Brazilian Music and Social Consciousness: from the Plantations to Tropicalia
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BRAZILIAN MUSIC AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS: FROM THE PLANTATIONS TO TROPICALIA by Elisabeth M. Blin A project submitted in partial fullfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Interdisciplinary Studies Boise State University May 2008 © 2008 Elisabeth Blin ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The project presented by Elisabeth Blin entitled Brazilian Music and Social Consciousness: From the Plantations to Tropicalia is hereby approved: __________________________________________ Dr. Peter Buhler Date Advisor __________________________________________ Dr. Roberto Bahruth Date Committee Member __________________________________________ Dr. Jeanne Belfy Date Committee Member __________________________________________ Dr. John R. Pelton Date Dean, Graduate College ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This project was made possible with the support and inspiration of Boise State University Professors: Dr. Roberto Baruth, who helped me frame the project, and Dr. Buhler, Dr. Belfy and Dr. Daryl Jones, who allowed me to complete it. Dr. Joseph Baldassarre sustained me through my exploration of Brazilian guitar works. I also would like to thank my friend, Maria-Carmen Gambliel, who offered to share with me her personal experience with Tropicalia and Brazilian culture, as a Brazilian citizen and a Brazilian visual artist. Tom Gostas, my husband, has been a faithful supporter of my research and a priceless technical advisor. I would like to thank Celso Machado for his participation in this project, as well as Professor Christopher Dunn and Narlan Texeira, who kindly put me in touch with Professor Rogerio Duarte. Mr. Duarte devoted precious time and support and invited me to visit him in Salvador, Brazil, and meet his dear friend, Caetano Veloso. The serendipity of this unexpected meeting with Caetano Veloso and the precious personal feedback which he was willing to share with me, would not be a part of this study without Mr. Duarte’s generosity. All the participants stepped into this project from their passion for Tropicalia, without any motivation for results or glory. Thank you. iv AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Elisabeth Blin was born in southwest France in the city of Saintes in 1958. She studied the piano as a child and later the guitar, developing a passion for Brazilian music and bossa nova. She studied Art and Social Sciences in college and in 1994 moved to Boise with her husband, Tom and their son, Kirtane. She has taught French and guitar since 1994 and has recorded three CDs of original bossa nova music. She received her Bachelor in Music Performance from Boise State University and became interested in the humanist and revolutionary content of Tropicalia music. The combination of art, spirituality and social justice of the 1960s Tropicalia movement echoed her own personal interests. Her research for this project, which began in 2005, includes seminal readings on Brazil, personal interviews with Professor Christopher Dunn at Tulane University and Brazilian artists Maria-Carmen Gambliel in Boise, Idaho, and Celso Machado in Vancouver, Canada. It also involved a visit to Brazil in 2007-2008, where she conducted interviews of Rogerio Duarte, Professor at the University of Bahia at Salvador, and Brazilian musician Caetano Veloso. v ABSTRACT Tropicalia was a 1960s counter-cultural movement created in Brazil to express social and racial consciousness issues. By mixing samba with cross-cultural influences rooted in the country’s history of colonialism, Tropicalia, metaphor for a Third World tropical paradise, wanted to combine the power of music, literature and visual arts in order to achieve social justice. This study examines how Tropicalia tried to bring political literacy to the mass of the people, and encourage the fall of the dictatorial regime in power from 1964 to 1985. Several of the tropicalists who had been jailed and exiled from Brazil during the movement now have key positions in today’s Brazilian society. The goal of this research is to allow the historian to understand the importance of protest music in Brazilian culture, from the early days of colonization to the present. It is also meant to allow the listener to understand the influences of slavery and colonization on Brazilian music. This project includes a thesis on social consciousness and music throughout Brazilian history, as well as a one-hour slide presentation on Tropicalia’s music and esthetics (on DVD format). Transcripts of original interviews are included as appendices to the thesis. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................iv AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ...........................................................................v ABSTRACT ...............................................................................................................vi LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................ix PROLOGUE ...............................................................................................................x INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................1 I: TRADITION ...........................................................................................................3 Early Origins Of Protest Music: Music As Resistance ...................................3 Discovery-Acculturation-Miscegenation ............................................3 Indigenous Roots ................................................................................8 European and Arabic Roots ................................................................12 African Roots: Brazilian Music and the Cultural Triangle .................18 Religious Syncretism ..........................................................................26 Early 20th Century: Coalescing Consciousness ...............................................28 The Carnival ........................................................................................28 Origins of Samba ................................................................................30 Mid-20th Century: Rebellion ...........................................................................31 The Making of Modern Samba ...........................................................31 Branqueamento ...................................................................................38 The First Samba Schools ....................................................................39 Samba in the 20th Century ...................................................................40 Setting The Stage For Tropicalia ....................................................................42 The French Connections .....................................................................42 Carmen Miranda - Ari Barroso ...........................................................44 Early Signs of Of Tropicalia (1940s-50s) ...........................................47 II: REVOLUTION ......................................................................................................49 Revolutions .....................................................................................................49 Politico-economic Influence of the U.S. .........................................................51 Music and Politics In 1960s Brazil .................................................................53 From Bossa Nova To Tropicalia .....................................................................55 Afro-sambas and Social Consciousness ..........................................................59 Chico Buarque ................................................................................................61 vii Tropicalia and Cultural Cannibalism ..............................................................65 Anthropofagic Manifesto ....................................................................65 Paulo Freire .........................................................................................68 Mario de Andrade ...............................................................................69 Carmen Miranda and Dada .................................................................70 Helio Oiticica and Rogerio Duarte .....................................................72 1967-1969: The Tropicalia “Moment” ...........................................................76 Tropicalia’s Musical Allegory ............................................................76 “Tropicalia ou Panis et Circensis” ......................................................79 Os Mutantes ........................................................................................86 “Tom Ze, the Zenial” ..........................................................................89 Linguistics of “Post”-Tropicalia .....................................................................92 Gilberto Gil .........................................................................................92 Consequences of Tropicalia ................................................................96 Post-tropicalia Social Programs ..........................................................99 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................101 BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................................105 APPENDIX A Glossary ............................................................................................................114