Re: Another question

Date: Fri, 02 May 2003 07:17:02 GMT
Newsgroups: soc.culture.brazil
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"JohnM" <email-address-deleted> wrote in message
news:email-address-deleted...
>
> Sorry, I have to resort to your collective wisdom :-)
>
> I've been asked to describe with one-liners maracatu, pagode and forró.
> What I said was:
>
> "forró can be described as a mutual boy-girl lapdance complete with
> bosoms touching, hips undulating and legs intertwined".
Well, it is a bit of a free interpretation to pull down all the choreography
from the dance, right? I mean, it is oobvious that the purpose of all
dancing is ultimately mating, but if Forró is 'lapdance' frankly so is Jig
or Ballos or Dirlanda or whatever. Anyway, Forró is a dance/rhythm evolved
from the forms of Samba usual in the Northeastern part of Brazil:
Samba/Marcha/Coco de Roda, Baião e Xote*. The rhythm is quartenary (or
double binary, and of course synchopated) and played with an accordion
(sometimes a fiddle), a triangle and a drum called 'zabumba'. Tradicionally
the accordion/fiddle player is also a singer -- so yes, there is a lyric,
and no, not all of them talks about sex. The dance is done by couples with
the usual "Brazilian" embrace, man's arms on woman's hips and her arms over
his shoulders. Intertwining of legs is taken to be a sign of *extreme*
intimacy.
Maracatu, on the other hand, is a dance adapted from the procession in which
the rhythm was born. It is divided into two types: the Maracatu "de baque
virado" or "de nação", whose origin is almost completely African, and
predates Samba; there is also the Maracatu "de baque solto" or "rural",
whose origin is mixed between indigenous and Portuguese elements. The "baque
virado" variant is more widespread these days so I'm not going to described
the Maracatu rural. The Maracatu "de nação" is played by a whole band of
percussionists, from orchestra snare drums to bass drums and 'zambumbas' and
'atabaques'. The dance is done alone, since it is adapted from the
procession. It is costumary to have a lead singer, whose lyrics talk about
social issues -- again an remnant of times in which the singer was a herald
accompanied by the King and Queen of some African nation.
> "Pagode is a cross between an old-fashioned foxtrot played at a fervent
> Brazilian tempo and a limberly lambada but, unlike the latter, it has no
> lyrics and is more Latin-influenced, with a streak of Cuban cha-cha".
Pagode is an evolution of the admixtures between Samba and Jazz, especially
the "Samba de Breque", which were very popular in Rio de Janeiro during the
50's. The shift was to display more emphasis on the drums and voice,
although keeping some samba melodic instruments like the 'cavaquinho'.
Lyrics are present, as in almost all popular Brazilian music. In the 90's
the rhythm was absorbed by São Paulo which dressed it in a pop fashion.
Guitars, bass and keyboard were added and in some cases even the
'cavaquinho' was left out. The tempo is slower than the Samba-Enredo played
in parades and the lyrics either talk about criminal jive (the Brazilian
version of 'gansta rap' although it preceeded the latter by almost 10 years)
or sugary love stories.
Sorry about the long answers but I don't think I have the powers of
synthesis to sum up any one of them in one-liners.
B.
*: Purists should be screaming now: Xote and Baião were never forms of
Samba, neither are they closely related. Marcha/Coco-de-Roda are 'cousins'
of Samba which evolved in parallel to the old forms of Samba like Maxixe and
Marcha.