Brazilian music by anonymous

MUSIC IN BRAZIL
Samba: its roots and conventions. Samba is the rhythm of Brazil, a musical style that emerged from African rhythms brought by slaves to Bahia and Rio de Janeiro. Samba is widely thought to be directly descended from the batuque, a circle dance performed by the slaves of Brazil’s colonial plantations, which was imbued with a spiritual force. Samba is inseparable from the Carnaval. Samba has always been intrinsically linked to the annual carnival celebrations held in Brazil, especially in the city Rio de Janeiro. Samba music is in 2/4 time (in two) with a high bass drum beat on the first beat, a lower foundation beat on the second beat, and highly syncopated rhythms played over the top. A bateria plays the rhythmical part, while melody instruments and singers play the tunes. Samba can be performed by a single guitarist or a mob and there are a variety of types of samba or sub-styles. These include: samba de morro (or batucada), samba-canção, and bossa nova. In a batucada, an ensemble produces more than a simple percussion jam session. Percussion is the bare bones of Samba, but the larger Bateria (percussion group) ensembles within the Samba Schools make breathtakingly complex walls of sound. The throbbing heartbeat of the surdo drum (somewhere between a bass drum and a tom-tom) underpins rattling snares, layers of hand-held percussion instruments such as agogos (bells), ganzas (metal tubes filled with beads that you shake), tambourims (a bit like small tamborines which you hit with a split stick), and the panting, surreal shrieks and moans of the cuica, a friction drum. The bateria is an array of drummers and other percussionists led by a director, or maestre, who conducts and signals with whistles the various breaks, solos, whoops and hollers. The relationship between Samba and Brazil's huge Carnaval festivals is a byword. The word "Carnaval" is derived from the Latin and refers to the penitential