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MUSIC-BRAZIL: ‘Enchanted’ Guitars for Social Change

Fabiana Frayssinet

RIO DE JANEIRO, Feb 8 2010 (IPS) - Perfectly in tune, in spite of the off-key world of Terra Encantada (“Enchanted Land”), a shanty town in this Brazilian city, the guitars of Daniel Sant’Anna’s orchestra strike up the “Ode to Joy”, played by children and teenagers who are looking for a way forward in their lives.

The streets are off-key, with rubbish piling up for days in temperatures of up to 38 degrees.

Hygiene conditions are off-key, with no piped drinking water, drains or electricity.

Fear is off-key, with nights full of the sounds of conflict, including the staccato rhythms of gunfire.

These children have nothing, except “the oppression of society, which is even worse than that of the police,” says musician Sant’Anna, creator of the “Enchanted Guitars” project.

“When they are looking for a job, and say they are from a ‘favela’ (shanty town), they are not taken on. When they tell other kids at school that they live in a community where shots are fired at night, attitudes towards them change,” he adds.

The head of the project, who earns his living as a member of Brazilian pop and rock music bands, did not have the financial resources to change that reality. But he felt he had other resources to offer that might make some changes in children’s lives in the Terra Encantada favela, which sprang up after the occupation of an abandoned textile factory in 2003 and is home to 800 families.

He imagined that introductory music classes might “give them back a little self-esteem” and “open doors to other opportunities.” So one day he collected all his music colleagues’ old guitars and started planning the courses.

Classes are offered twice a week, morning and afternoon, and are open to all. The only requirement is attending school.

At first the children had very narrow musical tastes. They liked pagode, a type of Brazilian pop music, and funk, a rap style, just like most young people in these communities.

Although Sant’Anna acknowledges that rap music “reflects part of society,” he feels it does not generally have a “positive” message. Not only are the songs “repetitive,” but the lyrics can be extremely violent, he adds.

Sant’Anna is also concerned about its alluring “sex appeal,” particularly in communities where, he says, teenage pregnancy rates are alarming. “You see girls of 12 or 13 who are pregnant, and by the age of 20 many of them have four or five kids in tow.”

But the children’s and teenagers’ musical tastes gradually changed. Sant’Anna used a sound system to introduce them to other styles “to find out what got to them,” such as high quality Brazilian pop music, classical music, Latin American and international music.

“I played them from beginning to end, and they loved it, so much so that they brought their friends along. Next thing I knew, I had over 10 students and I saw this was the right approach,” he said.

In one of the rooms a group of children are playing “No Woman, No Cry” by the late Jamaican musician Bob Marley. In a more advanced class, the difficult chords of flamenco music can be heard, while others are singing “Garota de Ipanema” (The Girl from Ipanema) by Brazilian musician Tom Jobim.

Sant’Anna’s goal is not to train professional musicians – it’s “too difficult a journey” in a country like Brazil, he says. An introductory musical education is, in his view, a “pathway to citizenship.”

“Playing the guitar has given them self-esteem, and now their parents, teachers and neighbours see them differently. They are featured in the local newspaper and they have been on TV. That gives them self-confidence because they can see a way forward, and they have become famous within their community,” Sant’Anna told IPS.

The director formed a group of the more advanced students, which they call the “Enchanted Guitars Orchestra”. It has recorded two discs, and regularly receives invitations to play at different institutions.

After six years with the project, Thiago Vianna da Silva today earns his living as a music teacher in low-income communities. His dream is to buy an electric guitar.

Thiago came to the project looking for something he enjoyed doing that would give him an alternative to the road taken by his friends, who joined drug gangs and were “dying off one by one” in street violence.

Sant’Anna said that in a community like Terra Encantada, with the worst human development indicators in Rio de Janeiro, it is hard to compete with the appeal of the drug mafias, which become more powerful the more media coverage they get, and whose members are looked up to as role models and “heroes.”

The musician wants guitars to replace shotguns, and youngsters like Thiago show they can make the switch.

“My life changed completely. I used to be out on the streets all the time; I only wanted to play football and fly kites, and I had no respect for anyone. Music taught me respect for others and for myself. Today I prefer to stay at home, studying and doing my professional work,” Thiago said.

But now the project, attended by 45 girls and boys between the ages of eight and 15, is in danger of going under unless it secures new funding. More experienced students help Sant’Anna out, taking turns to teach the younger ones.

The only formal aid for this initiative comes from the Brazilian Institute of Innovation in Social Health (IBISS), which provides premises for the courses within the favela, in the Baixada Fluminense, a plain east of the city of Rio de Janeiro.

Sant’Anna himself, as a musician, is constantly on tour with the bands he plays with. He regrets not having the resources to provide a daily snack for the children, for example, or transport for the Enchanted Guitars Orchestra when it is invited to play in faraway places.

“To become more than an amateur project, we need more professionals. Not just music teachers, but others who can support the children in their lives outside the guitar classes, at school and with their families at home. Outside of our classrooms, we know nothing of their lives,” said Sant’Anna.

It’s a pity, when things have begun to change for the better. The children who “used to beat each other up in the community, now get along fine, and no longer hit or insult each other,” he said.

Impressed by the positive changes they see in their children, the local families are also beginning to come around to the classes, and to encourage them. The project also points the way to other opportunities.

Sant’Anna says that it can hardly be credited, but many children have never been outside their favela or their neighbourhood. “They have never seen the Rio to Niterói bridge, incredible as that may seem…They live in isolation.”

Now, with the orchestra’s tours, they are beginning to see something of this divided city. Several children have now been to the centre of Rio de Janeiro, for instance.

It seems little enough, but the members of the orchestra are as delighted as their guitars are enchanted. Music has literally opened the doors of the world for them.