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Stepping back in time with Baila
By Tony Donaldson
When Vasco da Gama set sail from Lisbon in 1497 on his famous voyage he engaged the services of the Omani navigator Ahmed Majid who helped him to discover the sea route around the southern tip of Africa. Soon after, the Portuguese sailed into the Indian Ocean and eventually took control of East Africa, Soqotra, the Omani coast, and coastal areas of India and Ceylon.
By the 17th century, the Portuguese empire covered Brazil and parts of Africa and Asia. Cultural ideas were flowing backwards and forwards across the oceans of the world along the trade routes between Europe, Africa, Asia, and South America. The resulting cultural fusions saw ideas being constantly renewed in a creative mix that can still be seen today in the music of Brazil, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. These patterns reveal important historical features of early cultural globalisation.

Portuguese sailors stepped ashore in Brazil in April 1500 bringing with them the bass fiddle, guitar, and the tambourine. Some of the musical instruments the Portuguese introduced took on distinctive Brazilian features. African music entered Brazil later through the slave trade. African slaves introduced a dance called mingolo which was renamed capoeira (which means 'bush') because landowners at the time did not permit it in slave houses, and it had to be practised in the bush. For all its Africanness, capoeira has become a Brazilian form that combines martial arts, dance, music, religion, and philosophy. The music of Brazil today is a mixture of Portuguese, African and indigenous forms.

Capoeira
The Portuguese also introduced Western musical instruments into Indonesia. The Portuguese first entered Indonesia in 1511 in search of spices. From the songs of Portuguese sailors, a type of music evolved called kroncong, which is still popular today among the senior generation whose favourite revolutionary songs are often performed in this style.

A kroncong ensemble includes a singer, guitar, ukulele, violin, flute, a three-stringed cello, and sometimes a double bass. Though using Western instruments and harmonies, the music itself exhibits distinct Indonesian features, especially in its polyrhythmic textures. Some commentators believe its vocal contours reveal elements reminiscent of Madagascan valiha music.

Kafrinha and baila
After arriving in Ceylon in 1505, the Portuguese gradually set out to convert the Sinhalese and Tamils to Roman Catholicism, and to build their wealth and power through both the spice and slave trades. As early as 1630, African Kaffirs were brought to Ceylon to work as slaves or soldiers. The Kaffirs were once described as a people 'steeped in opium and witless with drink'. It was the carefree spirit of the Kaffirs that inspired two music forms known as chicote and kafrinha infusing them with humour and satire.

Writing in 1894, C. M. Fernando describes chicote as a 'slow and stately' music, while kafrinha is 'faster and more boisterous' and 'with a peculiar jerky movement'. The word kafrinha itself comes from kaf (Kaffirs) and rinha which means 'local lady'. The music drew on syncopated rhythms thought to be derived from Mozambique. A kafrinha ensemble usually included singers, guitar, banderinha (mandolin) rabana (single-headed frame drum), ferrinhos (triangle), and sometimes a violin or viaule (a 13 string instrument).

The Kaffirs and Portuguese Burghers mixed freely together, and in time both chicote and kafrinha came to be subsumed under the general term baila, which is a Portuguese word for 'dance'. Baila is traditionally performed at social occasions. The best baila singers are sometimes called 'baila captains' who are said to be able to sing up to 30 or more songs in an evening. Baila is also sometimes performed in a competitive style of singing between two singers in which each singer strives to outwit the other.

Baila is depicted in a late 19th century temple painting located at the Purvarama Vihara, a Buddhist temple in Kataluwa. The painting was later reproduced in a sketch by Manjusri, and it shows that the costumes, headdress, and musical instruments drew on a mixture of European and local elements.

Baila, Purvarama Vihara, 1886
Though traditionally a dance, baila has evolved into a distinct Sri Lankan form primarily through the words. The American musicologist Ronald Walcott suggests that in the music of Sri Lanka 'the quality of “Sri Lankanness” is carried by an emphasis on the words'. The setting of the texts surpasses all else in importance. In his doctoral thesis submitted to the University of Sri Jayewardenepura in 1978, Walcott observes, 'Performers (in Sri Lanka) think primarily of the words, the weight of syllable and poetic meter of the lines. Their flow and beauty are enhanced with appropriate rhythms, melody and movement, whereby the impact of their meaning is heightened'. In both the ritual music of Sri Lanka as well as in a hybridized form like baila, 'the fascination with words, their rapid and distinct delivery, remains of paramount importance', says Walcott.

Sri Lanka has a rich heritage of creole folk verses known as cantigas which were set to baila tunes in earlier times. Though an oral tradition, 100 verses in Portuguese creole were set down in Cantigas ne o lingua de Portuguez, published in 1914. This work offers a rich pool of knowledge about the carefree lifestyle and social relationships of the seafaring peoples who lived in and around Matara.

The verses in Cantigas ne o lingua de Portuguez deal with release or reveal emotions. There are songs that celebrate the joy of singing, “Nona pequinino, parqui calado santa. Ouvri vossa doce boca, oen cantiga canta” (Young lady, why do you sit silently? Open your sweet mouth, sing a cantiga). There are songs of love and marriage as in the next verse in which ring and gold symbolise a wedding and prosperity, “Anela de ouro nona, baila sober mesa. Si acha anela to tem, vida fortunesa” (Ring of gold lady, dance on the table. If you find the ring, life is a good fortune).

Some songs contain proverbs about love, “Qoqui tem nocente, sabe arte de amor. Sua artifice, ella mesma acha dor” (Whoever is innocent, and knows the art of love. Her art, she will think is pain). There are also songs about travelling to a distant land. In a beautiful poetic gesture, a man calls to her lover, “Se jera pervos, Au lo lava mea tera. Mea korpo fia barco,“Brasso fia vala” (If you want, I will take you to my land. My body becomes a boat. My arm becomes a sail).

Paraguayan baila
On a cool autumn morning in Melbourne I had the pleasure to hear Ernley Pereira perform another style of baila that was once popular in Colombo but now almost forgotten. Ernley, who was born in Colombo in 1934 and now lives in Australia, is one of the few surviving exponents of Paraguayan baila. This style differs from the baila popular in Sri Lanka today insofar as Paraguayan baila is mostly an instrumental music without words, and employs specific strumming techniques derived from South America that permit a guitarist to play a melody while also providing an accompaniment to the dance. While it is not exactly certain when this style first emerged in Colombo, by all accounts, it was popular during the early-to-mid 20th century. As the name suggests, Paraguayan baila probably developed after Portuguese sailors began to introduce elements from Paraguayan music into the baila form. This music was most likely brought to Sri Lanka by sailors travelling from South America who landed and stayed on in Colombo.

Ernley’s own account of Paraguayan baila in Colombo supports this hypothesis. Music was prominent in his early life. His family spent most evenings at home playing music. His mother, Muriel Winter, was a keen amateur pianist. His father, Oswald (Ossie), had studied cello with Mr. Carvalho, a Goan who is thought to have settled in Colombo in the 1920s. It is while studying cello that Ossie started to learn Paraguayan baila from his father, George Charles Pereira (1867-1941).

As Ernley explains, 'George was Superintendent Afloat at the Colombo Port. He enjoyed socialising and performing music with sailors visiting Colombo, and it was during these encounters that he learnt Paraguayan baila which he later taught to his family and friends'. Ernley later witnessed a performance of Paraguayan baila at the Pageant of History - a cultural festival held in Colombo in the 1940s to celebrate the cultural diversity of Sri Lanka’s history. Ernley says, 'My father took me to see Paraguayan baila at the Pageant of History. There were eight dancers. The ladies wore colourful dresses. The men wore big Mexican style hats, and red and yellow jackets with gold embroidery. The dance was accompanied by an ensemble consisting of four guitars, violin, and a triangle'.

Paraguayan baila has now almost faded away. One reason is due to artists migrating overseas. Another reason is probably due to the preference music consumers in Sri Lanka have for songs and singers. With so few exponents alive today, Ernley decided to preserve the Paraguayan baila style taught to him by his father, and with the support of the Arts Council of Victoria he produced a short CD of this music in 1999.

Popular culture in Colombo
The chicote, kafrinha and baila have all made their mark on the cultural life of Sri Lanka. These hybrid forms drew on cultural ideas from Europe, Africa, and South America but ultimately found expression through the Afro and Eurasian peoples who settled in the coastal areas of Sri Lanka. Similarly, in the music of Brazil and Indonesia that drew inspiration from African and Western traditions, the music itself was often shaped to suit the tastes and characteristic rhythms of life of the local communities.

In contemporary times baila has adapted into new contexts including cricket matches, political rallies, and weddings. Popular culture in Colombo continues to evolve as can be seen with the rise of Bollywood, jazz and rap music - which are drawn from the global cultural economy. Of particular interest is the extent in which rap music has spread around the world to find expression in areas as far-flung as the Middle East and Polynesia.

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