The Candomblé’s Orchestra is composed of three main instruments:

The atabaque (Ilu), the “Agôgô” and the Calabash.

There are 3 types of atabaques; the big one (Rum), the medium one (Runpí) and the small one (Lé). These are considered essential for the summoning of Gods. The “nagôs” and “geges” play the leather with the “òghidavis”.

The “Agôgô” is an iron instrument – with two bells, placed over each other, one smaller than the other – played with an iron stick.
The sound of this instrument easily shadows the other ones. When it has only one bell, it’s called gã.

The Calabash is a common calabash covered with a net made from seeds called “Contas da Santa Maria”. During a few years, recently, due to the prohibiton imposed by the police, against the atabaques, the Candomblé Orchestra counts mainly on these Calabashes, also called “piano-de-cuião” or “aguã”.

The chief of the Candomblé adds to the orchestra, as nagô or gege, the sound of adjá, an instrument with one or two long bells that when shaken by the daughter’s ears, help the manifestation of the Orixá and as Angola or Congo, the sound of the “caxixi”, a straw bag interlaced with seeds.

Before the dancing begins, the daughter must treat with reverence the orchestra, with her head to the ground. With the arrival of an “ôgô”, the musicans interrupt their music and offer their salute, with a special beat. The new arrival should, half-kneeling, pass his hands on the ground and then raise it to the forehead, finally touching the atabaques with his fingers. The Orixás, manifested in their daughters, come to pay homage to the orchestra and passes complacently his hands on the heads of the integrants.

Without the atabaque this celebration looses 90% of its worth, for this instrument is considered to serve as the means for humans to communicate and to invoke the Orixás. And still like in Africa, it’s the telegraph, sending the grateful news of the celebration to those from the Candomblé who are afar. It’s the element of the soul of the occasion (still, just like in Africa). And it is really the only appropriate instrument to salute the Orixás, when they “come down” between us mortals or to invoke them. Its presence is necessary to salute the ôgâna, to keep the rhythm, sometimes monotonous, sometimes as flavor, other times dizzying and for the apparently out-of-control times in sacred dances.

Emotional: Search characterized as finding your own emotional roots, your inner origins. Independent of socialization, there is an unconscious need for emotional results. Generally, this individual integrates the group and assimilates the philosophy.

Economic: The consulting person, keeps to the group in terms of financial sustainability, for in the Candomblé economy is the way of trades similar to native Indian tribes;

Affective: Love: Basically, those looking for answers. This is extemporaneous.

Orí – Orixá of the head, determines social behavior;
Odú – Represents the antecessors;
Adjuntô – Divine being;
Ifá – Cosmic Energy of the being.

The Africans Brazilians all together don’t have Candomblé, they worship some Orixás that are represented by stones. By being randomly confined, without any concerns of grouping by cult or race, the Africans Brazilians (in candomblé) began practicing TOGETHER diverse rituals creating a religious interaction that consequently became a cultural and artistic mesh known as the Candomblé (means: Party of the Orixás). On the other hand , catechism obliged the SYNCRETISM:

Ogum – São Jorge
Oxóssi – São Sebastião
Yansã – Santa Bárbara
Oxum – N.S. das Candeias
Yemanjá – N.S. da Conceição
Nanã – Santa Ana e assim por diante.

The Africans Brazilians forbidden, by the priests, to worship their Orixás, they used a saint, from the Catholic Church, to represent each Orixá. This is why the syncretism occured, taking today’s culture to classify the afro-cultures as Low Spiritualism as, Black Magic, “Macumba” and “Umbanda”. With the development of the South and Southwest region the migration of Africans Brazilians began. The Syncretism begins in the South of Bahia and Rio de Janeiro and only then the in the northern states.

Bantu Groups – “we are sons of the same matter, we all have the same energy”
From the sociological point of view, there is no discrimination, qualification, or even caste. The social behavior is casual. The leader is the most able and that one the leads the tribe most spontaneously. The negro (in Candomblé) accepts leadership as something natural. He understands the perpetuity of the species since he is part of the cosmos, of the divine, and therefore eternal. He sees in his son, the continuity of himself.
In times of war, the victorious tribe enslaves the defeated one, but the sons of the slaves are full citizens.

According to naturalist anthropologists, mankind goes through three phases of evolution:

Instinctive – Humans follow their instincts, just like animals

Intuitive – Humans observe phenomena in nature and try to convey Mankind begins to think from a sociological point-of-view; create art, a religion and philosophy. It is found in nature and it is identified in nature, becoming its spectator. Its language is oral with little writing.

In terms of language, it can be compared to computer language, where there are only zeros and ones. In our case, the individual either denies (-) or confirms (+). The only personal pronouns are “I” and “He”. Heavy breathing, in and out, will express internalization and externalization, or in other words, or receptiveness and release of emotions, respectively.

Intellectual – Humans become capable of rationalizing and start to coding messages.
The black African, in Candomblé, when viewed under the structuralism perspective, is considered to be in their intuitive phase. Moving on to the next phase would come as a direct result to exposure to western civilization culture and habits.

Two symbols found in any culture are sound and color:

1 – Cosmic perception (helicoidal movement)

2 – Sectioned perception (zigzag movement)

Cosmic perception indicates a cyclic perception of the world, just as the planets, the seasons, etc., and therefore extending this perception the humans themselves as part of the cycle. This perception describes how the African in Candomble perceives the world. The man tends to loose the cosmic perception, because of specialization and science, leading to detachment from more primitive notions.