Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
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THE POLITICS OF PASSION:
THE IMPACT OF BOLERO
ON BRAZILIAN MUSICAL EXPRESSIONS*
by SamuelAraujo
Agog6
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Pandeiro _______________________________
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point in the consolidation of the genre came only with the great success of
the song "LindaFlor"(Beautiful Flower; Henrique Vogeler, Luis Peixoto),
performed in a 1928 musical theatre play and recorded the following year
by singer Araci Cortes (see Tinhorao 1988).
Contemporary journalist and music researcher Marisa Lira (Tinhorao
1988) defines two basic features of samba-canfdoas opposed to the samba
song-and-dance genre: the slowing down of the tempo (from ca. 100 to
ca. 80) and the maintenance of the modinha'smelodic characteristics.
Tinhorao, however, argues that Lira may have overemphasized the links
between modinhaand samba-canfdo;he maintains that the latter may have
developed as a rhythmically interesting off-Carnival song form. One will
agree with Tinhorao after an analysis of selected recordings of samba-
canfto made between 1935 and 1940 by Orlando Silva ("The Singer of
the Multitudes,"a major star of Brazilian radio in the '30s). As opposed to
the polyrhythmic sambaform comprised of several interlocking ostinato
patterns - a Carnival season trademark - the typical rhythmic frame-
work of samba-canfdoin this sample is defined by the pandeiro(tambou-
rine) alone, playing the only remaining pattern of the Carnival samba.
The tempo is, indeed, a little bit slower than in Carnival sambas,but un-
doubtedly livelier than sentimental songs in general.
Early Impact and Repercussion of the Bolero in Brazil
The early impact of Cuban and Mexican bolerosin Brazil, as pointed
out above, was due primarily to the wide repercussion of shortwave radio
broadcasts and Mexican melodramatic movies. But also extremely im-
portant in this process were local versions of Cuban radionovelas(the radio
predecessor of today's TV soap operas), which maintained their original
soundtracks, and pasteurized versions of Latin American musical genres
- including bolero- performed in Hollywood movies of the 1940s by
artists such as Xavier Cugat and Carmen Miranda. The term bolerodid
not appear on Brazilian record labels until 1941. The first examples seem
to be reissues of foreign matrixes sung in Spanish, such as the first big hit
in Brazil, "SolamenteUna Vez,"by Agustin Lara. This initial outburst of
popularity also prompted the first Portuguese versions of mainly Mexican
bolerolyrics recorded by Brazilians, finally evolving into bolerosin the Mexi-
can style written and sung by Brazilians (see Santos et al. 1982).
Apart from the extremely successful song "Caminemos" (Let's Walk, by
Heriberto Martins), recorded by Trio Los Banchos with a Spanish text by
TLP requintoplayer Alfredo Gil, very few boleroswritten by Brazilians
achieved international renown through the 1940s and 50s. Within Brazil,
however, bolerobecame popular both as a ballroom genre and as a senti-
mental song type suited for private listening, cutting across any imagina-
ble socialboundaries. The production of new Brazilian-madesongs, labeled
as such, increased dramatically from 1941 onwards. Eventually, genre
names suggesting the development of hybrid forms proliferated, such as
bolero-beguine, bolero-canfdo,bolero-cha-cha-chd,bolero-indio(Indian bolero),
bolero-rancho (an apparent fusion with marcha-rancho,a popular carnival
ARAUJO MUSICALEXPRESSIONS
BRAZILIAN / 47
me your social uplifting, but now you look down upon me") - in
ambiguous ways;
(b) the fact that both of them were popular as ballroom dance genres in
medium to slow tempo and duple meter (see Example 2);
(c) their prestige at a time when ballroom dancing was a widespread prac-
tice in Brazil (and certainly in other parts of the world), cutting across
more rigid class and/or ethnic boundaries; and finally,
(d) their common types of instrumentation, using either orchestral set-
tings or a small ensemble of guitar(s), requinto(Mexican bolero)or
cavaquinho(samba-canfdo),and light percussion. (Generally speaking,
the use of congas in Brazil signals a greater proximity to standard
boleropatterns, while that ofpandeiro indicates a samba-canfao;this dis-
tinction, however, may be confusing since both instruments are used
in some performances.)
Example 2: Bolero/samba-canado fusion patterns
.=86
a
m
GuitarI _
*iii
Guitar2 _
,r1i I i . . r
olerobassline
string I|I
!rmnsr
strings _ _ ! .- i
ai
3b: Cavaquinhosolo
5
f
^s^SO^.. i t-
cavaquinho
A
A
I
RI 11- J tJ' J 1. I * tJ J ; J
t) As pe-dras que ho-je me a r ti - ram pas - sam dis-tan- te de mim
A
s S J bJJ ! JJ' .J ;
t)
Mas que-remco mo as men- ti ras que o nos-so a-morche-gue ao fim
ARAUJO BRAZILIANMUSICAL EXPRESSIONS / 51
Ii. 112.
FM _:1 IjjiJ7If ! ?
Tor-neimede a- no em a - no u-masom-brade mu- Iher u - masom-bra
de mu- Iher
rit
C 3
_
. t i
j^ j-iJ T
lj
t
"r
dis-tan-ci-a - da de
dis-tan-ci-a da de ti ti ee s6 de-se
de-se--jo que ve-jas
ve-jas Esqutu
E m a-pe- re
sei quetu me -jas
4,---h.jl, _:
7L.i'
So-men-te de - se - jas Queeudes-qao queja su - bi
por-que Queeu des-gao queja su- bi
-,i \ 1_11 -^_
tered chords (although less frequent than in, for instance, bebop), (c) mi-
nor dominant chords and the circle of fifths in descending motion, (d)
modulation and counterpoint, and (e) tunes consisting ofjust one or two
pitches over which a relatively rich harmonic progression develops (the
case of Antonio CarlosJobim's "One-Note Samba" or, injazz, pieces such
as "Perdido,""Old Black Magic"or the introduction to "Night And Day").
In many ways, similar procedures had already been used in Brazil since
the 1940s by night-dubjazz musicians, such as pianist and composer Dick
Farney. However, the uniqueness of bossanova, according to Brito, was
achieved through its blending of these elements with local forms of popu-
lar music, incuding samba-canfdo.One of the key musicians in this proc-
ess was singer/pianist/composer Johnny Alf. As stated by Brito,
His [Alf's] sambas-canfaoswere closer to jazz, to bebop, to cool
jazz than to anything definitely rooted in our popular music. Pro-
gressively,however, some of the procedures employed by Johnny
Alf were metamorphosed into other ones more integrated to the
spirit of the Brazilian popular repertoire. Many have acknowl-
edged, as Antonio Carlos Jobim himself did, this musician's pa-
ternity of bossa nova. (Brito 1968:16)
Johnny Alf's typical blending ofjazz-inspired harmonic thinking and
the bolero/samba-canfao patterns may indeed be found in many of his com-
positions, such as the song "Iluso A Toa"(VainIllusion; see Example 5). A
similar atmosphere is found in songs such as "AsPraiasDesertas"(Deserted
Beaches) by Antonio Carlos Jobim and "Medode Amar"(Fear of Love) by
Vinicius de Moraes. This latter song was recorded on the historical 1958
LP CanfaodoAmorDemais,featuring singer Elizeth Cardoso, guitaristJoao
Gilberto, and the young arranger/conductor Antonio Carlos Jobim;
Gilberto's guitar style on the album's first track, "Chegade Saudade"by
Jobim and Moraes, is considered the "soundmark"of bossa-nova.
Example 5: Johnny Alf's "IlusdoA T6a" (excerpt)
G7 JohnnvAlf
Dm7 9 G9- C7M B E7
4 7 9
e e5 ' A B 6.e--- - Em 0
A.Voice
Voicel r -
te) I. -
Instrumental
accompaniment
[ll 7 ? . i ,? ? '
FOOTNOTES
1. Foran analysis of the similarities between the habanerastandard rhyth-
mic pattern and that of bolero,see Manuel (1985).
2. One among many other possible examples is the song "If I Fell"
(Lennon and McCartney), recorded by the Beatles in their Help! al-
bum.
3. See Araiujo(1987) for an analysis of the use of musical taste attribu-
tion as a tool of derision in Brazilian society.
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1987 Brega:Musicand Conflictin UrbanBrazil. M.M. Thesis. University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Behague, Gerard
1992/93 "Recursos para o estudo da musica popular urbana latino-
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Carpentier, Alejo
1984 La musica en Cuba. 3rd reprint. Mexico City: Fondo de Cultura
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Frith, Simon
1987 "Towardsan Aesthetic of Popular Music." In Music and Society,ed.
Susan McClaryand Richard Leppert, 133-149. Cambridge: Cam-
bridge University Press.
Guerra Peixe, Cesar
1951 "Aprovavel proxima decadencia do frevo." Didrioda Noite, Recife,
27 January, p. 17.
Geijerstam, Claes
1976 Popular Music in Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New
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Ianni, Octavio
1992 A sociedadeglobal. Rio de Janeiro: Civilizaco Brasileira.
Marcondes, Marco Ant6nio, ed.
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1998 Enciclopediada miusicabrasileira.2nd ed. revised and expanded. Sao
Paulo: Art Editora; Publifolha.
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Ortiz, Renato
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