Capoeira music

In capoeira, music sets the rhythm, the style of play, and the energy of a game. In its most traditional setting, there are three main styles of song that weave together the structure of the capoeira angola roda. The Angola roda represents the most strict and traditional format for capoeira and is ideally suited for an introduction and discussion of the music. Though we may consider the music traditional, because it has been passed orally from one to the next until the early - mid 20th century when songs and rhythms began to be notated and recorded, there is no record of to what extent and exactly how the music has evolved over time. Capoeira's African heritage plays a heavy role in the way capoeira is perceived by its practitioners and understood at a subconscious level. It is a common feature of many African ethnic groups, for instance, as well as others throughout the world, that music is not so much a form of personal entertainment as it is a medium to bring about group cohesion and dynamic. Music in the context of capoeira is used to create a sacred space through both the physical act of forming a circle (the roda, which has a spiritual significance in itself) and an aural space that connects the world of the spirits/ancestors and the world of the living. This deeper religious significance exists more as a social memory to most capoeira groups, but is generally understood as evidenced in the use of sacred ngoma drums (the atabaques of Yoruban candomblé), the berimbau whose earlier forms were used in rituals in Africa and the diaspora in speaking with ancestors, the ever-present term axé which signifies force that gives life to man, animal, and spirit ever present in capoeira, the invocation of both African and Catholic spiritual objects and people, and certain semi-ritualized movements used in Capoeira Angola that bring "spiritual protection" up from the ground, from the instruments in the bateria, and from the sky and heavens. The instruments are:

up to 3 berimbaus
up to 2 pandeiros
1 agogô
1 reco-reco (notched wooden tube similar to a Guiro)
1 atabaque or conga

Not every roda will contain all these instruments. Mestre Bimba ,for instance, preferred only one berimbau and one pandeiro in his rodas, but there will always be at least one berimbau in any roda.

The berimbaus preside over the roda, and specifically the gunga, the lowest sounding of the three berimbaus. The roda begins and ends at the discretion of the gunga, who may determine who plays next, can stop games, set the tempo of the music, and calm the combatants if they get too rough.