Cantá pras alma: a reza cantada do ritual de Encomendação das Almas

Abstract

The Commendation of Souls is a typical manifestation of popular Catholicism that arrived in Brazil in the middle of the sixteenth century from a transit of migratory character along with the religiosity and devotion of the Portuguese colonizers. This work is, therefore, a study about the prayers sung present in the ritual, especially, in the occurrences of the rite during the Lares of 2015 and 2016 in the settlements Bocaina, São Bento and Machadinho, located around the municipality of Cláudio, in the Minas Gerais state. Starting from a bibliographical survey about recurrences and correspondences in the scope of this rite in Brazil and also in Portugal, this work presents a little of its history, relating it with themes and concepts pertinent to the field where the ethnographic research was developed. In order to bring the reader closer to the sounding atmosphere of the Commendation of Souls, transcriptions and musical analyzes are presented, as well as intermiditic resources related to the context of this ritual practice, aiming to represent the act "cantá prás alma" and its main musical, Presenting the relationship between tradition, ritual procedures and structure of celebrations with sung prayers, chanted during each realization of this religious manifestation that still exists in the popular culture of the regions studied