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Its origin is lost in the dust of millennia, because the instrument is nothing more than a bow model, one of the first instruments used by man to produce sounds, almost 20 thousand years ago. The great doubt of scholars, still unanswered today, is whether it was the bow used to shoot arrows that gave rise to the musical bow – great-great-grandfather of the berimbau – or if the opposite occurred. In any case, the instrument gained the form it has today among ancient African native tribes. Everything indicates that he would have arrived in Brazil in 1538, along with the first slaves. Here, he came to be identified as a typical element of capoeira. “The berimbau is the soul of this mixture of dance and martial art, defining both the movements and the rhythm”, says historian Rosângela Costa Araújo, a doctoral student at USP and founder of Grupo Nzinga de capoeira-angola. This does not mean, however, that its hypnotic sound remains restricted to the fight circles.
In Africa, it is present as a musical accompaniment to funeral rituals – and in Brazil it was also used, in the 19th century, by recently freed slaves to attract buyers for the sweets they sold in the streets. Despite its appearance as an improvised object, the berimbau is a sophisticated instrument, capable of producing various sounds. In an authentic capoeira roda, he usually appears in a trio, each with a different size of gourd (his sounding board). The larger it is, the more serious the sound.
To play the berimbau it is necessary to master its seven componentsdrumstick
The wooden rod, which measures between 30 and 40 cm, is hit against the string to make the sound.
Doubloon
It’s usually an old coin – but some use a stone instead. It is held between the thumb and forefinger of the left hand and varies the notes emitted by the berimbau, depending on the pressure applied to the string.
Gourd
The dry and clean fruit of the gourd (a common tree in northern Brazil) is shaped like a gourd and works as a sounding board.
lintel
The arch, about 1.60 m long, is usually made from the stem of a shrub called biriba, common in the Northeast.
String
Tightly stretched steel wire is often torn from radial tires.
tying the gourd
The string that attaches the gourd to the lintel helps transmit the sound emitted by the string to it.
caxixi
The small rattle (with pebbles, seeds or whelks) reinforces the rhythm
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