Music of Brazil
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The Music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history the Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles like choro, sertanejo, brega, forró, frevo, samba, Bossa nova, MPB, Brazilian rock, axé and others. Samba is no doubt the best known form of Brazilian music worldwide, though Bossa nova and other genres have also received much attention abroad. Brazil also has a growing community of modern/experimental composition, including electroacoustic music. All genres of Brazilian music formed a solid tradition.
Brazilian music history
Colonial music
The earliest known descriptions of music in Brazil date from 1578, when a French pastor described the dances and transcribed the music of the Tupi people. In 1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa wrote about the music of several native Brazilian ethnic groups.
Lundu was the first kind of African-influenced music to flourish in Brazil. Lundu, a style of comedic song and dance, was extremely popular.
Independent Brazil
Brazil became independent from Portugal in 1822, following the Brazilian War of Independence. Soon after, the African comic form 'lundu' spread from the poor black quarters to a broader, white middle-class audience.
Towards the end of the 18th century a form of comedic dance called bumba-meu-boi became very popular. It was a musical retelling of the story of a resurrected ox. These dances are led by a chamador, who introduces the various characters. Instruments used include the pandeiro, the tamborim, the accordion and the acoustic guitar.
Classical music
During the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, the classical music in Brazil was strongly influenced by the music style practiced in Europe, particularly the Viennese classical style. The first major Brazilian composer was José Maurício Nunes Garcia, a priest who composed several sacred pieces and some secular music. He wrote the opera Le Due Gemelle ("The two twins"), the first Brazilian opera with a libretto in Portuguese: "A Noite de São João" (Saint John's Party Night).
Near the end of the 19th century, Carlos Gomes went to Milan and produced a number of Italian-style operas, such as Il Guarany (based on a novel by José de Alencar). Brasílio Itiberê was another prominent classical composer, the first to use elements of Brazilian music in Western classical music, in his Sertaneja (1869).
In 1922, the Week of Modern Art revolutionized Brazilian literature, painting and music. Heitor Villa-Lobos led a new vanguard of composers who used Brazilian folk music in their compositions.
By the end of the 1930s, there were two schools of Brazilian composition. Camargo Guarnieri was the head of the Nationalist school, inspired by the writer Mário de Andrade. Other composers including Guerra Peixe, Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, Francisco Mignone, Luciano Gallet and Radamés Gnattali. Beginning in 1939, Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, creator of the Live Music Group, founded another school, characterized by the use of dodecaphonism and atonalism. Other composers in this school included Edino Krieger, Cláudio Santoro and Eunice Catunda.
Folk music
The earliest music in what is now Brazil must have been that of the native peoples of the area. Little is known about their music, since no written records exist of this era. With the arrival of Europeans, Brazilian culture began to take shape as a synthesis of native musical styles with Portuguese music and African music.
Indigenous music
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, an attempt to convert the people to Christianity [1], and also introduced Gregorian chant and the flute, bow, and the clavichord.
Eastern Amazônia
Eastern Amazônia has long been dominated by carimbó music, which is centered around Belém. In the 1960s, carimbo was electrified and, in the next decade, DJs added elements from reggae, salsa and merengue. This new form became known as lambada and soon moved to Bahia, Salvador by the mid-1980s. Bahian lambada was synthesizer-based and light pop music. French record producers discovered the music there, and brought it back with them to France passing by Portugal, where a Bolivian group called Los K'jarkas saw their own composition launch an international dance craze. Soon, lambada had spread throughout the world and the term soon became meaninglessly attached to multiple varieties of unrelated Brazilian music, leading to purist scorn from Belém and also Bahia.
Another form of regional folk music, bumba-meu-boi, was popularized by the Carnival celebrations of Parintins and is now a major part of the Brazilian national scene.
Popular music
The field of Brazilian popular music can be traced back to the 1930s, when radio era spread songs across the country. This period also marks the beginning of a substantial predominance of women: from the divas of this radio era until our days, women sharply prevail as solo vocalists. By 2006, more than 100 discs of female interpreters were thrown. In the same period, there were only 34 from male interpreters.[1] Well-known radio era artists include chanteuses Nora Ney, Dolores Duran, Maysa Matarazzo, Ângela Maria. Along with Carmen Miranda, Chiquinha Gonzaga, they were the pioneers of this feminine profile of the Brazilian Music that remains until present days.
Popular music included instruments like cuicas, tambourines, frying pans, flutes, guitars and the piano. The most famous singer, Carmen Miranda, eventually became an internationally-renowned Hollywood film star. Her songwriter was Ary Barroso, one of the most successful songwriters in early Brazil, along with Lamartine Babo and Noel Rosa.
Much of the hip hop, reggae and rock heard in Brazil speaks powerfully about the government and social standards. Music is used in a very powerful way, to get points across to people, or to relay messages across the country. It embodies many socialpolitical views of people, whether it's the artists or listeners view. However, the message being said by the artists have different meanings to each and every listener. Listeners construct their own meaning or message in a song.
Choro
Choro (literally "cry" in Portuguese, but in context a more appropriate translation would be "lament"), traditionally called chorinho ("little cry" or "little lament"). Its origins are in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. Originally chôro was played by a trio of flute, guitar and cavaquinho (a small chordophone with four strings). The young pianist Ernesto Nazareth published his first chôro (Não Caio Noutra) in 1878 at the age of 14.[2] Nazareth's chôros are often listed as polkas;[3] he also composed waltzes, schottisches, milongas and Brazilian Tangos. (He resisted the popular term maxixe to represent Brazilian tango.)[4] Much of the success of the chôro style of music came from the early days of radio, when bands performed live on the air. By the 1960s, it had all but disappeared, being displaced by Bossa Nova and other styles of Brazilian popular music. However, in the late 1970s there was a successful effort to revitalize the genre carried out by some famous artists: Pixinguinha and Waldir Azevedo.
Música Popular Brasileira
Tropicalia eventually morphed into a more popular form, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira), which now refers to any Brazilian pop music. Well-known MPB artists include chanteuses Nara Leão, Gal Costa, Maria Bethânia, Rita Lee, Simone and Elis Regina and singer/songwriters Chico Buarque, Milton Nascimento, Gilberto Gil, Caetano Veloso, Ivan Lins, Djavan, João Bosco, Aderbal Duarte, and others.
Bossa nova
Antonio Carlos Jobim and other 1950s composers helped develop a fusion of jazz harmonies and a smoother, often slower, samba beat called bossa nova, which developed at the beach neighborhoods of Ipanema and, later, the Copacabana nightclubs. The first bossa nova records by João Gilberto quickly became huge hits in Brazil. Bossa nova was introduced to the rest of the world by American jazz musicians in the early 1960s, and songs like "The Girl from Ipanema", which remains the biggest Brazilian international hit, eventually became jazz standards.
Música nordestina
Música nordestina is a generic term for any popular music from the large region of Northeastern Brazil, including both coastal and inland areas. Rhythms are slow and plodding, and are derived from accordions and guitars instead of percussion instruments like in the rest of Brazil—in this region, African rhythms and Portuguese melodies combined to form maracatu and dance music called baião has become popular. Most influentially, however, the area around the state of Pernambuco, the home of forró.
Música gaúcha
Música gaúcha is a general term used for the music originally from Rio Grande do Sul state, in Southern Brazil. It is somewhat of a mixture between Argentinian-Uruguayan styles with Portuguese melodies and aboriginal rhythms. The most famous musicians of this genre are Renato Borghetti, Yamandú Costa, Jayme Caetano Braun and Luiz Marenco.
Repentismo
Northeastern Brazil is known for a distinctive form of literature called literatura de cordel, which are a type of ballads that include elements incorporated into music as repentismo, an improvised lyrical contest on themes suggested by the audience.
Frevo
Frevo is a style of music from Olinda and Recife. Frevo bands began playing during the Carnival, the most popular event of Brazil.
Forró
Forró is played by a trio consisting of a drum and a triangle and led by an accordion. Forró is rapid and eminently danceable, and became one of the foundations for lambada in the 1980s. Luiz Gonzaga was the preeminent early forró musician who popularized the genre in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in the 1940s with songs like "Asa Branca".
Funk Carioca and rap
Funk Carioca is a type of dance music from Rio de Janeiro, derived from and superficially similar to Miami Bass. In Rio it is most often simply known as Funk, although it is very different musically from what Funk means in most other places and contexts. It's usually seen as party music and high and medium class people are usually reluctant to admit they listen to it, since music from this genre usually contains sexually explicit lyrics and is attributed to poor people derived from the Favela. Funk Carioca, like other types of hip-hop lifts heavily from samples such as international rips or from previous funk music. Many popular funk songs sampled music from the movie Rocky.[5]
Funk as well as rap was introduced to Brazil in a systematic way in the 1980s. These types of music were heavily supported in big cities by people—usually teenagers—of lower socioeconomic status. Many funk artists have openly associated themselves with black movements and often in the lyrics of their songs, comment on race relations and openly express black pride.[6]
In São Paulo and other places in the south of Brazil, in more urban areas, rap is more prevalent than funk. The lower class, mostly nonwhite rappers are referred to as "Rapeiros". They dress similarly to American rappers that they have seen on television.[7] Early Brazilian rap was based upon rhyming speeches delivered over dance bases sampled from funk albums, with occasional scratches. São Paulo has gained a strong, underground Brazilian rap scene since it's emergence in the late 1980s with many independent labels forming for young rappers to establish themselves on.[8]
In the 1990s in Rio de Janeiro, funk as well as rap were reported by the press to have been adopted by the drug lords of the city as a way to market their drugs at dance hall events. Some crime groups were known to subsidize funk parties to recruit young kids into the drug dealing business. These events were often called baile funk (which can mean a funk dance party) and were sometimes notorious for their blatant sexuality and violence. However, while some funk and rap music was used to send messages out about slums and drugs, others were used mostly to deliver socio-political messages about local, regional, or national issues they are affected by. In fact, some groups adhered to what they called rap consciência (socially conscious rap) and opposed hip-hop which some considered too alienated and consumerist. Despite these differences, both types of music continue to thrive in Brazil today.[9][10]
The intrusion of alien elements in Brazil’s cultural system is not destructive process. The return of a democratic government allowed for freedom of expression. The Brazilian music industry opened up to international styles and this has allowed for both foreign and local genres to co-exist and identify people. Each different style relates to the people socially, politically, and economically.[11] “Brazil is a regionally divided country with a rich cultural and musical diversity among states. As such, musicians in the country choose to define their local heritage differently depending on where they come from.”[12] This shows how globalization has not robbed Brazil of it’s identity but instead given it the ability to represent it’s people both in Brazil and the rest of the world.
Brazilian Rock
The musical style know in Brazil as "Brazilian rock n' roll" dates back to a portuguese-version cover of "Rock Around the Clock", in 1954. In the 1960s, young singers like Roberto Carlos and the Jovem Guarda movement were very popular. The 60s also see the rise of bands such as the "tropicalistas" Os Mutantes and the experimental (mixing progressive rock, jazz and MPB), O Som Imaginário.
The 1970s saw the emergence of many Progressive rock and/or Hard rock bands such as O Terço, A Bolha, A Barca do Sol, Som Nosso de Cada Dia, Vímana and Bacamarte, some of which attained some recognition internationally; Rita Lee, in her solo career after Os Mutantes, championed the glam-rock aesthetics in Brazil; Casa das Máquinas and Patrulha do Espaço were more bona-fide Hard rock bands, and the likes of (Raul Seixas, Secos e Molhados, Novos Baianos and A Cor do Som) mixed the genre with traditional Brazilian music. In the late 1970s, the Brazilian Punk rock scene kicked off mainly in São Paulo and in Brasília, booming in the 80s, with Inocentes, Cólera, Ratos do Porão, Garotos Podres etc...
The real commercial boom of Brazilian rock was in the 1980s, with many bands and artists like Blitz, Gang 90, Barão Vermelho, Legião Urbana, Engenheiros do Hawaii, Titãs, Paralamas do Sucesso, and many others, and festivals like Rock in Rio and Hollywood Rock. The late 1980s and early 1990s also witnessed the beginnings of an electronica-inspired scene, with a lot more limited commercial potential but achieving some critical acclaim: Suba, Loop B, Harry, etc...
In the 90s, the meteoric rise of Mamonas Assassinas, which sold more than 3 million copies of its only CD (a record, by Brazilian standards) came to a tragic end when the band's plane crashed, killing all five members of the band, the pilot and the co-pilot. Other commercially successful bands included Raimundos and Skank (band), while Chico Science & Nação Zumbi and the whole Mangue Bit movement received much critical attention and accolades, but very little commercial success or real influence. It was also in the 90s that the first seeds of what would grow into being the Brazilian indie scene were planted, with the creation of indie festivals such as Abril Pro Rock and, later in the decade, Porão do Rock.
In present time (2008), the Brazilian variant of Emo music is the only real commercial genre of Brazilian Rock, with groups such as Fresno, CPM22 and NX Zero topping the charts. Female singer Pitty is also very popular, as was the now defunct Los Hermanos. The indie scene has been growing exponentially since the early 2000s, with more and more festivals taking place all around the country. However, due to several factors including but not limited to the worldwide collapse of the music industry, all the agitation in the indie scene has so far failed in translating into a real, substantial cultural movement. That scene is still much of a ghetto, with bands capturing the attention of critics one year and then disbanding the next year, due to the lack of financial and material support which would allow for careers to be developed. The notable exception is CSS, an Electro Rock outfit that has launched a successful international career, performing in festivals and venues in North America, Europe, Asia and Australia.
The (somewhat paradoxal) differential of CSS is that it's one of the very few Brazilian bands that play Rock music, as opposed to "Brazilian Rock" bands. The label "Brazilian Rock" has always entailed a different musical style (and approach) from the original Rock 'n Roll, being more of a louder version of the popular Brega music of Brazil, a kind of Brega with an attitude. Since the 90s, however, there has been a growing tendency for bands to adhere strictly to the original Rock 'n Roll aesthetics, with lyrics in English and little or no influence from the Brazilian music or cultural environment. Such stance has been criticized for being "anti-nationalist" or too "Americanized" by left-leaning critics that too often forget that Rock actually is an American musical style. And the international success of CSS seems to lend credence to the idea that the sort of "mixed rock" traditionally played by Brazilian artists is not as competitive internationally as when Brazilians play "real" rock music. The MySpace-fueled success of singer-songwriter Mallu Magalhães, a traditional folk singer in the vein of Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, seems to be signaling a new era for "Brazilian Rock", in which it would drop the qualifier "Brazilian", turn into simply "rock" and, for the first time, appeal to international audiences - as well as the domestic audiences, also eager for "purer" rock, as the mentioned case of Mallu Magalhães shows.
Brazilian Metal
Brazilian heavy metal was originated in the mid 80's with three prominent scenes: Belo Horinzonte, São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro.
The most famous Brazilian metal bands are Sepultura, Soulfly, Angra, Krisiun, Dr. Sin and Shaaman. Sepultura is considered an influential thrash metal band, influencing the development of death metal.
1980's famous bands include Andralls, Korzus, Sarcófago, Overdose, Dorsal Atlântica, Viper, MX, PUS, Mutilator, Chakal, Vulcano and Attomica. From 1990' include Symbols, The Mist, Scars, Distraught, Fantoche, Torture Squad, Eterna and Silent Cry. From 2000's include Eyes of Shiva, Tuatha de Danann, Claustrofobia, Apokalyptic Raids and Wizards.
Sertanejo
Música sertaneja or Sertenejo is a term for Brazilian country music. It originally referred to music from originating among Sertão and musica caipira (Caípira music appeared in the state of São Paulo and the regions of Minas Gerais, Paraná and Goiás. Musical rhythm very spread out in the Southeastern and south region of Brazil), but has since gained more influences from outside Brazil. In particular American country music, Mexican mariachi, and the Music of Paraguay. For several years it was a category at the Latin Grammy Awards.
Afro Brazilian music
Samba
By the beginning of the 20th century, samba had begun to evolve out of choro in Rio de Janeiro's neighborhood, inhabited mostly by poor blacks descended from slaves. Samba's popularity has grown through the 20th century, especially internationally, as awareness of samba de enredo (a type of samba played during Carnival) has grown. Other types of samba include:
- Samba de breque—reggaeish and choppy
- Samba-canção—typical variety of nightclubs.
- Samba pagode—modern popular variety.
Capoeira music
The Afro-Brazilian sport of capoeira is never played without its own music, which is usually considered to be a call-and-response type of folk music. The main instruments of capoeira music include the berimbau, the atabaque and the pandeiro. Capoeira songs may be improvised on the spot, or they may be popular songs written by older mestres (teachers), and often include accounts of the history of capoeira, or the doings of great mestres.
Maracatu
This type of music is played primarily in the Recife and Olinda regions during Carnaval. It is an Afro-Brazilian tradition. The music serves as the backdrop for parade groups that evolved out of ceremonies conducted during colonial times in honour of the Kings of Congo, who were African slaves occupying symbolic leadership positions among the slave population. The music is played on large alfaia drums, large metal gonguê bells, snare drums and shakers.
Afoxé
Afoxê is a kind of religious music, part of the Candomblé tradition. In 1949, a group called Filhos de Gandhi began playing afoxé during Carnaval parades in Salvador; their name translates as Sons of Gandhi, associating black Brazilian activism with Mahatma Gandhi's Indian independence movement. The Filhos de Gandhi's 1949 appearance was also revolutionary because, up until then, the Carnaval parades in Salvador were meant only for light-skinned people.
Samba-reggae
The band Olodum, from Pelourinho, are generally credited with the mid-1980s invention of samba-reggae, a fusion of Jamaican reggae with samba. Olodum retained the politically-charged lyrics of bands like Ilê Aiyê.
Music of Salvador: Late 60s to mid-70s
In the latter part of the 1960s, a group of black Bahians began dressing as Native Americans during the Salvadoran Carnaval, identifying with their shared struggles through history. These groups included Comanches do Pelô and Apaches de Tororó and were known for a forceful and powerful style of percussion, and frequent violent encounters with the police. Starting in 1974, a group of black Bahians called Ilê Aiyê became prominent, identifying with the Yoruba people and Igbo people of West Africa. Along with a policy of loosening restrictions by the Brazilian government, Ilê Aiyê's sound and message spread to groups like Grupo Cultural do Olodum, who established community centers and other philanthropic efforts.
See also
- Mangue Beat
- Lundu
- Axé music
- Pagode
- Brazilian funk
- Afoxê
- Carimbo
- Maxixe
- Baião
- Lambada
References
- ↑ A nação das cantoras
- ↑ Childhood Secrets *
- ↑ Ernesto Nazareth - Rei do Choro
- ↑ Polkas and Tangos
- ↑ Funk Carioca
- ↑ Behague, Gerard. "Rap, Reggae, Rock, or Samba: The Local and the Global in Brazilian Popular Music (1985–95)." Latin American Music Review 27, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 79–90.
- ↑ Sansone, Livio. "The Localization of Global Funk in Bahia and Rio." In Brazilian Popular Music & Globalization, 135–60. London: Routledge, 2002.
- ↑ AllBrazilianMusic: the music from Brazil
- ↑ Behague, Gerard. "Rap, Reggae, Rock, or Samba: The Local and the Global in Brazilian Popular Music (1985–95)." Latin American Music Review 27, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 79–90.
- ↑ Funk Carioca
- ↑ Behague, Gerard. “Rap, Reggae, Rock, or Samba: The local and the Global in Brazilian popular music (1985–1995)”. Latin American Music Review 27, no. 1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 79–90.
- ↑ Phillip Galinsky. Maracatu Atomico: Tradition, Modernity and Postmodernity in the Mangue. Published 2002, ISBN 0415940222.
External links
- Brazilian Beats Fansite for Brazilian Beats Series of classic and modern Brazilian music
- [2] direct link to one of the most interesting Brazilian Popular Music Show on 94.1Fm KPFA
- RadioFavela - The Sound of Rio (direct link to category 'consumable'), a podcast series with the subtitle 'Not assumable becomes consumable ... becomes subsumable'. In the category of 'consumable' you can find stories on all types of music and movies with examples from Rio.
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