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