Palhaços músicos: a música negra no picadeiro do Brasil

Abstract

This research aims to discuss the clown musicians from the Brazilian semiarid region, focusing on the black music in the circus of Brazil. The goal was to find out how is the presence of the black music culture in the circus and how it contributes to the development and artistic quality of the scenes of the clown from the Brazilian semiarid region. We did a bibliographical research on the specialized literature about circus, clown and music to put the Brazilian circuses and their formats in context. We identified in which context the music and the clown-musicians develop their skills in the circus, emphasizing these presences through the black clown-musicians Benjamim de Oliveira, Eduardo das Neves and the clown Xamego. In order to elucidate such questions, folowing the drop in the number of cases of the new coronavirus and with the permission of the competent organizations, we set out to field for the case study having as focus the Transmundial Circo, that was splitid into three other circuses: Javem Circo, Circo Coimbra and Circo Estrela. In the case study, we interviwed the clowns: Javem, Sonrisal and Palitinho, who, through a semi-structured interview, revealed their musical processes, as well as their trajectories from the Transmundial Circo to the present day. Finally, by a qualitative approach through discourse analysis, we cross-referenced information regarding ethnic-racial and laughter issues, besides to consolidate the black music thoughts present in the circus. In this regard, the research becomes a strong ally in the anti-racist struggle through comedy, as well as points to decolonial thinking in the musicality of clowns. We concluded that this research is very political, in which we based that the black music in the Brazilian circus is biased by the cultural appropriation that mask with "white pancake" the artistic/cultural processes of the black people, operated by the structural and racist system that drives the phonographic industry, leading us to perceive black music as being white, coming from colonialist principles.