Benditos

Abstract

Benditos is the given name to a set of old chants from the religious repertoire, particularly in the country part of northeast Brazil. This Portuguese word stands for "blessed" and is customarily performed by old devotees. I was touched by a documentary produced as a result of a dissertation written by the ethnomusicologist Ewelter Rocha. In this work, the researcher aimed to investigate why some works of the traditional collection of sacred songs were refused by the new generation of Catholics as they reprove the devotional practices based on penitence. While reading the dissertation, the disagreement between contemporary Catholics and the old devotees emerged as an important idea for the piece. Musically speaking, the conflict of dynamics in different groups of instruments underlines the dichotomy between different generations. The tape part also reflects this antagonism through fragmented and muffled expositions of the original chants as a way of depicting the rejection coming from the modern religious order. This contrast is broadly illustrated in the dissertation while describing the habits of that community. An extract that provides some context of the atmosphere described above goes as follows. "The mass and its praises take place normally without disturbing the silence of those people who, with their faces saddened by something that cannot be seen, seem to obey the government of another ceremony."