Recent Studies of Brazilian Music: Review-Essay

Gerard Béhague

Latin American Music Review, Volume 23, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2002,pp. 235-251 (Article)

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Latin American Music Review, Volume 23, Number 2, Fall/Winter 2002© 2002 by the University of Texas Press, P.O. Box 7819, Austin, TX 78713-7819

Recent Studies of Brazilian Music: Review-Essay

1) RUY VIEIRA NERY, ED. A música no Brasil colonial. Colóquio Internacional,Lisboa, 2000. Lisbon: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Serviço de Música,2001, 457 pp. Musical examples, bibliography.

2) CARLOS KATER. Música Viva e H.J. Koellreutter. Movimentos em direção àmodernidade. São Paulo: Musa Editora/Atravez, 2001, 371 pp. Photos, mu-sical examples, bibliography, appendices (“anexos”).

3) ____________. Eunice Katunda: musicista brasileira. São Paulo: Annablume/Fapesp, 2001, 174 pp. Bibliography, musical scores, list of works, appendices.

4) PAULO COSTA LIMA. Ernst Widmer e o Ensino de Composição Musical na Ba-hia. Salvador: Fazcultura/Copene, 1999, 358 pp. Photos, musical examples,bibliography, discography, list of works, appendices.

5) MARCELO MACEDO CAZARRÉ. A trajetória das danças de negros na literaturapianística brasileira: um estudo histórico-analítico. Pelotas: Editora Universitária/Universidade Federal de Pelotas, 2001, 227 pp. Bibliography, musical ex-amples, discography, appendices.

6) JOSE FLAVIO PESSOA DE BARROS. A fogueira de Xangô . . . o orixá do fogo.Uma introdução à música sacra afro-brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: UERJ/Intercon.,1999, 247 pp. Maps, drawings, musical transcriptions, glossary, bibliogra-phy, compact disc.

7) ____________. O banquete do rei . . . Olubajé . . . Uma introdução à músicasacra afro-brasileira. Rio de Janeiro: Editora ao Livro Técnico, 2000, 183 pp.Drawings, musical transcriptions, glossary, bibliography, compact disc.

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8) CARLOS SANDRONI. Feitiço Decente. Transformações do samba no Rio de Janeiro(1917–1933). Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar Editor/Editora UFRJ, 2001,247 pp. Musical examples, bibliography.

9) MARCOS NAPOLITANO. Seguindo a canção: engajamento político e indústriacultural na MPB (1959–1969). São Paulo: Annablume/Fapesp, 2001, 370 pp.Bibliography, discography, filmography.

Various aspects of Brazilian music and musicians continue to receivewide attention both in and out of Brazil. The selection of the titles above,which constitutes only a sample of the studies of the last few years, ismeant as a representation of the different approaches and results of theirauthors or editors.

1) A música no Brasil colonial edited by the well-known Portuguese musi-cologist Rui Vieira Nery contains the proceedings of an International col-loquium on that subject organized in Lisbon by the Music Division of theCalouste Gulbenkian Foundation on 9–11 October 2000. The various pa-pers are organized according to the following chapters: “Sources,” “SacredMusic,” “Modinha and Opera,” “Instruments,” and “Performance Practice”(Práticas Interpretativas). The participants were mostly Brazilian researcherswith a few Portuguese scholars. Five papers deal with the issues concern-ing sources, pointing out the major documentary gaps for a comprehen-sive colonial music history and stressing the diversity of possible readingsor interpretations of the known sources. These include the inquisitorialtrials of the period 1670–1720 (by Elizabeth Lucas), the foreign travelers’accounts in Portugal and Brazil in the period 1750–1834 (by Rui VieiraNery), the historical archive of the Museu da Inconfidência (Ouro Preto,Minas Gerais) (by Mary Angela Biason), the critical description of the cata-logue of Sigismund Neukomm’s works held at the French National Library(by José Maria Neves), and the specific case of sources dealing with themusic activities in the state of São Paulo during the time of the well-knownhistorical and political figure, José Bonifácio de Andrada e Silva (late eigh-teenth and early nineteenth centuries) (by Diósnio Machado Neto).

The “Sacred Music” studies address the questions of missionization andmusic of the Benedictine monasteries in Brazil (by Elisa Lessa), the cultiva-tion of the Portuguese passion setting and its importance during the colo-nial period (by José Maria Pedrosa Cardoso), and the presence of the stileantico in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the states of São Pauloand Minas Gerais (by Paulo Castagna). Additional papers deal with spe-cific works by colonial composers Lobo de Mesquita (by Inês Guimarães),Manuel Dias de Oliveira (by Rubens Ricciardi) and José Maurício NunesGarcia (by Carlos Figueiredo). The chapter “Modinha and Opera” exam-ines, on the one hand, the work of the poet Domingos Caldas Barbosa,

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author of numerous modinhas (Luso-Brazilian sentimental songs par excel-lence), raising the issue of his possible activity as a composer as well (ar-ticle by Manuel Morais), and on the other, the genres modinha and lunduduring the eighteenth century (article by Olga Frange). As a bibliographi-cal study, the latter raises a few interesting (however speculative) questionsbut omits significant items of the bibliography. The chapter “Instruments”includes a well-researched article on the Portuguese viola (a five-courseguitar of double strings) repertory (by Rogério Budazs), a significant study(by Gerhard Doderer) on Luso-Brazilian musical relationships in the eigh-teenth century that looks at the provenance of the Portuguese organs in thecathedrals of Mariana and Faro, and the connection of the Brazilian JoãoSeixas da Fonseca with the publication of the first collection of keyboardsonatas (1732), specifying the use of the pianoforte. The third essay (byElisa Freixo) in this chapter presents a brief overview of Brazilian organsin the eighteenth century and their current state of disrepair. Under “Per-formance Practice,” conductor Vítor Gabriel from São Paulo presents arather controversial view of what could and should constitute a Brazilianschool of performance interpretation of colonial music, while choral con-ductor Sérgio Pires from Rio de Janeiro considers practical questions (withappropriate discussion of theoretical treatises) in the performance of eigh-teenth-century sacred music repertory.

The last article by Inês Guimarães provides a self-complacent summaryof the results of the colloquium with a few parting thoughts on the multidi-mensionality of the musicologist. The volume editor’s “Introductory Note”gives a much better and more critical assessment of the colloquium. Over-all, there is no doubt that this particular event dealt with its subject in amost positive and serious fashion, raising some of the most relevant ques-tions that still face this area of music research.

2) Brazilian musicologist, composer and teacher Carlos E. Kater hasworked very assiduously on research issues involving Brazilian art musictrends of the twentieth century. Música Viva was a very important move-ment in Brazil created in 1939 by German-born composer Hans JoachimKoelleutter, a proponent and strong advocate of twelve-tone compositionalmethod that he introduced in Brazil soon after his arrival there in 1937.Música Viva represented then a new phase of modernity in Brazilian artmusic and had in Cláudio Santoro, César Guerra-Peixe, Eunice Katundaand Edino Krieger, among others, its main followers in the 1940s. Themovement clashed with musical nationalism, prevalent since the begin-ning of the century, and to this day is seen as controversial by a number ofBrazilian composers and scholars.

Kater’s book is a revised and expanded version of the thesis that hedefended in 1991 for the position of full professor at the School of Music ofthe Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte. His two main

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objectives with this publication were “to study one of the fundamentalperiods of modern Brazilian music history . . . by consulting diversesources,” and the other to retrieve the documentary holdings that “couldsupport and facilitate the elaboration of new studies” (12). Kater appears asa clear apologist of the movement and of Koellreutter’s leadership thatprovided “an intense movement of artistic, pedagogical, and cultural revi-talization” (15). The author rightly points out the general lack of specificknowledge of the various phases of the development of the movement andits consequent contributions. He therefore proposes to elucidate the maincharacteristics of the movement’s dynamic realizations in opening up andsomehow liberating music composition in Brazil.

The study comprises five main parts (1) “Brazilian modernity in the arts,in music, in Villa-Lobos”; (2) “A brief history of Música Viva”; (3) “Engage-ments and Ruptures”; (4) “Ruptures and Engagements”; and (5) “Activitiesof Música Viva and Final Considerations.” The first two chapters establish awell-planned contrast between the famous “Week of Modern Art” cel-ebrated in São Paulo in February 1922 (the first centenary of Brazilian Inde-pendence), establishing the basic premises of the modernismo movement inthe arts, and the creation of Música Viva and its various “moments.” Theauthor considers both movements as two different phases of artistic moder-nity in Brazil. His historical summary of Koellreutter’s career in Germanyand Brazil reveals the philosophical principles of the German avant-gardeof the 1930s (and the strong influence of Hermann Scherchen, asKoellreutter’s teacher) that nurtured the Brazilian Música Viva. The authoralso details the various phases of the latter, including the discussion of theManifesto 1944 and Manifesto 1946 that laid down the position and proposi-tions of the movement, and the identification of the members of the group.In so doing, Kater stresses Koellreutter’s pioneering pedagogical efforts andthe “revolutionary trajectory” of the movement.

The third part (“Engagements and Ruptures”) illustrates the politicaland aesthetic precepts and dogmas of some of the main composers of themovement (Koellreutter himself, Cláudio Santoro, Guerra-Peixe, andEunice Katunda). The political engagements varied from adhering to theCommunist Party, to the positions of the socialist left or simply acting againstthe Fascist-Nazi regimes. The resulting emphasis of the importance of thesocial function of the composer became a part of such engagements. How-ever, the case of Santoro’s participation in the well-known Congress ofMusic Composers and Critics in Prague (1948) that changed his position ofadvocating a “progressive nationalism,” illustrates the first dissension amongthe Música Viva members. Kater gives an objective and critical assessmentof the inevitable controversy that emerged between Santoro andKoellreutter. What he does not mention is the logical step from the Brazil-ian side that motivated Santoro and Guerra-Peixe to abandon twelve-tone

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technique and implied aesthetics and to embrace in the 1950s a modern-ized form of musical nationalism. Kater states:

The fundamentally ideological causes of gradual ruptures and then the dis-solution of the group were produced by incompatibilities between the aes-thetic directives impelled by the political movement and the musicalorientation prescribed by Koellreutter to the Música Viva. (99)

Surely, but what must be emphatically stated, is the fact that Koellreutter’snotion of modernity in music composition was wholly determined by the(once again) hegemonic European models of the 1930s and 1940s (referredto as “universalist”) that he himself represented, with little or no apprecia-tion for the specific socio-cultural conjuncture that young Brazilian com-posers were facing in the 1940s. To qualify Santoro’s rejection of the notionof art for art’s sake as “intransigent” (93) bespeaks of a blind unilateralinclination on the part of the author. That Koellreutter saw a possible ho-mology between Marxist principles and atonality and serialism (90) is be-yond comprehension. Indeed the only likely explanation for such aconviction has to do with the practical consideration of attempting to rallythe rebellious members to avoid further scission between them.

Part 4 (“Ruptures and Engagements”) recounts first the circumstancesunder which Koellreutter introduced the new technique of composition inBrazil and how he himself embarked on atonal and twelve-tone works inBrazil. The author then discusses quite intelligently the differences andconsequences of what he calls “aesthetic” and “political nationalism,” andbrings up the case of Camargo Guarnieri’s famous “Open Letter to Musi-cians and Critics of Brazil” (7 November 1950), which Kater qualifies as a“product of simplistic and above all obsolete effect” (125). The argumentthat twelve-tone technique could have generated “less standardized andmore authentic compositional styles” (125) among Brazilian composers isonly stated without analytical demonstration. Kater is right, however, inconsidering Guarnieri’s Open Letter as a political rather than merely aes-thetic gesture, in “its civic and patriotic appeal” (127), motivated perhapsby the return to power in 1950 of Getúlio Vargas and the reconsiderationof the nationalist issue. Kater is also right to point out that Santoro, Guerra-Peixe, and Katunda had (already in 1948 and 1949) switched to a more“national” course of composition, thereby dismissing the potential influ-ence of Guarnieri’s exhortation. Moreover, the author shows convincinglythat a number of works from the 1940s by Santoro, Guerra-Peixe, Katunda,Cosme, and others reveal an attempted integration of twelve-tone tech-nique with elements of folk or popular music, albeit in an unsystematicmanner.

In Part 5 (“Música Viva Activities”) the author provides the most detailedinformation available on the events of the group, active first in Rio de

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Janeiro then in São Paulo, including recitals and concerts, the publicationof music editions, the creation of radio programs, among others. The “Fi-nal Considerations” section assesses the Música Viva’s impact on the art-music scene of Brazil at the time and Koellreutter’s role in it. Despite hisobvious esteem for the movement and its leader, the author remains open-minded overall. His analyses and interpretations are solid and trustworthy.Particularly persuasive is his characterization of the movement as the le-gitimate representative of the “Second Phase of Brazilian Musical Mod-ernism” whose principles of renovation and experimentalism resonatedwell with the Brazilian avant-garde of the 1960s and beyond.

Completing the book are seventeen appendices that provide the mostexhaustive documentation to date concerning the movement and its mem-bers. Carlos Kater’s Música Viva e H.J. Koellreutter is thus the most provoca-tive and comprehensive study of a significant period of twentieth-centuryBrazilian music history.

3) This study is related to the previous item and was published almost atthe same time. For many years Carlos Kater has studied the work of com-poser, pianist Eunice Katunda (1915–1990) (also spelled Catunda) not onlyin connection with her involvement in the Música Viva group, but also forthe intrinsic interest in her compositional ability and performance achieve-ment. He had the advantage of conducting numerous interviews with thecomposer and had access to her entire documentary archive (correspon-dence, essays, music scores, memorabilia). The author provides here anexcellent biographical sketch, based on primary sources and his personalinterviews, thereby presenting new data. He also reproduces several per-sonal letters, texts and essays written by Katunda (most unpublished intheir entirety) that shed substantial light on her thoughts at various periodsof her life.

The catalogue of works (the very first) compiled by Kater includesKatunda’s own compositions and her own transcriptions, arrangementsand orchestration of works by other authors, for a total of 81 entries. A listof the composer’s correspondence numbers 107 documents, mostly lettersand postcards from personalities from Europe, Brazil, and other LatinAmerica countries, such as Scherchen, Dallapiccola, Nono, Malipiero,Koellreutter, Guerra-Peixe, Margot Loyola, and Nicolas Guillén. A fewletters to and from the composer and a few of her compositions (includingher most important work, the Cantata Negrinho do Pastoreio, 1946) are re-produced in the appendix.

The author’s intent to shed new and full light on a vital composer, todayalmost forgotten in Brazil, is fully realized in this volume. In his character-istically serious and comprehensive manner Kater has therefore produceda study that probes for the first time the full significance of the life andwork of Eunice Katunda.

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4) Paulo Costa Lima, composer and theory-composition teacher fromBahia, has written one of the two most important books on his teacher andfriend Ernst Widmer (1927–90). The other, Ernst Widmer: Perfil Estilístico(Salvador, Bahia 1997), was written by another former student of Widmer,Ilza Maria Costa Nogueira, and deals specifically with the musical lan-guage of Widmer, the composer. By focusing on Widmer’s legacy as ateacher of composition at the School of Music of the Universidade Federalda Bahia from 1963 to 1987, Costa Lima is able to consider the entirecomplex of a teacher-composer. He does so by assessing the connectionsbetween the teaching and learning process and the teacher’s compositionaland theoretical production. Paraphrasing the abstract of the book providedby the author, the following summary sketches the main representativelines of this study.

Swiss-born Ernst Widmer, a student at the Zurich Conservatory (underWilly Burkhard for composition, Walter Frey for piano, and Ernst Hoerlerfor music education), moved to Bahia, Brazil, in 1956 and became a Brazil-ian citizen in 1967. He exerted strong influence and had the most positiveimpact as a teacher, performer, conductor (both choral and orchestral),adjudicator, administrator, and writer. Costa Lima’s investigation intoWidmer’s pedagogical philosophy and method follows three interconnectedperspectives: “(1) an analysis of Widmer’s writings and identification ofrelevant themes; (2) a reconstruction of the pedagogical interaction presentin his teaching through the representations of former students; and (3) theidentification of elements belonging to Widmer’s compositional theory byway of an analysis of his compositions, which provides an adequate me-dium in which to contextualize the themes produced by the two previousperspectives” (25). The results of this detailed study demonstrate Widmer’sintegrated concept of the teaching/learning process

in which discourse, pedagogical interaction and compositional activity, allplay relevant roles, and present a remarkable degree of affinity in relation toeach other, leading to a single synthetic design composed of three basic di-rections: organicism, relativity and the integration of pedagogical and com-positional perspectives.(25)

In addition, the consideration of various aspects of this method, such as thebasic attitude of the professor, the daily classroom environment, the evalu-ation scheme, the compositional treatment applied to discourse, or alsothe different kinds of compositional solutions, allows a reinterpretation ofsuch aspects from these three directions of synthesis.

The author finally observes in “both discourse and compositional prac-tice” a tendency towards greater flexibility and comprehensiveness, the“radical commitment with the idea of contemporary avant-garde leavingroom for progressive relativity,” and the “foreigner’s” perspective creating

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a differentiating vision of both Brazilian and European culture. This questfor relativization coincided paradoxically with the “progressive develop-ment of an heterodox repertoire of strategies and teaching methods elabo-rated in permanent exchange with the students themselves, supporting themanifestation and development of individual differences and/orsingularities.”(Ibid.)

The depth and thoroughness of this study and its engaging style evincethe exemplary dedication and seriousness of Paulo Costa Lima whose con-tribution here makes us understand the real legacy that Ernst Widmer rep-resents for contemporary Brazilian music composition.

5) Marcelo Macedo Cazarré currently teaches piano performance at theMusic Conservatory of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas in Rio Grandedo Sul. This book is the result of his master’s thesis defended at theUniversidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul (Porto Alegre), and reads in-deed as an academic exercise in research and writing. The subject of com-piling and analyzing Brazilian piano literature dealing with “danças denegros” since the nineteenth century is quite relevant, given the attractionof Afro-Brazilian musical traditions as a key symbol of national identity. Butit is rather ingenuous to sustain that those piano pieces, of the genre tradi-tionally known as “pièce caractéristique,” are actual representations of “theuniverse of Afro-American musical culture,” as stated by the author. Thebook comprises three chapters with two alternating intermezzi and a con-clusion. The first chapter provides a bibliographical review of those Brazil-ian and other Latin American studies or reference works dealing with someaspects of African and Afro-American music, including classic works byBrazilian authors; Cubans Fernando Ortiz, Alejo Carpentier, Argeliers León,Leonardo Acosta; Americans Richard Waterman, Bruno Nettl, PortiaMaultsby; and Uruguayan Lauro Ayestarán, among others. The review givesa basic summary of the contents of the selected items. To his own questionas to why use such a bibliography when the subject matter of the studyrefers only to Brazilian piano music, the author gives four reasons: “(1) Thepresence of Africa in all the American continent is a historical fact deter-mining the ethnic and cultural constitution of the region; (2) the concernto portray, in the art sphere, Afro-American musical culture was not exclu-sive to Brazil, but rather common in various countries of the continent;(3) the codification of technical-stylistic characteristics in relation to the Afro-American culture found in this literature, allows the drawing of connectingpoints between the musical production of the continent; (4) the piano musi-cal production of art-music composers of various Latin American coun-tries, grounded on Afro musical culture, allows thinking in intertextualnetworks of the Brazilian repertory with its American counterparts” (15).This is far-fetched reasoning since the author does not treat any of thoseconcerns in his study, in particular, the suggested comparison betweenpiano compositions from Brazil and Cuba inspired in Afro-Brazilian or

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Afro-Cuban musical practices, which appears nowhere in this book. Thusone wonders to what extent the review of this bibliography serves anypurpose at all for this particular investigation. As a matter of fact, it is notaltogether clear what use some of the items cited in the general bibliogra-phy may have had in the study. Conversely, a number of bibliographicalreferences in the text are not cited in this general bibliography.

Understandably, the selection of repertoire, from Carlos Gomes toFrancisco Mignone and Marlos Nobre, resulted from accessibility of sources.Covering the period 1856 to 1984, this selection is meant only as a sample,but again it is not clear of what exactly the selection is supposed to represent.The pieces are apparently selected according to their title or subtitle: “dançade negros,” “batuque,” “lundu,” “jongo,” and the like. Among the selectioncriteria mentioned is precisely the assumed presence of a “stronglycharacteristic element of ‘Afro-Brazilian dance’ (title or subtitle of dance)”(89). A mere title or subtitle, however, only indicates an intention whoserealization may or may not represent an authentic expression of Afro-Brazilian music. The author is quite aware of the fact that most piano piecesof the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries bearing such titles receivea stylistic treatment typical of salon music of the period. While he alsorecognizes that most composers had little or no first-hand knowledge andexperience with traditional Afro-Brazilian music and dance, his analysesof the piano pieces hardly take into account the actual nature of this music,as a basis for comparison with the appropriated, stylized, almost caricature-like rendition of the so-called “universe of Afro-Brazilian culture.”

The analytic model proposed (chapter 3) reveals another case wherebytheory prevails over the actual empirical evidence. Indeed, by relying onthe various approaches to music semiology (Ruwet, Nattiez, Lidov, Agawu,Tarasti, and others), Macedo Cazarré pretends to uncover “webs of signifi-cation between the technical/musical contents and the socio-historical con-text” (90). Nattiez’s model would have required a study of reception history,which, of course, was beyond the scope of this investigation. From Agawu(Playing with Signs: A Semiotic Interpretation of Classical Music, 1991) the au-thor borrows the notion of topoi (Portuguese tópicas) which he applies arbi-trarily to the repertoire under discussion. Among the various topoi proposedis the so-called “possession” described as the

representation of the state of trance characteristic of dances of Afro-Brazilianreligious cults; its association in the dances for piano is related to a greatincrease of density and/or tempo acceleration. In the piano writing, the in-crease of density is observed through the aggregation of notes, octaves, chords,acceleration of movement, and increase of intensity: in short, musical ele-ments that can bring the work to a climax. The association of this topoi withthe description of “Danças de Negros” is quite frequent; some historians referto the apotheosis of the dance as represented by the “umbigada” [symbolictouching of the dancing couple’s navels, from Portuguese “umbigo”]. (98–99)

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First, possession and “umbigada” are totally alien in Afro-Brazilian reli-gious dance. But, this type of association is at best naïve and its applica-tion to the actual analyses (e.g., Luciano Gallet’s piece Tá Sambando orFrancisco Mignone’s Congada, 134–39), at worst ludicrous. Despite theseserious shortcomings (due perhaps to inadequate supervision), the authormakes some bona-fide efforts in dealing with a significant topic in Brazil-ian piano music. One can only wish that the actual socio-historical contextof music-making represented by the selected repertoire could have guidedthe premises of his research.

6 and 7) For many years, anthropologist José Flávio Pessoa de Barroshas penetrated the complex world of predominantly Afro-Brazilian reli-gions, having published since the late 1980s a series of important articlesand chapters in specialized journals and books. His previous books (O Segredodas Folhas) explain the secret of sacred plants through the system of classi-fication in the jêje-nagô (West African derived) communities, and (Galinhad’Angola) (as co-author with Arno Vogel and Marco Antônio da Silva Mello)the issues of initiation and identity in Afro-Brazilian culture. Currently,Professor Pessoa de Barros is the Director of International Relations andExchange Programs at the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, wherehe has taught for many years.

That the author, who is not an ethnomusicologist, chose music as part ofthe overall project on “Therapeutics and Cultures,” sponsored by CAPES,a federal agency, is already indicative of his knowledge of and sensibilitytowards the efficacy and richness of Afro-Brazilian aesthetics as an integralpart of religious dogmas and practices. As so many Brazilian scholars inthe anthropology and sociology of popular religions, Pessoa de Barros hasthe great advantage of first-hand participation in various terreiros (temples,sacred places of worship), especially in and around the city of Rio de Janeiro,an experience that transcends the mere notion of “fieldwork.” Both of thesebooks are presented as an introduction to Afro-Brazilian sacred music, butnot in the academic sense of a basic text of general appreciation. Rather,through his descriptions and ethnographic narratives in a very direct, ac-cessible prose style, the author attempts to convey the actual socio-culturalexperience of worship as apprehended by means of sounds and gestures.In addition, the voices of the participants in the candomblé (generic term fortraditional Afro-Brazilian religions, especially in Bahia and Rio de Janeiro)ritual life are heard throughout, thus assuring an open and honest repre-sentation.

The first volume of this introduction is actually O Banquete do Rei . . .Olubajé, (“The Banquet of the King . . . Olubajé”). Olubajé is a special ritualdedicated to Obaluaiê (the king of the earth), Omolu (son of the lord),Onilé (lord of the earth) and Sapatá and Xapanã (the deity of smallpox). Inpractice, however, the king, the lord, and the son are joined into one basicentity symbolizing smallpox and other contagious diseases. The volume

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first describes briefly the religious communities, their origins and historicaldevelopment in Rio de Janeiro, then explains the significant place of sounds,language and gestures, the ritual orchestra, the nature and function of thecanticles, and the specific names of the basic rhythms associated with vari-ous entities. Then follows the narrative of some of the aspects of the Olubajéritual, beginning with the xirê (ensemble of ceremonial dances), then thebanquet with general description of the food offered to the gods and someof the respective songs performed during the ceremony, the actual danceof the king (Obaluaiê/Omolu) accompanied by appropriate songs refer-ring to the myths of the deity, and final apotheosis in which other entitiesof the terreiro join in celebration of the special day of Omolu. The author’sattention to ethnographic detail and reliance on the stories and legends ofthe mythology in his narrative bring his text to life and engage the readerin a very dynamic manner. The final part of the ritual, here called “Cel-ebrating Creation,” describes the dance of Oxalá/Obatalá, the “deity ofcreation,” as the tradition jêje-nagô demands.

The musical transcriptions, done by musician Dil Fonseca, provide onlythe melodic lines of the vocal soloist and choral responses, without the per-cussion accompaniment. Although useful, these transcriptions are limitedby the strictly European-like notational system. Particularly problematic isthe transcribed rhythm of the melodic phrases which tends to be somewhatrigid. In fairness, however, these transcriptions correspond quite accuratelyto the recordings provided in the accompanying compact disc. These re-cordings were obviously produced in studio rather than the more desirablefield, contextual recordings. The actual performance does not sound verytraditional, the vocal style of the soloist is too smooth and the choral re-sponses too well timed. The drumming is rather confused in certain rhyth-mic renditions. For example, there is practically no differentiation betweenthe batá and the sató rhythms, the alujá (specific to the deity Xangô) is muchtoo slow (Xangô wouldn’t be able to recognize it!). The toque (special rhythm)adarrum is erroneous. The tonibobé rhythm is normally followed by anotherrhythm for Xangô known as bajubá, absent here. One wonders whether theperformers are in fact members of any terreiro. On the other hand, it ispossible that these recorded samples actually represent a more “urbanized”version of current performance rendition in Rio.

The second book deals with another important ritual in jêje-nagôcandomblé: the “Fogueira de Xangô” (Xangô’s Bonfire), performed both inBahia and Rio de Janeiro. Xangô, the deity of thunder and fire, symbol ofmasculinity and power, is certainly a central figure of the candomblé pan-theon, with numerous worshippers dedicated to him. The Bonfire ceremonyinvokes several aspects of Xangô’s mythological and historical legacy, andfunctions as the culmination of several praising ceremonies. This volumefollows a similar structure as the previous one, including the same basicintroductory materials on the jêje-nagô cultural complex, the sacred space,

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and the musical instruments and repertory of candomblé in general. The lastfour chapters treat specifically the Bonfire, with description of the varioussequences of the ritual performance (prayers, poetic greetings, canticles,dances, food offerings), including transcriptions of Yoruba songtexts withPortuguese translations. The “Roda de Xangô” (“Xangô’s Round”) and the“Singing and Dance of the King” follow with detailed explanation of theirsymbolic significance expressed through the character of the collective andindividual dances as well as the specific songs related to Xangô’s myths.The songs take on, therefore, a particularly captivating importance as mythi-cal narration and, in turn, as direct or indirect explanation of the corre-sponding dance performance.

Under the title “The Royal Court Celebrates,” the next chapter recountsthe last portion of the ritual involving all of the deities of a particular terreirothat happen to be present on that occasion. The author’s descriptions stressvery appropriately the socialization process at work in this type of ritualperformance. The sixty-seven musical transcriptions (also by Dil Fonseca)of the canticles follow the same format as in the previous books. The ac-companying compact disc features the same percussionists, vocal soloist,and choral members (with only a few exceptions). The high number ofrecorded canticles (sixty-one), however, only allows for the presentation ofsegments which are much too brief.

These two books, which do not pretend to be ethnomusicological stud-ies, are nevertheless excellent introductions to Afro-Brazilian traditionalreligious culture, presented to a general audience from the perspective ofits music expressions. In so doing, Pessoa de Barros represents that culturein a masterly fashion, as candomblé music is not conceived as a separatecomponent of the religious experience.

8) The result of a modified (and shorter) version of his doctoral thesis(defended in 1997 at the French François Rabelais University in Tours),Carlos Sandroni’s Feitiço Decente is undoubtedly the most serious and en-gaging study to date of some significant aspects of the development of theurban samba of Rio de Janeiro (carioca), during the period 1917–33. Itdeals specifically with the transformations affecting carioca samba around1930 in a systematized analysis. Sandroni is at present professor ofethnomusicology at the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco in Recife.As a good ethnomusicologist, he considers the socio-cultural, political, andchoreographic aspects of the phenomenon, but his analyses are focused inmore detail on the changing rhythmic formulas of samba accompanimentduring this period. From these analyses, he extracts new data that allowunderstanding of the overall transformations.

In an introductory chapter, “Musical Premises,” the author revisits thenotion of “Brazilian syncopation” and its commonly assigned African ori-gin. He also emphasizes the “culturally conditioned character” and therelativity of that concept, citing Africanist ethnomusicologists such as

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Gerhard Kubik and Simha Arom who abandoned it in their analyses oftraditional African music. By referring to the well-known ideas of additiverhythmic structure and time-line of African rhythmic organization, theauthor points out the degree to which some Brazilian traditional or popu-lar music is nearer Africa than Europe, but maintains the notion of “synco-pation” as a native category, since the term has entered the daily vocabularyof popular musicians. The paradigm of the tresillo (Cuban term designatingthe 3+3+2 metric organization of eight pulses, into three articulations) isshown to be quite frequent in numerous variants in Brazilian popular mu-sic since the late nineteenth century. Sandroni sees a direct connectionbetween the concept of syncopated music as defined by this tresillo para-digm and “a certain conception of the qualifications of ‘Afro-Brazilian’ and‘typically Brazilian’” (31–32). He finally describes the rhythmic formulasidentified with the samba of Estácio de Sá (Rio’s quarter famous in the1920s for its samba musicians such as Ismael Silva, Bide, Nilton Bastos,and others) labeled “The Estácio paradigm,” meant to be part of the famous“samba schools,” first appearing officially in 1928. Although still based onsyncopated patterns, these formulas involve more complex and asymmetri-cal cycles, generally of sixteen pulses grouped as 7+9 or 9+7. The author isconscious that such technical explanations may not be accessible and ofany interest to the general reader, which prompted him to have the techni-cal passages of the book printed in a different type, so that the “lay” read-ers can skip them at will, while encouraging them to “dare to venture intosyncopation and sixteenth-notes”!

The first part of the volume, “From Lundu to Samba,” in five chapters,concerns the general study of those salon-music genres of the nineteenthcentury associated with the beginnings of samba, namely lundu, maxixe,polca-lundu, Brazilian tango, and others. Also mentioned are the first refer-ences to samba also in the nineteenth century, the early creation of thegenre in Rio with Bahian migrant musicians (the famous Tia Ciata group),and the launching of the piece “Pelo telefone” (1917) by composer Donga,considered by most as the first carioca samba. Sandroni reveals here athorough knowledge of the literature on these particular topics with perti-nent comments and detailed analyses.

It is in the second part, “De Um Samba ao Outro,” also in five chapters,that the author presents his main, mostly convincing arguments of the trans-formations of the early samba in the late 1910s and 1920s and the emer-gence at the beginning of the 1930s of the authentic “classic” urban samba.By relying on the discourse of samba musicians, their biographers, andthe journalists and musicologists who dealt with the subject, he examinescritically the different features of the early “old style” samba (considered“false samba” by such distinct figures as Ismael Silva and musicologistFlávio Silva because it is akin to maxixe) and those of the “new style” 1930ssamba. The differences, however, were not strictly musical but social and

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economic as well, according to various places of the city in which sambawas practiced, and in the type of financial correlation motivated by thecirculation of samba, from home festivity to commercial recording. Addi-tional factors distinguished the two styles, such as the transformation of thenew samba into a product with monetary value that can be sold by graphicand phonographic means and secured through copyright. And finally theassociation of the new samba with the malandro figure, an urban lowersocial stereotype of the “hustler” kind, who resents work, earns a livingthrough gambling, is often maintained by women, and is himself a wom-anizer. His only redeeming quality is his close identification with and rel-ish of samba. These characteristics (malandragem) become frequentreferences in samba song texts either praising or condemning the malandro’slife style, as the author shows by selecting eight samba texts of famouscomposers, recorded between 1927 and 1931. The chapter “O Feitiço Decente,”(an allusion to the samba “Feitiço da Vila” of 1934 by the famous composerNoel Rosa) goes deeper into this question of malandragem, by providingsome excellent insights into the sociological and musical meaning of someof the sambas of Noel Rosa, the genius of the classic samba of the 1930s.

The last chapter of part 2, “Pelo gramofone,” (“By way of the gramophone”)analyzes a substantial set of samba recordings from the period, the actualprimary sources allowing the detailed study of the sound changes that af-fected and defined the new samba. Sandroni is consciously aware that theserecordings were made in studio under fairly restricted technical conditionsand cannot therefore reflect the “authentic” performance renditions of theperiod outside the studio. He is right, however, in pointing out that theanalysis of these recordings can be justified “not only because of the pos-sible inference in relation to what was happening outside the studios, butalso because, in Rio de Janeiro and in the twentieth century, music onrecords was in and of itself, artistically and socially, a phenomenon of greatrelevance” (186). The analyses are quite useful in demonstrating the differ-ent articulations of rhythmic structure (especially the “characteristic synco-pation”) and phrasing between the old and new samba styles, and withinthe new through the comparison of various recordings of the same piece(e.g., “Se você jurar”) by different performers. The author spares no effort inconsidering the various parameters of the new style in all of their detailsand considers briefly the basic reasons for the gradual reception of the newstyle as the key factor of samba identity.

The substantial literature on the carioca samba since the 1930s has beenmostly anecdotal and descriptive, or more recently rather biased by a priorihistorical, socio-political, and other disciplinary theories. AlthoughSandroni’s study is restricted to a time-limited but significant portion ofsamba’s history, it deals with its subject in a holistic manner, never forget-ting that samba is foremost music and dance. The book production is quite

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good but lacks a general index, a frequent shortcoming in Brazilian bookpublication.

9) As with the previous item, this book is the result of Marcos Napolitano’sdoctoral thesis in history defended in 1999 at USP (Universidade de SãoPaulo). Currently the author is an adjunct professor of history at theUniversidade Federal do Paraná in Curitiba. As a historian of popular cul-ture, he deals with MPB (acronym for música popular brasileira) from thevantage points of cultural history, sociology, and political science. Togetherwith his previous publications, this particular study reveals him as one ofthe most serious and more engaged young Brazilian scholars in popularmusic studies. The main point of this book is the articulation of the rela-tionship between the political involvement of music and musicians duringthe period 1959–1969 and the hegemonic forces of the recording industry.The author points to MPB at that time as the subject of a significant aes-thetic-ideological debate and as a socio-cultural institution emanating fromthis debate. He also sees the concurrent reorganization of Brazilian cul-tural industry as a force to be reckoned with in the production and con-sumption of popular music. In his opinion, they represent opposing forces.In his introduction, Napolitano states:

The basic idea of this work argues that one of the privileged forms for under-standing the history of the renewed MPB, as product of the 1960s, is to analyzethe shock and possible articulations of these two vectors: an institutionalizedmovement that represents autonomy, and another, of re-arrangement of thecommercial transaction of song that causes heteronomy. (14)

Thus the cultural industry occupies a central position in this research. Butthe author smartly avoids stereotyped explanations, examining instead thestrategies and even contradictions of the association of the artists-musi-cians and the industry.

The discussion occupies six chapters and some concluding remarks.Chapter 1 [“‘É só isso o meu baião . . .’: Inovação musical no Brasil (1959–1963)”] considers the advent of Bossa Nova and its impact on the modern-ization of the Brazilian musical scene, and its creation of a new musicalconscience. It also explains the nationalist political motivation of the BossaNova detractors during the regime of President João Goulart (1961–63).Under the subtitle “A canção engajada pré-1964” (“The pre-1964 engagedsong”), the author provides a well-constructed explanation of the difficultyof joining a more nationalistic ideological stance in the topics and lyrics ofthe songs and the actual musical style and arrangements, in the work ofcomposers such as Carlos Lyra and Sérgio Ricardo.

Chapter 2 (“‘Os cinco mil alto-falantes’: A ampliação da audiência e a gêneseda Moderna MPB”) considers the impact of the military coup (March 1964)on the politically-inspired music and the resulting change of direction of

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what constituted then the notion of “national-popular” and ultimately theredefinition of MPB. Special attention is paid to music as the articulator ofthe “national-popular” in the theater, by focusing on the group and spec-tacle Opinião, and the São Paulo University student theater circuit. Theexamples of the famous TV shows, O fino da bossa (launched in May 1965),Bossaudade ( July 1965), and Jovem guarda (September 1965) illustrate therole of television and the cultural industry in the mass production of musicand the enormous development of the phonographic market. In the thirdchapter (“A bossa em balanço: A MPB entre o fórum e a feira”), Napolitanorevisits the great aesthetic-ideological debate involving popular music thattook place in the mid-1960s, between the advance of the Jovem guarda move-ment (local early rock movement lead by Roberto Carlos) and the appear-ance of the first popular song festivals. Out of the debate emerged thenotion of “evolution line” (linha evolutiva), articulated by Caetano Veloso,among many others. That notion entailed the search for a consensus ofwhat should define the future development of MPB and its response to themarket advances of local rock music, without abandoning its supposednational identity. The author here provides excellent socio-political insightsinto this debate, stressing at the same time the concerns of marketability ofthe composers and producers. As interesting illustrations of the complexi-ties of the various possible directions and stances of MPB the author ana-lyzes briefly the cases of the trajectories of Caetano Veloso and Edu Loboon the one hand, and Chico Buarque and Geraldo Vandré on the other.

Chapter 4 (“Tela em transe: Os festivais como pólos de criação da MPB”) dealsprimarily with the Third Festival of Popular Song organized by TV Recordin 1967, as the most significant event in the process of MPB’s entrance intothe market and of the questioning of the ideological implications of popu-lar songs. These concerns appeared clearly in the actual musical materialand the poetic contents of the songs. The author shows very appropriatelyhow the official ideological and cultural directions that determined themusical scene at the time began to be challenged by the radicalism of theemerging tropicalism movement. The latter is discussed in the next chapter(“A república das bananas: O tropicalismo no panorama da MPB”), by focusingon the works and discourses of both its protagonists and its critics. In thischapter, the author attempts

to understand the meaning of the constant loas (“praises”) to the outstandingsagacity of the tropicalists, considered the only ones [able] to perceive thecrisis of the national-popular culture and to propose creative solutions, all inthe middle of the emergence of the renewed cultural industry. (17)

Indeed he succeeds in this endeavor, particularly in his fresh and tellingdiscussion of the “musical tropicalismo.” The last chapter (“O fantasma damáquina: A ‘instituição MPB’ e a indústria cultural”) attends to the specificityof the Brazilian cultural industry and to the modernization process of MPB.

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Napolitano points to the 1968 music festivals (Fourth Festival of MPB,Third International Song Festival and First Bienal do Samba) as examples ofparadox: on the one hand, an example of the crisis and shattering of musi-cal genres and nationalist ideologies, and, on the other, what he calls, the“triumph of MPB, transformed into a musical ‘arch-genre’ that, in reality,appears as an institution, forming a new socio-musical panorama in the1970s” (17).

The only reservation that one could voice refers to the actual musicalanalyses that lack somewhat in specificity and sophistication. Altogether,however, this study represents an excellent contribution to the history ofBrazilian popular music of this significant period. Napolitano commandsan impressive knowledge of the political and cultural history of the period,of its music and literary events, and of its emerging and modernizing cul-tural and music industry. Equally impressive are the volume and diversityof sources that supported his research.

Gerard Béhague, The University of Texas at Austin

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