Samba de terreiro

Samba de terreiro is the samba made at the terreiro, the headquarters yard of a Rio de Janeiro samba school, outside the competition repertoire: the sambas of the school's composers' wing, sung at rehearsals, feasts and year-round gatherings rather than composed for the carnival parade. Performed by the velha guarda (old guard) and composers such as *Cartola*, *Nelson Cavaquinho* and *Candeia* with cavaquinho, violão, pandeiro and light percussion, it preserves the partido-alto improvisation and the melodic samba-canção inheritance that the spectacle-driven samba-enredo displaced. It is samba as community memory rather than show.