In a poor neighborhood on the outskirts of Sao Paulo in Brazil, the sounds of a fiddle merge with the buzz of an electric saw as apprentice craftsmen build Brazilian folk instruments -- often using wood found in city dumps.

在巴西聖保羅市郊貧民區，弦樂聲混合著電鋸嗡嗡聲，這時工匠的學徒正在打造巴西民俗樂器，他們多半使用在城市垃圾堆找到的木頭當素材。

In Sao Miguel Paulista, in the eastern part of this enormous Brazilian city, David Rocha, 20, shows off one of his most recent creations: a “rabeca,” a violin-like instrument popular in Brazilian culture. “I learned to play with sheet music in church,”he told AFP.

在巴西東部這個全國第一大城的聖米格爾保利斯塔區，20歲的羅查展示他最新作品之一：一把「四弦胡琴」，一種在巴西文化中很常見、狀似小提琴的樂器。他告訴法新社：「我在教會學會看樂譜彈奏。」

Rocha is a member of the Tide Setubal Foundation, a community organization which is seeking to rescue the popular culture of a region of modest homes and widespread emigration in the impoverished Brazilian northeast. To make money, he sells some of the instruments, which are made of wood and scraps collected from the banks of the polluted Tiete river.

羅查是「潮流塞圖巴爾基金會」成員，這個社區組織正力圖搶救巴西窮困的東北部的流行文化，當地房舍簡陋、人口大量外移。為了賺錢，羅查賣了一些樂器，這些樂器多半用從嚴重汙染的提泰河岸收集的木材和廢料做成。

With patience and skill, Rocha gently places his hands on the strings of his latest instrument, a “cavaquinho” -- a small, four-stringed guitar -- freshly painted, and made of three native woods: imbuia, known as Brazilian walnut, jacaranda, a blue-flowering tree, and an evergreen tree known as araucaria.

羅查耐心又技巧地把手輕輕放在他最新打造的樂器「四弦吉他」的琴弦上，這是一把類似吉他的四弦小樂器，剛上了漆，是用三種當地木材製作，包括人稱「巴西核桃木」的細孔綠心樟木、開藍色花朵的藍花楹及稱為南洋杉的常青樹。

Rocha's rabeca was made with araucaria, imbuia and pau-brasil, a type of Brazilian timber that he took from an old bed. One of Rocha's guitars was made from a box of imported Norway cod he found one day at the central market in Sao Paolo. “I find the wood on a vacant lot or on the banks of the Tiete. When it is waterlogged, I take it back to the workshop and let it dry,” said Rocha, who has lost count of how many instruments he has made.

羅查的四弦胡琴則是用南洋杉、巴西核桃木和一種原生蘇木製作的，巴西蘇木取自一張舊床。羅查有一把吉他則是某天他到聖保羅中央市場，取進口的挪威鱈魚木盒做成。羅查說：「我在一塊空地上或在提泰河岸找木頭。」他已經記不清自己總共製造了多少樂器。

Surrounded by handsaws and hammers, Renato Soares, 21, and Caique Aron, 18, are finishing their second “alfaia”, a drum popular in Brazil's northeast which resembles the drums used in 19th-century military marching bands. Strips of rope wrapped around the drum's body can be tightened or loosened for tuning. “It's for the five-year-old brother of a friend of mine. Since he plays the flute, I promised him I would make him an alfaia, since it makes more noise,” said Soares, laughing.

四周散置著手鋸和槌子，21歲的蘇亞雷斯和18歲的艾隆已快完成他們第二個「低音鼓」，這種鼓在巴西東北部很常見，類似19世紀三軍樂儀隊使用的鼓。鼓身纏繞細繩，可藉收緊或放鬆繩索調音。蘇亞雷斯笑著說：「這是為我一個朋友5歲大的弟弟打造的，由於朋友吹奏長笛，我答應幫他做個低音鼓，因為它可以製造更多噪音。」

Along with his percussion-making skills, Soares is one of the drum instructors. “I like building them,” he says, noting how he makes the bright purple and yellow diamonds that decorate the sides of the alfaia with ink, glue and sawdust. After creating his latest cavaquinho, Rocha must test it out -- and an impromptu samba duo with Soares on the alfaia is the best way to do that.

除了具有製作打擊樂器的技巧，蘇亞雷斯還是指導製作鼓的老師之一。他說：「我很喜歡做這些樂器。」他製作亮紫色和黃色的菱形圖案，再用墨水、膠水和木屑裝飾低音鼓鼓身。在羅查創作出最新那把「四弦吉他」後必須測音，這時蘇亞雷斯玩低音鼓，兩人來段森巴即興二重奏無疑是最好的方式。

The native peoples of the Brazilian rainforest play instruments including whistles, flutes, horns, drums and rattles. Much of the area's folk music imitates the sound of the Amazon Rainforest. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the first natives they met played an array of reed flutes and other wind and percussion instruments. The Jesuit missionaries introduced songs which used the Tupi language with Christian lyrics, in an attempt to convert the people to Christianity , and also introduced Gregorian chant and the flute, bow, and the clavichord.

巴西熱帶雨林原住民演奏的樂器包括哨子、笛子、喇叭、鼓和搖鈴。這個地區大部分民俗音樂模仿亞馬遜雨林的聲音。當葡萄牙人到巴西時，他們所遇見的第一批原住民演奏各種不同的蘆笛和其他吹打樂器。耶穌會傳教士為了使當地土著改信基督教，再以圖皮語引進基督教聖歌，並同時引進額我略聖歌及笛子、琴弓和擊弦鍵琴。

Brazilian music is full of passion, of sentiment, of joy. It is the result of a long simmering mix of heritage from AmerIndian, Portuguese and African sources meeting global influences to create a magical, mystical music. Yet it is the constant search for new forms within Brazil's diverse musical heritage that most captivates us and influences musicians around the world. Wherever you go in Brazil there is always the music. Whether it is the poly rhythms from percussion instruments at a street corner or a sophisticated discussion of the current year's Carnival songs, the culture shares a common inspiration through their music.

巴西音樂充滿激情、感性和喜悅。這是長期醞釀融合了美洲印第安原住民、源自葡萄牙和非洲的音樂傳統，並和全球影響結合，創造了一個神奇又神秘的音樂。但最使我們著迷並影響世界各地音樂家的，莫過於它不斷在巴西多元音樂遺產中尋找新的形式。不管走在巴西任何角落，總是可以聽到音樂。無論是街頭巷尾打擊樂的複式節奏，或今年嘉年華歌曲複雜的討論，巴西文化透過音樂分享共同的靈感。

Photo shows Brazilian musician and luthier David Rocha working on a small guitar at the Tide Setubal Foundation in Sao Paulo. Rocha makes musical instruments from wood that he collects from garbage.

圖為巴西音樂家兼製琴師羅查正在聖保羅潮流塞圖巴爾基金會製作一把四弦小吉他，他使用收集垃圾時撿到的木材製作樂器。（圖／法新社）