the
celebrations dedicated to the orixas, which are generally linked to the
Catholic calendar. In the same way that it is proper to qualify Xango as a
possession cult (for trance is undoubtedly the main mystical path offered
to the followers), it would also be adequate to call it a religion of sacrifice,
such is the intensity and quantity of sacrificial acts performed by members.
The three main sacrifice and offering rituals of Xango are: (1) obligation, or sacrifice and food offerings to the orixas. It is the most prominent
and frequent activity in any saint's house. It implies the articulation of

various and elaborate symbolic systems, such as colors, foods, songs,
material objects, invocations, and so on, molded on a very complex sequence of ritual acts. In practice, the obligation unfolds into various other
rituals, interdependent in execution and significance, meaning that a

certain obligation can last for weeks. For example, three days after the
main obligation, two complementary rituals occur that are of interest
because of their musical material. First the "saida do ebo" (or ebo removal),
also known as despacho, is a very important rite in Afro-Brazilian religious
tradition that consists of the removal and elimination of cooked foods and
204 : Xango Cult Music and Ritual
animal parts left on the deposits of the orixds during the sacrifice. The
"amarracao de folhas" (tying of the leaves), a quite reserved yet musically
rich rite centers basically on the figures of the orixas Exu and Osanyin and
closes the entire offering cycle. (2) Obori, or feeding of the head. It is a
sacrifice destined to strengthen the ori of the person, preparing him/her to
endure the possession by the orixd, and at the same time, making the person
healthier. According to followers, the Obori is one of the most beautiful
rituals of Xango, especially for its music. (3) bale obligation (or bale sacrifice), or the obligation to the eguns. At least once a year, animals are sacrificed and food offerings are made for the most important eguns of a cult
house.
The fundamental, most secret or private initiation rituals are the "lavacao
de cabega" (head washing), a central act through which the orixd definitely
settles in the ori of the person. The head of the neophyte and the stone of the
saint are simultaneously washed in a liquid made of herbs and plants with
various magic powers that belong to the orixds. The vegetable world in
general belongs to the god Osanyin and it is with his main plant that the
ori of the neophyte is touched in the crucial moment of the washing. The
head washing is immediately followed by a more secret and famous ritual,
called "feitura de santo" (the making, or settling of the saint) or "raspagem
de cabeca" (head shaving). Here the neophyte is secluded in a room where
her hair is shaved, and then, with a razor, cuts are made on the head,
shoulders and arms, with the purpose of introducing under the skin some
prepared vegetable and mineral mixtures called axes. The novice remains
in this secluded room generally for a month, and during this period she
learns various kinds of information about the saint, including dances and
songs proper of the orixd who now govern his head. This classical scheme
of "rite of passage" ends, as can be seen in Van Gennep's model with the
aggregation phase, when the neophyte finally leaves the liminal state to be
reintegrated into the community of followers, as a complete initiate. This
final phase is completed with a great feast for the orixas, in which the new
iao (initiate) leaves the seclusion room ritually and in triumph, possessed
by the orixa, to join the crowd of followers who sing an exclusive song for
the occasion, called the "Iyawo's song." With the exit of iao, which can or
cannot be part of a public festival, the initiation cycle of a Xang6 adept is
formally concluded. Later, there will be time for complementary rituals,
even if without the symbolic (or musical) power of the two maximum
moments described above.
It could be rightly argued that a first contrast within the great divisio
of Xango music consists in the opposition between the repertoire of prai
songs for the orixds (of a public character) and the repertoire (of a priva
character) of the songs that accompany specific ritual acts, or functional
songs. This opposition occurs both in terms of meaning and of performanc
Concerning the songs for the orixas (see Segato 1984), members make many
commentaries and appreciations, defining musically the personality of each
orixd. In the particular case of the orixas that "possess" followers, such as
Xango, Ogum, Orixala, Oxum, Iemanja, and Iansa, the capacity to project ascribed meaning in songs is very great. Although they no longer know
the literal translation of the songs (almost all are spoken in the Yoruba
language, no longer used in the cult), the members make their own translations, based principally in certain associations and phonetic concordances
with the Portuguese language. In the case of the most abstract orixas, as
Orumila or Osanyin, or those simply not allowed to "possess" people (as
Exu), the profile becomes less individualized, and the interpretations are
more general and homogeneous. On the other hand, the functional songs
cause less commentaries or "translations," and what is discussed, above all,
is the situation and precise moment they must or must not be sung.
A second contrast between the two musical domains occurs at the level
of performance. The songs for the orixds are much more emotional, dynamic, and energetic, especially during trance occasions, when the presence
of the gods is celebrated with joy. Instead, the purely ritual songs are always
sung in the same way. There is a sort of musical indifference for these songs
on the part of the followers and rarely do they show any variation of greater
expressiveness in the way they sing them. When the songs are repeated,
for example, there is no change in dynamics and the voices show hardly
special inflection. In other words, these songs remain quite distant from
the world of emotions that each ritual creates. Making use of a classical and
well adapted opposition by John Blacking in How Musical is Man?, one can
say, in general, that the songs for the orixds are an example of "music for
being," and those that go along with ritual acts are "music for having." By
means of concrete ritual acts, the continuity and good flow of cosmic and
psychic forces put in motion is assured. By means of the songs for the
orixds, they celebrate and guarantee the reward, for each individual, of
such a continuity.2
First Level of Analysis: The Types of Rituals and Types of

Songs
I now turn to the musical organization of Xango rituals as revealed through
three different levels of analysis. The first two levels use parameters that
reflect the way the followers themselves categorize their universe, while the
third level involves a dimension of discourse we could call essentially analytical. The first level of analysis refers to the first level of internal differen-
tiation in which the followers speak of each ritual as a totality; thus, the
Obori, for example, can be seen as a musical unit. At a second level, they

speak of types of ritual songs, or groups of songs (be they functional or
praise songs), which accompany acts or sequences of acts that point out
significant moments of a ritual as a whole or that identify, through their
specific repertoires, each orixd in particular. Putting together these levels,
one can say that the identity of each ritual is recognized through the very
particular manner in which different types of ritual songs are combined
during their execution. If we consider all the rituals of Xango and all the
possible types of songs, we can construct a chart that shows clearly how the
correlations between rituals and songs were formed in the history of the
cult. For such purpose, I will first present the list of variables, being cau-
tious to include all possible cases of types of songs, including the subdivisions of a single type that would be relevant in differentiating a variation
of a certain ritual from another. For example, the songs for animal sacrifices
admit many variations, as well as some very rare songs that may remain
unheard by the majority of members for as long as ten years (like the song
for the sacrifice of turtles, an animal that is rarely sacrificed).
First, the list of all the possible rituals in the life of the cult.3
(a) Obligation (normal sacrifice) for the saints

(b) Sacrifice of a ram for Xango
(c) Sacrifice of a tortoise for Xango
(d) Sacrifice of a duck for Iemanja
(e) Obori
(/) Obligations for the eguns
(g) Saida do ebo (or eb6 removal)
(h) Amarracao defolhas (tying of the leaves)
(i) Etutu
(1) Obligation for Orumila
(k) "Lavacao de cabeca" (or washing of the head)
(/) Initiation ("making" or settling of the saint with head shaving)
(m) Saida de iab (iyawo's exit)

(n) Ose' (rice offering for Orixala)
(o) Normal toque

(p) Toque with a basket of offerings for Oxum
(q) Toque with a pot of offerings for Iemanja

Now, all the possible types of songs:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Songs to kill animals during a common sacrifice

Songs to accompany ritual acts during a common sacrifice
Songs to spice up the offerings (or seasoning songs)
Songs for eguns
Songs for Orumila
Ritual songs of obligation for Orumila
7. Songs for Osanyin

8. Songs specific for the washing of the head (including
another song for Osanyin)
9. Songs specific for the amarrardo defolhas (including various
other songs for Osanyin)
10. Songs for the ori
11. Etutu songs
12. Ia6's songs
13. Song for the "making" of the saint
14. Praise songs in honor of the various orixads (Exu, Ogum, Ode,
Obaluaie, Nana, Oba, Eua, Oxumare, Oxum, Iemanja,
Xango, Orixala, Ibegi, Ibegi, Orumila)
15. Praise songs for Xango that are sung exclusively on the
occasion of a public feast
16. Songs to bid farewell to orixds at the end of possession
17. Songs that end a public festival
18. Song to introduce Orixala in a public festival
19. Songs of rejoice
20. Ebo's songs
21. Song for killing a ram for Xango
22. Song for killing a tortoise for Xango
23. Song for killing a duck for Iemanja
24. Songs to offer cooked foods (iyanle) for Xango
25. Agbe songs, or songs of happiness and relaxation that are performed after the formal conclusion of a public festival
26. Ritual songs of the obligation for the Exu
The possibilities of the expressive articulation of songs and rituals can
now be better understood through the appreciation of the following correlation chart.
To give a brief example of how distinct types of songs are combined in

a single ritual, I will show the musical material that appears in an Obori, a
highly complex ritual, following the chronological order of appearance

of the songs. (a) In the first part of Obori, when only raw food is offered to
the ori of the adept, the following sequence is heard:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Ori song that accompanies the offering of a fish

A song for the killing of chickens
Seven ori songs
Seven songs to spice up the offerings
An ori song
Five songs for the orixd Orumila
An ori song
Correlations Between All Rituals (letters) and Song Types (numbers)

:. ...i' :l ex x x x:.
*...::
xx
xX
x x
x
xX
x X
X
s.
;:
X
x
^tx
~~~~~x
,,,,,'
:&'::~
19
-S$:x
*;17.
a::. xx
(b) In
are offered;
the
second
part
of
8. Eight ori songs

9. Five songs for Orumila
10. An ori song
11. A fraternization and conclusion song
Here we can observe how five different types of songs are combined in
an Obori so as to produce a quite complex result. Also, one should point out
that the last song adds an element of surprise (in other words, it increases
the degree of information of the event), for it is introduced exclusively at
the end of the ritual, after the second part which is but a mere repetition
of the first.
An initial important conclusion we can draw from the correlation chart

indicates that each ritual possesses at least one type of song that belongs to
it specifically. From this, we can deduct that every Xango ritual is unique
as regards the musical character of its symbolic expression. If other levels
of symbolism already distinguish each ritual from the others, the musical
material now intensifies these differences.
Another relevant observation is that there are very few types of songs
introduced in each new ritual. In general, only a single type characterizes
th

a differentiation between two distinct rituals. This leads us to conclude
that there is a high level of redundancy in the music of the Xango ritual
system, and that the musical identity of a ritual is generally given by th
presence of a single diacritical sign. In this way, a follower who has ju

arrived to the ceremony gains a new fragment of musical information in
each new ritual in which he participates; at the same time he reinforc
the knowledge of the musical material to which he had already bee
exposed in previous rituals. From this point of view, the general musical
information is distributed more or less evenly along the entire music
system, and it is only through participation, from the first to the last o
the rituals, that a person can experience and absorb the complete range of
Xango music.
In the third place, the correlation chart enables us to realize that certai
rituals are constructed with a greater number of song types than others.
The obligation for the saints and the Obori, two complex rituals that imp
a greater communal participation, articulate a great number of song type
We can also see clearly that the most spectacular and attractive rituals of
the cult (the great celebration for Oxum and Iemanja and the iyawo's exit
with which the initiation culminates) are precisely the rituals that presen
a greater variety of types. On the other hand, the obligation for eguns, th
most secret of all the activities of the cult is, coincidentally, the most homo
geneous in terms of music and the one that contains less song types (only
two); thus, it only shares one type of song with other rituals-the so
of rejoicing.
The initiation ritual (the settling of the saint) has only one specific song,
repeated throughout the whole event. This is more comprehensible if we
keep in mind that the ritual activity in itself is extremely brief, and because
it is based mainly on the neophyte, who is transformed into the main

vehicle of symbolic expressions, it excludes almost entirely the collective
orientation that other rituals display.
As for the head washing, it is composed of a diversified musical material,
although it is, as in the previous case, centered primarily on the individual.
In fact, many songs are performed during this ritual; nevertheless, all the
symbolic action centers around a single song (to which I shall refer later),
sung immediately before the head of the neophyte is washed.
In the iyawo's exit, a single new song appears, despite the dozens of
songs in honor of all the orixds which are sung in many other rituals.
Finally (and despite all the previous discussions) it is significant to note
that the three principal songs of the three initiation rituals are the only
songs, out of the entire repertoire of Xango that the initiated follower
will hear, sung by the community especially for him, the only time in
life. This fact, obviously, reinforces its unique position within the total set
of ritual chants.
Second Level of Analysis: The Musical Characteristics of
Each Ritual
After reviewing the combination of song types, I will succinctly descri

the principal musical characteristics of each ritual, seen as a whole.
(a) The obligation for the saints. In terms of music, it is one of the m
varied of all rituals. Dozens of songs in honor of the saints are interpos
with functional songs that are synchronized with the diverse ritual act
For this reason, its musical material will depend largely on which specif
saints receive a sacrifice during a particular celebration. For exampl

Xango (an introverted orixa') is the last saint to receive a sacrifice,
corresponding obligation should end at a climax with lively songs, clapp

loud singing, and shouts. On the other hand, if the last to receive offerin
is Orixala (a calm saint), the music will probably end in a calmer stat
spirit. No other ritual presents such musical contrasts directly related w
execution (such as progress, intensity, repetition, and vocal tension).
(b) Obori. The extremely slow tempo of songs for the ori, enhancing
almost perfect unisonous singing, is more than sufficient to disting
this ritual from all others. The music of the Obori is very similar, in it
performance style, to Gregorian Chant (although I have no way of know
if this is due to any influence of Western music). At any rate, this simila
gives it a special distinction within the Xango repertoire that, we m
remember, is sung entirely in Yoruba.

(c) Obligation for eguns. Specifically in this ritual, the men sing from
within a secret room (the room of the dead, also called the bale room), w
the women, for whom the bale is a taboo, respond to the chants from t
other side of the wall. This separation of the sexes affects the relative he
ing of the chants: the men hear their voices loudly and the women's
barely audible, while the women hear their own voices high and the me
very low. Thus, it is only in this ritual that the voices of the choir are
united. Besides, the majority of the songs for the eguns possess a very pa
ticular meter. They are formed normally by binary and ternary divisio
that, combined, do not present a definite measure, thus conveying

general impression of a recitative. Finally, this ritual includes the o
song in all of the Xango repertoire that is sung exclusively by men.4
(d) Head washing. Just as in the obligation for the saints, the gen
musical character of this ritual varies according to the saint of the pers
whose head is being washed. Nevertheless, it possesses characteristics th
differentiate it a great deal from other rituals (as for example, the prese
of more than a dozen songs for Osanyin, all based on the anhemito
pentatonic scale, which is practically exclusive of the chants for this orix
Moreover, the songs for Osanyin tend to use anticipations and rhythmi
syncopations, within the binary signature which does not exist in any ot
type of Xango music. Lastly (and maybe the most important factor, as I
will try to show further on), the key song of this ritual is surrounded by an
atmosphere of expectation and contained emotion that makes its performance a ritual act of specially unique significance.
(e) Iyawo's exit. Because this is a very special class of public celebration,
it includes a long presentation of dozens of chants in honor of all saints. It
also includes a very special chant, called the iyawo's song, that is interpreted
always in a dramatic way, with the leader striving to emphasize musically
the unique character of each iyawo's exit.
We have been able to detect, so far, the existence of singularities, from
the musical point of view, in each one of the mentioned rituals. On the
other hand, the musical parameters that reveal this singularity vary significantly from one case to another. In some rituals, it is the use of a certain
scale; in another, it is the presence of a certain type of recitative rhythm
to the chants. In others, parameters relate more directly to the musical

performance, amongst which dynamics, intensity, production and vocal
integration, or even the mere presence or absence of certain musical
instruments seem to be crucial.
Third Level of Analysis: Divided by Ritual, United by Music
Until this point I have applied the classical ethnomusicological method

developed mostly in the 1960s by authors such as Alan Merriam (1964
and masterly exemplified by the studies of John Blacking of the music of

the Venda of South Africa. One of the most convincing applications of the
interrelation between anthropology and musicology is still found, in my
opinion, in Blacking's Venda Children s Songs (1967), where he molded wha
he called the cultural analysis of music. I will briefly repeat some of the
basic points of this approach: (a) a basic structuralist assumption of th

integration and internal coherence of a musical tradition, (b) an assump
tion, equally necessary, that the native categories of music are in some way
compatible with what we define as analytical categories. That is, not only
must one proceed from native categories (which is what every anthropologis
does), but also give credit to the capacity of the participants of any musica
tradition for being able to analyze their own music. For such purpose, we
must select from the purely technical elements we use for a classical musico
logical analysis (such as interval statistics, analysis of harmonic structures,
identification of modes, and rhythmic and melodic cells) those parameters
which most fit the musical distinctions and evaluations made by followers
of the style, even though the native vocabulary uses expressions taken from
cultural domains apparently distant from the musical language. The basic
assumption is that such distinctions, frequently formulated in religious,

political, economic, or kinship terms, are capable of being translated into
some domain of Western musical theory. It is the task of the analyst to

identify this musical domain that is metaphorically expressed or concealed
under other symbolic domains. From this approach, the criteria for the use
of systems of musical analysis must be contextually redefined.
Not always is the most technically complex or difficult analysis the most
sensible to the context of the music we wish to comprehend. Even the

supposed complexity of some methods (such as those of Kolinski and
Schenker) is almost always partial, for they usually favor certain aspects that
were historically relevant for the consolidation of the Western musical tradi-
tion (like the harmonic structure), in detriment of others which are relevant
to other traditions, such as those related more directly to the process of
musical organization and performance. The novelty of the ethnomusicological approach (and Blacking's contribution has been fundamental here)
argues for the utility of selecting analytical parameters suggested by the same
society whose musical tradition one is studying. The purpose of cultural

analysis "is not to describe simply the cultural background of music as human
behavior, and then analyze the style in terms of rhythm, tone, pitch, instrumentation, frequency of ascending and descending intervals, and other
essentially musical terminology, but describe both the music and its cultural
basis as interrelated parts of a total system"5 (Blacking 1971:93).
In agreement with such an approach, I think that one of the central

objectives of a musical analysis sensitive to ritual context could have been
fulfilled with the description presented up to this point. We saw how the
Xango rituals draw a systematic outline of the supernatural universe,

especially the functions of the different entities and their magic effects.
As for the musical material, it is organized in such a way as to confirm and
stress these symbolic divisions, manipulating, by means of an even play of
repetition and innovation (as one can see from the correlation table), a
vast repertoire of songs.
However, some time after having practically concluded my analysis of
this music, I was able to realize that one song (and only one) was repeated,
with a different text, in more than one different ritual. This song, which
I denominated as the key symbol of this ritual system (Carvalho 1984),

is that sung at the crucial moment of the head washing. It is also present,
exactly in the same way, as the first song of the ebo removal. It is also identical, with minimal variation, to one of the songs used at the moment of
spicing the food offerings present in the obligation to Orumila and in Obori.
Finally, it also appears with some changes in the amarrafao de folhas. I

named it a key symbol because it penetrates all internal divisions of the
entire complex of rituals that expresses the relation of the followers with
the saints. If we consider the sequence of initiation to the cult as a slow
and steady absorption of a great symbolic plane, we see that this song is
presented to the neophyte in the Obori, at the beginning of this initiation
process. Later on, after the person has prepared his or her ori and made
offerings to the orixd, it is performed in its most dramatic form right
before the head is bathed in the sacred liquid, which is infused in plants
that carry the power of the orixds. Its presence here is a clear sign that, from
this moment on, there can be no return from a lifelong compromise with
the saints. Much later, the song appears again, three times, during the
amarrafao de folhas, when the cycle of offerings and sacrifices related to
initiation has ended.
Finally, it reappears once again as the first song of the ebo removal, as
sort of reminder that the ritual force, which it helped generate and concentrate in previous moments of the cycle, cannot last forever and must b
eliminated at the end of a certain period so as to prevent its effect from
becoming negative.
Significantly, because it is such an important song, it presents som
unique musical characteristics. Taking the No. 6 song as a reference, we can

observe that, although it is composed without semitones, its great ascending
and descending intervals conceal very subtly the most obvious effect of a
pentatonic melody (exactly what identifies, on the other hand, the songs
of Osanyin). Besides, the melodic progression it presents in the secon
part, with a modulation that permits a momentous impression of bitonality
does not have a parallel counterpart in the Xango repertoire. It must b

noted that it is always sung at a low register (when a woman leads th
singing, the register chosen is deep in relation to the normal register of th

female voice), so that the lowest note of the melody (a fourth lower than
the initial note) sounds more spoken than sung. For all this, this song and
its repetitions or variations form a group within the total repertoire, for
they are the only ones to introduce this parlando effect upon a single not
In short, this remarkable song seems to function as a leitmotiv, producing
a subliminal sense of musical unity for a repertoire that seems to be in fact
quite internally sectionalized, reflecting compositional processes that ar
extremely distinct from each other (it provides the contrast to the songs fo
ori, eguns, and Osanyin transcribed at the end to notice the differences).
Numerous factors contribute to disguise or hide this melodic identit
within the repertoire as a whole. First, it is necessary to observe that only

a minority of the most important followers of the cult know in detail th
amarrafdo defolhas, and thus only a few know by memory the three song
based on this melody. Therefore, for a common member of the cult, it is
a matter of three simple songs, each one executed in very distinct rituals,
temporally displaced and perhaps similar to each other. For a repertoire of
182 songs, it can be argued that the degree of redundancy of three repetitions is very low. Besides, there are other ritual mechanisms that help to
conceal the similarities, as I will show next.

It has been stressed that this is a frozen musical repertoire (for at least
half a century no new songs have been composed in Yoruba in Recife) and
that it runs a constant danger of de-characterization due to loss of memory,
both individual and collective.6 Much emphasis is placed, therefore, in

the need of singing the texts correctly, especially because they belong to a
language that nowadays is exclusively ritual (more or less equivalent to

what the Latin language used to be in a Mass during a Catholic service).
With such a great importance given to the text, the mnemonic process
itself works against a musical association made purely at the level of notes
or melodies. This means that it is possible to apply to the musical tradition
of Xang6 Suzanne Langer's hypothesis that in a song, words are nothing

more than elements of the music (Langer 1953). In addition, nobody whistles
in a Xango house, since whistling is a taboo for Osanyin. And let us remember that whistling is a type of activity that can become analytical, as
it permits an independence from the text and an appreciation of the pure
movement of the notes; in other words, whistling allows us to produce

melodies, which are more easily comparable with each other. Complementing this taboo, which reinforces textual memory, the act of humming is
equally remote to the musical behavior of followers of the cult.
As if these factors would not suffice, there are other forms of inhibition
linked to ritual organization. The only songs that are sometimes sung out
of context are some songs of celebration and praise to the orixds; as for
ritual songs, no one sings them out of their specific context. We can add
other factors, more directly linked to the use of musical language: the songs
are tied to the contexts of rituals where they appear, performed with all
their idiosyncratic ingredients, such as emotion, supernatural, purpose,

and significance. Even the (supposedly) purely musical meaning is varied,
for the same melody will be sung, heard, and remembered in relation to
the song that immediately preceded it and to that which follows it in the
established ritual order.
The sum of all of these factors contributes in concealing the only melodic
repetition in a repertoire of more than 180 songs, but that can surpass 300
if we include numerous songs for the orixds that are also present in private
rituals. Nevertheless, the most important factor in all of this is perhaps
that, from a native point of view, the songs are distinct because their texts
are distinct. What is similar, for us, is the melody, which introduces a level
of analysis that has no equivalent in native discourse.
From Song to Melody

Putting into practice the basic ethnomusicological attitude I discussed
previously-that is, adhering to the cult members' way of being musical-I
was able to learn how to sing and to accompany with drums the entire
repertoire of the cult. Despite this effort, I was only able to discover this
melody exactly when I ceased guiding myself by the native criteria of

musicality and started to develop a purely formal level of search, which led
me to decontextualize the ritual songs so as to analyze them intrinsically,
in terms of tone, melody, rhythm, and so on. Upon discovering the melodic
identity of these chants, I named them the "key symbol" of the ritual system,
as they expressed a profound unity, beyond the diversity of specific ritual
activities of the cult and despite the apparent unconsciousness of members
as to the meaning of this symbol. As a matter of fact, I must now admit
that the key symbol is only song No. 6 (Osunbaoro), for it has a special expressive value from the native's point of view; the other songs have a lesser
symbolic value and are nothing but semiotic versions, in a cryptic dimen-
sion, of song No. 6 as a symbol.

However, if I can offer my own synthesis of a vast number of more or less
kin theories about the symbolic field, I define a symbol-a flower, a work,
a color, an image, an object, a song-as a type of sign that possesses at least
one dimension of incognito. It is, however, from the known dimension that
other levels of association and meaning can emerge (thus the essentially
polysemous character of the symbol), most of which are unknown (although
knowable) to the subject.7 From the already known to what is yet to be

known, it is the symbolic that integrates, condenses, and leads us to reach
into the realm of surprise-or at least, into that which was only implicit
before-when not into revelation itself. In this context, Eudoro de Souza's
formulation, to the effect that the symbolic is what unites and integrates,
while the diabolic is what separates and disunites (Souza 1980: 83-84), is
adequate and revealing. It coincides in essence with Gadamer's formulation, taken from Plato, of the symbol as "pieces of recollection," that is, as
something with which what used to be united and later was separated by
forgetfulness (which is a form of unconsciousness) is finally recognized.
Not surprisingly, these conceptions, derived from the purely speculative
practice of these two philosophers, confirm perfectly Victor Turner's formu-
lation, extracted from his experience as an ethnographer, about the

capacity of the ritual symbol to integrate opposite or even contradictory
meanings. I will give a concrete example of this activity that integrates

symbolic imagination.
The melody common to these songs is not a symbol from the native's
point of view, but a mere reiterating sign, which certainly is articulated
with other signs to form the structure of rituals, although not forming part
of a larger play of meaning that these rituals establish. If we should want
a semiotic parallel for this situation, we could say that this melody is to
the songs just as the phonemes of a language are to a speaker who combines
them in an identical manner on homonymous words, without being

permanently conscious that the same linguistic material generates profound
differences in meaning.
The use of a returning melodic theme, transformed in distinct moments
of a complex scheme, inevitably reminds us of the famous Wagnerian

leitmotiv. A comparative example is the analysis by Levi-Strauss of the
theme of renunciation of love present in The Rhinegold and The Valkyrie,
the first two parts of the tetralogy The Ring of the Nibelung. 8 His method con-
sisted in pulling together the three mythical events where such a theme is
present, very distinct and chronologically distant in the plot, and piling
them together, in an attempt to understand them as if they were structurally
one and the same event. Every time the renunciation theme is heard,
Levi-Strauss concluded, there is a treasure that must be removed or diverted. The first is the gold buried in the Rhine, which Alberich conquers
after abdicating love. Then, the sword buried inside the tree by Wotan is
finally found by Siegmund. There is also the woman, Brunhilde, confined
by her father Wotan inside a fire circle, who is saved by Siegfried, who is
in turn disguised as Gunther. Through the analysis of the story's plot and
utilizing the repetition of the theme as the conductor of the reading,

Levi-Strauss concluded that the gold, the sword, and the woman are the
same thing, although considered under distinct points of view.
This is not the adequate place for an extensive discussion of the merits
or mistakes of Levi-Strauss' interpretation. I decided to include his analysis
because it exemplifies very well the utilization of a musical action as a guide
for reading, beyond mere appearance, an action that takes place in another
discursive level (in this case, a mythical action). In principle, we can accept
the equivalence that he suggests as plausible, as long as it refers to a sym-
bolic field of which the anthropologist participates as a native. It seems

important just to emphasize that what he revealed to us was the logical
connection between the three diverted treasures; if there is a significant
relation, in the strict mythical level, between gold, the sword, and the
woman (that is, if the relation revealed by him is also symbolic and not
merely semiotic), it could only be shown through more specific research
about the explicit intentions of Wagner (extensively formulated in numerous
theoretical essays); relevant medieval symbolism, found in literary sources
from where many concatenated stories of the plot arise; and the interpretations formulated by the four generations of appreciators of the work.
In my view this task has yet to be undertaken.
However, there is another issue, which he did not consider and which
allows us to evaluate the relevance of the results of his analysis. Because

the realm of great structures is par excellence the realm of the unconscious
(in principle, cultural, in the sense of collective), is it possible that Wagner
himself, as the creator of a gigantic structure as The Ring of the Nibelung,
was always capable of consciously controlling the placement of the leitmotiv?
JoseJorge de Carvalho : 217

When Levi-Strauss tells us that he tried to show "hidden parallels or oppo-
sitions" (1985: 236), he seems to suggest that Richard Wagner was also
overtaken by the vast myth he proposed to narrate and ended up individually
reproducing the collective cultural logic, by hiding some profound relations between narrative episodes, characters, and musical themes. This
issue takes us to another, which I will develop further on, about the utility
of continuing to apply the structural analysis (of which the main results
until now have come from studies of savage thought) of the comprehension
of individual works that were constructed by creators who perfectly dominate structural reason.9
Returning to the Xango melody, we can proceed in an identical form

and superimpose the three ritual situations in which the melody is sung.
Let us organize, thus, the appearance of the songs in the following way:
(a) Ebatold ebato - placing honey in the offerings (in Obori and obligation rituals)
Emixaloke emixalokum - mixing water and sugar in the offerings
(in the amarradao defolhas)
In both activities, there is a preparation of what we call a magic

potion (a plausible translation for axe, the force that the orixcs hold
and concentrate in the ritual).
(b) Osunbaoro - washing the head of the neophyte (head washing ritual)
In this activity, the axe, which had been gathered before, is now
activated in the follower's head.
(c) Edimo edimece - ebd removal

All the liquid utilized, once worn-out of its power, is converted into
a polluting remnant and must be thrown away.

I synthesize the fan of symbolic associations condensed by the melody
in the following chart:?1
(a) Obori, obligation and
tying of leaves
Ritual Value (b) Head washing
/ (c) Ebo
(a) Preparation of axe
Key Melody Magical Value (b) Activation of axe
(c) Elimination of axe
(a) Infrequent performance

\ Medium dramatic tension
Musical Value (b) Individual performance

High dramatic tension
(c) Routine performance

Low dramatic tension
We can thus reveal a plan of equivalencies in meaning that had not

appeared at the levels of analysis discussed above. This melody, the only
one that repeats itself in the Xango repertoire, indirectly and thoroughly
narrates all the course covered by the axe of the saint, i.e., the energy that
permeates the life of the cult and that is the source of its religious efficiency.
Ritual Power and Musical Mystery

So far I exposed the three levels of analysis of the Xango musical material,
according to the initial proposal. Some issues, of a purely theoretical character, still remain to be explored. That such a central and important song
is so elegantly obscured, to the point where its repetition is only perceived
through a great analytical effort, is much more than chance. In my understanding, this is due to the specific way in which this tradition deals with
issues of creativity, innovation, and efficacy in the field of music. Maybe
the Xango musical aesthetics can become clearer if we compare them to

modern Western musical aesthetics, mainly because musicology as a science
(and consequently ethnomusicology, which allows us to explore this musical
tradition) evolved along with and parallel to the development of compositional techniques at the end of the nineteenth and mostly throughout the
twentieth century."
If we remember the brilliant study of Max Weber of the development
of classical Western music (Weber 1953), we realize that this musical tradition, which grew at the core of the very same culture that propelled the
scientific spirit, is based on a much more intense degree of rationalization
and self-consciousness than that of the Xango tradition-or even the

majority of other musical traditions. Complementing Weber's reasoning,
one could say that the Western discussion about music always leads to a
discussion of fundamentals. The analytic rationalization, common to com-
posers, instrumentalists, conductors, and musicologists, enables a deritualization of a repertoire wherever it comes from and its analysis from a
strictly formal point of view, as if this operation was just another type of
musical activity. Both the process of composition and the manner of reception of a new composition, especially in twentieth-century music, undergo
this rational operation that I call revision of foundations.
In the universe of Western musical values, it is understood that each
new musical piece brings a certain degree of creation (however small) and
the aesthetic impact of the work is linked to the mystery (or secret) of how
it was composed. The reaction of the receiver to the work (whoever it is)
is to try to understand how it was composed from a formal and technical
point of view, convinced that this comprehension is what will enable the
aesthetic enjoyment, or at least, intensify the enjoyment. All of this would
be simple and trivial if it did not interfere with other values of this same
culture. Thus, the discovery of the "secret" of the musical work (suppose,
a certain concept of form, a certain disposition of sounds, a serial work,
and so on) weakens the efficacy of its message as an artistic piece, for it
makes its internal law accessible to everyone. That is, the revelation of the
technical-formal structure of the piece threatens to render as banal (banal
employed here in the sense of predictable, as opposed to new information)
its principal pretensions of originality.
As Fredric Jameson (creative interpreter of the musical ideas of Theodor
Adorno) affirms, the aesthetic novelty comes to be considered, principally
since the period of Romanticism, "not as a relatively secondary and natural
by-product, but rather as an end to be pursued in its own right" (1974: 19).
The musical effects start to age and become obsolete in an ever more accelerated pace, and any attempt to repeat or imitate is not efficient. One
good example of this is the discussion of the process of corrosion of the

aesthetic and psychological impact of the diminished seventh, from its
initial utilization in Wagner's compositions
at its inception expressed unresolved pain and sexual longing, the
yearning for ultimate release as well as the refusal to be reabsorbed
into bland order; yet having grown familiar and tolerable over the
years, it now stands as a mere period sign of feeling and emotiveness, as a manner rather than a concrete experience of negation.
(1974: 21)
The counterpart of this vertiginous loss of efficiency is the need to invent

structures and compositional processes ever more unusual, to guarantee a
new aesthetic appeal through novelty. At last, the composer decodifies the
new work produced by his predecessor, and offers in exchange his own
structure, now renewed and supposedly with technical-formal originality.
Another consequence of this fight against banality is the rapid increase
in the number of discourses and theoretical explanations about the new

compositions. Once the structures generated by opposition to the existing
ones become excessively original (that is, technically difficult, obscure,

unsuspected, with little redundancy), it is necessary to speak of them, make
them clearer so that the receiver can assimilate them. But here, the ana-
lytical discourse enters in the music in an absolutely paradoxical and almost
aesthetically suicidal way. It is indispensable for the work to reach the

public; on the other hand, this same discourse contributes in making it
obsolete, for it exposes part of its compositional secret; or better, part of
its charm.
This is why (especially after Wagner, whose theoretical writings are quite
vast) it is not possible to separate Western music from writings about it.
Taking recent examples, let us think of the volume of Karleinz Stockhausen
and John Cage's writings of interpretational and technical support to their
compositions. The limits between the composer and the analyst become
more and more subtle. Thus, everyone is united-composer, conductor,
listener, and musicologist-in a single effort to explain and receive the
new music (if it is at all possible to continue to refer to an agent in the
traditional sense). Before this process, modern music was converted into
one of the main examples of how art functions in a "discursive society,"
to use a characterization of Michel Foucault (1973). In addition, in this
new music, the knowable unknown is what holds the aesthetic power; the
music casts to the listener an interpretative, rationalizing challenge, as or
more powerful than the challenge of sensibility and emotion.
I refer here (inevitably) to a theme that is very complex and upon which
there is no easy agreement. Henri Pousseur, for example, argues in an

opposite sense to what I affirm. According to him, twentieth-century art
was capable of bringing to discussion the absolute hegemony of reason

(1984: 102-103). I could accept his arguments as long as they would refer
to the origin or to the nature of the material used by the modern artist (for
example, the oniric dimension of surrealism or the extreme spontaneity of
dadaism). However, the rationalizing operation is present, even in relation
to the oniric or unconscious material, analyzed in its presentation, and

causes the first impact and is identified as such; in other words, it is
rationally neutralized in an almost instantaneous operation.
Counterposed to this conception of aesthetics and efficiency, other

musical traditions exist (such as the Indian, the Turkish and the Persian,
to name three that are, in a sense, comparable with each other for their
eminently modal structures) in which the new composition is placed side
by side to existing ones and not against them; luckily, certain repertoires of
musical genres of these traditions can grow to include thousands of distinct
parts without threatening or abandoning the fundamental tradition. One
has to observe that the activity of musical analysis is clearly present in these
traditions, although not with the same dialectical ardor, since after all, the
previous creation is not destroyed in the act of analyzing it or affirming
the new creation.
If we take this oriental aesthetic as mediator, we can consider the case of
Xango as an extreme opposite to the situation of Western music. It is a

question of a tradition in which the composition of new musical pieces is
practically abolished, for reasons historically linked to the creation of the
cult in Recife. The aesthetic effort, thus, is not concentrated in the generation of new structures, but in assuring that the existing ones continue to
make an impact on the public, that is, that they preserve their mystery.
In the strategy of the Xango tradition to avoid wearing out or saturation,
new structures are not produced, existing ones are not destroyed, nor any
of that which functions aesthetically is analyzed in terms of music. If
Jose'Jorge de Carvalho : 221
modern music exemplifies societies dominated by discourse, Xango music

epitomizes what could be called "societies of ritual action."
The issue here lies in understanding how musical canons are constructed
historically, in quite different societies. It is interesting to emphasize the
singular influence of rationalization, in the Weberian sense, both in the production of the work and in the construction of the canon of Western music.
This places me at a distance from the position of Jean-Jacques Nattiez,

for example, in his search for a general semiology of discourse about music.
According to Nattiez, Henri Pousseur was able to reveal a contradiction

between what Alban Berg said of his own music and "what we observe"
(Nattiez 1981: 51). Thus, he concluded that there is no reason, in societies
of oral tradition, for the discourse of the native to present an "exact" image
of his music. Therefore, he believes it is possible to level all the so-called
ethnotheories about music, "from the commentaries of a pygmy to the

writings of Wagner" (id.: 48). Let us put aside the positivist tone of the
author (the idea that we "observe, " univocally, something "exact" in music).
The fundamental point for me is not that Berg and Pousseur have distinct
visions of each other's music, but the fact that both visions are expressed
in the same discursive way, that is, intentionally technical, analytical, rational, almost "scientific," as if this could be possible.
This identity of modes of discourse between the creator and the analyst
is an exclusive characteristic, as far as I know, of modern Western music.
The other notorious ethnographic examples known in ethnomusicological

literature-the metaphors about bamboos used by the 'Are'Are to describe
music (Zemp 1979); the metaphors about waterfalls of the Kaluli (Feld
1982); and even the mythical language used by followers of Xango to speak
about the music of the orixacs (Segato 1984)-all demonstrate a much greater
discontinuity (both symbolic as semiological) between the discourse about
music and the technique of creation or reproduction of the musical material.
The role of reason and its hegemony in the construction of a meaningful
world cannot be so easily matched between all of these societies, even when
the metaphorical discourse about the music is extremely elaborate, as in

the three examples mentioned above.
I initiated this study using the ritual as a guide for the understanding of
music. We can now follow exactly the inverse path: the music makes us see
something in the nature of the ritual that was not clearly shown. In this
play between creation and repetition, mystery and revelation, information
and banality, destruction and denial, the ritual stands out precisely as
being a guarantee of the presence of form, which maintains its unknown
foundation. When this foundation is investigated and entirely exposed,

the ritual declines. To ritualize a form is to hide a part of its meaning, and
to cover it with conventions that preserve its expressive force. Ritual is

the kingdom of opacity par excellence. Everything happens as if it were the

competence of ritual to control memory,facilitating what must constantly
be remembered and guarding what must continue in the dark, inaccessible
to common consciousness."2
In the case under analysis, the ritual preserves the mystery of the song,
impeding the emergence of the dimension of melody-if it is not entirely
hidden, at least there is a collective decision to make its understanding

difficult or delayed. The Xango initiate is not taught to analyze music, but
to perform it correctly. What is emphasized is the belief that it is efficient,
aesthetically and supernaturally.
In short, this tradition pursues the sustenance of a tension between

consciousness and unconsciousness with respect to the meaning and the
constitution of the signs that are manipulated. It is obvious that, over time,
the possibility that the follower discovers equivalences and symbolic identities in the life of the cult is open. However, the basic message is that it is
not worth investigating them, since a good part of its magic can disappear
with the revelation of its mechanisms and contents. For example, once it is
discovered that the exceptionally dramatic song Osunbaoro has the same
melody as the plain and ordinary Edimd edimece, how can one hear it week
after week, year after year, without diminishing the emotion for the
mystery that betrayed its alleged singularity, now rationally destroyed?
When roaming such an unusual path, we fall into a dilemma analogous

to that raised by Heinrich von Kleist in his engaging essay about the puppet
theater (Kleist 1987): how to return in art to an original, spontaneous unit
that is broken when we eat from the tree of science?'3 The solution he
proposes, to expand to the limits this same conscience that caused the burst
is quite problematic, because it postpones sine die the moment of reintegration and also hopes for a definite restitution of a lost innocence. The Xango
tradition, in turn, seems to opt for a return, if not constant at least temporary, to the origin, favored by ritual practice with its dialectic alternation
of reflection and sensory experience. That is, at the same time we detect
in modern Western attitudes concerning music an updating of the disinte-
gration myth, we postulate also that there still exist musical traditions,
such as Xango, that continue to embody the possibility of integration.
However, this is not the case for reacting anti-historically against this
movement of self-conscience that is already an essential part of Western
tradition and which cannot be changed by means of copies or superficial
and external imitations. It is also not the case, on the other hand, of proposing to bring Xango music to the rationalistic and self-reflective arena
of Western music, since this would mean to weaken voluntarily its magical
power. One of the reasons for trying to understand these most abstract
principles, which remain aloof to the musical dimension of our culture, is
to use them to establish a relativistic comparison and be able to propose
a new attitude towards musical analysis in general, be it from more
conservative musical systems, such as Xango, or from constantly mutable
musical languages, such as contemporaneous music. Once the enigmas of

structure and form are revealed, we would have to uncover, as far as pos-
sible, the path covered in the audition and participation of the musical
event. That is, we have to try to detach ourselves from the analytical atti-
tude (which makes music present only intellectually) immediately after

exercising it, so that the music can go back again to that threshold where
the known fuses with the unknown and theron can continue producing an
impact on our spirit with its truths and mysteries.
Proposing an alternative to the idea of von Kleist, which is as much

pessimistic as modern, it is perhaps unnecessary to wait for the last chapter
of world history to reach a moment of innocence and aesthetic plenitude
without giving up reflexive conscience. In short, it seems significant that
even such a rationalist and analytical Western musician and theoretician

as Pierre Boulez admits that "it continues to be primordial to safeguard
the potential of the unknown confined in a masterpiece" (Boulez 1986: 15).
My intention here was to show that this is precisely the essence of the
aesthetic experience of Xango and this is perhaps where we encounter not
only these two, but possibly all musical traditions.
Notes
1. More detailed information about the social organization, the belief

system, and the ritual world of Xango can be found in the works of
Motta (1978), Ribeiro (1978), Carvalho (1984, 1988, 1990), Segato

(1984), and Carvalho and Segato (1986, 1992).
2. For John Blacking (referring primarily to the case of the Venda from
the Transvaal) "music for having" can be defined as those songs that
"are more important as markers of stages in ritual or as reinforce-
ments or mnemonics of lessons than as musical experience; while

'music for being' is that which enhances human consciousness"
(1973: 50). The difference I see from the Venda to the Xango case is
that in Xang6, people experience both levels of musical expression

within the same situation. They go from a song for animal sacrifice
(music for having) to a song for the ori (music for being) without
interruption. Here, both levels are only aspects of the musical behavior of followers and not (as Blacking seems to indicate for the
Venda) two distinct types of behavior, distant even in temporal terms.
3. It is not possible for me to even sum up all these rituals that were
analyzed in detail in another work (see Carvalho 1984). I can only
hope that the central discussion of this essay, namely, the correlation
between ritual and music, can be grasped without the need to enlarge
this already extensive ethnography.
4. Also in the case of the candomble of Bahia, Gerard Behague stresses

the musical differences between the ritual for the eguns and the ritual
for the orixds (Behague 1984: 222-246).

5. I cite Venda Childrens Songs for its character of a true ethnomusicological classic. John Blacking elaborated in more detail the theoretical
ideas contained here in various subsequent works (see Blacking 1969,
1971, 1973, 1974, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1987).

6. In another essay (Carvalho 1988), I discuss the dramatic loss of collective memory in the cult and its attempts to recover and give
continuity to its African cultural tradition.
7. I based my study above all in the work of Peirce (1955) and Burks
(1949) for the fundamental distinction between sign and symbol;
Jung (1976) and Durand (1964) for the critical or occult dimension
of symbol; Turner (1967) for the emphasis on the polarization of the
meaning of the ritual symbol; and Todorov (1984), Gadamer (1958),

and Souza (1980) for the analyses of the intellectual and philosophical
role of the symbol.
8. The theme of renunciation appears, in the first and second time, as

two songs that are sung respectively by Woglinde and Siegmund; the
third time, it appears just as a melody, executed by the orchestra.

This only reveals the identity, accepted by Western musical aesthetics,
between song and melody. Note that Levi-Strauss extends his

analysis of this Wagnerian theme in another writing (1986) and
includes its presence in the two final parts of Wagner's tetralogy
(Siegfried and The Twilight of the Gods). In any way, the small correction
of an error and the extension of his study do not substantially alter
his method of making explicit relations of homology and making

equivalencies of meaning, which is of interest here.
9. According to the Argentinian composer Luis Mucillo, an eminent

expert in the life and work of the author of The Ring of the Nibelung
(and whom I thank for these clarifications), hardly would Wagner

not have in mind the equivalency between gold, the sword, and the
woman so instigatingly "revealed" by Levi-Strauss in this work. We
speak of a composer who is particularly lucid and methodical in his
process of creation, and whose artistic projects were accomplished

with extreme self-conscience and an absolute control over the minor
details of the text and the score.
10. The elaboration of this chart was inspired in two classic studies by
Victor Turner about the Ndembu symbolism: that of the Chishingh,
Jose'Jorge de Carvalho : 225
symbol of hunting rituals (1967: 296-297) and the Nkula, symbol

present in fertility rituals (1969: 86).
11. Klaus Wachsmann shows how the interest for music of other parts of
the world (which led to ethnomusicology as a discipline) arose along
with an extension of the interest of Western musicians in experimenting
with non-orthodox forms and compositional processes (Sprechgesang
by Schonberg, the rhythmic experimentation of Stravinsky, and others).
According to him, "internal Western thought about non-Western

composition and musical intuition, converged instead of feeding
mutually" (1981: 77); in addition, "the new disposition to hear and
study foreign music in its proper terms appears at the same time as
music in Europe experienced profound changes" (1973: 8).

12. It is worth mentioning here the original and quite forgotten essay by
Maurice Halbwachs about the collective memory in musicians (1990).
When trying to explain the role of signs in the musical memory, he
argues that the musician needs them because he cannot retain the
complexity of combinations articulated in a piece (he refers, of
course, to Western classical music), and concludes that all these signs
represent the orders given by the society of musicians to its members
(1900: 183). Here, the Western score fulfills a role analogous to that
of the ritual: it saves the collective memory and stimulates individual
forgetfulness, which is only dialectically and paradoxically compensated by the frequent adherence to the community of musicians.
13. Let us be aware that his essay dated 1810 is already contemporaneous
with this disenchantment of the world that so much defines modern
Western culture.
Bibliography
Behague, Gerard
1984 "Patterns of Candomble Music Performance: An Afro-
Brazilian Religious Setting." In Performance Practice. Ethno-
musicological Perspectives, edited by Gerard Behague.
Connecticut: Greenwood Press.
Blacking, John
1967 Venda Children's Songs. Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press.
1969 'The Value of Music in Human Experience." Yearbook of the

International Music Council, vol. 1: 33-71.
1971 "Deep and Surface Structure in Venda Music." Yearbook of

the International Music Council, vol. 3: 91-108.
1973 How Musical Is Man? Seattle: University of Washington Press.

1974 "Ethnomusicology as a Key Subject in the Social Sciences."
In In Memorian Antonio Jorge Dias. Lisboa: Junta de Investigaq6es Cientificas do Ultramar, 71-91.
1979 'The Study of Man as Music-Maker." In The Performing
Arts, edited by John Blacking and Joan Kealilnohomoku.
The Hague: Mouton, 3-15.
1981 'The Problem of 'Ethnic' Perceptions in the Semiotics of
Music." In The Sign in Music and Literature, edited by Wendy
Steiner. Austin: University of Texas Press, 184-194.

1982 'The Structure of Musical Discourse: The Problem of the
Song Text." Yearbookfor Traditional Music, vol. 14: 15-23.
1987 A Commonsense View of all Music. Cambridge: Cambridg

University Press.
Boulez, Pierre
1986 A Musica Hoje. Sao Paulo: Editora Perspectiva.

Burks, Arthur
1949 "Icon, Index and Symbol." Philosophy and Phenomenologic

Research, vol. 9, n. 4: 673-689.
Carvalho, Jose Jorge
1984 Ritual and Music of the Sango Cults of Recife, Brazil. Ph.
diss., Department of Social Anthropology, The Queen's
University of Belfast.
1988 "La fuerza de la nostalgia." El Concepto del tiempo hist6ri
en los cultos afrobrasileros tradicionales, Montalban (Caracas
Universidad Catolica Andres Bello). 20: 167-193.

1990 "Xango." In Sinais dos Tempos. Diversidade Religiosa no Bra
Rio de Janeiro: Instituto de Estudos da Religiao (ISER),
139-145.
Carvalho, Jose Jorge, and Segato, Rita

1986 Musik der Xango-Kulte von Recife. In Brasilien. Einfuhrun
in die Musiktraditionen Brasiliens, edited by Tiago de Oliveira
Pinto. Mainz: Schott, 176-192.
1992 Shango Cult in Recife, Brazil. Caracas: Fundaci6n de Etnomusicologia y Folklore.

Durand, Gilbert
1964 L Zmagination symbolique. Paris: Presses Universitaire de France.
Feld, Steven
1982 Sound and Sentiment. Birds, Weeping, Poetics, and Songs in Kaluli
Expression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
JoseJorge de Carvalho : 227
Foucault, Michel
1973 El Orden del Discurso. Barcelona: Tusquets Editor.

Gadamer, Hans-Georg
1986 The Revelance of the Beautiful and Other Essays. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Halbwachs, Maurice
1990 "A Mem6ria Coletiva dos Muisicos." In A Memoria Coletiva.
Sao Paulo: Edicoes Vertice.
Hood, Mantle
1963 "Music, the Unknown." In Musicology, edited by Frank

Harrison, Mantle Hood and Claude Palisca. Westport:
Greenwood Press.
Jameson, Fredric
1974 Marxism and Form. Twentieth-Century Dialectical Theories of
Literature. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jung, Carl
1976 "Approaching the Unconscious." In Man and His Symbols.
New York: Doubleday.
Kleist, Heinrich von
1987 "Acerca del teatro de marionetes." In Fragmentos para una

teoria romantica del arte, edited by Javier Arnaldo. Madrid:
Tecnos, 101-107.
Langer, Suzanne
1953 Feeling and Form. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
Levi-Strauss, Claude
1978 Myth and Meaning. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

1985 "Note on the Tetralogy." In The View from Afar. Oxford:
Basil Blackwell.
Merriam, Alan
1964 The Anthropology of Music. Evanston: Northwestern University Press.

Motta, Roberto
1978 "Homens, Santos e Sociedade: As Crencas Basicas no Xango

de Pernambuco." Revista Pernambucana de Desenvolvimento,
vol. 5, no. 1: 143-158.
Nattiez, Jean-Jacques
1981 Paroles d'nformateurs et Propos de Musiciens, Yearbookfor
Traditional Music, vol. 13, 48-59.
Peirce, C. S.
1955 "Logic as Semiotic: The Theory of Signs." In Philosophical
Writings of Peirce, edited by Justus Buchler. New York:
Dover Publications.

Pousseur, Henri
1984 "Muerte de Dios y Crisis del Arte." In Musica Semantica,

Sociedad. Madrid: Alianza Editorial.
Ribeiro, Rene
1978 Cultos Afro-Brasileiros do Recife. Recife: MEC-IJNPS.

Segato, Rita Laura
1984 A Folk Theory of Personality Types. Ph.D. diss., Departmen
of Social Anthropology, The Queen's University of Belfast.
Souza, Eudoro
1980 Mitologia. Brasilia: Editora Universidade de Brasilia.

Todorov, Tzvetan
1984 Theories of the Symbol. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Turner, Victor
1967 The Drums of Affliction. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

1968 'Themes in the Symbolism of Ndembu Hunting Ritual."
In The Forest of Symbols. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

Wach ismann, Klaus
1973 "Spencer to Hood: A Changing View of Non-European

Music." Proceedings of the Royal Anthropological Institute, 5-13.
1981 "Applying Ethnomusicological Methods to Western Art

Music." The World of Music, vol. 23, n. 2: 74-86.
Weber, Max
1953
The Rational and Social Foundations of Music. Carbondale:

Southern Illinois University Press.
Zemp, Hugo
1979
"Aspects of 'Are' Are Musical Theory." Ethnomusicology,

23 (1): 6-48.
Musical Examples
This is the transcription of the six ritual songs discussed in this article.
To illustrate, although precariously, to which level this key melody of

the ritual system is idiosyncratic from the musical point of view, I also
give some examples of typical songs of the repertoires of ori, eguns,
Osanyin, and of ritual acts related to the obligation to the saints. Each one
of these examples is directly akin to various other songs of the same type.
The transcription is approximate since the duration of the notes is altered
considerably from one performance to another. I sought a solution of

compromise between a descriptive transcription and a prescriptive transcription (according to Charles Seeger's classification).
Song for the eguns
K r f r r (
O
'B - o ,
P- r bt
I
o -k -
J, 0oXO
>
P-
o-
w--
,J
JJyJ
j ' ,J.
j- Ii
O-HA - >tL"
i J J.
I J
+ r,
-1
T J IJ 1 J
o0D ^ - , L- a- p- ha
I
-t
- t 6 Lr
r r-
E_-Q - AU A -* )t
Kiora fo - ?-XQ
A i NA- ,fo-
Ritual Song
tL^.UL SML. CL.
g G G r Ir r f '? r b f r : 1
o- ca--L -- -c- o- -o k-_ka _ a-
rfn',
-e=-*( -&' 1 --4 -_ ( - O0 a-_? 0- o IA/ _ o _CA- oA_
ytY rp 'j Y y ay -rgP J 4 I y I

0-_A.U-LoA _-1__--_0_3- o N-JA fo- u 9-A+Oc -a-V
SEa;~c-[
t rL
';tLu f J l1 ' '
, Q "~- 5-C^^ I-_-XO-X3 Y- o g --
f f~ r m -j ' L;J " 4 J I

g+ ^r ij J 1J j J , yLj 1
-jJ _'J j i_J _i J Q
A ;~ - | Q- j-^fl-eX4_a t_^ o _oi _JL^O QO
Tying of leaves
t Ji r r^j r n, y J 2 r G G 2
E-_ 6 fr AQ_L, m SOU _a a-Xte_;o a-Q E-ao o- e b ? -, c L-a. a - _u- e' - o _ oQ c-0
JF YU fAw AZ
; : , , ,,L5.r,'
, ,&; ,K u J
E_-.xL -x_a Q -_-XA~- -_ - A- -b o_ -<M _-JO- cuMn

Myth, Music, and Ritual in The Xangô Cult

Diunggah oleh

Informasi Dokumen

Judul Asli

Hak Cipta

Format Tersedia

Bagikan dokumen Ini

Bagikan atau Tanam Dokumen

Opsi Berbagi

Apakah menurut Anda dokumen ini bermanfaat?

Apakah konten ini tidak pantas?

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Myth, Music, and Ritual in The Xangô Cult

Diunggah oleh

Hak Cipta:

Format Tersedia

Aesthetics of Opacity and Transparence: Myth, Music, and Ritual in the Xang Cult and in

the Western Art Tradition

Jose Jorge de Carvalho

Aesthetics of Opacity and

Transparence: Myth, Music,

In this article, I propose to present first an

ethnography of the musical life in the Xang6 cult of Recife, focus

primarily on the correlation between the various musical styles practice

pare some classical ethnomusicological approaches to the understand

proaches considered specific or exclusive for the understanding of West

music. In this context, I will discuss the analysis by Levi-Strauss o

Jameson concerning the increasing rationalization of the technical

compositional procedures of modern Western music, seeking to reread a

of these ideas-strongly Western-in light of the Xango musical mater

Finally, through the articulation of these various ethnographic and inte

General Characteristics of the Xango Cult

The Xango cult of Recife pertains to the traditional Afro-Brazilian relig

Bahia. The predominant African tradition in Recife is the Nago Nati

fundamental characteristics of the cult.

Latin American Music Review, Volume 14, Number 2, Fall/Winter 1993

Jose Jorge de Carvalho : 203

The orixds function primarily as mediators between an abstract God

non of syncretism, or the significant equivalence between the African

as its music preserves very idiosyncratic traits in relation to other reper

and frequent activity in any saint's house. It implies the articulation of

rituals, interdependent in execution and significance, meaning that a

204 : Xango Cult Music and Ritual

moments described above.

Jose Jorge de Carvalho : 205

First Level of Analysis: The Types of Rituals and Types of

206 : Xango Cult Music and Ritual

(a) Obligation (normal sacrifice) for the saints

(m) Saida de iab (iyawo's exit)

(o) Normal toque

(q) Toque with a pot of offerings for Iemanja

Songs to kill animals during a common sacrifice

Jose Jorge de Carvalho : 207

7. Songs for Osanyin

To give a brief example of how distinct types of songs are combined in

highly complex ritual, following the chronological order of appearance

Ori song that accompanies the offering of a fish

208 : Xango Cult Music and Ritual

Correlations Between All Rituals (letters) and Song Types (numbers)

8. Eight ori songs

An initial important conclusion we can draw from the correlation chart

Jose Jorge de Carvalho : 209

presence of a single diacritical sign. In this way, a follower who has ju

it is based mainly on the neophyte, who is transformed into the main

210 : Xango Cult Music and Ritual

Second Level of Analysis: The Musical Characteristics of

After reviewing the combination of song types, I will succinctly descri

saints receive a sacrifice during a particular celebration. For exampl

corresponding obligation should end at a climax with lively songs, clapp

gives it a special distinction within the Xango repertoire that, we m

remember, is sung entirely in Yoruba.

that, combined, do not present a definite measure, thus conveying

Jose Jorge de Carvalho : 211

to the chants. In others, parameters relate more directly to the musical

Third Level of Analysis: Divided by Ritual, United by Music

Until this point I have applied the classical ethnomusicological method

and masterly exemplified by the studies of John Blacking of the music of

basic points of this approach: (a) a basic structuralist assumption of th

212 : Xango Cult Music and Ritual