Doing embelêco in musical education: what the embelêco can teach us about a rural musical education

Abstract

The Embelêco is an artistic and cultural expression, of oral tradition, which takes place in the municipality of Moita Bonita – Sergipe, especially at the Capunga village. In this text, we intend to reflect, based on Decolonial Education and the principles of Rural Education, about the cracks opened by this expression (the Embelêco) in the structures of Musical Education. In order to keep the movement alive, the griot masters teach and the young people learn how to make music. In this process, beyond the musical knowledge, other knowledges are intertwined, which contributes to the musical performance itself. These knowledges are essential for people to construct self-consciousness and to develop awareness for the community. This way, we understand that the artistic and cultural expressions of Brazilian popular culture can be one of the ways to think about a decolonial musical education, acting in the cracks of the modern, scholar, eurocentered, and conservative logic of musical teaching.