of stylistic gaps between samba de coco families in order to unite and consecrate the genre as representative of the city. Far from being an easy narrative of progress from the home and the street to the stage, this video merely documents the beginning of the latest chapter in the history of samba de coco. After patriarch Ivo Lopes’s death in 1987, the musicians stopped playing for the most part, but if one dug deeper into the past, Ivo, Ciço, and Biu were no strangers to public performance. In the 1970s they had mounted shows during the São João Festival with municipal support as well as the sponsorship of beer companies. Ivo had written cocos that during that time were popular radio hits, interpreted by forró stars such as Genival Lacerda. But the private dimension of the genre, played informally at birthday parties and other family gatherings, continued to be a key site for the music, and in 1996 this recording of the performers without their stage dress provided footage that could be seen as evidence that the genre lived off the stage as well as on it.
FOLKLORE AS A HIGH SCHOOL SCIENCE FAIR PROJECT
The video footage of Dora’s birthday party was recorded as part of Micheliny Verunschk’s research into samba de coco in Arcoverde. During this time Lirinha and the guitarist Clayton Barros accompanied Micheliny as she spoke to musicians who were once a part of the family-centered and semiprivate coco salons that had been happening in Arcoverde at least as far back as the 1930s. Lula Calixto taught them about the music and its history and joined them in their efforts to gather more information about how it had been practiced.
The science fair, held at the high school where Lirinha studied, offered students a folklore option, reflecting nineteenth- and early twentieth-century classifications of the study of folklore as a science. At the science fair Lirinha and Clayton performed samba de coco and reisado repertoire, as well as poetry recitation with guitar accompaniment, on a stage in the cafeteria. The performance was received well enough to garner the attention of the director of the SESC Arcoverde. The SESCs of the state of Pernambuco had been on the lookout for promising, regionally relevant cultural programming that could be sent on tour, and Lirinha and Clayton were invited to produce and rehearse a theatrical folklore revue.
CORDEL’S FIRST PERFORMANCE
A videotape of Cordel’s first performance at the SESC begins with the cast walking on stage, illuminated only by open flame kerosene lanterns. Lirinha declares, “Bless Master Chudu,” paying tribute to a popular troubadour and poet from a nearby municipality. Before the rest of the show comes on, he recites “O Cordel Estradeiro,” asking this dead poet for permission to “become authentic,” to “become a messenger of the force of your thunder.” Upon Lirinha’s uttering the word verdadeiro (true or authentic), Clayton Barros played a pleasant, innocuous accompaniment in a major key that underscored this tribute to local elders. But calling for permission from the previous generation of popular poets indicated that, as fledgling performers, their own authenticity in performing this repertoire was in question. This posture of apprenticeship would change drastically as Cordel transformed.
Lirinha defined the performance as a cordel estradeiro. The word cordel refers to small chapbooks of rhymed poetry or a recited story in general. Estradeiro has two meanings. It refers to someone who is almost never at home because he or she is constantly traveling, or to a mule or horse who has a solid, trustworthy gait. By naming their performance a cordel estradeiro, Lirinha framed it as tradition made to travel: road-ready folklore. It was a manifesto for the band Cordel, declaring in words and delivery that its artistic gait was trustworthy and solid. After Lirinha asked for permission to represent the tradition of popular poetry and promised to become a messenger for the words of these poets of the sertão, he proclaimed, “I, too, am a bandit / And my roadworthy Cordel / Is a powerful rattlesnake.” The consonant, reassuring circle-of-fifths chord progression played underneath the claim “I, too am a bandit” frames the moment as the passing of the torch of tradition. At this point the words and music work together to suggest that Cordel’s uncertainty is merely the nervousness of novices making their debut. During this early phase, growing up in the area was sufficient to qualify them as culture bearers. This question would become more complicated as they moved away from Arcoverde.
Despite their jitters about performing tradition, at this point Cordel viewed the relationship between interpreter and source material marked as traditional as relatively transparent and free of antagonism. Late in the set one song in particular clearly located Cordel’s work within a discourse of loss and recovery:
Cordel participates in the past
On a string, the seed is hanging
Left suddenly
It has the soul of my reisado
The magic of the enchanted fire
And the cultural roots of your people
… The finest coveted riches
In the forests of ashes that were green
In the finest coveted riches
In the forest of ashes that is Arcoverde
O cordel participa do passado
Num cordão pendurado a semente
Deixado de repente
Tem a alma do meu reisado
A magia do fogo encantado
E a raiz cultural da sua gente
… Na mais fina riqueza cobiçada
Nas florestas de cinzas que eram verdes
Na mais fina riqueza cobiçada
Na floresta de cinzas que é Arcoverde
The audience was told that they had just heard and seen bits and pieces of their cultural heritage—their roots. Cultural forms, such as samba de coco and reisado, were treated as natural resources. Through an arboreal metaphor of cultural roots—a common comparison within folklore that Cordel would later eschew—the imperative of cultural preservation was reinforced. In the song cultural roots are described as coveted riches almost lost in the scorched earth of modernity, “the forests of ashes that were green.” In the last line Arcoverde specifically is pinpointed. The burning of the forest becomes equated with the perceived loss of cultural memory in the city. But these local riches still remain, the song states, and by performing them, together the performers and the audience have helped preserve them.
During the performance these various “cultural riches” were represented—principally poetry and music from what Cordel selected as the local European, African, and indigenous contributions to their cultural identities. At this point Cordel’s performance was compatible in many ways with Ariano Suassuna’s regionalist Movimento Armorial, which sought to connect with the “magical spirit” of literatura de cordel and sertão musical styles.
During the show the mood varied from one piece to the next; a satirical poem about a hick bumbling in the city followed a solemn, mystical poem about an indigenous prophecy. Roughly a quarter of the performance consisted of comedic storytelling. This contrasted with later performances of the group, within which it adopted a prophetic, apocalyptic tone for the entire show. Costume changes also signaled the panoramic presentation of the region’s forgotten treasures that group members had learned from local culture bearers. During the last third of the
