De sinal sonoro a marco sonoro: a recontextualização do berrante no Brasil e sua presença na música raiz do centro-sul brasileiro

Abstract

Present in the history of Brazilian tropeirismo, the berrante is an instrument made of ox horn that was used to lead cattle and to establish communication between the peões until the 1980s. According to the perspective of analysis proposed by Murray Schafer, this instrument constituted an important sound signal in  the soundscape of rural Brazil. The development of technology relating to agricultural work and to the transport of the cattle resulted in the berrante losing its functional capacity. The berrante migrated from the context of work to the context of the music, as it was resignified and transformed into an important soundmark associated with categories designated as música raiz (which here includes the segments of música caipira and/or sertaneja). Thus, the aim of this paper - departing from the proposals of Murray Schafer and Barry Truax - is to analyse the berrante in the panorama of the soundscape of rural Brazil, and to analyse the dynamics of this recontextualization in relation to the process of the migration of its status as an
instrument for work to its identification with a musical repertoire. The concept of a sungscape is adopted as the main tool of analysis as in the romance – a sung genre which is central to música raiz – the poetic-narrative acts as a witness to the history of the universe designated as caipira.