Popular Music of Brazil: Samba

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Popular Music of Brazil Samba
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SambaTudo acaba em samba

• Afro-Brazilian urban popular song/dance form
• Origins in rural roda de samba
• Participatory
• Accompanied by improvised songs and percussion
  instruments
• Style syncopated, call and response vocals,
  open-ended forms, musical interlock, diatonic
  melodies

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Types of Samba

• Carnival samba (e.g. samba batucada and samba
  enredo)
• Characterized by heavy percussion, songs about
  themes presented in Carnival
• (Year-round) samba
• Characterized by light percussion and plucked
  string accompaniment (guitar, cavaquinho)
• Songs often satiric, witty, improvised

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Musical Characteristics

• 2/4 time, emphasis on second beat (as played by
  surdo drums)
• Other percussion plays interlocking, syncopated
  lines
• Songs are strophic major or minor keys usually
  easy to sing
• Chords limited to triads or seven chords

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Carnival Samba

• Arose in Rio de Janeiro, early 1900s
• Part of pre-Lenten festivities (called
  Carnival)
• Associated in past with poor Afro-Brazilians
  street music vs. music of the salon

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Carnival

• Escolas de samba large musical organizations,
  includes percussionists, singers, dancers, samba
  composers, choreographers, designers
• Determine theme, compose song, design float and
  costumes
• Compete during parade

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Carnival and the State

• Before 1930, Afro-Brazilian instruments (drums
  pandeiro) and cultural practices (e.g. candomble
  capoeira) were banned.
• 1930 dictator Getulio Vargas begins subsidizing
  samba schools (approx. 15) in exchange for
  cooperation with govt
• Samba schools have made Carnival in Rio a major
  tourist attraction

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Escolas de Samba

• Mangueira (1929 colors pink and green)
• Portela (1935 colors blue and white)

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Samba Batucada

• Instruments of the Batería
• Surdo drums (basic pulse in 2 divided among three
  sizes of surdo)
• Pandeiro (sixteenth-note division)
• Cuíca (accents)
• Tamborim (syncopation)
• Caíxa (snare drum)

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Samba Batucada Rhythms
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Samba Songs

• Upbeat songs, in 2/4 with light percussion
  (pandeiro tamborim cuica)
• Emphasis on voice
• Lyrics are about samba love sometimes social
  commentary
• Carmen Miranda (1909-1955) film and recording
  star introduced Brazilian music to world

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Samba de Morro

• Also called roots samba to distinguish it from
  commercialized samba
• Sung by sambistas(singer/ composer of samba)
• Instruments guitar, pandeiro, tamborim, surdo,
  cavaquinho

Ismael Silva
Nelson Sargento