May-2015
Concertina
How do children learn traditions? How do they follow the rhythms of the life and culture of a people? Normally, they learn with those who know, they learn by doing, creating bonds with doing as they do. We witnessed an example of this in the way the children of Santa Maria de Jetibá learn to play the concertina.
The Territory of Play team visited a concertina class. Just as with the Pomeranian language, concertina lessons happen without established methods, but with people worried about its survival today. A way of doing together, participating side by side with someone that holds all the knowledge.
In regards to the Pomeranian language, we found an entire town dedicated to keeping it alive as the most important way of preserving their traditions. In the majority of houses in the rural districts of Santa Maria de Jetibá the families speak Pomeranian with their kids, leaving it to the schools and life in Brazil to teach them Portuguese.
The preservation of the concertina, however, has been more precarious. According to Angelino Zááger, the teacher at the class we visited, only in the past few years has the concertina had a revival in the state of Espírito Santo, while the instrument was already being replaced by its more agile and easier to learn cousin: the accordion. The resurgence in appreciation and interest in learning the instrument only came about through local folk music festivals, which started including concertina players in their programs.
“Some 11 years ago someone appeared playing concertina at the Linhares Music Festival. After that everyone knew how to play,” said Mr. Orlando Barth, a concertina player in Santa Tereza. In truth, the concertina aficionados were hidden in isolation but, with the festivals giving worth to the instrument and its music, its players and those who love to dance to its music were united.
The concertina’s destiny could have been worse had it not been for its integral role in the most important festivity in Pomeranian life: leading the bride and groom’s dance in Pomeranian weddings. In the first wedding we attended, in the community of Alto Santa Maria, the bride and groom’s dance lasted one hour and 40 minutes. As an elderly man kept the music going on his own the whole time, the bride and groom circled endlessly around the hall, with guests willing to pay a small quantity for the privilege of dancing with them. There is a delirious energy to this stage of the party, a typical example of this people’s festive joy and a lovely clue as to why someone would like to learn to play the concertina.
For six months the lessons have been held in the Luiz Portratz district, in the town of Santa Maria de Jetibá. Every Wednesday night, Angelino sits on his stool and offers little individual lessons to nine students, whose ages vary from 12 to 66. He plays a concertina he built himself while his students, one by one, sit in front of him and try to follow, calmly looking at his playing. While the other students don’t play, they pay attention like true apprentices. Just like Angelino, their presence here is led completely by their love of the instrument.
When asked about his gift for teaching, he repeats for everyone what the told his students on the first lesson: “I’m not a professional in music or the concertina, much less in teaching. But I pass on what I know. After that, what you want to play is up to you. I pass the positions of the fingers. I have songs to teach, but that’s to get in the habit and take it from there. With a hoe in your hand you can plant what you want.” Of course, one of the songs that most interests the students is the bride and groom’s song.
Angelino also teaches twice a week in his own town, Domingos Martins, in Espírito Santo. There he receives a small stipend from the mayor’s office. He is still waiting for official support in Santa Maria do Jetibá. While the support doesn’t arrive, his volunteer work teaching three-hour long lessons to beginners, with another hour to get home, is fed by the satisfaction of doing his part in keeping alive the instrument he so loves.
Text and photos: Renata Meirelles
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