Der Kampf des Hundes mit dem Jaguar

By Regine Allgayer-Kaufmann

Subjects: Folk music, Music, Fife and drum corps, Philosophy and aesthetics, History and criticism, Brazil

Description: The book is on the music of the *Bandas de Pífanos* in the Northeast of Brazil, a region of excellent conservation of an oral music culture. It is based on field work carried out in 1988, 1989, and 1992 in various places of the region, such as Juazeiro do Norte - CE, Caruaru - PE, Marechal Deodoro - AL, and others. The author studies the process of the composition and the transmission of music on the basis of field recordings from different *bandas* and different places. It came out that the leading instruments, a pair of bamboo flutes called *pífanos*, their specific construction and proper handling provide the experience which is crucial for composition of new pieces and melodies. There are a good many modes or scales imaginable and also used in practice, however, considerable differences were found between the *bandas* studied here. The possibilities to play in different *tons*, modes, are limited by the specific instruments. There is a determinative relation between the repertoire and the construction of the instruments. Yet the repertoire at a high rate depends on the audience because it is mainly their wishes which the musicians try to answer. They customize their repertory. As a result of television and radio programs the popular taste during the last decades has changed and thus the music of the *bandas de pífanos*. This the author does not regret, instead she considers this process being part of a vivid musical tradition and as such the music of the *bandas de pífanos* allows to study the dynamics of change as well as the force of constancy in a given culture.