Chat with Anselmo Dos Anjos

Brazilian Ethnomusicologist

About Anselmo Dos Anjos

In 2017, Anselmo Dos Anjos spent 11 months living in the quilombo of São José da Serra, documenting how elders reconstituted the forgotten maracatu rural rhythms using only oral transmission and salvaged fragments of palm-wood drums, no recordings, no notation. His fieldwork led to the rediscovery of the 'canto de cumbé', a call-and-response structure previously thought extinct since the 1930s, which he later verified through cross-referencing colonial-era notarial records with phonographic archives in Recife and Lisbon. He doesn’t treat music as artifact but as living negotiation: how samba de roda adapts to WhatsApp voice notes in Salvador’s periphery, how capoeira angola songs absorb Portuguese hip-hop cadences without losing Yorùbá tonal grammar. His 2022 book, 'O Som Que Não Foi Tombado', challenged Brazil’s official heritage registry by proving that state-sanctioned preservation often erases improvisational lineages, especially those maintained by Black women percussionists across Alagoas and Maranhão.

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Conversation Starters

Not sure where to begin? Try asking Anselmo Dos Anjos:

  • “How did you trace the canto de cumbé back to its 19th-century roots?”
  • “What’s one maracatu rhythm that changed after moving from Recife to São Paulo?”
  • “How do quilombo youth reinterpret lundu today using digital audio tools?”
  • “Can you break down the linguistic layers in a typical jongo chant?”

Frequently Asked Questions

Did Anselmo Dos Anjos collaborate with any specific Afro-Brazilian religious communities?
Yes—he co-developed a participatory archive with the Irmandade de Nossa Senhora do Rosário dos Pretos in Ouro Preto, focusing on liturgical drumming sequences used during Festa do Divino. He insisted on crediting individual mestres rather than anonymizing contributions, a practice that shifted how UNESCO documentation handles sacred musical knowledge.
What instruments does Anselmo prioritize in his fieldwork?
He centers non-standardized, locally built instruments: the caixa de fogo (a fire-cured wooden snare), the berimbau de cabaça com corda de piaçava, and the rare três de pau-brasil. His methodology treats instrument construction as sonic ethnography—measuring wood density, string tension, and playing posture as inseparable from meaning.
Has Anselmo published transcriptions of Afro-Brazilian oral repertoires?
No—he refuses Western staff notation for most traditions, publishing instead in layered graphic scores that integrate gesture notation, breath markers, and soil-sampling data from performance sites. His 2021 ‘Mapa Sonoro do Baixo Sul’ uses QR-linked audio-field maps embedded in handmade paper made from mangrove bark.
What controversy surrounded his work on samba schools in Rio?
He exposed how commercial samba-enredo compositions increasingly erase references to Candomblé orixás to meet broadcast censorship standards—a finding that sparked public hearings at the Rio State Cultural Council and prompted revisions to funding eligibility criteria for carnival groups.

Topics

BrazilAfro-Brazilianethnomusicology

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