Maracatu is a musical style typical to the Pernambuco region, specifically the city of Recife , in the northeastern part of Brazil. Its origin dates back to the deportation of African slaves, principally from the Congo , to this region of Brazil. The word maracatu describes a celebration for the crowning of a "king" among the slaves that originated around 1800.

This king acted in many ways as a leader of the slaves, under the orders of the colonizers. He was in charge of creating "nations" among slaves, according to their origin. He also made sure rules were respected, and had to take care of "internal" problems. Many of these "nations" still exist today, even though slavery has been abolished for quite some time.

There are two kinds of maracatu :

• the rural maracatu  : also named maracatu de solto, uses percussion and brass instruments and is played at a fast tempo;
  
• the maracatu de baque virado : uses percussion instruments exclusively and is conducted by a master using a whistle. Its tempo is much slower.

The maracatu orchestra is usually made up of more or less 20 musicians. The orchestra's instrumentation consists of  : the gonguê or gounga , a big cowbell (that can weigh close to 9 pounds !!!) in the front, followed by caixas, that are similar to snare drums using guitar strings as snares instead of metal, and three kinds of alfaio drums or bombo, with the smallest called the repique, the medium meiao and the biggest marcante.

In this presentation, we will hear the second type of maracatu, the maracatu de baque virado.

The opening of this maracatu is usually played by a solo caixa. This very short introduction is called cambina.

Video : cambina   

The comes the principal rhythm that will be repeated throughout the macaratu, the luanda.

Here are video clips of each of the instruments involved, followed by an audio clip of the whole ensemble.

Video : gonguê	Video : caixa
Video : repique/meiao	Video : marcante
Audio : ensemble

Certain variations can be added to the rhythm by one instrument or the other.:

Martello:

Learning more

Here are a few links to web sites on maracatu and groups playing it: