Scott Kettner Interview: Pt
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Scott Kettner Interview: Pt. 3 Christopher: Tell me about each of the drums that will be used in in the performances at LCI. Scott: We’ll start off with the big low drums, the bass drums. There are various names for them, but the most popular name is alfaia. Most of the traditional maracatu groups have three different sizes of alfaia, which produce different voices. The alfaia were traditionally made out of empty wine barrels with goatskins on both ends. Over time, they started using hollowed-out tree trunks. Some contemporary makers use plywood. Among the alfaia there is a low-pitched drum, a middle-pitched drum, and a high- pitched drum. Each has a very specific role in the overall groove. The low drum plays the basic rhythm, the middle drum plays a variation on that basic rhythm, and the high-pitched drums usually solo on top of that. A unique melody is created between the three drums. Each group has its own interpretation of the rhythm, although they may sound similar to someone who is new to maracatu. Alfaias are rope-tuned. The next most important drum would be the caixa, which is a snare drum. The maracatu groups use a metal snare drum that’s very similar to the drum-set snare drum. Some groups have a low-pitched and a high-pitched snare drum; each plays a different rhythm that is synchronized with the other. Again, each maracatu group has its own snare-drum pattern. Then there’s the bell. The bell is very important in maracatu. It’s called gonguê, and it’s like a huge, oversized cowbell. This instrument is very similar to the claves in Cuban music, in that it plays the repetitive pattern that all of the drummers lock into. It’s the clave of maracatu. The gonguê also improvises at times, but its role is to play a repetitive clave pattern. Some maracatu groups only have one gongue, some have two or three. Another instrument is what most people call chékeré: it’s a hollowed-out gourd with a skirt of beads around it. In maracatu it’s called agbê, and it was added to the traditional maracatu groups in the mid-1990s. That instrument was used in the ceremonies of the candomblé religion. There can be fifteen or twenty agbê players in a maracatu group. .