Brazilian Emboladores and Repentistas
To watch the full documentary, In the Moment: Poetry Duels and Improvisations click here.
Table of Contents
The Tradition
In public squares in the cities of the Northeast, and, with urban migration to big cities, now in Sáo Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Brazilia, crowds gather round embolada singers who are engaged in desafio tradition. Two performer keep the rhythm with the pandeiro (tambourine) or ganza (a Brazilian rattle) as the improvised vocals fly back and forth. One singer poses a questions, challenge, or insult, the other responds trying to top his opponent, always in the same poetic form. Gathered around the singers, the audience admires verbal dexterity and laughs at jokes, and insults hurled by the two. The tradition often features improvised, tongue-twisting lyrics. The literal translation of embolada could be “entangled,” to twist, entwine, enmesh.
The embolada has set refrains that allow the singer to organize his next improvised stanza. Alliterative and hard-to-pronounce words are used, and lyrics may be comical, satirical, or descriptive. Tempo is gradually increased until words are pronounced so fast that they are almost unintelligible. Such “song challenges” are also present in Venezuela (porfias), Argentina (contrapunto), Chile (payas), Spain & Portugal and have been around for centuries.
Brazil is also known for the repentista tradition, played not with tamborines or gazas but with a viola or guitar. The performers are often oral poets rather than the raucous entertainers of emboladas. They challenge one another often in duels of eloquence. Among the constraints used by repentistas is the need to start each verse with a rhyme that their partner has left at the end of his, a rhyme that can’t be predicted and ensures that all verses are completely improvised. A number of repentistas perform Cordel poetry. Cordel poets publish their verses in pamphlet form, hanging their poems on clotheslines strung across the stalls. With their poetic wares displayed on strings, the poets chant their rhymes to a semicircle of local farmers and other folheto-pamphlet-buyers anxious to hear the exploits of their heroes recited in verse.
Field Notes
In 1999, we arranged to bring the master repentista José João dos Santos, known as “Mestre Azulão”, who migrated from the northeast of Brazil to Rio de Janeiro, to the first People’s Poetry Gathering. Like many repentistas he takes his name from a bird. Azulao is a a dark blue bird found in the Pantanal region of Brazil. Other repentistas have been named Beija-Flor (Hummer), Oliveira (Olive tree warbler) and Sabiá (Red-bellied thrush).
Steve recalls picking up “Mestre Azulão” at the Newark Airport. Born in Sapé Paraiba in the Northeast of Brazil in l932, he moved to Rio de Janeiro in 1949 and is a master repentista On their way back to the City, Steve listened to him improvise verses in Portuguese about the New York City skyline, as seen from New Jersey. He was a master at repartee. He spoke about how he considered himself one the finest proponents of the tradition because his rhymes are so “doce” (sweet). When improvised poets at the Gathering from Mexico teased him for being a “little man,” he responded, “I may be a little man, but I come from a very large country.”
We remember his letter telling us that through the Poetry Gathering and the VHS tape we sent him afterwards, he was able to get himself reinstated to his paid post as the official poet of his town in the interior of the state of Rio de Janeiro.
In addition to his improvisational skills, Azulão, the Brazilian singer/poet, is a master of the cordel tradition. On his day off during the Gathering, we took Azulão to the top of the World Trade Towers, which deeply impressed him. We also received in the mail, after September 11th, 2001, a cordel pamphlet he wrote in verse, a poem about the destruction of the World Trade Towers, with the traditional Brazilian woodcut on the cover depicting their destruction.
Azulão performed at the Gathering in 1999 joined by the anthropologist Candace Slater from U. C. Berkeley (time 3:37-7:00). Candace conducted fieldwork in Brazil, introduced Azulão to us, and wrote the classic work on the cordel poets, Stories on a String: The Brazilian “Literatura de Cordel” (1990). The visible affection between these two friends, joined by bonds of fieldwork, made her the perfect, seamless translator for his work. Even his improvisations worked in translation—as she expressively summarized each improvised section, sometimes pointing out the rhyme scheme, as he continued to play the same riff on his guitar.
Azulão sang in many verse forms including the Decima, which originated with Vincente Espinel, an Andalusian poet of the sixteenth Century, a form still used for improvised verses thoughout Latin America. Another verse form he sang was the galope which uses a line of 11 syllables, and the carreirão. The improvisations must follow certain rules, with the number of verse and syllables determined by the poetic form used. For example, martelo has 10 syllables per verse, and a galope is a martelo with 6 verses per stanza.
A few years after the Poetry Gatherings, we came across the film Saudades Do Futuro by Mare Clemence and Cesar Paes. The theme of the film is art and culture brought by Nordestinos from the Northeast of Brazil who live and make their living in São Paulo. In the big city, their rhymes often contrast big city life with their rural roots. These artists sing in a faster tempo using tamborines, humor and coarse language, often exchanging insults. They animate plazas and street corners, and have none of the smooth, thoughtfulness of the repentistas.
We were able to travel to Brazil in June of 2010, and record these poets ourselves. In Praça da Republica in São Paulo we recorded the duo of Sonhador (Cicero Honório dos Santos), meaning Dreamer and Peneira (Manuel Elias de Freitas) meaning white Sparrow Hawk. Sonhador is from the city of Cajueiro in the state of Alagoas, and took up emboladas in his 40s when he left his job as a mechanical engineer. Peneira is from the state of Pernambuco and worked construction before taking up the art. We also recorded Pardal and his partner Verde Lins (Ezequiel Pedro da Silva). Pardal (Reginaldo Vasconcelos de Oliveira), who, like Perneira, is also from Pernambuco told us, “My artistic name, I chose it myself… Each bird I looked at there was a singer with its name already! Then I found the sparrow, which was unnamed. Since then, my name is Pardal da Saudade, Longing Sparrow.”
We asked the emboladores on the plaza to improvise on the differences between the repentistas and themselves. Pardal mentioned that the repentistas with their guitars have “a few more seconds to think about what he’s going to do..” With the embolada “I have to ready on the spot to keep up.” Sonhador also mentioned that the emboladero is freer to stretch sound to create improbable rhymes. These embolada poets improvised extensively on the topic.
Eles pega uma viola
‘tá certo que éviolão
Eu como o pandeiro na mão
Eu também sei agradarEsse não afina, não
É so bater no pandeiro
Fazer o verso ligeiro
Pra platéia escutar
Translation:
They hold on to their guitar
A fine instrument I know
With my tambo’s beat and flow
I’m just as fine so hear me playThere’s no tuning up, oh no
We just beat the tambourine
We just rhyme real smooth and clean
Blow the audience away
We also traveled to Ceilandia, a town right outside of Brasilia, Brazil’s capital to interview Terezinha (Otília Dantas de Lima) and her partner Roque José. When we asked Terezinha on the phone for her address she simply said, “you can find me Casa dos Poetas,” the poets’ house. We went looking for a small house in her neighborhood only to find her in the Casa do Cantador – Palácio da Poesia, a marvelous public facility for poets and singers. Terezinha worked as a domestic servant before her sister, already a street singer, invited her to join. Her always raucous and often off-color improvisations are documented in our film, In the Moment.
Resources
- See https://shs.hal.science/halshs-03473218/document
- Candace Slater. Stories on a String: The Brazilian “Literatura de Cordel. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1990
- Loddo, Daniel. 1998. “Cururu e Siriri, chants et musique des fêtes religieuses du Mato Grosso.” In Musiques d’Amérique Latine. Actes du colloque des et octo re
- ordes (Tarn). Cordes: CORDAE/LaTalvera.
Loddo, Daniel, and Thierry Rougier. “Cantadores du Nordeste du Brésil: un art en devenir.” - In L’art des chansonniers: actes du colloque de Gaillac des 8, , 3 novem re 3. Toulouse: Conservatoire Occitan, Centre des Musiques et Danses Traditionnelles Toulouse-Midi-Pyrénées.
- Rougier, Thierry. , “The Songs Improvised by the Poets of the Brazilian Northeast: Tradition, Urbanization, Expansion, and Animation of a Territory.
- Rougier, Thierry. 2006. “Les cantadores, poètes improvisateurs de la cantoria: une tradition en mouvement dans le Nordeste brésilien.” PhD diss., University of Bordeaux 2.
Discography
- Repentistas nordestinos – troubadours actuels du Nordeste du Brésil. 2006. 2 CDs with an illustrated booklet edited by Daniel Loddo and Thierry Rougier. Cordes: CORDAE / La Talvera.
- Payadores de Chile – Poètes improvisateurs du Chili. 2010. 2 CDs with illustrated booklet. Translation of poems and interviews and presentation text by Thierry Rougier. Langon: Daquí, label des Nuits Atypiques.
Transcript
English Transcript
Plaza in downtown São Paulo & Plaza in Ceilandia, outside Brazilia
Four Emboladeros
EMBOLADOR 1. (LEE — Change Subtitles on these)
I speak, I speak through my tambourine –
My name is Sonhador
Poet and embolador
I’m not complaining – I’ll come clean
EMBOLADOR 2
Pick the petals, kiss and bless,
My name’s Peneira, I profess
On the sidewalk, in the alley,
in any bar or on TV
EMBOLADOR 3:
Songster Pardal is who I am,
I’ll kick ass and doors I’ll slam,
All week long these things I say
steal from me I’ll make you pay …
Brazil’
We even made the bells ring.
ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES
SONHADOR Lee put this in
Let’s sing a desfio, improvising it on the spot.
Lee, I think we need these lines here with the subtitles – it helps set up the performance.
Lee – I think these lines may help set up what the duel is about. They were taken out.
MAN 1
So I’m going to leave a message for the young gang that’s here
MAN 2
What message are you going to leave?
MAN 1
The message is this: I suggest you don’t drink.
MAN 2
The cigarette will kill you and the cachaca (Brazilian liquor) will kill you all the same.
MAN 1
Let’s go now, let’s go now.
The cachaca and the cigarette,
They both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high
And be in no great rush to die.
BOTH
Let’s go now, let’s go now.
The cachaca and the cigarette, they both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high
And be in no great rush to die.
MAN 1
The cigarette, I swear to God was invented by a dog,
it does in your lungs, our heart
and our brain,
little by little til you die by pain
MAN 2
Alcohol is coffee on the drunkard’s table,
he drinks through lunch and dinner till he is no longer able.
That black man over there without a drink he’s in despair,
BOTH
The cachaca and the cigarette,
they both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high
and be in no great rush to die.
MAN 1
The smoker is a guy that you know nobody wants,
in the malls or restaurants,
the smoker don’t you know is just so ignorant,
with his foul breath trying to be so elegant.
BOTH
The cachaca and the cigarette, they both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high and be in no great rush to die.
TEREZINHA
Ceilandia, Brazil
I worked as a housekeeper for many years, in order to raise my children. When my sister arrived in RIo de Janeiro, we began singing together. I sang for 20 years with my sister. Then I stopped working as a housekeeper and delved into the profession.
TEREZINHA
Yes, we’ll improvise [chuckles],
MALE EMBOLADA PLAYER
Terezinha was a servant
just to earn her pay,
Today she has the honor of singing
In order to earn her way
TEREZINHA
Before I learned to hone my trade
I woke din houses as a maid,
at a party once to my surprise
I learned that I could improvise
MALE EMBOLADOR
You were a servant,
earned little pay,
today with your tambourine
you fight to earn your way
TEREZINHA
Singing slowly
I raised my kids just fine
Once they were tiny
Now they help to ease my mind.
Male Embolada Player: That’s how improvisation goes, people ask, and whatever we can do, we’ll do. [both chuckle]
TEREZINHA
Now our naughty challenge-round
MALE EMBOLADOR
Let’s see who breaks up first.
TEREZINHA
Let’s do it.
MALE EMBOLADOR
So here you are you pick-up clown
Be careful when you come around
Let’s see if you can stand your ground
In this naughty challenge round
TEREZINHA
Let’s be careful in this round
Let’s see if you can stand your ground
Let’s see if you’re a real man
Or just a naughty little hound
MALE EMBOLADOR
Your talent never held a lot of sway
With a name like Terezinha
You were the sluttiest old chicken
That from the Northeast came this way
TEREZINHA
Don’t think you can mistreat me
The slutty chicken was your granny
She only has one breast they say
For this guy to suck on every day
MALE EMBOLADOR
I’m going to make you tremble
You have such an ugly face
You’re the craziest broad ever born
Anywhere near this place
TEREZINHA
I’m going to make you pay
You hassle single women
Drunk on liquor at the fair
You leave the place in disrepair
I see you drinking at the bar
I see how drunk you always are
I can hear the way you boast
Then a dog mistook you for a post
When you dropped your jaw, my friend
I saw that hound dog piss right in.
MALE EMBOLADOR
Stop, stop!
You want to go real dirty?
TEREZINHA
Is that what you want?
No holds barred?
MALE EMBOLADOR
MALE EMBOLADOR
If that’s the way you want it
Then let’s sing another one
TEREZINHA
Let’s sing another one.
I speak, I speak through my tambourine –
My name is Sonhador
Poet and embolador
I’m not complaining – I’ll come clean
EMBOLADOR 2
Pick the petals, kiss and bless,
My name’s Peneira, I profess
On the sidewalk, in the alley,
in any bar or on TV
EMBOLADOR 3:
Songster Pardal is who I am,
I’ll kick ass and doors I’ll slam,
All week long these things I say
steal from me I’ll make you pay …
Brazil’
We even made the bells ring.
ALCOHOL AND CIGARETTES
SONHADOR
Let’s sing a desfio, improvising it on the spot.
MAN 1
So I’m going to leave a message for the young gang that’s here
MAN 2
What message are you going to leave?
MAN 1
The message is this: I suggest you don’t drink.
MAN 2
The cigarette will kill you and the cachaca (Brazilian liquor) will kill you all the same.
MAN 1
Let’s go now, let’s go now.
The cachaca and the cigarette,
They both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high
And be in no great rush to die.
BOTH
Let’s go now, let’s go now.
The cachaca and the cigarette, they both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high
And be in no great rush to die.
MAN 1
The cigarette, I swear to God was invented by a dog,
it does in your lungs, our heart and our brain,
little by little til you die by pain
MAN 2
Alcohol is coffee on the drunkard’s table,
he drinks through lunch and dinner till he is no longer able.
That black man over there without a drink he’s in despair,
BOTH
The cachaca and the cigarette,
they both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high
and be in no great rush to die.
MAN 1
The smoker is a guy that you know nobody wants,
in the malls or restaurants,
the smoker don’t you know is just so ignorant,
with his foul breath trying to be so elegant.
BOTH
The cachaca and the cigarette, they both will kill you yet,
I’m gonna smoke, drink till I’m high and be in no great rush to die.
TEREZINHA
Ceilandia, Brazil
I worked as a housekeeper for many years, in order to raise my children. When my sister arrived in RIo de Janeiro, we began singing together. I sang for 20 years with my sister. Then I stopped working as a housekeeper and delved into the profession.
TEREZINHA
Yes, we’ll improvise [chuckles],
MALE EMBOLADA PLAYER
Terezinha was a servant
just to earn her pay,
Today she has the honor of singing
Just to earn her way
TEREZINHA
Before I learned to hone my trade
I woke din houses as a maid,
at a party once to my surprise
I learned that I could improvise
MALE EMBOLADOR
You were a servant,
earned little pay,
today with your tambourine
you fight to earn your way
TEREZINHA
Singing slowly
I raised my kids just fine
Once they were tiny
Now they help to ease my mind.
Male Embolada Player
That’s how improvisation goes, people ask, and whatever we can do, we’ll do. [both chuckle]
TEREZINHA
Now our naughty challenge-round
MALE EMBOLADOR
Let’s see who breaks up first.
TEREZINHA
Let’s do it.
MALE EMBOLADOR
So here you are you pick-up clown
Be careful when you come around
Let’s see if you can stand your ground
In this naughty challenge round
TEREZINHA
Let’s be careful in this round
Let’s see if you can stand your ground
Let’s see if you’re a real man
Or just a naughty little hound
MALE EMBOLADOR
Your talent never held a lot of sway
With a name like Terezinha
You were the sluttiest old chicken
That from the Northeast came this way
TEREZINHA
Don’t think you can mistreat me
The slutty chicken was your granny
She only has one breast they say
For this guy to suck on every day
MALE EMBOLADOR
I’m going to make you tremble
You have such an ugly face
You’re the craziest broad ever born
Anywhere near this place
TEREZINHA
I’m going to make you pay
You hassle single women
Drunk on liquor at the fair
You leave the place in disrepair
I see you drinking at the bar
I see how drunk you always are
I can hear the way you boast
Then a dog mistook you for a post
When you dropped your jaw, my friend
I saw that hound dog piss right in.
MALE EMBOLADOR
Stop, stop!
You want to go real dirty?
TEREZINHA
Is that what you want?
No holds barred?
MALE EMBOLADOR
If that’s the way you want it
Then let’s sing another one
TEREZINHA
Let’s sing another one.
