This is a documentary on Brazilian music and Brazilian musicians, revealing some of the "battleground" from where the Tropicalia movement rose, among major changes in the society of this vast multiracial semi-continent. The series offers a detailed account of the years in which Brazilian music has evolved and constantly changed, while capturing the global imagination.
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Brasil - Brasil. Video hosted on Google. Filmed at Brazil's massive carnival celebrations, in the lawless favelas, the extraordinary maracatu ceremonies of the northern countryside, and in the music clubs of Salvador and Rio, these three, hour-long films chronicle Brazilian music from the birth of samba right through to the hip-hop, baile and funk scenes. The Music of Brazil encompasses various regional music styles influenced by African, European and Amerindian forms. After 500 years of history the Brazilian music developed some unique and original styles like choro, sertanejo, brega, forró, frevo, samba, Bossa nova, MPB, Brazilian rock, axé and others. Samba is no doubt the best known form of Brazilian music worldwide, though Bossa nova and other genres have also received much attention abroad. Brazil also has a growing community of modern/experimental composition, including electroacoustic music. All genres of Brazilian music formed a solid tradition.
The earliest known descriptions of music in Brazil date from 1578, when a French pastor described the dances and transcribed the music of the Tupi people. In 1587, Gabriel Soares de Sousa wrote about the music of several native Brazilian ethnic groups. Lundu was the first kind of African-influenced music to flourish in Brazil. Lundu, a style of comedic song and dance, was extremely popular. Brazil became independent from Portugal in 1822, following the Brazilian Independence Declaration. Soon after, the African comic form 'lundu' spread from the poor black quarters to a broader, white middle-class audience. Towards the end of the 18th century a form of comedic dance called bumba-meu-boi became very popular. It was a musical retelling of the story of a resurrected ox. These dances are led by a chamador, who introduces the various characters. Instruments used include the pandeiro, the tamborim, the accordion and the acoustic guitar.
During the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, the classical music in Brazil was strongly influenced by the music style practiced in Europe, particularly the Viennese classical style. The first major Brazilian composer was José Maurício Nunes Garcia, a priest who composed several sacred pieces and some secular music. He wrote the opera Le Due Gemelle ("The two twins"), the first Brazilian opera with a libretto in Portuguese: "A Noite de São João" (Saint John's Party Night). Near the end of the 19th century, Carlos Gomes went to Milan and produced a number of Italian-style operas, such as Il Guarany (based on a novel by José de Alencar). Brasílio Itiberê was another prominent classical composer, the first to use elements of Brazilian music in Western classical music, in his Sertaneja (1869). In 1922, the Week of Modern Art revolutionized Brazilian literature, painting and music. Heitor Villa-Lobos led a new vanguard of composers who used Brazilian folk music in their compositions. By the end of the 1930s, there were two schools of Brazilian composition. Camargo Guarnieri was the head of the Nationalist school, inspired by the writer Mário de Andrade. Other composers including Guerra Peixe, Oscar Lorenzo Fernandez, Francisco Mignone, Luciano Gallet and Radamés Gnattali. Beginning in 1939, Hans-Joachim Koellreutter, creator of the Live Music Group, founded another school, characterized by the use of dodecaphonism and atonalism. Other composers in this school included Edino Krieger, Cláudio Santoro and Eunice Catunda.
The native peoples of the Brazilian rainforest play instruments including whistles, flutes, horns, drums and rattles. Much of the area's folk music imitates the sound of the Amazon Rainforest. When the Portuguese arrived in Brazil, the first natives they met played an array of reed flutes and other wind and percussion instruments. The Jesuit missionaries introduced songs which used the Tupi language with Christian lyrics, an attempt to convert the people to Christianity, and also introduced Gregorian chant and the flute, bow, and the clavichord. Eastern Amazônia has long been dominated by carimbó music, which is centered around Belém. In the 1960s, carimbo was electrified and, in the next decade, DJs added elements from reggae, salsa and merengue. This new form became known as lambada and soon moved to Bahia, Salvador by the mid-1980s. Bahian lambada was synthesizer-based and light pop music. French record producers discovered the music there, and brought it back with them to France passing by Portugal, where a Bolivian group called Los K'jarkas saw their own composition launch an international dance craze. Soon, lambada had spread throughout the world and the term soon became meaninglessly attached to multiple varieties of unrelated Brazilian music, leading to purist scorn from Belém and also Bahia. Another form of regional folk music, bumba-meu-boi, was popularized by the Carnival celebrations of Parintins and is now a major part of the Brazilian national scene.
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