British Forum for Ethnomusicology

The "Origin of Samba" as the Invention of Brazil (Why Do Songs Have Music?) Author(s): Rafael Jos de Menezes Bastos Source: British Journal of Ethnomusicology, Vol. 8 (1999), pp. 67-96 Published by: British Forum for Ethnomusicology Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3060852 . Accessed: 29/05/2011 19:20
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BASTOS RAFAEL JOSE DE MENEZES

The "origin of samba" as the invention of Brazil (why do songs have music?)*

To the memoryof Agostinhoda Silva,the firstpersonto speakto me of Brazil.

This is an ethnomusicological study of the song "Feitio de Orago " ("Made like a prayer") composed in 1933 by Noel Rosa (lyrics) and Vadico (music). The song is seen as a discourse about Brazilian identity, and it is implicated in negotiations of wide socio-cultural scope. Basing my discussion on the analysis of the song, I consider DaMatta I formulations about the "Brazilian dilemma", according to which Brazilian ethics are seen to stand between modern individualism and traditional holism. The analytical approach draws on native models for the understanding of Brazilian popular music, in an attempt to establish a conversational articulation between lyrics and music, the universes that constitute the world of song. I show how the lyrics evince a mythiccosmological discourse, that is, a world view, while music creates an axiological sphere that evaluates the lyrical content.

The talking film E o grandeculpado Is the greatguilty party For the transformation... Da transformag~io ... Tudo aquilo que o malandropronuncia Everythingthatthe spiv says In a soft voice Com voz macia E brasileiro: passou de portugues Is in Brazilian:it's no longer in ja Portuguese.'
(Noel Rosa, 1933) * This is a slightly revised version of a paper published in 1996 in Revista brasileira de ciencias sociais, 31:156-77. I thank Suzel Ana Reily for the English translationand her editorial suggestions upon which the revisions were based, though I remain responsible for the paper. The original paper was first presented in 1994 at the colloquium "As culturas musicais urbanasdo seculo XX"(The urbanmusical culturesof the twentiethcentury),at the University of Lisbon. 1 Excerptfrom the song, "Ndo tem tradupqdo" ("There'sno translation") "Cinema falado" (or ["Talkingfilm"]), music and lyrics by Noel Rosa.
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O cinemafalado

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Introduction
Although the category "popular music" may appear to be neutral, this is definitely not the case. By demarcating a space for "the popular"within music, it becomes defined in opposition to two other categories: art music and folk music. In relation to art music, it is distinguished from "the cultured" and "the erudite", which require the ability to read western musical notation. Popular music, then, is opposed to the "music of the masters", in that it does not presuppose such exclusionary knowledge; here the qualifier - "popular"- takes on derogatory connotations that imply vulgarity. In relation to folk music, the boundaries of popular music become defined in opposition to "tradition",and circumscribe a territory characterized by a lack of authenticity. Here popular music parades as a phenomenon of fashion, linking it to the ideal of novelty; its "otherness" becomes located in alienation, or in the lack of a commitment to tradition, the sphere of a presumed past (or of survivals). By transcending these negative associations, however, "the popular" emerges in a positive light: its very vulgarity becomes the source of its popularity amongst modem urbanites. This is the trap embodied in this category, a trap which operates at the level of vernacularusage and in musicological discourse: popular music is a negativelydefined interstitial type of music (a mezzo-music, one might say), situated between high, art music - the universal Great Tradition - and low musics, the myraid of parochialized oral traditions of the world. Within this vast context of predications, an essential commercialism is attributed to - and embraced by - popular music, as though phonography rather than musical notation and orality - and the market forces of production and consumption were exclusive to it, never contaminating the purity either of art music or of folk music. It is worth noting that at the core of the various musicologies (e.g. historical musicology, ethnomusicology, the sociology of music etc.), this construction of popular music has resulted in its lack of prestige and legitimacy as an object of study. Only Adorno's genius was able to break with these attitudes. Currently there is a generalized criticism of Adorno's bitterness toward popular music. Such bitterness, however, was not unique to Adorno; it was also expressed in various ways by other intellectuals of his time, such as Bela Bart6k, Mario de Andrade, Charles Seeger, Antonio Gramsci, Carlos Vega among many others. Furthermore,Adorno did not restrict his wrath to popular music, directing it also toward Stravinsky (Adomo 1974) and any other musics that did not live up to his vision of the progressive rationalism of western music (Menezes Bastos 1996:160-1). Yet, despite his bitterness, Adorno was the first intellectual to give popular music studies a sociological contour, and this still in the 1930s and 40s (Adorno 1941 and 1983a). At that time, Adorno and Horkheimer (1985) made a stand against the boastful mass cultural vision of popular music (and popular culture generally) (MacDonald 1973), a vision made possible by capitalist idealism - the "socialist realism" of the "free world". Indeed, they set about to understand it critically in terms of the culture industry, that is, as a manifestation that adds nothing to liberty

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and makes humans (specifically, the individual) stagnate in the mystification of control and manipulation.

Whatis popular music?

In some of my latest work (especially 1990, 1991, 1992, 1996), I have argued that that which is called popular music is anything but another type of music wishing to insinuate itself into the perfect triangle constructed by (western) art music, primitive (and oriental) musics and folk musics. What is called popular music is, in fact, the third "musical universal" of the west, the nucleus of which was consolidated between 1930 and 1960 around the jazz-rock axis, and it points to a global system specifically linked to the entertainmentindustry and to show business. I refer to a "universal" as a delimiting language of a specific socio-cultural system, and not as a game only of consensus; conflict here is seen as constitutive. This, I believe, provides a useful way of approaching the native western vision of music as a universal language. If the first musical universal of the west was Gregorianchant, the symbolic motor of the colonial process that took Christendom- that is, Catholicism2- to the whole of Europe, the second was western music of the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, which defined Europe as a "concert of nations" within the context of the relations between modern nation-states and the colonial world. In Gregorian chant, music is embraced by the state-religious establishment, where the individual is placed "outside the world" (Dumont 1985). In western music from the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, however, the individual commits deicide, and re-invents the world of art in religious terms (Spengler 1973), enthroning him/herself as God, creator ex nihilo. Here society seems to have robbed music from the church, society becoming constituted by individuals who, being "in the world", attempt,nonetheless, to obscure - or even to conjure away - the societal pertinence, through an ideological frameworkthat defines its most cherished values as liberty and equality. Note that the second universal encompasses the first, reconstructingit as its very origin. When popular music emerges in the world, it does so as a whole, manifesting itself as a global phenomenon of recent modernity. It extends from India to Mexico, from Brazil to England, from Italy to the USA , from Egypt to Germany, from Turkey to Argentina, from Spain to Cuba, and so on, becoming particularly relevant to the construction of the identity of modem nation-states and as an expression of the concert of nations. I am speaking of musics that were not only disseminated, but effectively made possible and encompassed by, the technological-industrial establishment through phonography, beginning with the record, the radio and the talking cinema. Thus, I am not addressing the archaeological phase of popular music, which is linked to sheet music, music halls, parlours etc. Furthermore,I am referring to phonography not only as a technical process, but also as one of the prime sites, in the west, of the
2 The term "catholic" derives from the Greek for "universal" (kath6lon); in the context of the reformed Gregorian liturgy, it is specifically applicable to Gregorian chant (Leuchter 1946).

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encounter of practical and cultural reason (Sahlins 1976). In relation to phonography, this encounter is linked to Western ancestral mythological and cosmological native models, which construct sound recordings as the freezing of the words and the music of the "other".3 The musics that invaded even the most remote fringes of the planet after the 1930s attend to local, regional and national logics as well as to a global logic. This global logic, characterized at the economic-political level by the neocolonial context, took jazz - and then rock - as its central fulcrum. Note that I am dealing with jazz and rock as a single continuous language, which, like Gregorian chant and western music of the seventeenth to the nineteenth centuries, is atopical in its process of global diffusion, but this does not exclude the original local realities or the diversity of these genres. In this language, the classical-romantic tonal theory of western music, the theatricality and the operatic way of singing and the centrality of interpretation(far more than the composition itself) are as important as their local African-American base. Note also that I see the nation as a total social fact, which is meaningless outside the inclusive/contrastive international frame to which each nation is inextricably linked (Hobsbawm 1990). It is this frame that gives consistency - at once global, local, regional and national - to such genres as the tango, the habanera, the samba, the fado, the blues etc. Popular music, however, is not just a new type of music to be added to the others, and this is not simply because of its global ramifications. Rather, since it lets nothing escape, it does not only incorporate art and folk musics into its mythology of origins, it also re-invents them. This is paradigmaticallyvisible in the North American scenario from the 1930s onwards. Here Italian opera together with dance jazz emerge as the first successes in the history of music (Gelatt 1977), while the ethnic musics of the USA also become mass phenomena (Spottswood 1982, Greene 1992). This process relates to a search, amongst various ethnic groups of the country, of a way of imagining themselves as Americans, in a manner that will allow them to construct their authenticity in relation to their notions of their origins (Moloney 1982). Popular music, then, constitutes the third western kath6lon, and like the other two, it redefines the past and postulates the future. This occurs within a movement in which the general (the global) and the particular(the local, the regional and the national) are imbricated to form a single Hegelian totality (Adorno 1983b). Recently Pinheiro (1992) has shown that there is much more to be said about the notion of ajazz influence in the emergence of bossa nova, which for some has been the measure of the American "alienation" of Brazilian music (Tinhorio 1969) and for others of its "modernity"(Campos 1978). Pinheiro's close musical analysis indicates that the rhythm of Jodo Gilberto's renowned guitar "beat" is highly congruent with Brazilian patterns, particularly those of the tamborim
3 I first addressed western mythic-cosmology related to phonography in 1990, departing from an important note by Tinhordo (1981:13), and I have since elaborated further upon this issue (1991, 1995, 1996), on this issue, see also Grivel (1992). On the metaphor of the international system of modern nation-states conceived as a "concert of nations"', see my publications cited above.

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(small single-headed frame drum) in samba school percussion ensembles. In relation to its harmonic structure,he furtherdemonstratedhow the characteristic "dissonances"of bossa nova echo harmonic routines common to Brazilian urban musics of the 1930s and 40s. I have shown that these routines were typical of orchestral arrangements in dance music, such as those of Severino Arauijo's renowned OrquestraTabajara(Menezes Bastos 1992). It is also worth noting that the "cool" bossa nova way of singing harks back to what is perhaps the oldest lyric song style of the country,the modinha (Menezes Bastos 1992). The intention here is not to override a truth of the 1960s, or, even worse, to invert it and claim that it was Brazilian music that influenced American music, full stop (McGowan and Pessanha 1991:11-14), as though in the twentieth century there has been a nation, a colony or a "territory"capable of resisting the temptations of the Great Satan. Rather, the totality which I propose to explain is that that which we call "popular music" is not functional in type, in which the general is evinced solely as a privileged part of the whole; on the contrary, what has been taking place in the global scenario throughout this century - and the Brazilian case is paradigmatic in this respect - evokes with extreme felicity episodes in Borges's dialogic writings: the maxixe engages with the tango, which speaks with the habanera, which converses with the blues and the foxtrot, which exchange ideas with Chopin, Satie, Ravel, Debussy, the flamenco, the fado, the waltz, the polka, the schottische, the opera and so on. The whole of these dialogues configure an endless series of genres, registers and conversant authors, in which the demarcation of boundaries attends both to contrasting and inclusive operations. Thus, like other "national" musics, Brazilian popular music can indeed be conceived as Brazilian, because, rather than dissolving "otherness", these interactions made up within the context of an international dialogue - construct the interlocutors as "others" in relation to one another.

Brazilianpopularmusic as a discursive formation

Ever since its emergence at the beginning of the century, Brazilian popular music has been constructed as a privileged discursive arena for debating the great national issues.4 This is especially evident in critical moments of the
4 Although what could be called Brazilianpopularmusic had alreadyemergedby the end of the eighteenth century - in such forms as the modinha, for example, a genre which had already become internationalizedin 1877 through Domingos Caldas Barbosa and his notorious success in Portugual- here I am referringto it as a phonographicphenomenon. This places its emergence in the twentieth century,and 1917 is the convenient markerof its inception in Brazil, as this was when the first successful samba - "Pelo telefone" ("On the telephone"),by Ernestodos Santos, betterknown as Donga, and Maurode Almeida (Moura as 1983:76-82) - was recorded.In this article I do not use "MPB" a synonym for "muzsica refers only to the popular brasileira" (Brazilianpopularmusic); in native discourse "MPB" and lineages constructedby bossa nova, protestsong, "tropicalismo" some of the genres that came afterthem (Pinheiro 1992).

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country's history, when the society was divided by sometimes irreconcilable social positions. Here the government, the regime, the state, international relations as well as specific social, political, cultural, economic and other issues were polemicized through songs that engaged in heated debates with one another. This musical dialogue - which constantly transcended the musical sphere, encompassing literature,theatre, essay-writing, the visual arts and other realms - provided audiences with renewed substance for defining their positions on the issues in question. Transposed to the explicitly political plane, it impacted upon negotiations and decision-making related to conflicts between the nation's various social sectors. In Brazil, discussions surroundingthe origin of samba have not only been a favoured topic in musicological circles, but also a true passion of the society (Moura 1983, Tinhorao 1986, Vasconcelos 1977). A central theme in this debate has focused on competing claims made by Bahians and Cariocas (the inhabitants of Rio de Janeiro) over where the genre was actually invented. With the abolition of slavery in 1888, the migration of African-Bahians to Rio de Janeiro became especially marked, accentuating a trend that had begun in the first half of the nineteenth century. In Rio, these migrants concentrated around the wharf district and in Cidade Nova, a working-class neighbourhood that encompassed the mythic Praga Onze, constituting what came to be known as "Pequena Africa" (Little Africa), a communal nucleus for shaping black identity, but it also served as a true laboratory of musical creation (Moura 1983). In the 1930s samba reached the country's middle classes, and the discussions about its origin were reconfigured around an opposition between "the hill" and "the city", polemicising the legitimacy of its social ascent. Amongst Cariocas, "the hill" referred to Rio's favelas (shanty towns). At the time, Rio was the capital of Brazil, and it was undergoing massive urban transformations;as the economic and political centre of the country, it attracted great waves of poor migrants. "The city", on the other hand, came to refer to Rio's affluent sectors, its "noble" areas, the spaces that exerted power and influence over state affairs. The two poles in the discussions then current over the birth of samba identify irreconcilable socio-cultural positions with antagonistic ideological-political postures. In the 1950s, the dispute over samba and samba-cangdo (song-samba) displaced the geographical debate to the sphere of ethnicity, and samba-cangdo was accused of being "whitened samba", in opposition to the supposedly more authentic "black samba" of the hills. With the bossa nova movement of the 1960s, the polemic took new routes, and the dichotomy between old and new became an important musical boundary, in which the issue of gender roles acquired centrality.5

5 In 1992 I discuss how the cool bossa nova vocal style consecrated by Joao Gilberto adopts the lyrical tradition of the modinha, pointing to a crucial change in the way the Brazilian urban middle classes came to represent the relationship between men and women, tentitively constructing it in symmetrical terms. This vocal style is radically opposed to that characteristic of the bolero and the samba-canqdo.

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In this study I shall be looking at a song called "Feitio de ora9dgo" the (In form of a prayer), which was recorded in 1933. The lyrics were written by Noel Rosa (or simply Noel, as he is known in Brazil), and he put them to an existing melody by Oswaldo Gogliano (who is better known as Vadico). This song can be taken as a discourse about Brazilian identity, and it is implicated in negotiations of wide socio-cultural scope. As I shall point out later, this discourse relates to what Roberto DaMatta (1978) has called "the Brazilian dilemma", the problematic that emerges from the country's option to straddle the half way mark between what Dumont (1970) refers to as individualism and holism. The analytic approach I shall be taking attempts to draw on native understandings of Brazilian popular music, and it is premised upon the notion that the world of song constitutes an interlocutory link between a linguistic text and a configuration of properly musical elements. Brazilian native models distinguish between these spheres by referring to the linguistic domain of song as "the lyrics" (a letra); to its properly musical elements as "music" (mtisica); while the combination of lyrics and music is also referred to as "music" (mnisica). To account for this dual usage of the term "music" in the vernacular mode, I shall refer to music proper as "music I" and the combination of lyrics and music as "music II". I shall argue that the lyrics evince a mythiccosmological discourse (that is, a world view of a verbal-visual nature), while melody creates an axiological sphere that evaluates the lyrics (Menezes Bastos 1977, 1982, 1990).

The process of song composition in Brazilianpopular music

Noel de Medeiros Rosa was born on 11 December 1910 in Rio de Janeiro, the city in which he died on 4 May 1937.6 He was musically productive for only seven years (1930-37), but despite this short meteoric career, he established himself as one of the great names in Brazilian popular music. Today he is not only considered to be one of the most central builders of its archetypal past, but he is also seen as highly contemporary,his music constructed in true perennial fashion. Noel was born and raised within a middle-class family - his mother was a primary school teacher and his father a book-keeper - in Rio's Zona Norte (North Zone) in the neighbourhood of Vila Isabel, and his personal links to this area undoubtedly enhanced the mythology connecting it to the world of samba. Noel produced an extensive body of work: around 250 compositions, including song lyrics and tunes (predominantly sambas), operettas and pieces for musical theatre (Maximo and Didier 1990: 495-519). The scope covered by his creations also encompasses a broad spectrum, ranging from pieces of the most refined irony, the sweetest lyricism and the sharpest social criticism (Joso

6 On the life and work of Noel Rosa, see Almirante (1977), Chediak (n.d.), Jodo Ant6nio (1982), Marcondes(1977:670-73) and Mxiximoand Didier (1990).

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Ant6nio 1982). His work represents a country that is both deeply proud of its grandeur and strongly critical of its flaws. Noel was a great innovator of the musical and poetic (that is, lyrical) architectureof Brazilian popular music, and he was possibly the first bourgeois popular musician of the country to take note of - and ennoble - "the people", that is, the inhabitants of that world which is viscerally divorced from the state, and which has been constructed as the country's purist originality, a kind of perennial colony of the eternal metropolis which the state represents in the country. Noel was a medical student, embarking upon a professional career that, at the time, embodied the respectability of the Brazilian establishment. But being the great renouncer that he was, he abandoned medicine to embrace a completely dissolute lifestyle - in his case, a fatal one, given his fragile health - and he entered the bohemian world of the most lumpen of the populace, of the malandro (spiv) and of the prostitute. Attempting to mediate between the hill and the city, Noel forged one of the most central connections in Brazilian popular music: a simultaneous search for rooted authenticity, on one hand, and of sophisticated cultivation, on the other; in a nutshell, one could say that he stands as a paradigm of the courtesan of the culture of poverty, a messianic encounter that signalled the independence of society (the "people") from the state. Though he rejected foreign influences, be they in the form of "Americanizations" (he had an abhorrence of Carmen Miranda, whom he saw as a symbol of deviation) or of "Argentinianizations" (he frankly derided the "tango-ization" of samba), he could never be characterized as a nostalgic or as a creator closed within himself. On the contrary, his ideology drew a clearly modernist trajectory, but his modernist vision was premised upon the rejection of foreign colonization and upon the firm belief in an essential Brazilian-ness. Indeed, this is evident in the lyrics used as the epigraph of this article. Noel followed a typical trajectory in the universe of popular music in Brazil, in terms of the "system" through which he acquired his musical skills. This system began with domestic-familial initiation, and was followed by aural and visual experiences of music-making through encounters with "masters"in both live and recorded settings. During his childhood, Noel learned to play the bandolim (four double-coursed string instrument similar to the mandolin) from his mother, and at around the age of 14 or 15 he took up the guitar (violdo), making it his principle instrument. From then on he began to follow the seresteiros (street musicians) of the city, while also attempting to acquire the guitar techniques employed in modinha circles (Uornaisde modinha) and house parties (saraus caseiros), avidly drawing material from the distinguished guitar players he encountered. At a later stage, Noel began making his way to the renowned music store called "O Cavaquinto de Ouro", located on the Rua Alffndega, where the best players of the Carioca guitar of the decade established their base (Maximo and Didier 1990:65). At the store - which was a music school - the celebrated Quincas Lavanjeiras gave guitar lessons, employing sheet music, and every afternoon the famous Joao Pernambucano and other virtuoso guitarists showed up to play with Laranjeiras(Miximo and

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Didier 1990:65). Noel also made regular appearances at "A Guitarrade Prata", the home base of Jose Barbosa da Silva (also known as Sinh6, or "Rei do Samba" [King of Samba]), and he was also a frequent visitor of other music stores, such as "Carlos Wehrs", "Ao Pingtiim", "Carlos Gomes", "Vieira Machado" and "Phoenix". All of these stores were importantvenues in Rio for the circulation of commodities associated with popular music: records, sheet music, instruments and musical accessories as well as guitar and general music lessons (Maximo and Didier 1990). By following this more-or-less informal education system, Noel came to be considered a good guitarist by the age of 16. In the Rio de Janeiro of his time, the acquisition of music skills in the world of popular music operated within a system in which the store was the school and vice-versa. The musical background Noel acquired in this way was so solid that it was as a guitar player that he began his performance career at the age of 19, becoming a member of "Bando de Tangaras", a vocal and instrumental ensemble of strong north-eastern inspiration, created in 1929 under the direction of Almirante. In the 1930s Noel's career became viscerally connected to the radio and to carnival. If in the 1920s talking films were the most important vehicles for the diffusion of popular music, during the following decade this space was slowly taken over by the radio, a medium which increasingly was being occupied by commercials for market products and items of the record industry. Beginning in 1931 Noel began participating as a singer and guitar player, and later also as a stage manager, for the Philips Radio Station's renowned "Programa Case". It was after this that his carnival successes began to appear. First there was the celebrated "Com que roupa?" (With what clothes?) (1931), which was followed by other classic compositions, such as "0 orvalho vai caindo" (The dew goes falling) (1933/34) and "Pierro apaixonado" (Pierr6 in love) (1936). The 1930s were especially notable in Brazilian political life, which began with Getilio Vargas's ascent to power, after he deposed the constitutional president, Washington Luiz, in 1930, setting up a dictatorship. In 1932 Vargas won the Constitutionalist Revolution in Sao Paulo; in 1933, the fascist-inspired Brazilian Integralist Party emerged; in 1935 Vargas smothered the Communist Rebellion, and in 1937 (the year that Noel died) he staged another coup, implanting the Estado Novo (New State) in the country. During these seven years, censorship of information and of the arts was harshly enforced by the infamous DIP (Departamento de Imprensa e Propaganda [Press and Propaganda Department]), and for Noel this institution became a privileged target of his refined irony and sharp criticism. The encounter between Noel Rosa and Vadico, that graced the Brazilian occurred toward the end of 1932 in the Rio repertoire with "Feitio de ora!Vdo", branch of Odeon's recording studio (Maximo and Didier 1990:266-8). At the age of 22, Vadico had been contracted by the company as a pianist and arranger. In native vernacular, arrangers are known as "conductors" (maestros), indicating that the musician could read sheet music, a sign of classical musical training (Menezes Bastos 1977, 1982). Vadico was born in Sio Paulo on 24

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June 1910, and he died on 11 June 1962 in Rio de Janeiro.7He came from an Italian immigrant family that resided in Bras, a neighbourhood in Sio Paulo that is still marked by a strong peninsular accent. Having undergone "classical" musical training, Vadico followed a trend common in Brazilian music, turning to popular music at the age of 18. By 1929 he had already recorded one of his own compositions - the samba "Deixei de ser otcdrio"(I have quit being a sucker) - at the Sdo Paulo branch of Odeon. When he was contracted by the company in 1930, he moved to Rio in the hope of achieving national success. In Sdo Paulo it would have been difficult for him to transcend the parochial state boundaries, but in Rio his talents could be more easily recognized nationally, as indeed they were.8 In their monumental piece on the life and work of Noel Rosa, Maximo and Didier (1990) provide a telling account of the famous 1932 Odeon meeting between Noel and Vadico, narrating the creative process involved in the composition of "Feitio". This process, summarized below, is one of the canonical trajectories in the invention of popular song as a verbalmusical art genre in Brazil. In an interval while he was working as conductor at Odeon, Vadico played one of his piano compositions to Eduardo Souto, the artistic director of the studio who had been responsible for his contract with the company. Souto was enchanted with the piece, and he immediately asked Vadico if he had lyrics for it. Vadico said he didn't, at which point Souto asked him to wait for a moment, while he went to the room next door, soon to return with Noel, who was at the studio at the time working on one of his recordings. After the two were introduced to one another, Vadico played his composition one more time. Now it was a potential music I for a music II. When Vadico played the tune for the second time, Noel, who from the beginning had remained attentive, took paper and pencil and started to create a "monster", that is, "a provisional text which is only meant to determine the number of syllables, the punctuation and the accentuation required for each musical phrase" (Maximo and Didier 1990:266). At the end of the meeting Noel said that he would try to put lyrics to the piece, and two days later he showed them to Vadico at the same studio. Vadico accepted them enthusiastically, marking the first chapter in what was to become a fertile partnershipbetween the two musicians.

7 On the life and work of Vadico, see Marcondes(1977:775). 8 Along with his considerable success in Brazil, Vadico was also successful in the USA between 1940 and 1954. Besides being the political capital of Brazil from 1863 to 1961, after 1808, when the Portuguese court was transferredthere, Rio de Janeiro also emerged as its cultural capital, and it was through Rio that Brazil looked to the world (Menezes Bastos 1992). This, in fact, is yet another indication that the national - with all its localities, regions, states etc. - and the international are mutually constituted and in continuous interaction,specifically in relationto popularmusic.

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Figure 1 (overleaf) is my transcriptionof "Feitio de orayio", based on the original 1933 recording, which was re-issued in 1977.9 Though it attends to certain features usually placed in brackets on sheet music, the transcription is almost as schematic (or prescriptive) as commercially published versions. My transcription is limited to the voice of the principal singer (the famous Francisco Alves, or Chico Viola), omitting the instrumental accompaniment performed by the Orchestra Copacabana,which is only represented by the main melodic line, played during the introduction and the conclusion of the piece.10 For graphic convenience, I have presented the song in D major, that is, a minor second below the original tonality (ESMajor). I have also omitted the second vocal part (which at that time was common), performed by the famous Joaquim Silverio de Castro Barbosa. For the harmony I have adopted a simplified cipher scheme, neglecting inversions and "strange notes" (with the exception of the major seventh). Special symbols used in the transcriptioninclude: > = strong accent; x = melodic sound close to the note indicated; A = finalization on a sonorous glottal consonant; o = a "sound" transformedinto a pause. The piece is arranged in an A B C B C B' C' B" A' form, which can be conceived in terms of the following six segments: (A) (B C) (B C) (B' C') (B") (A'). 1 2 3 4 5 6 Section A: Instrumentalintroduction (measures 1 to 8 [until the pause]); Section B: 1st stanza of the lyrics (off-beat of measure 8 to measure 23); Section C: chorus (measures 25 to 40); Section B: and 2nd stanza of the lyrics (as in Segment 2); Section C: chorus (as in Segment 2); Sections B' and C': like Sections B and C (above), but performed as an instrumentalinterlude; Section B": 3rd stanza of the lyrics (off-beat of measure 8 to measure 24); Section A': Instrumentalconclusion (as in Section A, now in concluding position).1

9 For a recenttranscription the song, see Chediak(vol.3, n.d.:66-7). of 10 The orchestralline-up and the arrangement which was possibly written and conducted by Vadico - includes the following instruments(tentative listing): piano, acoustic bass, percussion(snare-drum,possibly doubledby a tamborim),clarinet,flute, alto sax, tenor sax, (valve'?) trombone, trumpet and possibly tuba and baritone sax. I am grateful to Silvia Beraldoand Duda Machadofor the productiveconversationswe had on this arrangement. 11 Note that in the "instrumental interlude"the style is more ornamentedthan improvised. This was also a feature of jazz in the early 1930s, which was heavily elaboratedaround thematicornamentation; improvisationonly became prevalentlater(Gridley 1991:53).

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Figure 1

S= ca. 94

Section A (Instrumental introduction and conclusion)

Em

i- -] lii
1
2

Fo

I
3

liii
F#m
L 4

B7

IFliv

E7
5

I Iv
6

A7

Flvi
D
7/-

End

Section B (Stanzas)
Ivi' A
8

Rvii D
9

I A

Iviii
D#o 10> 11

I lix Em
12

E7
13

A>

a - cha I. quem 2. bea - tu -que

vi-ve se per-den um pri - vi-l16

do gio

por is - sopa- go-raeu nin-guem a-pren- de

3. o

sam -ba

na re-a

- li-da

de

nao vem

do mor- ro

Ix
Gm

I Ixi
A7 D

I lxii
D7

I Ixiii

vou me de-fen-den sam-ba no co-le nem lia da ci-da

do gio de

ddor sam-bar e quem

to c:ru-eldes-ta sau-da e cho-rar de a - le-gri su-por-taru-ma pai-xio

de a .r

que por e sorsen-ti-

I lxiv G Gm
2021 22

A7
23

D
A 24

i n-fe-li - ci - da ri r de nos-tal-gi -

de
a

meu po-bre
den-tro da

pei - toin-va
me - lo-di

de
a

re queo

en-ta'o ,z sam-ba.

nas-ce no

co - ra-9go -6

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Section C (Chorus) xv
I Ixvi

S 25

26
poris - soa-go I Em

EmA

27
la na

A7

28

I lxvii

ra

Pe-nha you man-dar I lxix

mi-nha mo-

29

FO

30

31

Ixviii A7

32

33

C7

re-napra can-tar

cornsa -tis - fa - ?go

e cornhar - mo-ni-

Ixx B7
34 i 35 36

Em
1

I
37

Ixxi

es - ta

tris-te me - lo-di

que e

meu sam-

Ixxii C#7
38 A39
t.i---40e

F#

ba

em

fei

ti

deo

re - 98`o

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Whydo songs have music?

In a referential piece, capriciously entitled "Why do songs have words?", Simon Frith (1988) shrewdly showed how analyses of popular songs based purely on the study of their lyrics can be misleading. One notes that Frith's contention in relation to the analysis of song texts does not indicate an indisposition on his part toward the literary (poetic) aspects, so to speak, of the song, but to the fact - very common in the song universes of many cultures that the words of songs are frequently forgotten. I too have raised this point on several occasions, remarking that, at least in the universe of Brazilian popular music, lyrics are strongly pre-textual, usually being forgotten by listeners and even by singers (Menezes Bastos 1977, 1982, 1992). It is worth noting that the serious question that Frith poses in his seminal text disregards its inversion: "Why do songs have music?" What makes this question strange, other than the fact that it queries the obvious, in that what defines a song is its musicality? But are there songs without music? "Aflor que es / Ndo a que dds / Eu quero / Por que me negas / O0que te ndo pe9o?" (The flower that you are / Not the one that you give / I want / Why do you withhold / That which I do not ask of you?) (Fernando Pessoa). Songs without music are called poems. And what of songs without words? Well, the Swingle Singers became famous for singing "instrumentalpieces" by Bach and other composers with verbal syllables ("da-ba-da ..."). No doubt they could have put the text of any song in brackets, but here too the music would have been "instrumental". Finally, throughout the world people employ texts in their songs which they may not understand, because they are in a foreign or archaic language, for example. Why did Eduardo Souto ask Vadico if his composition (already) had words? What is the monstrosity of a monster? What is it that can be forgotten (or not understood), but is there, as an absolutely indispensable element? (Why do chairs have seats?) Before I startedwriting this text I only knew fragments of the lyrics to "Feitio", even though I could whistle or hum the tune in its entirety (not, however, as it has been transcribed here, with all the notes and pauses), and my rendition would have been recognized by any Brazilian as a reproduction of "Feitio". If in a bar someone were to ask me: "Do you know how to sing "Feitio"?," I could have responded in true native fashion: "Yes, but I don't know the words." (I note, however, that at a show, a party, a concert or a recital, this could never happen: I would have to learn the words.) Why is it that the sounds of birds - that don't appearto have words - are called songs? What is "to sing" that "to play" is not? Since that which is forgotten or not understood is just as fundamental as that which is remembered, the only way to avoid a trivial response to these questions is to invoke the anthropological dictum that categories (and discursive genres are categories) are cultural arbitraries.They are, however, only arbitraryto those aliens who don't know how to read the cultural score to which they belong. This, then, refers us to the sphere of native models. In other words, it is impossible to respond to such questions without asking the natives about their socio-cultural system, not so much to discover the ad hoc

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formulations that dominate their conscious models - though this can be an intermediate strategy - but to unveil the unconscious universe of rules - the ghostly apparitions - that underlie this world of appearances. It is through a dialogue with the partial theories that have emerged up to now that one may finally establish the general anthropological laws of song. Something extraordinaryoccurs in the analysis of Brazilian popular song: if at the level of the object of analysis (that is, of what is analysed) the words are almost irrelevant - following the argument of the pre-textuality of song - while the music is glorified, since it is considered indispensable to constituting song as song, at the level of the subject of analysis, a curious inversion takes place: commonly the analysis of the content of song is reduced precisely to the analysis of the lyrics, while for music I, even when it is dissected as a phonological-grammatical entity in the most atomic manner possible, the results rarely add much to our understanding of its role as a carrier of content. This game of mirrorsreproduces that which takes place in the sphere of western native norms (but not of native rules): while spoken language is seen as the primary sphere of meaning, music is not; rather, music is constructed as something that only "refers to itself'; at most it is qualified as an "expressive" language, a euphemism for the dismissal of musical semanticity in western thinking (Menezes Bastos 1990), and, in the case of song, this places the analytic emphasis upon the lyrics. This is why I contend that the general problem in the analysis of song is best addressed through a dialogic methodology which embraces the construction of meaning both in music and in text. In this way it may be possible to break with what could be called the musicological paradox: the dismissal of musical semantics in western thinking vis-a-vis the enthroning of music as the supreme language of identity construction, a true science of sentiments ("pathology", etymologically). What, how, when, why, toward what does music express (that is, "press outwards")? In this short paper I can only make a limited contribution to this debate; furthermore, I am working with only one song. Yet, if it can be shown that one song from a specific cultural tradition constitutes a discursive unit of the "topdown" type, it is also a complex of other discursive units of the "bottom-up" type (Hanks 1989:117), such as musical motifs, phrases and so on. Moreover, one song is already a dialogue between music and text, even if it is made by just one person. Indeed, it is a strange dialogue, which from the start breaks with authorial unity, to operate in a world of dialogic polyphony. A battle of scythes takes place in the darkness of song. Thus, to analyse just one song is not so much a case of reductionism as it is a methodological limitation of scale.12 According to Maximo and Didier (1990:266), Noel's ethnographically zealous biographers, a monster is "a provisional text which is only meant to determine the number of syllables, the punctuation and the accentuation required for each musical phrase." Thus, a monster is a text, but it is
12 I thank Hermenegildo Jose de Menezes Bastos for the conversations we had about the relationship between lyrics and music in the universe of Brazilian popular music, upon which I have drawn heavily in writing this text. However, I take sole responsibility for the ideas that have been developed here.

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"monstrous"because it is composed of syllables ("na, na, na ..."), which do not Indeed,the require- but do not necessarilypreclude- lexical referentiality. of for "monstrosity" the monsterderivesfrom its disregard lexical-linguistic A for intelligibility. monster,then, could be viewed as a rhythmicframework the lyrics, which is compatible (but not necessarily congruent)with the of rhythmicstructures music I, fromwhich it is derived.Indeed,this is trueof any text that is put to an existing melody, and it points to an obvious, but of crucial,characteristic song: the role of music in definingits identity.This becomes even more obvious if one imagines the reverse process of song in production, which one begins with the lyrics. Is it now possible to createa (musical) monster?That is, can one move from provisionalmusic (though musicalchain)towardmusic I, or is it simplynot possible alreadya nonsensical Does a distinction betweenmusic I andmusic for music to exist provisionally? II make any sense at all, exceptthroughan effortof the imagination? Why is it that in many styles of song, the music seems to steal from languageits very nature,placing it in the realmof the forgotten? Why is it that Jodo Cabralde e MeloNeto was neveragainableto see his piece "Morte vida S/severina" (Life de and deathof S/severina)as a poem afterChico Buarque Hollandaturnedit into a song (H. Menezes Bastos,personalcommunication)? Why is it that, in the universeof Brazilianpopularmusic, one can use the "samemusic" with words"(recognizedas suchby the natives),while the "samewords" "different music"?Whatthen is the monster,this rhythmic cannotbe sung to "different for framework the lyrics, which is compatible(butnot necessarilycongruent) of with the rhythmicstructures music I from which it is derived?What is the Is it possibleto "play" mouth(or,better,the voice)? rhythm? the analytic notion of rhythm evoked here transcends its Although within the universeof Brazilianpopularmusic, I will now conceptualization here seems to dealwithit in relation this context.The conceptbeinghighlighted to be extremelybroad and strategic,as it not only capturesthe durationalprosodicaspectsof the soundingmusicalchain,but also those that referto its so "orchestration", to speak. This becomes evident when one hears a samba school percussionensemble, in which the rhythmiclines are sophisticated This is not only clear to the elaborations. rhythmic-timbral-melodic-harmonic of but also to the native,especiallyto the director the ensemble(Pinto observer, and Tucci 1992: 41-89, McGowanand Pessanha 1991:43-44). Indeed, the native expression - "rhythm section" (seqidoritmica) - encompasses not only

the percussioninstruments themselves,but also the bass line, the piano andthe electric guitar - that is, the harmony - of the country's popular music section(also called"thebase"[base])is the ensembles.Furthermore, rhythmic referredto as "the kitchen" (cozinha). If this epithet makes a commonly allusion to the blackness of Brazil's rhythmicconstructions discriminatory Bastos 1992), the use of the culinarymetaphoralso highlightsthe (Menezes of in the role of rhythm constructing infrastructure the music. to While native theory in Brazilianpopularmusic attributes rhythm a
structuralrole that lets almost nothing escape, it is also articulated in a more specific and topical way: "Shall we sing the National Anthem in a samba (bolero

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In withinthe etc.) rhythm?" such an expression- which is entirelyacceptable universein question rhythm seemsto referto a more specific aspectof music, indicating, stylistictype, whatdurational-prosodic by aspectsthe musicalchain should acquire.These become the variablesof an equationin which melody, thoughits character harmonyandotherelementsremainconstant: changes,the NationalAnthemcontinues be the NationalAnthemeven if it is performed to as While these variablesmark the a samba, a bolero or some other "rhythm". identityof each genre (samba,boleroetc.), they do not affectthe identityof the the betweengenres,these variablesseem to song. By demarcating boundaries In thus, one performsin a rhythm. other embodyall othermusicalparameters; is music, the category"rhythm" both all-embracing words,in Brazilian popular in (or orchestral), thatit definesthe musicalunityof a piece, andspecific,in that its it defines the genre of a piece, highlighting character.13 one hand,tonal On that createsa holisticuniverseconstituted "orchestration" (including of rhythm), withregard a tensionalcentre(thetonic),whichdefines to by tensionalrelations On mensuration and whatmakesa piece of music "music". the other,durational It markthe particular accentuation genreof musicaldiscourse(its "character"). seems, then, that the rhythmicframeworkcreated throughthe monster is in but premisedon the specificnativenotionof rhythm, thatit is compatible, not structures music I. Whenthe wordsare finally of with the rhythmic congruent, its to putto music I (aboveall through durational definition) formmusic II, they whole of the orchestration, is, intothe properly dissolvewithinthe rhythmic that musical. Thus, the lyrics constitutethe means of entry throughthe mode of verbalsignification(thatis, the mythic-cosmological) the musicalone (the into which immediatelyencompassesthe first: songs (poems) must axiological), have music (I) if they are to be transformed music (II), and vice-versa.I into shallnow attempt showhow thistakesplacein the song "Feitiode oraq7o", a to of integration.14 masterpiece poetic-musical
13 For a Brazilianaudiencethe (specific) concept of rhythmemerges as self-evident,because each genre is identified by the batida (beat), which is typically providedby the guitar,or by the "kitchen's"levada (rhythmicpattern).In using such terms as "discourse","discussion", "conversation","dialogue","polyphony","genre" etc., my writing may seem to refer to Bakhtin(1986), but this is not necessarilythe case. Out of prudenceI wish to maintainsome distance from this association. The Bakhtinianmodel was derived from linguistic-literary are analysis,where, curiously,even though music itself is neverdealtwith, musicalmetaphors my constantly drawn upon. Furthermore, prudenceis meant to signal my non-affiliationto of discursivistextremism,in which the inappropriate appropriations the model do little more than propose that discourse theory dismantlesthat of language (see Urban 1991:1-28, for a discussion of these theories - to which I feel a close affinity - where he advocates that a mutuallyfertilizing relationshipshould exist between the two theoreticalapproaches).Thus, when I use this terminology,I am drawing more on a musical and musicological analytic arsenal(Menezes Bastos 1990) thanon the metaphorsso brilliantlyemployedby Bakhtin;I do this in Levi-Strauss'scentury,for his use of ingeniousmusical metaphors certainlyremain will memorable. 14 For an extended discussion of the theoretical-methodological assumptions and analytic techniquesemployed in the analysis of "Feitio",I referthe readerto Menezes Bastos (1990).

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A musical analysis of "Feitio"

The introductionto "Feitio"is a typical intermediarysegment between something prior to the song and, since the segment is repeated at the end, something following it. As an introductory phrase, the segment ends on an unresolved dominant chord with the augmented fifth (bar 8), but for the conclusion it has a continuous finalization (untranscribed series of chords rising by conjunct degrees); thus, the piece would not close were it not for the cut in the recording. The introduction concludes with a pause in measure eight (motive vi), in which the piano plays a dominant arpeggio (A) with an augmented fifth. For the conclusion, the motion is abruptlyterminatedby the cut in the recording before it reaches vi. The tonal texture of this segment is particularlyloose, weak even; it begins to solidify only after measure four, through a progression of dominant chords (B, E, A) leading to the tonic (D). This frailty is furtherreinforced by the use of relative minor chords (in plagal positions) of the subdominant (Em) and the dominant (F#m),mediated by the dominant of the latter (FP). This is placed over a chromatic melodic line through to measure 3. Thus, up to here - when the note of the future tonic (d) is only heard as the seventh of the dominant of the dominant (E) - there is uncertainty as to where one should locate the centre of gravity of the system. This pathology pertains especially to the introductory use of this segment, while the song proper (sections B+C) is still in the future. Yet, its character is sufficiently plagal that even as conclusion, that is, after it has been established in the listener's tonal memory, it dissolves the resolution of the song into a new future, which is outside the recording. In terms of its motifs, the fragile harmonic character of section A (and A') is capriciously engineered: it is made up of small motifs that - despite iv - are practically reducible (without the ornamentationof the appoggiaturas) to single notes, each lasting for a whole measure. These motifs are sequenced in a predominantly ascending melodic line. The introduction contrasts strongly with sections B and C, which are large sections made up of short notes in step-wise movements or in arpeggios. I suggest that sections A and A' create a frame around the song (sections B+C), mediating its interaction with the song's exteriority. Even though the frailty of these sections would indicate a pathology of sadness, the frame they create defines itself as neutral in relation to the world outside the song, as well as in relation to the song itself, such that the frame constructs yet another exteriority. For the listener, this frame attempts to promote a sense of continuity between the "outside" (the passed and the future) of the whole arrangementand of the song (B+C), placing itself between these two realms. Note, however, that the two stakes in the frame are not identical, in that they function firstly as an entrance and then as an exit to the song. The introduction has an inquisitive ending while the conclusion is continuous. During the conclusion, the work of memory transforms the surprise of the introduction into an act of recollection; the extraordinarysound engineering of the conclusion awakens the listener and announces: "This is a recording!" Thematically, section B is made up of two parts:vii-x and xi-xiv. The first motifs of each part (vii and xi) can be identified with one anotherthrough their

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common ascending leap of a fourth, from the dominant note (a) to the tonic (d). This identification, however, is counterbalancedby differences in their endings: while vii ends with a descending leap of an octave, which is pronounceddryly (in staccato) by the singer througha sounded glottal consonant (^ in the transcription) reached through a glide (\), xi ends on a plain figure, without a single cut or slide. The contrast in the heads of these two parts is taken even furtherin their bodies: while the first is markedby a series of arpeggios, the second moves step-wise. In terms of their motifs, then, the two parts maintain a relationship of contrast and opposition, markedby qualitativelysignificant differences. In harmonic terms, the relationship between these two parts is further reinforced, beginning with the fact that their heads and tails are tonally constituted in particularly marked ways: the tonic is employed at their heads (vii and xi) - which points to another aspect of their affinity to one another while the minor subdominant-dominantsequence (Gm-A) is left suspended in the first part (which thus ends in the air), it is resolutely closed on the tonic in the second. The analysis of the bodies of the two sections also confirms their contrasting relationship to one another:in the first part, the harmonic sequence is defined by the relative of the subdominant (Em), prefaced by its individual dominant (D#'), and followed by the dominant of the dominant (E), in which the third (g#) maintains a "false relation" to the g natural of the melody in measure 14. In the second part, this fluctuation is cancelled; here the journey to the region of the subdominant is achieved through the subdominant itself (G), preceded by its individual dominant (D). All of this takes place in the dialogue between these two parts of section B, as though they were almost equal, yet differentiated through significant subtleties, which set them against each other (in opposition): "0O que dd pra rir / Da pra chorar / Questio s6 de peso / E medida Questdo s6 de hora / E lugar" (What can produce laughter / Can produce crying / A question of weight / And measurement / A question of time / And of place).15 It is worth considering a contextual (musical-political) aspect of vii, which is particularlyrelevant to characterizingthe mode of signification of music I in "Feitio" as patho-logical, an axiology in which feeling (pathos) is a unit of value. The public of Brazilian popular music is quite able to discern the direction toward which vii moves, since it is a common well-marked short arpeggio that is played by the instrumentalensemble afterthe tonal centre of the piece has been established, "giving the note" to the singer. Following the tonally fragile introduction, the sentiment constructed at the beginning of "Feitio" suggests a highly subversive ridiculing of the singer by the "musicians" (that is, the instrumentalists). It is through this mockery that the musicians - who proudly see themselves as the retainers of knowledge in popular music, even though they occupy a subaltern position in its system of prestige and economic stratification- direct themselves to the singer, who is the central character; although it is the singer who occupies the central position in the stratification system, the musicians typically consider him/her to be a
15 Excerpt from a samba by an unknown author.

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musically inept "owner of the voice" (merely of word); after all, s/he can't even "get the note" (Menezes Bastos 1977). Toward the end of the 1930s (around five years after the first recording of "Feitio"), Raul de Barros (born in 1915 in Rio de Janeiro) consecrated this motif in a famous choro ("Na gldria" [In glory]), which from then on was taken as a hilarious musical prefix embodying the musicians' derisive judgement of the "star". Furthermore, in later recordings of "Feitio" - typically in the one made in 1965 by Maria Bethainia, who is famous for her austerity - the introductory motif is radically transfigured, losing not only its original glide, but also the terminal glottolization; moreover, the ascending leap of the fourth is changed to a descending fifth, which is no longer followed by the low octave. In my opinion the central meaning of section B is opposition and contrast; it marks subtle - but profound - differences created through similitude. In this equation, vii seems to emerge as an unknown; yet, by taking on a certain meaning - that of mockery - it ends up defining the meaning not only of B, but of "Feitio" as a whole. It seems to me that "Feitio" makes a mockery - a sad one - of the stars' (rational) debates on the origin of samba, inventing Brazil in sadness, in longing and in the melancholy of a supplicating passion. This sadness, this longing and this melancholy, however, are elegantly contained, smiling courtesans, or "Cariocas". If one analyses motifs vii-x, the sense of opposition is evident yet again. If viii and x form ascending arpeggios that are transpositionally almost identical, finalized by long notes, vii and ix evince a descending movement, worked through glides followed by sonorous glottal stops (staccatos) that interruptthe musical chain. In opposition to vii-x, xi-xiv moves by degrees: pendular movement in xii and xiii, but purely descending in xiv. Thus, this part abandons the binary motifs of the first (vii/viii//ix/x) for step-wise movements based on a variation of xi. Here the ascending fourth of xi (a-d) gives way to a third (b-d) at the head of xii; from then on, mediated by a pendular design that is soon repeated in transposition, the scale of d major with an initial chromaticization (from d to b flat) is heard, until it reaches the low octave. Section C is also divided in two parts (xv-xviii and xix-xxiii), and compositionally it has the mark of genius: note how xv, xix and xx are remarkably similar, given the conjunct ascent of the fourth (f#-b),followed by a downward leap of an octave with a glide. This ending is done with a terminal glottal stop in xv and xix, which expressly does not occur in xx. Melodically these three motifs are (tentative) transpositions of vii - the a of vii is natural,not sharpened - in the relative tonality (Bm), in which the ascent is made by conjunct degrees, and not through leaps. Whatever else section C might be, it refers to B (through its head), and is constituted through it transpositionally, ratherthan oppositionally. Regarding xv-xviii, I have noted that the head (xv) is a transposition of vii that calls for a modulation to the relative minor. With the only exception of xvii, all the other motifs of this section are constructedthrough this transposition: xvi pendularizes it emphatically (two times), emerging as a regression of its ascending branch (f#-b), which is in turn also transposed down a second; and

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xviii refers only to this last transposition (e-a). Harmonically, the section tends strongly toward Bm, specifically in xvii, when the dominant (FO) of this relative is heard. The sequence, however, does not reach Bm, returningto the tonic (D), even though the relative tonality insinuates itself as the section's most probable tonal centre. In xix-xxi, this is taken to excess: xix and xx are motivic reiterations of the transposition of vii (xv), the first (xix) in a practically ipsis litteris form, and the second (xx) reinforces its memory even more through pendular movement. Moreover, this motif (xx) does not end with a glottal stop, as it is substituted by a continuous, smooth terminus. The harmony of the section progresses frankly toward Bm, stopping at xx, which is already its subdominant (Em). This preparation- which appears to remove "Feitio" from the territory of mockery to place it in the realm of supplication - reaches its height in xxi-xxii. Here, through a progression of dominant chords (C#,F#),Bm almost takes charge of the future of the song, but it is only just prevented from doing so, perhaps feebly held back by the "false relation" between a and a#in measures 39 and 40. The motivic elaboration of this section is also a transposition of vii, through xv: xxii pendularizes the transposition of xv on the upper second, for which xxi is a typical preparation.Finally, in xxi a glottal stop preceded by a descending octave glide returnsto reign in the song once again. Summing up, music I of "Feitio" can be understood through the articulationof three basic sections: the introduction/conclusion (A/A'), B and C. The first section is a mediator of the other two, and it strives to construct a sense of continuity between the outside and the inside of the song (B+C). This continuity defines the song as a sphere of "discussion", of "polemic", of "confrontation". In other words, section A attempts to define B+C as an intervention in a discussion which began before and continues after the song. I remind the reader that the tonal-motivic architecture of section A embodies frailty, which I have defined as "sad". In the introductoryposition, A closes as though it were posing a question to B (on the dominant with the augmented fifth), while as a conclusion it is continuous, ending only because of the cut in the recording. The fragility of A is profoundly different from B (and C), which cannot be thus reduced. The general idea embodied in B is of contrast and opposition, understood in terms of subtle difference (and not just any difference), for it is achieved through similitude. This contrast is especially marked in vii-x (vii/viii//ix/x), being elaborated through variation in xi-xiv. The core of B (and C) is vii, which constructs a "pathology of mockery" achieved in the song through the musicalpolitical context. It marks the pathology of the vertical relationship between the subaltern and the star. Motif vii responds to the question posed by A in the introduction. Possibly the descending octave glide followed by the staccato is the clearest observable element of this pathology, and the plain note ending (with or without a slide), on which there is no glottal stop, seems to indicate a significant change in the song's scornful derision. I contend that this change constructs a sense of supplication, sustaining the song's pathology of relational asymmetry. Section C is constructed as an eternal search which is never fully successful - though not fully unsuccessful either - in conducting B (basically

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through vii) to the realm of the relative minor and to an ending on vii which only slides (without a staccato). That is, C attempts to transform B into an expression of sadness, that is, a closed, contrite, supplicating and respectful pathos. In the arrangement C is not repeated in segment 5, where B appears isolated, and it soon leads into the conclusion (segment 6), seemingly indicating a victory of B over C. Since segment 4 of the arrangement, a purely instrumental embellishment of B+C, has not been transcribed, it cannot be treated here. But its mere presence in the general context of the arrangement indicates a marked predominance of music I over the lyrics. I note, however, that the instruments of the orchestra emerge simultaneously as both highly individualized, an indication of radical polyphony, and extremely gregarious, producing just ornamentationsof the song's melody. How might one now establish a dialogue between the analysis of music I of "Feitio"and its lyrics? How might this axiology, in which sentimentis the measure of everything, engage with the verbal-cognitive mythic-cosmology of the lyrics? In attempting to explain the modality through which the music is semantically constructed, that is, what pathology it embodies, I was also able to show how music I constructs meaning, a project which, according to Agawu (1991:5), is sufficient and necessary to the semiology of music, since for him the question of what music means is irrelevant. However strategically relevant such a purely "formalist"programmemight be, the analysis itself automaticallytranscendssuch boundaries, leaping into the sphere of content. Thus, in analysing "Feitio", indications emerge pertainingto what the native hears in the music I of the song as well as to the way the rules are appliedto generatethese meanings.

An analysis of the lyrics of "Feitio"

In previous publications (1977, 1982, 1992) I suggested that in the universe of Brazilian popular music, music I and the lyrics in music II stand in a subject/object relationship to one another. From a logical point of view, such a relationship would imply that music I encompasses the lyrics in a manner similar to that of a translation: "How does one say 'house' in Portuguese?" In my doctoral thesis (Menezes Bastos 1990), in which I looked at the songs of the Kamayurai,an Amerindian group of the Xingu River region, I was able to advance this perspective further, since these people hold an absolutely enchanting and fertile theory of inter-semiotic translation. For them, music within ritual is the means used to translate the mythic-cosmology contained in dance (and in other systems of bodily expression, such as body painting and ornamentation).That is, in ritual, myth is in music, just as this text is in English. For the Kamayura, however, everything is in dance. (There are no more turtles after this.) Remembering Levi-Strauss's (1964) point - that music is the only language that is simultaneously understandable and untranslatable- I suggest that song is an attemptto translate language into music. (I rather doubt that one can take the inverse path, but I shall investigate this in the future.) A translation, however, always involves betrayal.

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If music I in music II is the means of translating lyrics - a subject which encompasses the lyrics, its object - how is this achieved? I am convinced that it takes place pathologically; that is, music I translates the lyrics using all its intelligible arsenal, in which the motifs are the significant atoms. Paradoxically, music I removes the lyrics from their mythic-cosmological substantiality and places them in the sphere of the aspectual, the modal and the tensional, that is, in the realm of tonality. This is why music is a holistically axiological language, in which ideas give way obsessively to value or understanding(to judgement or the lack thereof) (Menezes Bastos 1990). I contend that musical value is substantiated in taste or sentiment; thus, aesthetics determine all musical ethics. Let us, then, turn to the lyrics of "Feitio", which have been reproduced below.

1st Stanza
Quem acha vive se perdendo Por isso agora eu vou me defendendo Da dor tdo cruel desta saudade Que por infelicidade Meu pobre peito invade He who finds always loses himself That is why I now attempt to defend myself From the cruel pain of this longing Which infelicitously Invades my poor chest That is why now In Penha I will have My dark-skinnedwoman sing With satisfaction And harmony This sad melody Which is my samba In the form of a prayer

Chorus
Por isso agora La na Penha you mandar Minha morena pra cantar Corn satisfaqgo E com harmonia Esta triste melodia Que e meu samba Em feitio de oraqgo

2nd Stanza
Batuque e um privilegio Ninguem aprende samba no colegio Sambar e chorar de alegria E sorrir de nostalgia Dentro da melodia Rhythm is a privilege No one learns samba in school To dance the samba is to cry of happiness It is to smile with nostalgia Within the melody In reality samba Does not come from the hill or there from the city And anyone who carries a passion Will then feel that samba Is born in the heart

3rd Stanza
O samba na realidade Nao vem do morro nem la da cidade E quem suportaruma paixao Sentira que o samba entao Nasce no coraqio

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Section B is dominated by pairs of oppositions. The first line revolves around the opposition: achar (to find) and perder-se (to lose oneself). In Portuguese, achar can also mean to think; thus, here achar connotes "having an opinion in a polemic", pointing to the realm of rationality. In contrast, perder-se suggests the loss of significance or of identity with regard to a broadly defined ethos. In the second line the opposition is constructed around batuque (rhythm) and privilegio (privilege). The batuque alludes to a mythicarchaeological form of African-Brazilian music. This is followed by an opposition between samba and realidade (reality). These three pairs of oppositions pertain to motifs vii to viii. In ix to x, there is a sense of encounter in the oppositions: por isso (that's why) not to lose oneself / defender (to defend), not to find; samba / colkgio (school), the universe of the whites, of rationality; morro (hill) / cidade (city). The word city is prefaced by the adverb "there" (lca). Depending on the intonation used, the term "there" can either approximate or distance the subject from the object in terms of taste. Here it appears to be neutral, seeming to embody both the notion of the city as "the world of the whites" and as Cidade Nova, the neighbourhood of poor black migrant Bahians. From xi to xiv the oppositions seem to be constructed around paradoxes: dor (pain) = cruel (cruel) in opposition to saudade (longing), the absence of the loved one; sambar (to dance the samba) = chorar (to cry) in opposition to alegria (happiness), which is immediately followed by an opposition between sorrir (to smile) and nostalgia (nostalgia). In B there is an important inter-semantic link in relation to samba as music and samba as dance: the dance is in the music (melody).16 Finally coracrio (heart) attempts to neutralize the opposition "hill / (there from the) city" in favour of the primacy of amorous passion. Section C seems to want to flee from the oppositional frame created by B. To do this the male author of the lyrics - a participant in the heated discussion into which B intervenes - sends his dark-skinned woman (morena) to sing in Penha, a neighbourhood of Rio famous for its Catholic religious festivals and its samba circles. There she will sing "Feitio", a metaphor of a prayer (a supplication), which was made with harmony and satisfaction, but also in sadness. All of this takes place between music I and the lyrics of "Feitio", as though they were logical copies of one another. This is surely a testament to Noel's genius as a lyricist, evincing his ability to perceive the deep structure of the music I of the piece: opposition with opposition (B), transposition with flight (C). And now, how might this song be viewed as an inter-semiotic encounter? Does it simply rescue the music from the tactility of instrumentalperformance to give it vocal distanciation? Besides evincing an extraordinary logicalpropositional compatibility, I intend to demonstrate that the music I and the lyrics of "Feitio" work differently to produce music II: although the lyrics were

16 Interestingly, this view returns us to the Kamayura understanding of the world, where dance is the lowest common denominator in the ritual inter-semiotic chain.

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created for the melody, they end up being encompassed by the pathology of the music. Section B begins soon after the sad texture of A, which ends with an interrogation. Its response to the question is itself a mocking question (vii): "Who finds (thinks)? / Batuque? / Samba?",to which it provides a sad answer: "Is always losing oneself! / Is a privilege! / In reality!" If the oppositions in the lyrics are elaborated in a typically categorical manner, in which each is distinct from the others, it becomes difficult to make the discursive distinction between the questions and the answers. Thus, the opposition (only one, which is repeated in the various verses of the song) of music I leads, from the very beginning, to their equalization, merging them into a single opposition. The distinction between the responses and the questions are made evident by an evaluation which places them either in a derisive or in a sad register. If one disregards for a moment the way in which the responses and the questions are constructed, the music I mode of textual treatment in vii-viii emerges in the form of a variation in ix-x. If the neutrality of the adverb "there" appended to "city" is preserved at the level of categorical definition, Noel is able to meld the distinction between "the world of the whites" (city) and of the "Bahians" (Cidade Nova) to a generalized process of "othering", and it ceases to exist from the pathological point of view: x. as I have already shown, is situated in opposition to scorn (that is, in sadness). I suggest, then, that in this part of the song, music I classes all forms of social distance as sad. In xi-xiv, something just as profound takes place: the paradoxes in the lyrics - instances in which the oppositions are added together, so to speak, not to construct an encompassing synthesis, but to highlight their irreducible contradictions - undergo a variational treatment in music I based on xi (in opposition to vii), which places them in a nonparadoxical, single, integral territory (in opposition to scorn). Thus, music I of "Feitio" seems constantly and globalizingly to use opposition, contrast and contradiction to construct unity. In section C, the lyrics's escape from the oppositional frame created by B to mark a sense of religious-amorous supplication is countered by the pathology of music I. Here supplication once again makes reference to vii, which, through their vertical parallels, equates the relations between the subaltern and the star to those of the lover and God, a metaphor for the woman. The search for the relative minor tonality in section C, along with its motivic elaboration (over vii) is so strong here that the singer of "Feitio", parked on measure 40 just as he is about to return to vii, remains uncertain as to whether he should return to vii in D major or in B minor: "Should I laugh or cry" ("a question only of weight and of measurement")? Music I of C is constructed more as a confrontation than a flight from B, whose victory over C is characteristically double-edged.

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A closing note: about the heart of "Feitio"

In his referential study of Brazilian national rites, DaMatta (1978) argued that the Brazilian ethic is marked by a dilemma, remaining half way between the modem - or the bureaucratic- ethic and the traditional- holistic or hierarchical - ethic. This key text draws on Dumont's (1970) paradigmatic work on the Indian caste system, where the empirical individual does not become a value; rather,individuals are constituted as parts of a hierarchicalwhole, dominated by representations of purity and impurity. According to Dumont (1985), this

system is stronglyopposedto the modem westernsystem, composedof "individuals" who see one another as totalities; in their attempt to escape submissionto an inclusivesocial order,they heraldlibertyand equalityas the fulcrumof theirvalue system.According DaMatta, Brazilian to the ethic stands between these two poles, in that the country accommodatesa fluent coexistenceof both the "individual" the "person"; allows for navigation and this betweenbureaucratic andthe logic of the domestic-familial rationality sphere.
Convinced - as I am - that "Feitio" deals with an absolutely fundamental

discourse about what Brazil is, the analysis of the song would indicatethat there is consistencyto DaMatta'sstimulatingwritings. It is, however,worth consideringhis work in a way thatremovesthe ambiguitiesthroughwhich it can be read."Feitio"clearlyrefusesto engage in discussionsaboutthe origin of samba, a metaphor of the nation itself. It does not only refuse such discussions;it sees them as scornful,definingthemas the pointlessrhetoricof the elites, which, within the song, are equatedwith the singer,who is unable to "get the note". Undoubtedly Noel was fully aware of the polemic
surrounding discourses on the origins of Brazil - and particularly of popular music - that took root in the intellectual scenario of the country with the famous Week of Modem Art (Semana de Arte Moderna) in 1922 (Joao Ant6nio 1982, Menezes Bastos 1992). I contend that the song's refusal of the rationality of the elites was directed at the Brazilian state. The state to which it refers, however, is not the modern nation-state, but the state as the metropolis (government) of society, its original colony. This state is impregnated with the logic of the domestic-familial sphere. Thus, the critique embodied in "Feitio's" rejection of rationality is targeted directly at this ambiguous and clientelistic state, and Noel could, under no circumstances, identify himself with it.

But just as "Feitio" scornfully rejects this rationality,it also makes postulations.It postulates unity, and in so doing, it neutralizesconflictual contradiction. Withinthe song,contradiction aninversionof the rationality is of
the star. But then what is the "heart" of "Feitio"? Is it a heart that strives to eliminate conflict and mockery (see B), to replace it (according to C) with amorous-religious supplication, electing the latter as the origin and teleology of Brazil (samba)'?The heart of "Feitio" - I re-affirm - is courtesan and stoic. It is

sad and it smiles elegantly in sadness:it is Carioca.The Brazil of "Feitio"

remains audible to this day. It can be heard in comrner bars, in shows, in recitals and in colloquiums, whether one is in Rio de Janeiro or in such distant places as

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Jiparana. Thus, it does indeed seem to embody a dilemma. Its dilemma, however, is not an inability to choose between the modem and the traditional polarities which, in any case, it so carefully strives to extinguish; rather it postulates a unity of a different order,one which, up until now, does not seem to have worked, but it is certainly "no longer in Portuguese".

References
Adorno, Theodor W. (1941) "On popular music." Studies in philosophy and social sciences, 9:17-48. (1974) Filosofia da nova mutsica.Sao Paulo: Perspectiva. (1983a) "O fetichismo na muisica e a regressao da audigao." In Theodor Adorno: ospensadores, 47, pp. 165-91. Sao Paulo: Abril Cultural. (1983b) "Ideias para uma sociologia da muisica."In TheodorAdorno: os pensadores, 47, pp. 259-68. Sao Paulo: Abril Cultural. Adorno, Theodor and Max Horkheimer (1985 [1947]) DialOtica do esclarecimento: fragmentosfilos6ficos. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar. Agawu, V. Kofi (1991) Playing with signs: a semiotic interpretation of classical music. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Almirante (1977) No tempo de Noel Rosa. Rio de Janeiro: Francisco Alves. Bakhtin, Mikhail M. (1986) "The problem of speech genres." In C. Emerson and M. Holquist (eds) Speech genres and other later essays, pp. 60-102. Austin: University of Texas Press. Campos, Augusto de (1978) Balango da bossa e outras bossas. Sao Paulo: Perspectiva. Chediak, Almir, ed. (n.d.) Noel Rosa: songbook. 3 volumes. Rio de Janeiro: Luminar. DaMatta, Roberto (1978) Carnavais, malandros e herois.:para uma sociologia do dilema brasileiro. 2nd edition. Rio de Janeiro:Zahar. Dumont, Louis (1970) Homo hierarchicus: ensayo sobre el sistema de castas. Madrid:Aguilar. (1985) O individuo: uma perspectiva antropol6gica da ideologia moderna. Rio de Janeiro:Rocco. Frith, Simon (1988) "Why do songs have words?" In S. Frith (ed.) Music for pleasure, pp. 105-28. New York: Routledge. Gelatt, R. (1977) The fabulous phonograph, 1877-1977. New York: Macmillan. Greene, Victor (1992) A passion for polka. old-time ethnic music in America. Berkeley: University of California Press. Gridley, Mark C. (1991) Jazz styles: history and analysis. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Grivel, Charles (1992) "The phonograph's homed mouth." In D. Kahn and G. Whitehead (eds) Wireless imagination: sound, radio, and the avant-guard, pp. 31-61. Cambridge, Mass.: MITPress.

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Hanks, W.F. (1989) "Text and textuality." Annual review of anthropology,

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myth,reality.New York:Cambridge UniversityPress. JoaoAnt6nio(1982) Noel Rosa. Sao Paulo:AbrilEducaqgo.

cultural.BuenosAires:Ricordi. Claude(1964) Le cru et le cuit. Paris:Plon. Levi-Strauss, D. de and MacDonald, (1973) "Umateoriada cultura massa."In B. Rosenberg de D. M. White(eds) Cultura massa,pp. 77-93. Sao Paulo:Cultrix. McGowan,Chris and RicardoPessanha(1991) TheBraziliansound: samba, volumes.Sao Paulo:Art. Maximo,Joao and CarlosDidier (1990) Noel Rosa: uma biografia.Brasilia: Editora UnB. MenezesBastos, RafaelJ. de (1977) "Situacion musico en la sociedad."In del I. Aretz(ed.)AmericaLatinaen su mzusica, 103-38. Mexico City:Siglo pp. XXI.
(1982) "Musique et societe au Bresil: introduction au langage musical bresilien. Cultures, 8.2:54-73. (1990) A festa dajaguatirica: uma partitura critico-interpretativa. PhD bossa and the popular music ofBrazil. New York: Billboard Books. Marcondes, Marcos Ant6nio, ed. (1977) Enciclopedia da mutsicabrasileira. 2

Leuchter, Erwin (1946) La historia de la mu'sica como reflejo de la evolucidn

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(1991) "Phonographic recordings as 'our' emblem of the music of the

'other': toward an anthropology of the musicological juncture vergleichende Musikwissenschaft, ethnomusicology and historical
musicology." In M.P Baumann (ed.) Music in the Dialogue of cultures: traditional music and cultural policy, pp. 232-41. Wilmhelmshaven:

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brasileira." pela mu'sica Unpublished manuscript.

(1995) "Esbogo de uma teoria da musica: para alem de uma antropologia

sem muisica de uma musicologiasem homem."Anuarioantropol6gico, e 1993:9-73.

(1996) "Musicalidade e ambientalismo: ensaio sobre o encontro RaoniSting." Revista de antropologia, 39.1:145-89.

ethnicrecording the Irish-American and Moloney,M. (1982)"Irish imagination."

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Moura, Roberto (1983) Tia Ciata e a pequena Africa no Rio de Janeiro. Rio de

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da linha evolutiva. MA dissertation,Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.

Pinto, Tiago de O. and D. Tucci (1992) Samba und sambistas in Brasilien. Wilhelmshaven: Florian Noetzel.

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Sahlins, Marshall (1976) Culture and practical reason. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Spengler, Oswald (1973)A decadOnciado Ocidente: esbogo de uma morfologia de hist6ria universal. 2nd condensed edition. Rio de Janeiro:Zahar. Spottswood, Richard K. (1982) "Commercial ethnic recordings in the United States." In P. Seitel and P.L. Sharma (eds) Ethnic recordings in America.: a neglected heritage, pp. 51-66. Washington: Libraryof Congress. Tinhorio, Jose Ramos (1969) O samba agora vai ... a farsa da mutsicapopular no exterior. Rio de Janeiro:JCM. (1981) Mfisica popular.: do gramofone ao radio e TV. Sao Paulo: Atica. (1986) Pequena hist6ria da mtisica popular: da modinha ao tropicalismo. Sdo Paulo: Art. Urban, Greg (1991) A discourse-centered approach to culture: native South American myths and rituals. Austin: University of Texas Press. Vasconcelos, Ary (1977) Raizes da MPB. Brasilia: Martins/MEC.

Discography
Maria Betania (singer) (1965) "Feitio de oraqgo," by Vadico and Noel Rosa. RCA Camdem, CALB 5.329* LP. Francisco Alvez with Castro Barbosa and the Orquestra Capacabana (1933) "Feitio de oragio," by Vadico and Noel Rosa. Odeon 11.042; 78rpm. (1977) "Feitio de oragio," 1933 original recording reproduced in Historia da mutsica popular brasileira, 2nd edition, vol. 8, annexed record: side 2. Sdo Paulo: Abril Cultural.

Acknowledgements
This paper was written in 1994, while I was a visiting scholar at the Department of Anthropology at MIT and a research fellow at the Centre for Cultural Studies of the Smithsonian Institute, and I thank these institutions for their support during my stay in the USA. In Brazil, I thank Capes for the postdoctoral research grant that allowed me to travel, and my colleagues at the Department of Anthropology at the Federal University of Santa Catarina for their support during my absence. Finally, I thank the Department of Anthropology of the University of Brasilia for inviting me to present the paper there in 1994.

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Note on the author

Rafael Jose de Menezes Bastos was born in 1945 in Salvador, where he began his Bachelor's degree in music at the Federal University of Bahia, concluding it at the University of Brasilia in 1968, where he majored in acoustic guitar. He completed his master's and doctoral degrees in Social Anthropology, the first at the University of Brasilia (1976), the second at the University of Sdo Paulo (1990). His publications include: A Musicol6gica Kamayura: para uma antropologia da comunicaQilono Alto Xingu (1978, with a second edition in 1999) and an edited volume, Dioniso em Santa Catarina: ensaios sobre afarra do boi (1993). He currently holds a professorship at the Department of Anthropology of the Federal University of Santa Catarina.His research interests include: music, cosmology, power and philosophy in Lowland South America; music, culture and society in Latin America and the Caribbean.E-mail address: rafael(acfh.ufsc.br.