"Into the Amazon"
solo performance
The performance is fifty -five minutes in length with the first twenty five minutes comprised of four or five individual compositions. The second part of the concert and composition "Into the Amazon" is twenty -five minutes in duration and each piece blends into the next with the recordings of the forests of Brazil and the Xavante Indians songs being accompanied with multi-tracked compositions.
In the production “Into the Amazon” I have mixed together recordings of Xavante Indian songs and their environment. I accompany them with “Mr Cello” and enjoy utilising the modern sampling technology to create multi layered pieces in a live setting. I aim to take the audience on a brief journey into an Indian village and we commence with the birds at dawn followed by various recordings of both groups and individuals. The production ends with recordings of the Xavante making their daily prayers as they do each evening after their singing practise. The sun has gone down, the faces of the children and adults are lit by the fire and the sounds and rhythms of the forest at night reverberate in the air.
The concert begins with:
“Salutation” initially I draw on the images of the Amazon river as I record a bass pedal note. The theme is a salutation to the Indians of the Amazon.“Out of the Blue”
in the context of this concert this piece has become the eddies and currents and rapids of the Amazon river.“Reverie”
- we are in a dream.“Globalisation”
while building up layers of sound using the looping technology I draw on the idea of the different threads of our global awareness.“Into the Amazon”
commences with “Dawn”, followed by the village singing a “Song for the Day“. Singing unifies the community and here is led by the Chief with his rattle.Rain falls and I accompany the “Rain man who calls the rain”
“Agosta sings an Indian anthem” A woman has walked down to the river with a baby in a basket on her back. She sings a song that she tells me is famous amongst the Xavante and basically translates; “the Indians went to the top of a hill and saw the white man digging up the ground and burning the trees. The Indians warn Toa ah toa ah - don’t do that don’t do that if you do that great sadness will come…..
“Song of the Adolescents”
Adolescent boys are schooled by the elders and from the age of thirteen until their initiation into being a man they live a secluded existence in the boys house. In the evening they sing in groups in designated areas of the village and sometimes during these songs the boys run races around a clearing that surrounds the village.“Proclamation”
the whole village sings, everyone with their own voice within the group. I call it “Proclamation” because when I hear it I think of this amazing cultural group singing their songs in the fast diluted natural environment of the cerrado. It brings out an emotion in my playing whereby I express my own outrage at the vast soya silos that mar the horizon and the shock of witnessing the disappearance of a landscape and consequent impact on the indigenous people.“Atsawidi Maria”
the group gather for prayers at the end of their songs. Maria they have adopted from the Roman Catholic missionaries into their own religion.Night settles and the insects create a cacophony of sound.
photo Xavante Chief Francisco Pronhopa copyright Emily Burridge
e mail contact for this production : admin@emilyburridge.com
(Background information on this production and edits from program notes)
Over the years I have drawn a lot of inspiration from my personal experiences of the natural environment of Brazil and in particular my experiences staying with the Xavante Indians of the Mato Grosso. At the core of the Xavante culture is the daily practise of singing. They sing in groups, including adolescent “choirs” and it is not uncommon in the morning to see a person emerge from their house singing a new song. The Xavante receive the lyrics for their songs from dreams.
During the last fourteen years when I have been staying with a Xavante community I have been invited to make recordings of their songs, I have also made recordings of the natural sounds in the forest and cerrado where they live . Some of these recordings are integrated into my live solo production "Into the Amazon" as well as my third CD "Bridge between Worlds" which is an orchestral work.
I first met Xavante tribesmen at a performance I was giving in the National Theatre Brasilia. Some Indians were walking past the Theatre and I invited them in to my show . It was only afterwards I learned that they were indigenous to the area which during the concert I had spoken about as being inspirational for the production of my first CD “Earth Songs”. Afterwards they invited me to visit their village. Two years later when I was living in Rio de Janeiro I boarded a bus and set off across Brazil to go and visit them. The result of this first visit amongst other things was to set up a charitable Trust “Indigenous People’s Cultural Support Trust “ and through this charity I have been able to help the community in building a health centre with solar power, a medicinal garden and now I return to help develop a tree nursery initiative. The plan is to cultivate species of trees and plants from within their reservation for regenerating areas outside of the reservation as well as making available plants and trees for sale to the local residents in the towns.
For further information on the "Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust" and the Xavante Tree Nursery initiative please visit:
Indigenous People's Cultural Support Trust registered charity no: 1050461
Patron: Sir Professor Ghillean Prance
photo credit Xavante Chief and children practise dancing Emily Burridge copyright
