Bossa &amp; Bossas: Recent Changes in Brazilian Urban Popular Music

Béhague, Gerard

doi:10.2307/849882

Cited by 20 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…The actual Bossa-Nova rhythm usually starts on the third onset as follows: [× · · × · · × · · · × · · × · · ] [Tou02]. However, other starting places are also documented in world music practices, such as [× · · × · · × · · × · · · × · · ] [Beh73].…”

Section: Euclidean Rhythms In Traditional World Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distance geometry of music

Demaine

Gómez-Martín

Meijer

et al. 2009

Computational Geometry

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We demonstrate relationships between the classic Euclidean algorithm and many other fields of study, particularly in the context of music and distance geometry. Specifically, we show how the structure of the Euclidean algorithm defines a family of rhythms which encompass over forty timelines (ostinatos) from traditional world music. We prove that these Euclidean rhythms have the mathematical property that their onset patterns are distributed as evenly as possible: they maximize the sum of the Euclidean distances between all pairs of onsets, viewing onsets as points on a circle. Indeed, Euclidean rhythms are the unique rhythms that maximize this notion of evenness. We also show that essentially all Euclidean rhythms are deep: each distinct distance between onsets occurs with a unique multiplicity, and these multiplicies form an interval 1, 2, . . . , k − 1. Finally, we characterize all deep rhythms, showing that they form a subclass of generated rhythms, which in turn proves a useful property called shelling. All of our results for musical rhythms apply equally well to musical scales. In addition, many of the problems we explore are interesting in their own right as distance geometry problems on the circle; some of the same problems were explored by Erdős in the plane.

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Section: Euclidean Rhythms In Traditional World Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The distance geometry of music

Demaine

Gómez-Martín

Meijer

et al. 2009

Computational Geometry

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“…While Andrade attempts no clearcut answer, he points out the apparent contradictions and contrasts of the Brazilian reality. For the Tropica'lia musicians this meant "a justification for the absorption (literally the "deglutination") of foreign musical experience adapted to the needs of the moment," (Bghague 1973:217) as a recognition of the international dimension of Brazilian popular culture of the period. Such a recognition, however, neither implied a simple imitation of foreign models nor resulted from the influence of international mass culture, as several critics led us to believe at the time (cf.…”

Section: Tropiccilia: Dada and Cultural Anthropophagymentioning

confidence: 99%

Brazilian Musical Values of the 1960s and 1970s: Popular Urban Music from Bossa Nova to Tropicalia

Béhague¹

1980

The J of Popular Culture

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Brazilian rhythms have enjoyed wide popularity in this country for many years, but Americans who delight in the samba and other sounds are generally unfamiliar with the development and special characteristics of this national music. I n his paper, Gerard BLhague studies the main trends of Brazilian popular music associated with the bossa nova. I n particular, he examines the music's socio-cultural meaning for producers and consumers, its relationship to or influence from foreign models, and the various cultural values that it expresses. He traces the original bossa nova phenomenon of the late 1950s, emphasizing that its cultivators, who were from uppermiddle-class families, developed a somewhat elitist urban popular musical trend. Contrary to many critics' opinions, bossa nova did not result from jazz or imitations of other imported styles. Thematically, early bossa nova differed little from the samba, a trulypopular music. However, bossa nova's poFtic substance and treatment did reveal significant innovations. Behague asserts that after 1964, a new social awareness developed among bossa nova musicians. He discusses the musical compositions of the musician-poet Chico Buarque who, more than earlier bossa nova musicans, established a clear link with the traditional samba of the 1930s and 1940s, thus giving bossa nova a n euen more popular character. The author also reviews the work of the group of musician-poet-performers of the mid-1960s known as the Tropicdia. Their music adhered to the basic concepts of modernismo, a Brazilian literary movement of the 1920s.

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“…Milton Nascimento is suggesting possibilities through which Brazilians can try to solve their identity crisis: emphasising cultural roots, remembering their past, and, most significantly, 'listening to the voice that comes from the heart'. Behague 1973 and. For Brazilian popular music in general the reader can consult the excellent annotated bibliography with discography by Perrone (1986).…”

Section: Good Music Is My Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canção da América– style and emotion in Brazilian popular song

Carvalho¹

1990

Pop. Mus.

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During the 1960s bossa nova was the trademark of Brazilian popular music. In the 1980s a second wave of Brazilian popular artists, such as Milton Nascimento, Djavan, Ivan Lins and Caetano Veloso, has emerged on to the international popular music scene. These artists have been issuing and distributing their records through international labels, and have also had their music recorded by other artists and groups like Pat Metheny and Manhattan Transfer (recipient of a Grammy for their album Brasil). Milton Nascimento, who since 1968 has been playing in concerts around the world with jazz musicians such as saxophonist Wayne Shorter, also receives good reviews in Europe. The Observer describes Milton Nascimento as ‘one of the top musicians in the world’, whose poetry ‘… fuses emotion, feeling, experience, dreams, [and] hopes’ with ‘a burnished voice … tempered with a taut edge at times’, and ‘beautiful melodies which are deceptively intense and powerful even when surrounded by funky keyboards or lush strings’. For the reviewer: ‘His songs have summed up the collective feelings of a nation’. And for Brazilians what is the meaning of Milton Nascimento's music?

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Bossa & Bossas: Recent Changes in Brazilian Urban Popular Music

Cited by 20 publications

References 0 publications

The distance geometry of music

The distance geometry of music

Brazilian Musical Values of the 1960s and 1970s: Popular Urban Music from Bossa Nova to Tropicalia

Canção da América– style and emotion in Brazilian popular song

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