Week 5

Chapter 15: Music in Brazil- Samba, a Symbol of National Identity (pages 298-318)

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Title: The Estacio Paradigm (18.1)

Culture: Brazilian

Instrumentation: 

Surdo: large, bass, double-headed cylindrical drum, bottom head not played struck with a beater.

Tamborim: small tambourine without metal jingles on the frame.

Cuíca: friction drum of variable shape, single-headed, stick through the head, played with one arm inside, the other outside to manipulate the tension of the head to make a "laughing" sound rather than a percussive one.

Pandeiro: frame drum, tambourine with metal jingles in the frame.

Rhythm: Polyrhythm- multiple rhythmic patterns played simultaneously.

The cuíca plays a syncopated, off-beat rhythm, while the pandeiro plays continuous sixteenth-notes with the third and fourth sixteenth-notes on each. beat delayed slightly. The musical texture of multiple rhythmic patterns performed simultaneously results in polyrhythm.

The second beat of the 2/4 measure is played strongly on the lowest pitch drum of the ensemble, the surdo.

Tempo: In order to coordinate the tempo of a large group of dancers and musicians, the musician Bide introduced the practice of playing the second beat of a 2/4 measure strongly on the lowest pitched drum of the ensemble.

Cultural Contexts: With composers and other musicians of the Estácio neighborhood making important contributions to samba music and repertory, a style emerged that became known as samba de morrow.

Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Listen to an example of every instrument played individually. Then, listen to a recording and distinguish the different instruments. Can you point out the low-pitched surdo, and the high-pitched cuíca?

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Title: Se Foi Bom Pra Você (18.2)

Performer(s): Velha Guarda da Mangueria; Beth Carvalho

Culture: Brazilian

Instrumentation: 

• Beth Carvalho
• Voice
• Israel
• Harmonica
• Márcio Vanderlei
• Banjo
• Márcio Almeida
• Cavaquinho (plucked lute with four metal strings)
• Josimar Monterio
• 6- and 7- string guitar'
• Tuca
• Ganzá (shaker)
• Cuica
• Panderio
• Repique de mão (small, single-headed, cylindrical drum held on player's lap)
• Tamborim
• Tantã (low-pitches, single-headed elongated, barrel-shaped hand drum held on the player's lap)
• Surdo
• Moncinho
• reco-reco (scraper)
• Darcy Maravilha
• Panderio
• Sérgio Vieira
• Surdo
• Robert Marques
• Trombone

Vocal chorus

Rhythm: Syncopation provided by percussion instruments; syncopated placement of the vocal phrases.

Estácio paradigm: rhythmic vocabulary characterized by basic patterns but with the expectation that they will constantly be varied by the musicians.

Cultural Contexts: The group Velha Guarda da Mangueria (Old Guard of Mangueria- a Rio de Janerio neighborhood that is home to an important Samba school) was founded in 1956 to keep the rootsy samba de morrow style alive. The song Se Foi Bom Pra Você (If It Was Good For You), sung by Beth Carvalho on the group's 1999 release Velha Guarda da Mangueria e Convidados (Old Guard of Mangueria and Guests), is an example of this style. It was composed by Darcy Maravilha (b. 1947) and Darcy da Mangueria (1932-2008), samba composers, and musicians from Rio.

Using mostly Portuguese language, the lyrics to Se Foi Bom Pra Você show how samba songs express concerns of everyday Brazilian life.

Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Listen to Se Foi Bom Pra Você and listen for elements that establish the Estácio paradigm.

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Title: Canto de Ossanha (18.3)

Performer: Baden Powell; composed by Vinícius de Moraes and Baden Powell

Culture: Brazilian

Instrumentation: 

• Baden Powell
• Voice
• Guitar
• Quarteto em Cy (Cyva, Cynara Cybele, and Sonya)
• Vocals
• Ernesto Gonçalves
• Bass
• Paulo Guimarães
• Flute
• Aloísio Fagerland
• Bassoon
• Flávio Neves
• Surdo
• Atabaque
• Afoxé
• Ganzá
• Sutinho
• Drum set
• Tamborim
• Agogô
• Alfredo Bessa
• Atabaque
• Afoxé
• Ganzá
• Cuíca
• Tamborim

Rhythm: Like other varieties of samba, pagode's rhythmic texture is created by a complex weaving of on-beat and offbeat patterns. It is distinguished, however, by the use of a particulat rhythm, the partido-alto rhythm.

Tempo: The tempo is clower compared to that if samba-emredo for Carnaval.

• Treacherous nature section (see description in cultural contexts)- supported by a brooding minor key accompaniment with a descending chord pattern.
• The contrasting section, with conventional samba accompaniment in two major keys, deals with lost of love.

Structure: Call-and-response structure of Afro-Brazilian music.

Cultural Contexts: The samba tradition became more inclusive of all aspects of Brazilian life as a result of the collaboration between guitarist-composer Baden Powell.

In candomblé, Ossanha is the diety (orixá) of the earth and of plants that transmit the vital life force of axé, and a rival of the orixá Xangô, the powerful diety who is noted for his anger. The lyrics evoke the treacherous nature of Ossanha with statements that are immediately negated.

Teaching Strategy Possibilities:

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Title: Deixa A Vida Me Levar (18.5)

Performer(s): Zeca Pagodinho

Culture: Brazilian

Instrumentation:

• Voice (Zeca Pagodinho)
• Vocal ensemble
• Samba percussion

Rhythm: Partido-alto rhythm

Melody: Monophony

Harmony: Rich harmonies

Structure: Call-and-response

Cultural Contexts: Early in his musical career, Jessé Gomes da Silva Filho was associated with the pagode scene in the Rio neighborhood of Ramos. His performing name - Zeca Pagodinho - associates him closely with the pagode style.

This song was adopted by the Brazilian futebol team, which one its fifth World Cup title in 2002.

Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Some of the lyrics in this song are improvised, as happens in pagode. What other forms and styles of music incorporate improvisation? Compare and contrast.

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Title: A Mulher Do Fim Do Mundo (The Woman at the End of the World) (18.6)

Performer(s): Elza Soares

Culture: Brazilian

Instrumentation: 

• String ensemble
• Distorted electric guitar
• Samba percussion

Melody: Monotony

Cultural Contexts: Elza Soares (b. 1930) is a vetran samba singer who had a difficult early life. She won a singing competition at the age of sixteen that began her career.

After decades of recording samba, often with jazz overtones, Soares made a series of experimental albums.

The title song is told from the perspective of a women who loses her identity in a Carnaval parade. The song takes on a tone of impending doom.

Her record label "tackles the burning issues of 21st century Brazil: racism, domestic violence, sex, and drug addiction" (p. 317).

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References:

Wade, B. C., & Campbell, P. S. (2020). Global music cultures: An introduction to world music.Oxford University Press.

Week 4

Chapter 15: Music in Spain- Flamenco, between the Local and the Global

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Title: De Color de Cera Mare (Of Wax Color, Mother) (Wade & Campbell, 2020, p. 239).

Performer(s): La Niña de los Peines Culture: Spanish (Spain)

Instrumentation: Guitar, solo voice, palmas (handclaps)

Tempo: The tempo of is established by the opening guitar. Quadruple meter consisting of four-beat units divided into two pulses each.

Melody: Monophony

Structure: A traditional flamenco, a composition (cante) consists of several verses (coplas) alternated with short guitar interludes (falsetas/variaciones).

A flexible structure is shaped in the course of performance, however, singers often improvise.

A cante often begins with a guitar introduction that establishes the metric cycle, tempo, tonality, and mood. The singer usually follows with a short vocal section (ayeo) in which the voice is warmed up and that singer sets the mood for the copla by improvising on syllables (vocables).

One of the most important expressive tools in the cante, (the ayeo) also has other uses such as expressing complaint pain, or sadness. Following the copla, the guitar closes with melodic patterns characteristic of the song type.

Cultural Contexts: The flamenco De Color de Cera Mare illustrates several characteristics of the genre's lyrics and song performance. The song recalls the historic neighborhood of Triana in Seville where flamenco was cultivated especially among Gitanos.

Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Listen to the following video and hold class discussion. Where do you hear the vocables and the interchange between singers and guitar? What do you infer this song is about? How can you tell? (Discuss emotion, passion, and pain in La Niña de los Peines' voice. (Read English lyrics). Where you correct?

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Title: Falseta de soleá

Culture: Spanish (Spain)

Instrumentation: Guitar

Melody: Monophony

Harmony: Andalusian mode- a distinctive scale in flamenco music. What makes it distinctive is that the interval between the second and third pitches of the scale can be either a whole step or the less usual interval in European music of an augmented second (aug2) that consists of three half steps.

When the Andalusian mode is harmonized in the guitar accompaniment, a distinctive chord progression is formed. Occurring particularly frequently at cadences, the progression is so distinctive as to be called the Andalusian cadence. This cadence is sometimes used in pop and rock music to evoke Andalusia, Spain, or Latin America.

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Title: Soleá de Alcalá

Culture: Spanish (Spain)

Instrumentation: Guitar (percussive strumming, tapping on soundboard), voice, clapping

Rhythm: Polyrhythmic patterns

Melody: Monophony

Harmony: Andalusian mode and Andalusian cadence- recurrent use of progression. Complete cadence in final chord(s).

Teaching Strategy Possibilities: What is a palmas? (handclap). Listen to Soleá de Alcalá. Teach when to count the accented beats (3, 6, 8, 10, and 12).

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Title: Entre Dos Aguas

Performer(s): Paco de Lucía (1947-2014)

Culture: Spanish (Spain)

Instrumentation: Guitar, bass, bongos

Melody: Melodic modes

Harmony: Ninth chords, eleventh chords, occasional dissonance.

Structure: Three clearly marked sections:

Introduction (0:00-0:21): Each chord lasting two measures- Am7 - Bm7 - Am7 - B7

Section 1 (0:22-2:22): Solo guitar plays the main melody; repeated and elaborated; ornamented

Section 2 (2:23-4:13): Three melodic ideas based on the chord progression Em - D7 - C7 - B; corresponding to the Andalusian cadence.

Section 3 (4:13-6:00): Based on a two-chord harmonic progression (D7 - Em) extending over two measures. Repeated and elaborated, occasionally alluding to the sonority of the Brazilian bossa nova.

Each section is characterized by cyclically repeated chord progressions and distinct melodic and rhythmic material.

Cultural Contexts: Paco de Lucía is the best-known flamenco artist internationally. He performed asn recorded with different musicians, including John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Larry Coryell, and Chick Corea.

Teaching Strategy Possibilities: Listen to the pieces. How are the transitions between sections marked? Can you hear a clear distinction?

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Title: Volando Voy

Performer(s): Camarón de la Isla (1950-1992)

Culture: Spanish (Spain)

Instrumentation: Guitar, bongos, voice, flute

Melody: The melody from the refrain (see below) is reoccurring throughout the song.

Volando voy, volando vengo (I go flying, I come flying)

por el camino yo me entretengo (On the way, I entertain myself)

Structure: Rumba

Cultural Contexts: In 1979, Camarón de la Isla released an album titled La leyenda del tiempo (The Legend of Time). It made major contributions to shaping nuevo flamenco, mixing the flamenco idiom with styalistic elements from pop, rock, and Latin American music. Following this album, rock instrumentation and the electric sound became comon in nuevo flamenco music. Volando Voy is the most popular track from the album.

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References:

Wade, B. C., & Campbell, P. S. (2020). Global music cultures: An introduction to world music.Oxford University Press.