Popular Music of Brazil:
Samba
Samba
“Tudo 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
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
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
Carnival Samba
• Arose in Rio de Janeiro, early 1900s
• Part of pre-Lenten festivities (called
“Carnival:)”
• Associated in past with poor AfroBrazilians; “street music” vs. music of the
salon
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
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 gov’t
• Samba schools have made Carnival in Rio
a major tourist attraction
Escolas de Samba
• Mangueira (1929; colors: pink and green)
• Portela (1935; colors: blue and white)
Samba Batucada
• Instruments of the
Batería:
– Surdo drums (basic
pulse in 2 divided
among three sizes of
surdo)
– Pandeiro (sixteenthnote division)
– Cuíca (accents)
– Tamborim
(syncopation)
– Caíxa (snare drum)
Samba Batucada Rhythms
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 (19091955); film and recording
star; introduced Brazilian
music to world
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