Samba
Internationally, Samba is by far the best-known Brazilian style of music. Samba arose at the beginning of the 20th century in Rio the Janeiro as the style of poor Afro-Brazilian migrants from the state of Bahia. The first recording of samba dates from 1916 then Donga and Mauro Almeida recorded the song ‘Pelo Telephone '. When this song was released on a 78rpm record in 1917, samba became known for the first time outside the favelas (Brazilian slums). The song was a great success at once. It is not sure who wrote the song, but historians seek among the friends of Tia Ciata. Tia Ciata was women who was born in Salvador (Bahia) and who opened her house in Rio de Janeiro for the avant-guard of the Afro-Brazilian musicians. She was the middle of a large network of musicians among whom Pixinguinha and João da Bahiana.
In 1928, Ismael Silvia, Bide, Armando Marçal, Nilton Bastos and others founded the first escola da samba (sambaschool) called Deixa Falar (‘just let them talk'). A sambaschool is a large group of hundreds or even thousands of dancers who parade through the streets in a formation of several parallel lines. The dancers have been dressed according to a particular theme, often refering to a period of Brazilian history. The name “school” was an ironic reference to the school building opposite to the building where Deixa Falar assembled. In that time the government suppressed expressions of Afro-Brazilian culture and the police tried to prevent that blocos (groups of people celebrating Carnival) entered the centre of Rio the Janeiro. In protest, Deixa Falar organised a parade in the neighbourhood Estácio the Sá. Deixa Falar existed only shortly but stood model for the large quantity of sambaschools that Rio knows at present. With the rise of the sambaschools, the Samba style became gradually adapted to fit better to carnival parades.
In the 1930-ties, the radio enabled the fast spread of Samba around Brazil. Because the government realised that the popularity of the sambaschools could no longer be halted, the nationalist dictator Getúlio Vargas embraced the Samba and declared it the “official music” of Brazil. At present, every neighbourhood in Rio has a sambaschool and there is a stiff competition between the sambaschools to be the best school of this year's carnival. Furthermore, the sambaschools are an important social institute that strengthen communities and organise voluntary work.
In the following years the Samba has developed in different directions and mixed with different styles. Even new styles have developed from Samba like the Bossa Nova and the samba-rock . But pure Samba remains the most popular style of Brazilian music.
See also
|
|
