Brazilian Music

A detailed Summary of Brazilian Music

Music, especially in Brazil, is an expression of feelings, because one's words can be interpreted with sounds in many different ways. The music from Brazil slowly developed itself with the development of the nation. Brazilian music has several countries that have added to its' development of both rhythm and choreography. Portugal and Africa have had the most influence on the development of Brazilian music (Appleby 2).

According to David Appleby, the most well known Brazilian dramatic dance and music are the lundu, choro and samba. Lundu is an African originated religious song and dance that was brought to Brazil by slaves in the early 1600's. Because of its' sensuality among couples it was originally condemned by the church and began to slowly deflect itself to a more salon type music. Traditionally, the lundu would use a duple meter in which the stanza was "declamatory". This form of music became very popular in the 17th and 18th century until it progressed into the 19th century not only to music but into poetry as well. Today it's considered the father to more popular Brazilian music, such as the samba, and the maxixe, a 19th century Brazilian dance, which was a tremendous success in Europe (Appleby 60-64).

1915 was the year when Villa-Lobos first appeared officially as a composer in a series of concerts in Rio de Janeiro. This formed many negative views and critics as to the modernism of his music. He disregarded the negative feedback and began the modernism era from which the popularity of Brazilian music was established (Praga 1).

Many of the instruments used in the origins of Brazilian music were made of human bone. This served as a reminder of the cannibalistic practices that were used at that time. Many of the common instruments we hear today in Brazil: the flute was the soloist' main instrument, the viola supplied much of the bass, and the cavaquinho created more of the rhythmic pattern. The clarinet, guitar, cello and tambourine were also dominating instruments (Appleby 4). The cavaquinho is a Portuguese guitar used in Brazil and in it's colonies. It is an essential element for the samba and the more popular Brazilian pop music.

This is a common rhythm for urban Brazilian music as well as for African music as it ties back to its' original roots. Most of Nazareth' music pieces created a mood that helped his listeners associate themselves with the people of Brazil (Appleby 78-80).

From Appleby's standpoint, Ernest Julio de Nazareth, was one of the most prominent salon type composure of the nationalist movement. His music consisted mostly of the piano as he wrote a lot of Brazilian tangos, habanero and waltzes. He earned a lot of respect and popularity with his urban polka style genre. This polka pattern is distinct, because of it's dotted eight note followed by a 16th note followed by 2 other eight's. Some differences in the polka pattern and the other rhythmic formation: the organization of the "8th note pattern with the duple meter into variations of 3-plus-three-plus-two units" which create a sensuous quality of sound, and the "delay factor" in th

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Approximate Word count = 1273
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Music