{"id":8559,"date":"2020-03-30T11:03:04","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T09:03:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/?post_type=focus&p=8559"},"modified":"2020-04-03T02:42:23","modified_gmt":"2020-04-03T00:42:23","slug":"music-to-fight-to","status":"publish","type":"focus","link":"https:\/\/www.auxsons.com\/en\/focus\/music-to-fight-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Music to fight to "},"content":{"rendered":"

All over the world, combat sports and music are closely linked, drawing on traditions and spirituality. A quick overview offers three examples: capoeira in Brazil, moringue in R\u00e9union and taiko drumming in Japan. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Because martial arts have their roots in ancestral traditions and spirituality, it should come as no surprise that they use one of the most obvious means of speaking to the gods and higher powers. From Japan to Indonesia, Thailand to R\u00e9union, fighting is backed by a musical soundtrack, bringing meaning to these arts of war, giving strength to the fighters, regulating their bouts and organising the chaos.<\/p>\n

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Capoeira : a bridge through time between the living and their ancestors<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Our first stop takes us to Brazil, a country where music is like an incessant heartbeat, accompanying one of the world\u2019s most well-known combat sports: capoeira. The streets of Pelourinho, the historical centre of Salvador de Bahia \u2013 a network of alleyways combining colonial architecture and pastel houses \u2013 echo powerfully to the sound of the berimbau, a musical bow from Africa played by storytellers and hunters, and the atabak, a drum that is the basis for candombl\u00e9, the animist Afro-Brazilian religion.<\/p>\n

In the middle of a circle (the \u201croda\u201d), fighters twirl in front of the percussionists and singers, sketching out their spectacular blows, taking flight\u2026 Pedro Abib \u2013 a professor of popular culture at the Federal University of Bahia, who researches capoeira and is the author of Conversas de Capoeira<\/em>* \u2013 has been practising this sport for thirty years.  As far as he is concerned, the role of music in this sparring is clear: \u201cIt builds a bridge through time between the living and their ancestors\u201d, he says, \u201clike everything that originated in Africa, music is part of the game\u201d. Capoeira, an art inherited from slaves, a combat sport disguised as a dance to evade the watchful eyes of their masters, is thought to be descended from Ngolo, the \u201czebra dance\u201d, a rite of passage for the Bantu people of Angola. But, according to Bamba, a capoeira instructor in Paris: \u201cSlaves were mixed so capoeira is the result of a blend of influences from all over Africa\u201d. This heritage is carried by the traditional songs that accompany the rodas. Several centuries old, they describe the sugarcane plantations, their masters, moments of rest and dreams of escape. They refer to religious rites, conjure up the bars of Luanda and the persecution of this art in Brazil. They also cite the 17th-century queen of Angola Njinga, who gave her name to the \u201cginga\u201d, the basic movement.<\/p>\n

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