Before the Europeans arrived in Brazil, there is no written history of the country. Pedro Álvarez Cabral was the first to arrive in Brazil in 1500 and claimed the region for Portugal. The Portuguese were the first to colonize Brazil. Other countries tried to colonize but were overtaken by the Portuguese. The interior of the country was not colonized until 1650. When Spain controlled Portugal, they also controlled Brazil. When Napoleon took over Spain and Portugal in 1808, the South American colonies owned by Spain and Portugal were originally liberated but then the Portuguese royal family ran away to Brazil and started their Empire there. This is when Brazil became part of the Portuguese Kingdom. Brazil was declared independent in 1822 with Dom Pedro I as the leader. After this there were many military uprisings starting with a military coup in 1889. The military will take over a few more times without much violence until 1989 when the first elections were held. Fernando Coller de Mello was the fist president under the new constitution. The first left-wing president in 40 years was elected in 2002. He reformed the country but Brazil still has many economic and social problems.
Culture
The official language of Brazil is Portuguese. It is pronounced a bit differently then in Portugal. Other then Portuguese, English and French are spoken. Because of this strong European influence early on, Brazil is traditionally Roman Catholic. In the urban areas and in the northeast, Afro-Brazilian religions are still practiced.
Mealtimes are very important to Brazilian families. Lunch is the largest meal of the day. Dinner is normally a smaller meal then lunch. Common foods are meat, bread, rice, beans, cheese, and eggs.
Brazilians love to play soccer. Schools and businesses often even close during important national competitions or the World Cup. Other then soccer, basketball and volleyball are also commonly popular. Brazilians like to celebrate and when they get-together, singing and samba dancing often occurs. Barbecues are common.
Music and dance is very integrated into the lives of Brazilians. Samba is the most popular music and dance. During most festivals and holidays, Brazilians like to dance, and listen to music. Carnaval is a five day celebration following Ash Wednesday. There are many street parades, lots of drinking, costumes, parties and music during this time. During this time car accidents and crimes are high. There is a strong European influence on Brazilian music. Often, artists combine traditional and modern styles of music.
Common Brazilian Instruments
The Conga- The conga drum is played with hands, and used to play Samba rhythms.
The Cavaquinho- Smaller version of a guitar with four strings.
Featured Song
The Girl from Ipanema
General
* Portuguese Language
* Sung by a male
* Brazilian
* Uses guitar and high top with brush
* Strophic
* Major tonality
* 4/4 time signature
* Homophonic
Structure
0:00- 0:06- Introduction begins with the guitar and a
male voice just singing notes, not the actual lyrics
0:07- 0:22- First verse begins with the guitar and male
singing words.
0:23- 0:37- Second verse begins with different text than
the first verse but with the same melodic line as
before. Percussion enters(brushes on a high hat).
0:38- 1:06- Chorus comes in. Notes are longer than
than before. The same background music is present
but the mood is more relaxed.
1:07- 1:20- Returns back to the melodic statement in the
1st verse.
Context
This piece is from the 20th Century. It was composed in 1962 by Antonio Carlos Jobim. The lyrics were written by Vinicius de Moraes. This is a Bossa Nova piece. It is a combination of traditional and modern Brazilian music.
Composer Biography
Written by Richard S. Ginell
It has been said that Antonio Carlos Brasileiro de Almeida Jobim was the George Gershwin of Brazil, and there is a solid ring of truth in that, for both contributed large bodies of songs to the jazz repertoire, both expanded their reach into the concert hall, and both tend to symbolize their countries in the eyes of the rest of the world. With their gracefully urbane, sensuously aching melodies and harmonies, Jobim's songs gave jazz musicians in the 1960s a quiet, strikingly original alternative to their traditional Tin Pan Alley source.
Jobim's roots were always planted firmly in jazz; the records of Gerry Mulligan, Chet Baker, Barney Kessel, and other West Coast jazz musicians made an enormous impact upon him in the 1950s. But he also claimed that the French impressionist composer Claude Debussy had a decisive influence upon his harmonies, and the Brazilian samba gave his music a uniquely exotic rhythmic underpinning. As a pianist, he usually kept things simple and melodically to the point with a touch that reminds some of Claude Thornhill, but some of his records show that he could also stretch out when given room. His guitar was limited mostly to gentle strumming of the syncopated rhythms, and he sang in a modest, slightly hoarse yet often hauntingly emotional manner.
Born in the Tijuca neighborhood of Rio, Jobim originally was headed for a career as an architect. Yet by the time he turned 20, the lure of music was too powerful, and so he started playing piano in nightclubs and working in recording studios. He made his first record in 1954 backing singer Bill Farr as the leader of "Tom and His Band" (Tom was Jobim's lifelong nickname), and he first found fame in 1956 when he teamed up with poet Vinícius de Moraes to provide part of the score for a play called Orfeo do Carnaval (later made into the famous film Black Orpheus). In 1958, the then-unknown Brazilian singer João Gilberto recorded some of Jobim's songs, which had the effect of launching the phenomenon known as bossa nova. Jobim's breakthrough outside Brazil occurred in 1962 when Stan Getz and Charlie Byrd scored a surprise hit with his tune "Desafinado" -- and later that year, he and several other Brazilian musicians were invited to participate in a Carnegie Hall showcase. Fueled by Jobim's songs, the bossa nova became an international fad, and jazz musicians jumped on the bandwagon, recording album after album of bossa novas until the trend ran out of commercial steam in the late '60s.
Jobim himself preferred the recording studios to touring, making several lovely albums of his music as a pianist, guitarist, and singer for Verve, Warner Bros., Discovery, A&M, CTI, and MCA in the '60s and '70s, and Verve again in the last decade of his life. Early on, he started collaborating with arranger/conductor Claus Ogerman, whose subtle, caressing, occasionally moody charts gave his records a haunting ambience. When Brazilian music was in its American eclipse after the '60s, a victim of overexposure and the burgeoning rock revolution, Jobim retreated more into the background, concentrating much energy upon film and TV scores in Brazil. But by 1985, as the idea of world music and a second Brazilian wave gathered steam, Jobim started touring again with a group containing his second wife Ana Lontra, his son Paulo, daughter Elizabeth, and various musician friends. At the time of his final concerts in Brazil in September 1993 and at Carnegie Hall in April 1994 (both available on Verve), Jobim at last was receiving the universal recognition he deserved, and a plethora of tribute albums and concerts followed in the wake of his sudden death in New York City of heart failure. Jobim's reputation as one of the great songwriters of the century is now secure, nowhere more so than on the jazz scene, where every other set seems to contain at least one bossa nova. ~ Richard S. Ginell, All Music Guide
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