Uniwersytet Warszawski

Instytut Ameryk i Europy

Ośrodek Studiów Amerykańskich

Maria Kochańska
Nr albumu: 353021

The Influence of the Piano on Shaping Brazilian Music through

Compositions of Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth (1850-1930)

Praca magisterska
na kierunku Studia Amerykanistyczne
w zakresie Kulturoznawstwa Ameryki Łacińskiej i Karaibów

Praca wykonana pod kierunkiem

Dr Renaty Siudy-Ambroziak
Ośrodek Studiów Amerykańskich
Uniwersytet Warszawski

Warszawa, czerwiec 2018

Oświadczenie kierującego pracą

Oświadczam, że niniejsza praca została przygotowana pod moim kierunkiem i stwierdzam,

że spełnia ona warunki do przedstawienia jej w postępowaniu o nadanie tytułu zawodowego.

Data Podpis kierującego pracą

Oświadczenie autora (autorów) pracy

Świadom odpowiedzialności prawnej oświadczam, że niniejsza praca dyplomowa została

napisana przeze mnie samodzielnie i nie zawiera treści uzyskanych w sposób niezgodny z
obowiązującymi przepisami.

Oświadczam również, że przedstawiona praca nie była wcześniej przedmiotem procedur

związanych z uzyskaniem tytułu zawodowego w wyższej uczelni.

Oświadczam ponadto, że niniejsza wersja pracy jest identyczna z załączoną wersją

elektroniczną.

Data Podpis autora (autorów) pracy

 Streszczenie

Tytuł: Wpływ pianina na kształtowanie się muzyki brazylijskiej poprzez kompozycje

Chiquinhii Gonzagi i Ernesta Nazareth (1850-1930)

Niniejsza praca ma na celu pokazanie wpływu pianina na muzykę brazylijską, jak i ustalenie,
w jakim stopniu obecność instrumentu uformowała ją poprzez kompozycje dwóch znanych
pianistów oraz kompozytorów: Chiquinhii Gonzagi i Ernesta Nazareth w latach 1850-1930.
Dysertacja analizuje proces i sposoby przyczyniania się pianina do tworzenia muzyki
brazylijskiej poprzez maxixe - gatunek muzyczny, wykreowany przez Chiquinhę Gonzagę
oraz Ernesta Nazareth, którzy wykorzystali prestiżowy status tego instrumentu, łącząc
afrykańskie, europejskie jak i kubańskie wpływy muzyczne w jedno, tworząc pierwszy
gatunek brazylijski. Praca pokazuje, iż pianino odegrało kluczową rolę w kształtowaniu się
współczesnej muzyki brazylijskiej.

Słowa kluczowe: Muzyka brazylijska, pianino, Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth,

maxixe, polka, habanera, lundu, choro

Dziedzina pracy (kody wg programu Socrates)

08900, inne humanistyczne
 Table of Contents

Table of Contents……………………………………………………..……………………...1
Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 2
Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................................. 6
The piano and its arrival in Brazil.............................................................................................. 6
1.1 The creation of the piano ..................................................................................................... 6
1.2 The arrival of the piano in Brazil ....................................................................................... 12
Chapter 2 ................................................................................................................................ 22
The role of the Brazilian pianeiros: Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth ..................... 22
2.1 Pianeiros ............................................................................................................................. 22
2.2 Chiquinha Gonzaga ............................................................................................................ 25
2.3 Ernesto Nazareth ................................................................................................................ 31
2.4 Differences between Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth ...................................... 35
Chapter 3 ................................................................................................................................ 40
Maxixe: Creation of the first Brazilian music genre ................................................................ 40
3.1 Maxixe ............................................................................................................................... 40
The term “maxixe” ................................................................................................................... 42
Afro-Brazilian influences on the Maxixe ................................................................................ 45
3.2 Lundu ................................................................................................................................. 49
3.3 Habanera ............................................................................................................................ 52
3.4 Polka .................................................................................................................................. 53
Chapter 4 ................................................................................................................................ 57
Analysis of Chiquinha Gonzaga’s and Ernesto Nazareth’s pieces and their influence on
Brazilian contemporary music ................................................................................................. 57
4.1 Analysis of “Corta Jaca” by Chiquinha Gonzaga .............................................................. 57
4.2 Analysis of the piece “Odeon” by Ernesto Nazareth ......................................................... 60
4.3 Choro.................................................................................................................................. 64
4.4 Influences from the music of Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth on contemporary
Brazilian music ........................................................................................................................ 66
Influences from Ernesto Nazareth ........................................................................................... 67
Influences from Chiquinha Gonzaga ....................................................................................... 69
Conclusion .............................................................................................................................. 72
Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………...76

1
 Introduction

When thinking of Brazilian music, the piano may not be the first instrument that

comes to mind. This is completely understandable, as contemporary Brazilian music tends to

be characterized by instruments, such as cavaquinho, pandeiro, the flute or drums1. But how

was Brazilian music created in the first place? And which instrument made it possible for

early Brazilian composers to merge so many different music genres into one?

Many connect the piano with classical music, or music that is written for the piano

only. However, the use of the piano is much broader than that. In fact, the extremely

important role of the piano frequently takes place backstage - all recording studios use the

keys of a piano when editing music2. Even modern electronic music, which at first seems to

not have anything to do with the piano, is often first written for it3. In most music academies

around the world, students are required to have at least a basic knowledge of the piano and

know how to play it4. This is because of the fascinating complexity of this instrument,

allowing musicians to express most of their musical ideas, as the possibilities of the piano are

immense.

The fact that the piano has been present in the shaping of Brazilian music is indubitable.

However, what I undertake to investigate is the extent of this phenomenon, putting forward

the following thesis statement: the presence of the piano in Brazil played a key role in

shaping Brazilian music between the years 1850 and 1930 through the compositions of

Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth. In order to prove the correctness of my thesis,

1
C. McGowan, The Brazilian Music Book: Brazil's Singers, Songwriters and Musicians Tell the Story of Bossa
Nova, MPB, and Brazilian Jazz and Pop, Culture Planet, New York 2012, p. 24.
2
R. J. Burgess, The Art of Music Production: The Theory and Practice, Oxford University Press, London 2013,
p. 41.
3
Ibidem, p. 42.
4
R. Wright, Sociology and Music Education, Ashgate Publishing, Burlington 2010, p. 33.

2
I will focus on the four basic research questions:

 What is the history of the piano and how was it received in Brazil?

 Who were the most important pianeiros and how did they use the instrument?

 What was the process of creating the first Brazilian music genre?

 How did Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth compose the maxixe and what has

been their influence on Brazilian music?

In order to answer these questions, I have divided the paper into four chapters. In Chapter

I, I will answer the first research question by describing the process of creating the piano and

explaining why there has always been a sense of prestige surrounding this instrument. This

chapter will also show how the piano arrived in Brazil, and how it was received by Brazilian

society. Topics such as discrimination against Afro-Brazilian culture and the favoring of

European values will also be discussed.

The second chapter will talk about the pianeiros in Brazil and their role in shaping the

Brazilian music. I will explain the term “pianeiro”, and describe the two most influential

pianeiros: Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth, explaining how they became the

founders of the first Brazilian genre, namely the maxixe. In this chapter I also intend to

analyze the similarities and differences between Gonzaga and Nazareth.

In the third chapter I will focus on the genre maxixe, answering the third research

question by showing in detail the process of creating this music style. Three main influences

will be investigated; the African influences through lundu and syncopation, the European

polka, and the Cuban habanera.

Finally, in the fourth chapter I will answer the last research question by presenting an

in-depth analysis of two piano pieces: “Corta Jaca” by Chiquinha Gonzaga, and “Odeon” by

3
Ernesto Nazareth. The purpose of these analyses is to show the characteristics of maxixe and

Brazilian music style in general. In this chapter I will also prove how maxixe has influenced

Brazilian music created after Gonzaga and Nazareth, whom I consider the two composers that

have most inspired Brazilian contemporary music.

The topic of my paper is a direct result of my deep conviction that the piano is really an

exceptional instrument – the conviction coming of my personal experience after having

studied the piano for over 20 years and at music schools in Poland, Sweden, Brazil, and

Denmark. During my first exchange year in Brazil in 2010, I was a full time student at the

music school Escola de Música do Estado do Maranhão Lilah Lisboa de Araújo, finishing the

academic year with a concert during which I mostly played Brazilian pieces, both by

Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth. In 2015 I did another exchange in Brazil, where I

studied the piano at the Federal University of Bahia at the music department. There I attended

courses such as composition and harmony, where I studied Brazilian music and its harmony

in depth. Furthermore, I also think that in spite of the instrument’s obvious historical

importance, its role tends to be often omitted, which is why it is important to shed some more

light on this topic, especially given there is quite little literature on the piano in Brazilian

music written in other languages than Portuguese.

My contact with Brazilian pianists such as Maria Thereza Pita Gondim, my piano and

composition teacher in Brazil, and Lilian Maria Tonella Tuzun, have been particularly

significant during the writing of this thesis. The books of Lilian Maria Tonella Tuzun were

unfortunately published in Russian and Turkish only, which at first seemed to be a difficulty,

but with the help of friends from all over the world as well as with the technology, both of the

books soon proved to be very helpful. Although this paper is based on academic bibliography

sources, playing and analyzing compositions of Gonzaga and Nazareth, speaking to Brazilian

4
pianists, and listening to Brazilian music have been the most significant sources of inspiration

for my writing.

5
 Chapter 1

The piano and its arrival in Brazil

In order to fully understand why the piano played such an important role in the

creation of Brazilian music, it is important to acknowledge the complexity of this remarkable

instrument, as well as its long history. The impressive development of the piano, a process

which took hundreds of years, finally created the modern piano – an instrument admired for

its sound and beauty. Despite all the musical inventions that have occurred with technological

progress, the piano’s grandeur seems unbeatable5. It was therefore inevitable for this

instrument to change the music in Brazil with its arrival. However, in order to understand this

phenomenon, it is crucial to understand the historical and social context of the piano’s great

career.

1.1 The creation of the piano

The history of keyboard instruments dates back thousands of years. The oldest member of

the keyboard family is the pipe organ. Its invention is attributed to the Greek Ctesibius of

Alexandria, who constructed it around 250 BC. In this instrument, the sound is produced by

the movement of air inside its tubes. The organ is, until today, considered to be the most

complex one out of all the musical instruments6.

5
Ibidem, p. 20.
6
P. Rattlino, Storia del pianoforte: lo strumento, la musica, gli interpreti, Editorial Labor, Barcelona 1988, p.
14.

6
 Among the keyboard instruments, in which the sound is produced by the vibration of

strings, there are: the clavichord, the harpsichord, and the piano. The harpsichord designates

the whole family of similar plucked keyboard instruments, including the smaller virginals,

muselars, and spinets, which are all a variation of the harpsichord, differing only in shape and

size.

Invented in the early 14th century, the clavichord is considered to be the oldest

stringed keyboard instrument7. It evolved from the monochord, an ancient instrument used

for both musical and laboratory purposes, involving merely one (mono) string (chord).

The clavichord was never meant to be a

public instrument, but rather a private one,

played alone or for a small group of people. Its

sound is therefore significantly lower than

today’s modern piano. The clavichord is a

Picture 1: The clavichord rectangular box with strings in it, and it produces
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clavichord#/media/
File:Clavicorde_L%C3%A9pante.JPG
sound by striking brass or iron strings with small

metal blades called tangents. Vibrations are transmitted through the bridges to the

soundboard. The clavichord became a very popular instrument from the 16th to the 18th

century, flourishing mainly in German-speaking lands, Scandinavia, and the Iberian

Peninsula, until it eventually got replaced by the harpsichord 8. However, although the

harpsichord was more sophisticated in structure and gave more possibilities to the player,

many composers preferred the clavichord to the harpsichord because of the clavichord’s more

expressive sonority and tone colour. Grand composers, like Johan Sebastian Bach, Carl

Philipp Emanuel Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart would often indicate “for clavichord”

7
L. Henrique, Instrumentos Musicais, Editora Fundação Gulbenkian, Lisboa 2004, p. 360.
8
R.Bennett, Instrumentos de Teclado, Jorge Zahar Editor, Rio de Janeiro 1989, p. 76.

7
in their compositions. Although quieter than the harpsichord, the clavichord had the

advantage of greater volume control, and thus greater expressiveness9. The oldest clavichord

still in existence, built by Domenico Pisaurensis in 1543, can be seen today in the

Instrumental Museum of Leipzig.

The harpsichord, a more similar ancestor to the modern piano, became an important

keyboard instrument around the 15th through the 18th centuries10. The main difference

between the clavichord and the harpsichord is the way the strings are activated. As mentioned

previously, one strikes the strings of a clavichord in order to produce a sound. The

harpsichord, on the other hand, one plucks the strings – just like strings are plucked on the

guitar. When the player presses one or more keys, a mechanism is triggered in which a small

quill activates the strings with a jack. Furthermore,

each note on the harpsichord has its own two

independent set of strings that are not threaded. This

allows the player to simultaneously play two or three

notes which are only a semitone away from each

other – something that was impossible on the

threaded clavichords11. The harpsichord has a shape

of a wing, resembling today’s grand pianos. However,

Picture 2: The harpsichord the harpsichord is notably smaller. Initially, it had

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harpsichord#/
media/File:ClavecinRuckers%26Taskin.JP merely four octaves, sometimes even fewer, although
G
it eventually gained an additional octave and would

frequently consist of a double keyboard.

9
Ibidem, p. 82.
10
Ibidem, p. 83.
11
R. Bennett, Instrumentos..., op. cit., p. 94.

8
 The harpsichord was very popular and prevailed as the king of the keyboard

instruments until approximately 1750. However, it had considerable disadvantages that were

difficult to change. An example of this was the harpsichord’s mechanical and metallic sound

caused by the plucking of strings. The instrument was also too quiet for major orchestras.

Many harpsichord makers desperately tried to vary the tone by changing the structures of

materials and increasing them by expanding its size. Another major disadvantage of the

harpsichord was its lack of ability to give the player control over the volume and intensity of

the notes. Many instrument makers began therefore to gradually return to the concept of the

“struck” strings, instead of plucking them. Unfortunately for the harpsichord, at the peak of

its development, it lost its favour to the piano – an irreplaceable instrument that from the 18th

century forward, would change the music world tremendously12.

Contrary to many musical instruments such as the violin, whose exact origins remain

unknown, detailed information has been registered about the invention of the piano13.

Already by the end of the 17th century, more specifically in 169814, the Italian instrument

maker Bartolomeo Cristofori (1655-1731) of Padua was working on a mechanism that would

revolutionize the keyboard instruments.

In 1688, Bartolomeo Cristofori was appointed to the Florentine court of Grand Prince

Ferdinando de Medici to care for his harpsichords and eventually for his entire collection of

musical instruments. He also worked as a constructor of harpsichords. The Italian inventor

was looking for a solution to the harpsichord’s major defect mentioned previously - the

inability of loudness variation, which strongly limited the capacity of expression. In 1709,

Cristofori constructed an improved instrument, namely a harpsichord with hammers. He

shaped this instrument in a similar way to the harpsichord and named it “Clavicembalo col
12
R. Lenoir, Notes pour une histoire sociale du piano, Actes de la Recherche en Sciences Sociales, Paris 1979,
p.80.
13
V. Mariz, História da música no Brasil, Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 2000, p. 28.
14
L. Henrique, Instrumentos..., op. cit., p. 398.

9
piano e forte”, which in Italian meant “Clavichord with piano (soft) and forte (loud)”. This

name, referring to the capacity of controlling the dynamics of sound, would eventually be

abbreviated in English into the word “piano”15.

Although the piano was initially only seen as an improvement of the clavichord, it

clearly possessed characteristics that could not be found in any of the earlier keyboard

instruments, allowing it to stand out as an original and unique instrument. Some of those

features included an escapement mechanism that enabled the hammer to fall away from the

string instantly after striking it, so as not to dampen the string, and allowing the string to be

struck harder than on a clavichord. Furthermore, a check was installed inside the piano which

kept the fast-moving hammer from bouncing back to re-hit the string. A dampening

mechanism was added on a jack to silence the string when not in use, giving the pianist a

possibility to create several variations in articulation. It also isolated the soundboard from the

tension-bearing parts of the case, so that it could vibrate more freely. Thicker strings were

also employed at higher tensions than on a harpsichord, giving the piano a unique sound.

Despite all these impressive innovations, or perhaps precisely because of them, the

piano did not receive acceptance among musicians immediately. It would take almost one

hundred years for the piano to fully take the stage and replace the popular harpsichord, and it

would still undergo significant modifications16.

The date commonly used for the first piano is 171117. Cristofori produced around

twenty of these instruments but then decided to end the production, due to little interest

among buyers. The turning point for this unfortunate beginning was a highly enthusiastic

article written by the well-known and respected Francesco Scipione, an Italian writer and art

critic. In this article, Scipione described with fascination the features of the new instrument

15
D. Grove, Dicionário de Música, Jorge Zahar Editora, Rio de Janeiro 1994, p. 720.
16
D. Grove, Dicionário..., op. cit., p. 745.
17
Ibidem, p. 749.

10
and how these should be regarded as great advantages for players18. It was published and sold

throughout Europe, causing craftsmen to focus their interest once again on the piano. One of

them was Johann Silbermann, a German initially specializing in organ-building. He upgraded

the piano by introducing a mechanism that would disconnect the damper in order to allow the

strings to sound out more. Musicians from all of Europe began to gradually show their

interest in this modified version – one of them was Johan Sebastian Bach, who would

approve of this instrument in 1747, even serving as an agent in selling Silbermann’s pianos19.

The following decades would bring nothing but a rapid and growing popularity of the piano.

Piano makers all over Europe began to establish their factories. Among the most notable ones

were Schidemayer from Germany established in 1735, Francisco Perez Mirabel in Spain

established in 1745, Johann Andreas Stein in Germany established in 1748, and Thomas

Gulliford in England established in 175020.

What made the piano production so exceptional was not only its complexity, but also

the unique relationship between a newly produced piano and its player, and the way the

piano’s evolution would go hand in hand with the needs of the greatest composers of those

times. An example of this is the piano built by the British piano manufactory called

Broadwood in 181721. It was given to Ludvig van Beethoven (1770-1827) as a gift. The

hearing of this great German composer began to deteriorate in his 20s, and by the last decade

of his life he was almost completely deaf. In 1811 he gave up conducting and performing in

public but continued to compose. As Beethoven grew progressively more deaf, he found

himself cut off from the world around him, but most of all from his own music. The piano

18
Ibidem, p. 750.
19
A. Dolge, Pianos and their makers: a comprehensive history of the development of the piano, Dover
publications, New York 1972, p. 213.
20
R. Ratcliffe, Steinway, Chronicle Books, San Francisco 1989, p. 62.
21
Ibidem, p. 65.

11
that Broadwood produced had three strings for each note in certain octaves and it was

generally stronger, making the sound of the instrument significantly louder.

Another example is the piano designed for Franz Liszt by the Érard piano factory. In

1821, Sébastien Érard invented the double escapement action, incorporating a “repetition

lever”, also called a balancier. This would permit a player to repeat a note even if the key had

not yet risen to its maximum vertical position, which greatly facilitated rapid playing of

repeated notes, a musical device that Liszt needed for his virtuosic and incredibly fast

pieces22. By the mid-19th century, the piano would look much more like the modern pianos

used in the 21st century, although it has never stopped undergoing further improvements.

The modern piano is the culmination of hundreds of years of evolution and

development. Great advances in acoustical physics and manufacturing technology have

resulted in an instrument that is not only highly engineered and sophisticated, but which also

creates a sound that makes the world call the piano “the king of all musical instruments”23.

1.2 The arrival of the piano in Brazil

The first keyboard instrument to arrive in Brazil was the harpsichord24. It was brought to

Bahia, a north-eastern state of Brazil, in the early 16th century by Jesuit missionaries. Given

that music is a universal language, the Jesuits would frequently use musical instruments as a

tool to approach the Brazilian indigenous people and to facilitate evangelization25. The piano

itself was not brought to Brazil until the beginning of the 19th century. The arrival of the

22
G. Pourtalès, La vie de Franz Liszt, Gallimard, Paris 1927, p. 147.
23
A. Dolge, Pianos..., op. cit., p. 256.
24
V. Mariz, História..., op. cit., p. 337.
25
D. P. Appleby, The Music of Brazil, The University of Texas Press, Austin 1983, p. 183.

12
piano was connected to a very important moment in Brazilian history – the transfer of the

Portuguese Court to Brazil in 1808.

On December 1st, 1807, the Napoleonic forces invaded the capital of Portugal. Predicting

that this would happen, the Braganza royal family along with Queen Maria I, John VI of

Portugal, and the court of nearly 15,000 people departed to Brazil only a couple of days

before Napoleon reached Lisbon26. The Royal court arrived in the city of Salvador, Bahia, on

January 22nd, 1808. The Royal family then continued their travel to Rio de Janeiro, where

they finally settled. This was the first time a colony became the home of its royal court. The

arrival of the royal family to Brazil affected the country enormously. It was the first step

towards Brazilian independence, which would occur only fourteen years later. The change

also caused the Brazilian ports to open for international trade.

The arrival of the Portuguese court did not only result in economic and political changes.

It also provoked a significant cultural change in the colony, especially Rio de Janeiro. It was

during this time that the introduction and the spread of classical music in Brazil took place.

The king that ruled Portugal at that time, John VI, was a music enthusiast27. While still

living in Portugal, the king would frequently attend concerts and events in the Royal Chapel.

Therefore, he also brought along many famous musicians28. Besides encouraging musicians

from Europe to come to Brazil, the king also ordered a construction of the Royal Theatre of

St. John in Rio de Janeiro. It was inaugurated in 181329.

A name that stood out in the classical music scene was Marcos Antônio Fonseca

Portugal30. With an Italian classical music education, Marcos Portugal composed various

26
P. Silva, História da fundação do império brasileiro, Garnier, Rio de Janeiro 1865, p. 98.
27
A. R. Suzel, „Introduction: Brazilian Musics, Brazilian Identities“, British Journal of Ethnomusicology, vol 9,
no. 1, 06.11.2000, p. 13.
28
D. P. Appleby, The Music..., op. cit., p. 203.
29
Ibidem, p. 16.
30
A. R. Suzel, Introduction..., op. cit., p. 15.

13
operas in a strictly European style, which was appreciated by the king John VI. The presence

of Segismund von Neukomm, an Austrian pianist and a student of Michael Haydn,

representative of Viennese classicism, is also noteworthy. He worked at the court of John VI

in Rio de Janeiro and spent his time in Brazil popularizing the works of Joseph Haydn and

Wolfgang Mozart.

It is clear that classical music, and thus also the piano, became much more present in

Brazil after the transfer of the Portuguese court. Not only was the piano becoming a very

popular instrument in the 19th century, but it was also a fundamental tool when studying or

composing music31. As mentioned in the previous section of this chapter, no other instrument

except for the organ is as rich as the piano in terms of number of notes. The piano has 88

keys. It is therefore possible to play the note of any other instrument on the piano.

Furthermore, the piano makes it significantly easier to visualize the notes, as each key is a

semitone higher/lower from the key next to it. This is not the case with most other

instruments32. On violins, for example, the sound changes depending on where the player

puts his or her finger. The intervals (the distance between two different notes) are thus not as

clearly seen on the violin as they are on the piano. This is also the case with wind

instruments, where the difference of each sound is sometimes only changed by the way in

which the player forms his or her lips. On such instruments, it is impossible to visualize the

intervals and notes. This is another reason why the piano is such a popular instrument33.

Hence, once the culture of classical music arrived in Brazil, the presence and the spread of

the piano was absolutely inevitable and fully predictable. What was not as predictable,

however, was how popular and influential this instrument would become shortly after its first

arrival in this part of the world.

31
R. Amato, Educação pianística: o rigor pedagógico dos conservatórios, Universidade Federal de Goiás,
Goiânia 2006, p. 76.
32
Ibidem, p. 78.
33
A. Dolge, Pianos..., op. cit., p. 261.

14
 The emergence and spread of the piano was so notable, that in 1836 an English botanist

George Gardner, while describing Rio de Janeiro in his book “Travels in the Interior of

Brazil” wrote;

"Music is very much cultivated here, and the piano… has now become almost

omnipresent "34.

Twenty years later, in 1856, a Brazilian writer, Manuel de Araújo, called Rio de Janeiro

“the city of pianos”35. Although he mainly talked about the upper classes of Brazil, one

should not ignore these observations, as they show how rapidly the piano was spreading in

the country.

As mentioned earlier, the piano was initially a very expensive instrument. Not only was

its production exceptionally time-consuming, but it was also particularly complex, which

meant that not many instrument-makers knew how to build it. Because of this, only the

wealthiest members of the society could afford to buy the piano. The exceptionality and

expensiveness of this instrument rapidly created a sense of social prestige around it. The

piano would sometimes be bought merely as a way to mark a high social status – a house

with a grand piano inside would frequently be perceived by guests as a sign of economic

wealth36.

34
G. Silva, A música dos pianistas de Salvador: sete compositores e suas práticas musicais, Universidade
Federal da Bahia, Salvador 2008, p. 23.
35
Ibidem, p. 24.
36
R. Amato, O Piano no Brasil: uma perspectiva histórico-sociológica, Universidade Federal de Goiás, Goiânia
2005, p. 3.

15
 The cost of buying a piano in Brazil was

very high. The buyer would not only have to

pay for the cost of producing the instrument,

but also for its expensive transport across the

sea. This is why at the very beginning of the

19th century the piano could only be found

Picture 3: Slaves in Brazil carrying a piano, François-Auguste among the richest members of
Biard (1858) http://naofoinogrito.blogspot.com/2015/04/116-nao-foi-
no-grito.html Brazilian society37. This created

a strong sense of prestige around the piano in Brazil – a phenomenon which, as shown later in

this paper, would become significant a couple of decades later.

Among the thousands of Europeans migrating to Brazil after the transfer of the

Portuguese court, there were also workers who brought with them the knowledge of the

production of musical instruments – including the piano. As a matter of fact, the Italian

historian Vincenzo Cernicchiaro mentions in his book “Storia Della Musica Nel Brasile”

(“History of Music in Brazil”) that already in 1810 there was an attempt to establish a piano

factory in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco38. Although it would still take many decades

for the country to establish its own piano factories of a quality comparable to the rest of the

world, the monopoly of piano manufacturers decreased consistently with every year.

An enormous change in prices on the international piano market occurred in the middle of

the 19th century. This was strongly related to the Industrial Revolution. Thousands of piano

factories around the world, which had mastered the art of building pianos, could suddenly,

with the help of machines, produce the instrument on a massive scale. By the very beginning

of the 19th century, piano manufacturers such as Erard (France) or Broadwood (England)
37
B. Kiefer, História da Música Brasileira: Dos Primórdios ao Início do Século XX, Movimento, Porto Alegre
1977, p.148.
38
V. Cernicchiaro , Storia della musica nel Brasile: dai tempi coloniali sino ai nostri giorni (1549-1925),
Fratelli Riccioni, Milan 1926, p. 53.

16
produced roughly 400 pianos per year. In 1850, this number would increase to an

approximate 2.500 pianos produced in the same amount of time. Right before the outbreak of

the First World War, more than 5.000 pianos were produced by the prestigious piano

factories such as Bechstein (Germany) and Steinway (the United States), and over 22.000

pianos were sold by the American company Kimball39. This phenomenal boom in the piano

industry was clearly noticeable for those who wanted to buy or sell a piano; in Brazil, at the

beginning of the 19th century, the price of a piano was equivalent to a decent one-year salary.

Fifty years later, the same instrument would cost the equivalent of a three-month salary40.

The commercialization of the piano had a tremendous impact on the pianistic culture in

Brazil. The instrument was now available not only among the wealthiest, but also to anyone

belonging to the middle class. This caused the piano to be significantly more popular and

almost omnipresent in the country. It was also around this time that the first great pianists

from Brazil began to rise to fame and gain recognition around the world.

The first noticeable pianists in Brazil were rarely of Brazilian origin. This was because

19th century Brazil was ruled by the white elite – that is, by those who had European roots or

had just recently arrived in Brazil from Europe. For many centuries, and in certain aspects

presently, European culture was perceived by the Brazilians as a more prestigious one41. This

phenomenon did not only derive from a mere admiration of European music. The roots of this

problem come from the historical context of the formation of Brazilian society.

Brazil has always been a country with huge contrasts between the rich and the poor.

Strong social hierarchies, divisions within the population, and inequalities have been the

foundation of building up Brazil, the remnants of which are also visible in the present time.

39
Ibidem, p. 61.
40
P. Silva, Uma historia do piano em São Luís do Maranhão, Universidade Federal do Maranhão, São Luís
2013, p. 108.
41
J. P. Murphy, Music in Brazil: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture, Oxford University Press, New York
2006, p. 92.

17
The country is infamous for its extreme inequality with a Gini index on income inequality of

51.9%42. Beginning first with the indigenous peoples and then with the African slaves, the

country has always been strongly divided into the privileged and the oppressed.43 When the

number of indigenous peoples inhabiting the coast decreased radically due to illnesses

brought by the Europeans and slavery the elites that ruled Brazil were in desperate need of a

cheap workforce. Their aim was to grow their economy by exploiting the newly discovered

land. Products such as sugar cane and cocoa were being cultivated on a massive scale, which

required a large amount of workers. Brazilian landowners started importing slaves from

Africa in the 16th century; this practice continued until Abolition in 188844.

Although it is impossible to give an accurate number of African slaves brought to

Brazil during this period, it is estimated to be between 3 to 5 million45. Given the fact that the

boom of Brazilian demographic growth did not begin until the 20th century, African slaves

automatically became the majority of the Brazilian population46. Most of the slaves were not

given any education nor the right to live independent lives. Extreme violence was common

among slave-owners47. Thus, for hundreds of years, first Africans, then Afro-Brazilians lived

in a reality where they had to face injustice, frustration, and discrimination on a daily basis.

Furthermore, the abolition of slavery did not occur in Brazil because the Brazilian

elites desired to end this brutal system - it was due to political pressure from other countries

that slavery in Brazil came to an end48. Hence, once slavery was abolished, the reality of

Afro-Brazilians did not change much. The divisions between the white and the black was

simply too deeply rooted in the Brazilian mentality. Afro-Brazilians were still by many

42
Y.Keller, Inequality and Economic Growth in Brazil, University of Zurich, Bern 2012, p. 8.
43
R. Amato, Educação..., op. cit., p. 81.
44
R. E. Conrad, World of Sorrow: The African Slave Trade to Brazil, Louisiana State University Press, New
York 1986, p. 179.
45
Ibidem, p. 182.
46
Ibidem, p. 185.
47
Ibidem, p. 186.
48
P. Silva, História..., op. cit., p. 103.

18
considered to be of less value49 and they suffered severe discrimination. This led to the

processes of marginalization – ex-slaves lived in poverty and with a deep sense of frustration

caused by social inequalities and discrimination.50 Until today, a sense of European

descendants’ superiority and their reluctance towards the Afro-Brazilian can still be sensed in

the Brazilian society.

The admiration for European values in Brazil was especially clear on a cultural level

and was very much reflected in the preference of architecture, art, lifestyle, and music. The

concerts, operas, and theatres would strictly stick to European patterns, considering them to

be those of highest quality. Music schools were run by musicians coming from Europe,

teaching only classical music from their continent51. Given the fact that the Brazilian upper

classes were unwilling to abandon the admiration for European culture, it became quite

natural that the most famous pianists were those born and/or educated in Europe. For many

decades, in order to become a successful pianist in Brazil, it was crucial to play like the

European pianists from overseas52. This system made it impossible to blend the classical

music present in Brazil with something new. There was no bridge that would connect the

two, distinct worlds – the local, Brazilian, and the European. Whenever African influences

were attempted to be incorporated into the music played in Brazil, the results would be

criticized and regarded as deterioration53. And this is precisely when the piano steps in.

As described previously, the piano had an air of prestige surrounding it because of its

sophisticated nature and the fact that it once used to be an extremely expensive instrument.

Even though the piano became significantly cheaper in the 19th century and was available to

the middle classes, it still kept its connotation of economic wealth and high status. Although

49
J. P. Murphy, Music..., op. cit., p. 101.
50
Ibidem, p. 101.
51
V. Santos, Educação musical, educação artística, arte-educação e música na escola básica no Brasil:
trajetórias de pensamento e prática, Editora Sulina, Porto Alegre 2011, p. 177.
52
Ibidem, p.180.
53
P. A. Swanson, Domination and Resistance in Afro – Brazilian Music, Oberlin College, Oberlin 2003, p. 70.

19
stereotypes and prejudice tend to cause negative effects, in this case one can without any

doubt say that the piano and the pianists benefitted from this generalization. Because of the

prestige and sophistication that surrounded this instrument and its players, the Brazilian elites

who sought for European ideals were keener on listening to music with clear local (for

example Afro-Brazilian) influences when executed on a piano54.

A clear example of this phenomenon is an event that took place in 1914. A Brazilian

pianist and composer Chiquinha Gonzaga, who will be described in detail in the second

chapter, was invited to play her compositions at the presidential palace in Rio de Janeiro.

Gonzaga was famous for her controversial style, mixing European classical music with

African rhythms, which was being looked down on by the upper classes, considering it to be

proof of poor quality. Needless to say, Gonzaga’s performance became a scandal at the time.

Strong criticism was put on the government, accusing the presidential family of the

promotion and dissemination of music whose origins were vulgar – something which was

absolutely contrary to the values of the aristocratic social elite. Playing Afro-European music

in the palace of the Brazilian government was regarded at the time as a violation of the status

quo, causing an outrage in the upper echelons of the society and among politicians55.

In times when European values and ideals still dominated Brazilian culture, and

where reluctance to Afro-Brazilian influences was very strong, the extraordinary and primary

role of the piano in the shaping of Brazilian music becomes visible. In fact, the first

documented example of an African-derived song that entered the European concert halls is a

piece written specifically for the piano, namely “O Amor Brasileiro – Caprice pour le

Pianoforte sur un Londú brèsilien (op.38)”56. It was written by Sigismund von Neukomm, a

renowned German pianist, who had been invited to Brazil to teach Brazilian pianists between

54
J. P. Murphy, Music..., op. cit., p. 110.
55
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha Gonzaga e o maxixe, Universidade Estadual Paulista, São Paulo 2009, p. 26.
56
J. S. Neto, Brazilian Piano Styles, Seattle Cornish College of the Arts, Seattle 2015, p. 8.

20
1816 and 182157. The piano in Brazil became, therefore, a bridge that connected two worlds

together, uniting African and European influences, reducing their mutual prejudice. However,

it was of course not only the instrument that contributed to this; what was also needed for the

assimilation to occur was pianists who would be willing to compose such music.

Prime examples of such figures are precisely Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto

Nazareth, on whom I focus in the next chapter, shedding light on these two extraordinary

musicians and showing how they, together with their favourite instrument, built the

fundamentals for contemporary Brazilian music.

57
Ibidem, p. 10.

21
 Chapter 2

The first Brazilian pianeiros: Chiquinha Gonzaga

and Ernesto Nazareth

The role of the Brazilian pianeiros was extremely important during the formation of

Brazilian music. The most important pianeiros were undoubtedly Chiquinha Gonzaga and

Ernesto Nazareth. These two, although very different from each other, together created what

would become the first Brazilian genre, the maxixe – or, as Nazareth preferred to call it - the

Brazilian tango.

2.1 Pianeiros

In the late 19th century, once the prices of pianos decreased and became accessible to

music enthusiasts from less privileged social classes, a new group of musicians entered the

music stage, namely the so called “pianeiros” - a term which arose in Brazil in the late 19th

century, referring to a specific group of musicians mainly performing in the city of Rio de

Janeiro who played the piano, usually by ear58. Unlike the pianists, pianeiros would mostly

perform in less formal events and their music was originally meant to be used more as a

background music for another, more prestigious event rather than a main attraction59.

Pianeiros mostly performed alone, because they were less expensive to hire than if they were

58
S. Lago, Arte do piano: compositores, obras e grandes intérpretes da música erudita, da arte popular
brasileira e do jazz, Editora Algol, São Paulo 2015, p. 142.
59
R. Robervaldo, Como é bom poder tocar um instrumento : presença dos pianeiros na cena urbana brasileira
- dos anos 50 do império aos 60 da república, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília 2012, p. 79.

22
playing with a whole band. They belonged to a group of artists that played to entertain

different environments with their repertoire mainly based on popular music. They tended to

be significantly more open towards the music heard in the streets, especially the African

rhythms60. They were particularly keen on performing popular music that would make the

audience dance and party all night long61. Because of this, pianeiros extended the reach of

popular music on a new level, bringing it to diverse social classes and incorporating popular

rhythms into the taste of the elites.

Apart from social events, pianeiros could also be seen in many other situations. For

instance, several stores selling sheet music (a handwritten or printed form of music notation)

needed someone who could play the songs for those who were interested in buying the score.

Pianeiros were frequently hired by the store owners to play the pieces. The presence of the

pianeiros was also very important i cinemas62. At that time, the movies were silent and did

not include any soundtrack. In order to enrich the cinematic experience, pianeiros were hired

to accompany the movement of the scenes in the silent films, giving them life. While doing

this, pianeros had to follow the scene, and represent it musically, relying merely on their

musical intuition and improvisation. Apart from playing music during the movies, pianeiros

were also hired to play before the start of the films, in order to provide music in the

background while the seats in the movie theatres were being taken. Some of the pianeiros

played so well, that the audience eventually began to arrive up to an hour before the movie

itself, just to listen to them playing63. This was mostly the case of Ernesto Nazareth and his

performances. Over time, a part of the audience would go to theatres not to watch the film,

but to listen to the presentation of the pianeiros, as they had become a separate and

sometimes, even the main attraction. This caused an increase in the amount of people coming

60
Ibidem, p. 81.
61
Ibidem, p. 83.
62
Ibidem, p. 88.
63
S. Lago, Arte..., op. cit., p. 101.

23
to the cinema, which was beneficial both to the cinema owners, whose businesses flourished,

and to the pianeiros, who thanks to this could rise to fame64. Playing in the cinemas was the

most common way for the pianeiros to gain recognition.

In order to understand the importance of pianeiros, it is enough to remember that

radios and recorders were still not commonly used in Brazil in the late 19th century65. The act

of listening to music depended therefore on the performance of local musicians. Pianeiros

founded and popularized Brazilian urban popular music, which until then had not existed due

to the fact that European and African music developed in Brazil separately for hundreds of

years. The pianeiros were responsible for the formation and fixation of new popular musical

genres; in this process, the piano played a fundamental role. The pianeiros aimed to bring to

the piano sounds that were picked up by them in the streets. The complexity of the piano

allowed the pianeiros to compose pieces that included influences from all the popular

instruments in Brazil such as the flute, the guitar, the cavaquinho, the bombardino and

percussion66.

Pianeiros applied a “reciprocity rule” between the popular and erudite genres, in a

way where the two styles influenced each other respectively. This phenomenon did not

enhance exaltation or mastery of one culture or genre over another, but it was rather a process

of deep integration. Before the pianeiros, the piano belonged exclusively to erudite music,

restricted to the elites. The presence of the pianeiros in places such as music stores or

cinemas incorporated the once closed culture of the piano into a more accessible, popular

environment. The pianeiros thus assumed the role of mediators; that is, they became a link

between erudite music and popular music, shaping anew Brazilian musical taste. Through

their specific approach to the piano and their innovative way of playing, they developed
64
Ibidem, p. 105.
65
R. Robervaldo, Como..., op. cit., p. 101.
66
B. Siqueira, Ernesto Nazareth na Música Brasileira, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro
1967, p. 72.

24
fundamental elements in the new music styles that would soon be considered an autonomous

Brazilian music genre67.

Although there were many pianeiros that rose to fame in the late 19th century and the

first half of the 20th century, Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth are until today

considered to be the queen and the king of them all68.

2.2 Chiquinha Gonzaga

Francisca Edwiges Neves Gonzaga, commonly also

known as Chiquinha Gonzaga, was born in Rio de Janeiro

on the 17th of October 184769. She died in the same city on

the 28th of February 1935 at the age of 87. She was a daughter of a rich field marshal, José

Basileu Neves Gonzaga, and a Mulatto woman named Rosa

Picture 4: Chiquinha Gonzaga
Maria70. Her mother was left to raise Gonzaga by herself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquinha_
Gonzaga#/media/File:Chiquinhagonzaga4
.jpg
during her first years. It was not until Chiquinha was

baptized that her father recognized his daughter71. In those times, it was common in Brazil for

girls to have an individual teacher, and this was also the case of Chiquinha Gonzaga – she

was taught writing, calculus, catechism ,and foreign languages72. She also received music

lessons by Maestro Lobo, who was considered to be one of the best music professors in Rio

de Janeiro at the time. From the very beginning, Gonzaga showed a great interest and

67
Ibidem, p.74.
68
Ibidem, p. 77.
69
M. Lira, Chiquinha Gonzaga: grande compositora popular brasileira, Funarte, Rio de Janeiro 1978, p. 44.
70
Ibidem, p. 45.
71
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 35.
72
A. C. Toledo, “Mulheres Compositoras no Brasil dos Séculos XIX e XX”, Revisa do Centro de Pesquisa e
Formação, Vol.2 No.3, 05.11.2016, p. 33.

25
enthusiasm for her music lessons73. Also, it was clear that Gonzaga was musically talented.

At only 11 years of age, in 1858, she composed her first piece. It was a Christmas song called

“A canção dos Pastores”74.

As a child, Gonzaga met with her music teacher on a daily basis. Apart from those

encounters, which certainly had a significant influence on her development, she also grew up

among her uncles who were professional musicians. One can hence see that Gonzaga had

strong encouragement and support in her musical career in her early years from the adults

surrounding her. This created a strong motivation and strength in her pursuit and passion for

music, which would later become crucial75.

When Gonzaga grew up, she was a very well-educated woman, speaking French and

Italian fluently, and known among her friends for aiming towards her professional

independence. This differentiated her from most other women in Brazilian society, who

would rather follow a strict patriarchal pattern, where daughters had to be obedient toward

their fathers, and then toward their husbands76. They were also expected to seek protection in

the man, and adapt their lives to his needs. However, this was not the style of life that

Gonzaga Gonzaga wanted to have. She would eventually be seen as a “female transgressor”

in Brazilian society77.

Gonzaga’s family, although having provided her with superior education, still

followed those traditional patterns of behaviour. To her father, it was clear that she would be

married to a well-situated man who would guarantee her a good economic and social position

in the society. And, until Gonzaga’s first marriage, the music in her life did not cause any

73
A. Diniz, Almanaque do Choro: a história do chorinho, o que ouvir, o que ler, onde curtir, Nova Fronteira,
Rio de Janeiro 2000, p. 342.
74
Ibidem, p. 351.
75
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 110.
76
J. P. Murphy, Music..., op. cit., p. 172.
77
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 129.

26
conflict between her and her family members. In fact, her father even gave her a piano as a

part of her dowry78.

Chiquinha Gonzaga was forced into marriage on the 5th of November 1863, being

only sixteen years old at the time. She made it clear to everyone that this was strongly against

her will79. However, since such early marriages were common at that time, her protests were

in vain. Gonzaga’s husband, Jacinto Ribeiro do Amaral, had inherited his father’s lands and

become a merchant navy official. It was a marriage marked by great tensions, and a true

emotional burden for Gonzaga. Already in 1866, Gonzaga was forced byAmaral, who was

said to be very jealous and obsessive, to go with him to the Paraguayan War. In order to do

this, Gonzaga had to live on a merchant ship, which the government had chartered to

transport arms, in complete isolation from the musical world, with no access to the piano. She

could not tolerate this situation, and eventually decided to leave the ship and her husband,

running away with their newborn son, João Gualberto80.

Shortly after leaving her husband, Gonzaga found out that she was pregnant again.

After this discovery, she decided to return to Jacinto for a brief period of time. Jacinto

Ribeiro’s dominant character was limiting Gonzaga’s development as a pianist. He wanted

his wife to be obedient and focus merely on the children and the housework, like so many

other women in their social environment did81. However, she turned out to have an

extraordinary temperament and independent behaviour.82 Finally she decided to fully devote

herself to the piano, being fully aware of the social consequences that this would bring upon

her. The disparities between Gonzaga and her husband led eventually to a dissolution of their

marriage in 1877. What was remarkable about this is that it was Gonzaga who sought for

78
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 18.
79
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 136.
80
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 37.
81
A. Loesser, Men, Women and Pianos: A Social History, Dover, New York 1990, p. 192.
82
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 148.

27
official separation. By doing so, she became one of the first women in the history of Brazil to

file for divorce83.

This act led to a conflict between Gonzaga and her family, as they would not accept

her decision. Her father considered this to be a dishonour and shame for the family.

Furthermore, after the divorce, Jacinto Ribeiro did not allow her to see her children. She only

managed to take her oldest son with her, João Gualberto, who had already lived with her

when she left Jacinto Ribeiro for the first time. In order to live her own life, she had to leave

her other two children; Maria do Patrocínio and Hilário. She attempted several times to

regain the custody over them, but her fight was in vain.84 Besides the traumatic separation

with her children, Gonzaga also suffered from painful social rejection for many years.

In 1867, Gonzaga married an engineer João Batista de Carvalho - her great love from

the past with whom she had had a relationship in her youth85. She became pregnant and gave

birth to her second daughter, Alice Maria. However, after many years of marriage, the couple

decided to separate, and Gonzaga lost a child once again, as João Batista did not allow her to

take care of their daughter.

At the age of 52, Chiquinha Gonzaga met João Batista Fernandes Lage, commonly

known as Joãozinho. At the time when they met, Joãozinho was only sixteen years old. They

both fell in love with each other and decided to live together. However, due to the fact that

there was 36 years of difference between the two, Joãozinho and Gonzaga had to hide their

relationship. By then, Gonzaga had become a famous pianist and such an affair would

provoke another scandal, making it impossible for her to continue with her successful

career86. In order to be able to live together, the couple decided to use adoption as a cover for

83
A. Loesser, Men..., op. cit., p. 205.
84
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 45.
85
A. Diniz, Almanaque..., op. cit., p. 397.
86
A. J. Mugnaini, A jovem Chiquinha Gonzaga, Editora Nova Alexandria, São Paulo, 2005, p. 281.

28
their relationship. Chiquinha Gonzaga adopted Joãozinho, and they lived together inseparably

until her death. Their relationship remained secret until many years after Gonzaga’s death,

when intimate letters between the two were discovered87.

As mentioned previously, the social context in which Gonzaga started her career was

definitely not easy for a woman. Women in 19th century Brazil were not even allowed to

leave the house without a man accompanying them88. Nevertheless, Gonzaga was not

discouraged - as a single mother, she began to work fulltime as a pianist and a piano teacher.

She would also be asked to play at parties and dance events, taking the role of a pianeiro.

With time, Gonzaga and her music became essential components of the cultural life in Rio de

Janeiro, and she became respected for her independence.

Chiquinha Gonzaga wrote and played popular urban music. As a pianist, she would

interpret several concert repertoires, and perform classical piano works by various

composers. These multiple and diverse influences became visible in the pieces that she

eventually composed, devoting herself to the creation of a unique genre, namely the maxixe.

Chiquinha Gonzaga is considered to be the mother of this genre89.

Before creating her own style, Gonzaga had had the possibility to try several different

genres. As a child she grew up studying the strict patterns of classical music. As a grown-up

musician, she performed frequently in public places and socialized with all sorts of

musicians, taking inspiration from them all. As a daughter of a Mulatto woman, she also

enjoyed being inspired by the Afro-Brazilian culture that was very strong in cities such as Rio

de Janeiro. Unlike many elites of European origin, Gonzaga strongly sympathized with Afro-

Brazilian culture and did not look down on the black population of Brazil. She also engaged

87
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 177.
88
A. J. Mugnaini, A jovem..., op. cit., p. 179.
89
A. R. Suzel, Introduction..., op. cit., p. 56.

29
in politics, fighting for the abolition of slavery, and equal human rights90. Thus, although

Gonzaga enjoyed the European classical music she grew up with, she was also open to

inspiration coming from the Afro-Brazilians and their African rhythms.

The assimilation of traditional music and the practice of popular urban music was an

important source of inspiration for the crystallization of maxixe, Gonzaga’s individual style

and technique. Her compositional work was very extensive and diverse. Gonzaga soon

became a musician who had the qualities of being a mediator between the two worlds present

in Brazil - the highest social classes, and the lowest ones. Through her versatility as a

composer, Gonzaga promoted a unity of these two very different worlds in her music.

Although one should not look at an artist and his or her music through the prism of

their private life, it is clear that Chiquinha Gonzaga was an exceptional case, especially when

taking into consideration the reality of Brazilian society in the 19th century. The biography of

Gonzaga shows many incompatibilities with the period in which she lived. She had to face

strong prejudices, and her pursuit of freedom was perceived by many as scandalous. She had

to overcome many obstacles as a woman, an artist, a Mulatto, a mother who filed for divorce

and who relied merely on an instrument to support herself and her son. Chiquinha Gonzaga’s

life shows not only her courage, but also desperation and perseverance in following her

biggest passion, which was music91, and creating completely new ways of making and

performing it. Besides being an exceptional pianist schooled by classical musicians, Gonzaga

eventually devoted herself fully to composition and, by doing so, she became the pioneer and

creator of maxixe – an innovative musical genre in Brazil, one of its main national music

styles92.

90
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 171.
91
Ibidem, 172.
92
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 52.

30
2.3 Ernesto Nazareth

Ernesto Júlio de Nazareth was born in Rio de

Janeiro on the 20th of March, 186393. He had four

siblings, out of which the youngest died at the age of

three. Vasco Nazareth, Ernesto Nazareth’s father, was

a custom broker working at the port of Rio de Janeiro.

He came from a simple family. His first piano teacher

was his mother, and she continued to be his teacher

Picture 5: Ernesto Nazareth until her death, when Ernesto was only ten years
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiquinha_Go
nzaga#/media/File:Chiquinhagonzaga4.jpg
old94. After his mother’s death, Nazareth became the

student of Eduardo Rodolpho de Andrade Madeira, a friend of the family, and later he was

taught by Charles Lucien Lambert, a renowned piano teacher from New Orleans living in Rio

de Janeiro. When Ernesto became older, he stopped having piano lessons but continued

playing. At the age of thirteen, he suffered a concussion when falling off a tree. This would

eventually bring him a series of auditory problems that over the years led to an almost

complete deafness95.

At the beginning of the 1860s, his family moved into a house located in the Nheco

district, “Morro do Nheco”, between the neighbourhoods of Santo Cristo and Cidade Nova,

where Ernesto Nazareth was born96. The information about which district the composer spent

his childhood in is relevant, because one can understand better the environment in which he

grew up. The area of Cidade Nova arose around 1860, after a grounding of old marshes

93
C. Machado, O enigma do homem célebre: ambição e vocação de Ernesto Nazareth, Instituto Moreira Salles,
São Paulo 2000, p. 19.
94
Ibidem, p. 20.
95
Ibidem, p. 22.
96
Ibidem, p. 24.

31
neighbouring the channel of the mangrove. When Nazareth was born, there were not many

houses in this area, but a decade later it became one of the most populous neighbourhoods in

the city. This region was largely inhabited by Brazilians of African descent - either recently

freed slaves, or people still working as slaves at sawmills and different constructions. There

were also many Mulattoes who lived in Cidade Nova, as well as poor Portuguese who lived

there, finding reprieve in low rental prices97.

José Ramos Tinhorão, a renowned musicologist, described the environment in which

the composer grew up in between 1863 to 1873 as a promiscuous place, and a place with

characteristics that, according to him, explain the innovative rhythms in Ernesto’s future

compositions:

“The promiscuity which resulted from Cidade Nova would twenty years later explain

the appearance of a very differentiated area in Rio de Janeiro, with characteristics of social

behaviour and culture completely of its own. This was reflected in Ernesto Nazareth’s music

that was nothing but original.98”

Another Brazilian musicologist, Rosa Ribeiro, shows us in more detail the

promiscuity resulting from this region and refers to the “music that was nothing but original”

that Tinhorão previously described:

“This new music genre was connected, from the very beginning, to something vulgar

and of little value. It had direct links to Cidade Nova - a place which in the late 19th century

was the neighbourhood of Rio de Janeiro with the largest number of inhabitants, and also the

one that had the worst reputation. It is not surprising that the genre was associated with the

97
J. R. Tinhorão, História social da música popular brasileira, Editora, São Paulo 1998, p. 164.
98
Ibidem, p. 166.

32
poor, blacks, bohemians, and people of bad reputation in general, despite constantly seducing

with a different, original style considered to be unacceptable at the time.”99

At the age of fourteen, Nazareth composed his first song, a polka-lundu called “Você

bem sabe”, edited the following year by the famous pianist Arthur Napoleão. In 1879, he

wrote the polka “Cruz, perigo!!” One year later, at the age of 17, he played his first public

concert. The following year, Ernesto composed the piece “Não caio no outro!” It was his first

great success, and the song was reissued several times. It was around this time that he became

famous not only for his pianistic skills, but also for creating something new - uniting African

rhythms with the European music. He soon became called “the father of the Brazilian tango”.

In the 1880s, Nazareth began performing actively. He played many concerts,

including a performance for the royal family. In 1893, Casa Vieira Machado released one of

his compositions called “Brejeiro”, with which he achieved international success, with his

scores published in Paris and the United States in 1914100. In 1908, he began working as a

pianist at the “House of Mozart” in Rio de Janeiro, a place famous for its concerts and

recitals. The following year, he participated in a recital at the National Institute of Music,

interpreting the gavotte “Corbeille de fleurs”101. In 1919, he began working as a pianeiro at a

store with music scores, where he performed the songs, whose scores were to be sold.

Unlike Chiquinha Gonzaga, Ernesto Nazareth would mostly appear in more formal

events, such as balls and ceremonies, but he would also frequently perform at cinemas and

various social meetings. From 1909 to 1913, and from 1917 to 1918, he worked in the

waiting room of the cinema “Odeon”, where many distinguished people went just to listen to

him. It was in honour of this famous showroom that Nazareth named his most famous

composition, the tango “Odeon”. In the same cinema, he became acquainted with the famous

99
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p.79.
100
C. Machado, O enigma..., op. cit., p. 87.
101
Ibidem, p. 90.

33
composer Darius Milhaud. After having met Nazareth, Milhaud said:

“His fluency in playing, disconcerting and sad, helped me to better understand the

Brazilian soul”102.

In 1922, Nazareth was invited by the Brazilian composer Luciano Gallet to perform at

a recital at the National Institute of Music of Rio de Janeiro, where he played his famous

pieces “Brejeiro”, “Nenê”, “Bambino”, and “Turuna”. In 1926, he began his first tour, which

was initially planned to last three months but ended up extending for 11 months, with

concerts in cities such as Rio de Janeiro, Campinas, Sorocaba and Tatuí. He was 63 years old

at the time, and it was the first time he had ever left the state of Rio de Janeiro. He was

honoured by the Artistic Culture of São Paulo and played at the Conservatory of Drama and

Music of Campinas. He was also presented at the Municipal Theater of São Paulo, preceded

by a lecture by the professor Fernando de Azevedo. During his speech, Fernando de Azevedo

said:

“By all these characters and excellences, the rhythmic richness, the lack of vocals and

the piano skills very difficult to execute, the works of Ernesto Nazareth significantly stand

out from any other music. His style should be in the repertoire of our future recitalists. I can

assure you that I am not making any sentimental statements. It is the unscrupulous conviction

of one who has long observed his work. If ever prolixity reaches the Brazilian tangos, one

should always remember the magnitude of the compositions by this Brazilian master and his

masterful creations, in which the concise force, the sweetness of the melodic invention, and

the expressive quality are dignified by a perfection of surprising form and balance.103”

Ernesto Nazareth was one of the first artists to play at the “Radio Sociedade” (a radio

station in Rio de Janeiro existing until today under the name “Radio MEC of Rio de

102
A. R. Marques, Interpretações da música de Ernesto Nazareth: pianistas, pianeiros e os chorões,
Universidade Estadual Paulista, São Paulo 2017, p. 33.
103
B. Itiberê, “Ernesto Nazaré na Música Brasileira”, Boletim Latino-Americano de Música, vol.6 no. 2,
27.04.1946, p.361.

34
Janeiro”). In 1930, old and sick, he completed his last composition, a waltz called

“Resignação”. In the same year, he recorded the polka “Apanhei-te, cavaquinho” and the

Brazilian tangos: “Escovado”, “Turuna” and “Nenê”, which all became a big successes. In

1932, he presented a solo recital at a concert preceded by a conference of Gastão Penalva.

That same year, he toured in the south of the country despite his age and a worsening health

condition. In 1933 he was hospitalized due to his poor health. On February 1st, 1934,

Nazareth fled from the hospital. His body was found three days later in a state of

decomposition, floating in the waters of a dam. It was not possible to determine the cause of

his death. He was buried in Rio de Janeiro, close to the place where he was born104.

2.4 Differences between Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth

When reading about Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth one soon realizes that

there is a tendency to put these two composers into one category, considering their music to

be very similar.

This is, of course, to a certain extent true. They both put African and European music

styles into one, and they both influenced the shaping of Brazilian genres that came after them.

Also, they were both outstanding pianists. They cultivated the culture of an instrument that

until then had belonged only to the elegant salons of the Brazilian elites rather than to the

environments frequented by people from more modest social classes105. The generalization of

putting them together becomes even easier when considering the fact that they both lived and

composed in the same city and during the same period.

104
M. Verzoni, Chiquinha Gonzaga e Ernesto Nazareth: duas mentalidades e dois percursos, Funarte, Rio de
Janeiro 1997, p. 11.
105
Ibidem, p. 11.

35
 However, despite all these similarities, there were also many significant differences

between Gonzaga and Nazareth. Although crystalizing in the same type of music, they did so

with two completely different approaches and mentalities.

Chiquinha Gonzaga’s music and her performances were more popular. She enjoyed

playing at social events, where her music was not necessarily the main attraction106. She often

played at dancing parties. She also wrote several pieces for the theatre, where her music was

played in the background rather than taking the form of a concert. Ernesto Nazareth, on the

other hand, had a completely different approach. Although he also provided background

music with his playing when working as a pianeiro, he did not like it107 - he did it in need of

earning money. Once he became a renowned pianist and had the freedom to choose where he

would perform, he always gave performances that had all the characteristics of a formal

concert108. Nazareth also did not want his compositions to be danced to - he wanted to be

intently “listened to”. If he saw that the audience was not listening or paying enough attention

to his music, he would simply stop playing109.

Despite his openness to African rhythms, Ernesto Nazareth never stopped admiring

European music. Throughout his whole life, Nazareth looked up to the compositions of

Chopin110, and apart from writing his Brazilian tangos, he also wrote many nocturnes and

waltzes, in which the influences of Chopin are very clear. An example of this is the piece “O

coração que sente” or “Pássaros em festa”. “Pássaros em festa” even begins with exactly the

same melody that the famous prelude of Chopin in D-Flat Major, Prelude Op 28, No. 15, only

in a different key. Nazareth had a dream of studying classical music in Europe, and as a

106
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 127.
107
M. Verzoni, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 12.
108
B. Itiberê, Ernesto..., op. cit., p. 35.
109
Ibidem, p. 39.
110
Ibidem, p. 39.

36
teenager he even attempted several times to do so, but was limited by the financial situation

of his family111.

Chiquinha Gonzaga, on the other hand, did not share the same fascination for the

European style. Although she was taught by great classical pianists, at that time when the

majority of Brazilian pianists wished to become concert pianists (which was the case of

Nazareth) and sought education in Europe, Gonzaga never did.Although she travelled three

times to Europe, visiting countries such as Portugal, Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Belgium,

England, and Scotland, she never tried to enroll at any academy, or get a long-term European

music education112.

The pieces written by Nazareth and Gonzaga, although both considered maxixe, are

also filled with differences. Gonzaga’s pieces are usually simple. The harmony is not very

complex, and the melody is in the right hand. Although it can at times be very fast, is not very

difficult to play. Her works are in general technically much simpler, and can be learned

quicker. Nazareth’s pieces, however, require a much more experienced pianist, and they are

often of virtuosic nature.

Gonzaga would also mostly compose in simple tonalities, such as G-major or a-minor,

whereas for Nazareth it was not rare to compose in keys such as E-flat major or G-sharp

minor113. In addition, Gonzaga sometimes wrote her pieces for other instruments, such as the

guitar or the flute. Nazareth, on the other hand, always wrote his pieces for the piano only.

Apart from music, the two composers also shared different political views114.

Chiquinha Gonzaga was an activist, very much engaged in women’s rights and abolition of

111
A. A. Pinto, “Ernesto Nazareth/Flagrantes”. Revista Brasileira de Música, vol.2 no.6, 17.06.1963, p. 41.
112
D. Lazaroni, Chiquinha Gonzaga: sofri e chorei, tive muito amor, Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro 1999, p.
50.
113
M. Verzoni, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 14.
114
Ibidem, p. 14.

37
slavery. She even saved all her money for several months just to set a slave flutist called Zé

Flatua free115.

Chiquinha Gonzaga also used her music for political influence - once the lyrics

entered the maxixe, they became a very important part of it, allowing the songs to have verses

with a double meaning. They would sometimes also consist of slang or curse words, which

gave more life to the theatrical pieces and amused the audience, passing along her political

views116.

Nazareth, on the other hand, was not very engaged in politics, and was considered to

be quite conservative117. Whereas Gonzaga spent her energy on trying to change Brazilian

reality, Nazareth mainly focused on developing his pianistic virtuosity. As the Brazilian

musicologist Marcelo Verzoni put it:

“Chiquinha Gonzaga wanted to change the society in which she lived in. Ernesto

Nazareth wanted to ascend in that same society.”118

These political differences may be an explanation to a very curious case; namely the

fact that there is no historical record of these two composers ever actually meeting each other.

This is particularly interesting due to the fact that, as mentioned previously, they were both

very famous, lived in the same place and at the same time, and even shared the same friends,

such as the musicians Joaquim Callado Jr. and Henrique Alves de Mesquita. Both Gonzaga

and Nazareth would dedicate many of their works to other musicians, but they never

dedicated any of their songs to each another119.

115
D. Lazaroni, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 56.
116
Ibidem, p. 58.
117
M. Verzoni, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 13.
118
Ibidem, p. 14.
119
M. Verzoni, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 13.

38
 The two composers differed therefore greatly, both personality-wise and musically-

wise. Gonzaga came from a rich family and had all the possibilities to become a classical

pianist, but chose to be a popular pianeira by composing simple, yet admirable and original

music. Nazareth came from a poor family and never managed to fulfil his dream to become a

concert pianist like his European idols120.

This is how the Brazilian journalist Gastão Penalva describes the two composers:

“There are two musicians from the 20th century in Brazil that deserve, above all, our

attention and consecration: Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth. They are the most

representative musicians of a purely Brazilian art. They never wrote a single piece that would

come from a foreign soul, or something they could not relate to. Everything they wrote was a

reflection of themselves and the land they lived in. They have described our land and our

people in the delicate content of characteristic compositions which have never had the

intention to imitate. Both passed away one after the another, leaving behind them a country

with its own musical identity.121”

Despite these differences, one cannot deny the bond between their music, and the

fascinating fact that despite all the disparities, they became the mother and the father of the

first originally Brazilian genre.

120
C. Machado, O enigma..., op. cit., p. 88.
121
M. Verzoni, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 14.

39
 Chapter 3

Maxixe: Creation of the first Brazilian music genre

Maxixe was the first true Brazilian music genre122. It crystalized at the end of the 19th

century, but did not become internationally famous until the early 1910s. This is because the

process of shaping the maxixe was long and difficult, as it had to fight against strong

resistance caused by prejudice and racism. The main reason was the fact that maxixe,

although influenced by European genres, had also strong African influences in it. Because of

the social context in Brazil, with a clear prejudice against African culture, the piano played a

key role in the creation of maxixe. Due to the fact that maxixe was written by pianists, and

for the piano, the genre was eventually accepted by all social classes in Brazil. The maxixe

was created by means of a complex mixture of different music styles – mainly the African

lundu, Cuban habanera, and the European polka. This required a complex instrument that

could capture all these influences, and put them into one. The piano turned out to be the

perfect one.

3.1 Maxixe

Together with the process of colonizing Brazil, many European instruments were

being brought to Brazil. Since Brazil was a colony of Portugal, most of the instruments came

from the Iberian peninsula123. Nevertheless, the music in Brazil was formed through a

complex mixture of several musical elements and foreign influences, not only the European

122
J. Efegê, Maxixe - a dança excomungada, Conquista, Rio de Janeiro 1974, p. 12.
123
L. V. Freitag, Momentos de Música Brasileira, Nobel, São Paulo 1985, p. 271.

40
ones. It also was influenced by African slaves, who brought to Brazil their songs that were

filled with captivating rhythms, and the Hispanic-African dances and beats coming from the

Caribbean124. Due to this enormous blend of very different cultures in one place, for centuries

it was difficult to talk about an authentic, original Brazilian music.

As many other genres during this period, maxixe arose first as a dance. It is important

to stress that dancing is deeply rooted in Brazilian culture. Brazilian folklore is filled with a

variety of dance forms related to many aspects of life, such as religion, legends, historic

events, festivities, and children’s games125. Cultural traditions of the various regions in Brazil

are represented by different dance forms, which show the diversity and multiculturalism of

this country, while keeping constant the basic ingredients which best depict the Brazilian soul

- its connection to dancing and to rhythm. In a country like Brazil, where dancing is so

strongly incorporated into the culture, it naturally ended up having a strong influence on the

development of the country’s music as well126. The maxixe is a clear example of this.

Maxixe as an urban dance appeared in Rio de Janeiro in the 70s and the 80s of the

19th century, especially in regions of Cidade Nova and Lapa. Maxixe would eventually

become a part of carnival clubs and theatres. This is also where it gained its main popularity.

But before it finally happened, the reaction against the maxixe was so strong, that the most

conservative people in Brazil attempted to banish it from public places, insisting that the

police should close the dance halls in which maxixe was performed127. The maxixe was seen

by the elite as the main cause for the decline of the Brazilian “higher” culture, dragging it

away from proper European models and values. What mainly caused such a strong

indignation with the maxixe was its erotic choreography. The man would hold the woman in

124
Ibidem, p. 291.
125
M. T. Gondim, The choro and the maxixe in the piano works of maria de Lourdes Gondim, University of
Alabama, Tuscaloosa 2011, p. 99.
126
Ibidem, p. 107.
127
J. Efegê, Maxixe..., op. cit., p. 175.

41
a very close embrace, with both bodies tightly pressed against each other, cheeks or foreheads

together, and with his hands placed on the woman’s buttocks. The footwork was intertwined

and fast with sensual body movements that would also include a rippling turn of the partners’

hips128. Maxixe represented, thus, a much freer way of dancing than any of the other genres at

the time. The dances that were popular in the salons back then were the polka and mazurka,

strictly bound to European culture and values. In comparison to the maxixe, those dances

were considered very stiff and did not enhance the same physical proximity, which is also

why Europeans coming to Brazil found the dance of maxixe very difficult to accept.

The term “maxixe”

It is not quite clear where the term “maxixe” came from. There are two main theories

that explain the origins of this term. One of them says that the word came from the name of a

plant. As a matter of fact, maxixe is also the name of a very common vegetable in Brazil. The

physical appearance of the plant maxixe is very similar to the one of a cucumber, and it is

also very easy to cultivate. Due to the fact that in its interior it has many seeds grouped

closely together, it resembled the dance, especially among the groups of Afro-Brazilians, who

performed with many dancing couples in a small area, and provocatively close to their

dancing partners129. Another theory is given by the Brazilian poet and musicologist Mário de

Andrade. According to him, one of the dancers of a carnival society in Rio de Janeiro,

“Students of Heidelberg’, danced in such an inviting and intriguing way, that it soon began to

be imitated by everyone. The nickname of this dancer was Maxixe, and so eventually the

128
Ibidem, p. 176.
129
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 111.

42
dance got the same name. However, without wishing to ignore Andrade’s theory, the

historian Jota Efegê explains:

“There were many dancers in Rio bearing the nickname Maxixe at the time, which is

why it very possible that someone under this name began to popularize this dance. However,

it is difficult to talk about only one man when speaking of such a broad term as the maxixe,

and one should be even more careful when considering it a historical fact”130.

Nevertheless, what these two theories agree on is that maxixe originally came in the

form of a dance and the term was initially so intimately connected with its origins, that

merely by mentioning the name, it was immediately related to its bad reputation. For this

reason, at the beginning, the maxixe was danced in clandestine places. However, despite all

the disgust and indignation that maxixe provoked among those who followed European

culture, the history of Brazil’s music has shown us that there was also a strong admiration for

this erotic dance and rising music genre. This admiration is described by an English traveler

in 1830:

“When hearing a big drum and fiddle in the street outside, people hurried to their verandas

and windows to regale themselves with a sight of the lascivious and even frantic lundu,

danced by a negro and negress, whose very gestures and looks would to more delicate people

serve only to create the utmost sensations of disgust; but the Portuguese are themselves so

fond of this dance, under certain decent modifications, that they never fail to contemplate it

with pleasure, even when carried to extremes by its original inventors”131.

In the end, it is not only the musician that creates the cult of a music genre, but mainly

the audience. Had the maxixe been criticized completely by the majority of the white elite, it

would never have gained the popularity that it eventually did.

130
J. Efegê, Maxixe..., op. cit., p. 126.
131
L. E. Costa, Brazil in the time of the Viceroys, Hutchinson & Co, London 1936, p. 59.

43
 As time went by and the maxixe became more famous, it expanded to other locations

and social classes, until it became so popular that there was no one who would not know what

the maxixe was, or had at least heard about it. Moreover, the name maxixe became so

popular, that it eventually began to be used to describe anything that was new or

provocative132 or - low or inferior. The name became therefore not only a term, but also an

adjective to show depreciation133.

This prejudice is also the reason why the term “maxixe” and “Brazilian tango” are

often confused, whereas in fact they are both extremely close. The negative connotations of

the term maxixe made it significantly more difficult to sell music scores under this name. In

several scores, even though the music was a clear maxixe, it would often be camouflaged.

Publishers or even the composers themselves, including Ernesto Nazareth and Chiquinha

Gonzaga, would refer to their pieces as to polkas, dobrados, choros, sambas, but rarely

maxixe. This was especially the case of Ernesto Nazareth, who is considered the king of the

Brazilian tango, but not as often mentioned when speaking of maxixe, which is a big

misconception that this paper aims to uncover.

The term “Brazilian tango” gained its specification after 1914, when the Argentine

tango got released in Paris. The Argentine tango became so popular, that in order to

differentiate it from the tango from Buenos Aires, Brazilian composers would publish their

scores with the term “Brazilian tango”134. Maxixe eventually made its way into the saloons

and concert stages, but in a tamed version. This fusion was made possible by playing maxixe

music on the piano. It soon spread to the rest of the country, and by the beginning of the 20th

century, it became the most important urban popular music and dance of Rio de Janeiro135.

Furthermore, maxixe soon gained international recognition. Around 1910, it was brought to
132
Ibidem, p. 126.
133
Ibidem, p. 127.
134
J. Efegê, Maxixe..., op. cit., p. 152.
135
B. Kiefer, História..., op. cit., p. 161.

44
France, due to the fact that by the turn of the century, it was very common for wealthy

families in Brazil to send their children to study in France. Parisians would show a big

interest in this exotic and sensual aspects of the Brazilian culture. During the first decade of

the 20th century, the maxixe was established in Paris, and it even appeared in vaudeville acts,

films, and later also in French television. Apart from Europe, there are also historical records

of the maxixe present in the United States somewhere around 1914136.

It is important to stress that the process of accepting African culture into the salons

relied significantly on the piano. When looking at the history of Brazilian music, it becomes

clear that all the early forms of maxixe were written for the piano. Without this instrument,

highly respected among the upper classes, the African rhythms would probably have

continued to be played only in the streets and considered a simple music of less value. Thus,

the piano helped not only form the maxixe, but also speed up the process of opening up the

society for this new music genre. The piano made it possible for the maxixe to be let into the

theatres, salons and concert halls not only within Brazil, but also across the ocean137.

Afro-Brazilian influences on the maxixe

For the genre of maxixe, the Afro-Brazilian factor was of fundamental importance.

This has also clearly been stressed by Marcio Andrade:

“The Portuguese shaped our harmonic tonality; they gave us the strophic quadrature; the beat

of the 2/4 measure that we then altered by blending it with the syncopation brought by the

Africans ... The African influences also played an important role in the formation of

136
Ibidem, p. 164.
137
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 122.

45
contemporary popular Brazilian music. It was certainly with this musical fusion that our

rhythm reached the diversity it has today, one of our musical wealth and our pride.138”

In African music, the most emphasized factor was the rhythm, leaving the importance

of the melody in the background. That is, the structure of the melodies themselves were

usually simple, with small intervals between the notes139. When it comes to the nature of

melodies, music of black people succumbed to the dominant European melodic influences, as

the melody in popular Brazilian music had been more influenced by the European style. But

the submission was only partial - although the simplicity of African melodies did not quite

make their way through into Brazilian music, the strong rhythms definitely did. A clear

example of this are the omnipresent syncopations in Brazilian music. This African

syncopation was too catchy to be ignored by any ear, no matter the social status. Although

usually softened and made more delicate, these upbeats eventually became a symbol of the

Brazilian rhythm140.

Furthermore, the upper class of Brazil gladly consumed music, but rarely produced its

own, original genres – whether they were playing a piece that was written by someone else,

or when composing their own music. The occupation of a musician at that time meant to

imitate in the best possible way the European style141. Because of this mentality, the shaping

of something new and Brazilian was largely left to those who were open to both the European

and African ingredients. Due to the fact that most respected and renowned composers at that

time were of European origin and had little interest or no interaction at all with African

music, composers such as Chiquinha Gonzaga or Ernesto Nazareth played a crucial and

pioneer role - the use of syncopation by the Afro-Brazilians rhythmically destabilized the

musical structures brought to Brazil from Europe. In fact, syncopation has become such a big
138
M. Andrade, “Originalidade do maxixe”, Illustração Musical, Vol.1 No. 2, 07.08.1930, p.45.
139
G. Guerreiro, A trama dos tambores: a música afro-pop de Salvador, Ltda, Salvador 2000, p. 84.
140
Ibidem, p. 85.
141
J. P. Murphy, Music..., op. cit., p. 154.

46
part of Brazilian music, that it is impossible not to mention it when speaking of the formation

of Brazilian music genres.

In music, syncopation is the shifting of a backbeat, or a displacement of it. It plays

with our expectation of where the beat should occur, and brings playfulness and excitement

to the music. It is a rhythmic device used to break away from the mechanical and

monotonous sound that can occur when every note falls on the expected beat142. A

syncopated note can either fall directly before or behind the beat. In order to syncopate a

rhythm, a chord can be played on the upbeat, directly preceding the previous chord. The

upbeat is an unaccented beat, or one that does not occur on the stronger quarter note beats. It

occurs in between the quarter notes. Syncopation slips the beat ahead or behind where the

listener expects it to be, and, as a result, helps to loosen up the music. The effectiveness of

syncopation relies on the familiarity and the expectations of a specific rhythm143.

The syncopation, very much present in the Afro-Brazilian genres such as the lundu,

eventually became a fundamental base of the shaping of Brazilian music144. However, it was

not entirely an African musical invention. Europeans, especially the Portuguese, were

familiar with syncope as well. But their syncopation differed from the African one; Africans

used it in their fundamental rhythm-patterns, whereas Europeans in the melodies, to give a

delicate diversity to it145. The fusion of these two approaches to syncopation gave a

fascinating result, as commented by the sociologist Muniz Sodré;

142
J. H. Rodrigues, ”The influence of Africa on Brazil and of Brazil on Africa”, Journal of African History,
03.01.1962, p. 56.
143
R. Ribeiro, A alma africana no Brasil: Os Iorubas, Editora Oduduwa, Salvador 1981, p. 261.
144
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 140.
145
L. N. Crook, Brazilian Music: Northeastern Traditions and the Heartbeat of a Modern Nation, University of
Indiana, Indianapolis 2005, p. 108.

47
 “While the melody was more important and significant in Europe, in Africa the

crucial factor was the rhythmic one. Brazilian syncopation is therefore both rhythmic and

melodic.146”

A classic example of a syncope in the Brazilian music from the 19th century, used

widely in the maxixe, is the following figure; .Here we see a sixteenth note,

an eighth note and once again a sixteenth note next to each other. This combination is

referred to by Mário de Andrade as “the characteristic syncope”147. Both Chiquinha Gonzaga

and Ernesto Nazareth used this combination on a regular basis in their compositions, as we

will see further on in this paper.

The process of incorporating syncope was very important in the formation of

Brazilian music. It introduced the valorization of backbeats, thus offering a great wealth of

possibilities when it comes to playing around with the rhythm, displacing the beats, delays,

creating anticipation, and upbeats. The most common compass formula is the simple duple

time measure, 2/4, that has two quarter notes as their main unit and which subsequently

suggests a subdivision into eight eighth-notes:

In the pursuit of adding a rhythmic variety into the music, the backbeats of the

sixteenth notes got more valued, generating displaced accents148:

146
M. Sodré, Samba, o dono do corpo, Mauad, Rio de Janeiro 1998. p.25.
147
L. N. Crook, Brazilian..., op. cit., p. 122.
148
Ibidem, p. 124.

48
 Nevertheless, the first notes in each measure tend to have a greater emphasis, which is

also an aspect that remained in Brazilian music genres, creating the following rhythm shown

below:

This rhythmic pattern eventually got modified and changed into a combination of a

sixteenth note, an eighth note, and again a sixteenth note, repeatedly:

Once the syncopation was used by the Brazilian composers, an immense variety of

rhythms began to characterize Brazilian music149. With accents in different parts of the

measures, this characteristic, common in the maxixe, became a key factor for the

development of Brazilian music150.

3.2 Lundu

The roots of lundu derive from an Angolan dance brought by African slaves to Brazil

in the second half of the 18th century. It is a music genre and a dance that descended from the

batuque, an African music style based on drum accompaniments. The main drum is the

tambu, made of a hollow tree trunk. Quinjengue, the second type of drum used in batuque,

has a keener sound and marks the rhythm of the tambu. Other instruments used are ratchets

and guaiás (metal shakers in the form of connected cones). The partakers’ participation is also

149
Ibidem, p. 124.
150
Ibidem, p. 125.

49
significant, as hand clapping and collective singing plays an important role in the batuque

music. The batuque would eventually develop into lundu.

The first mentioning of lundu appears in a magazine from 1780151. Although limited

recordings are available of the traditional lundu, it is known to have mainly relied on the

drum rhythm. It eventually was introduced into the salons of Brazil and Portugal, usually in

the form of songs either accompanied or written for the piano, and it is considered to be one

of the fundamental influences that shaped the maxixe.

The music of lundu accompanies the African dance which is of collective and urban

nature, and it includes in its choreography a circle of spectators - that is, people who do not

take part in the dance, but participate by making a circle around the dancers, usually also

clapping in the rhythm152. Lundu is characterized by a varying yet simple structure, an

interplay of the tonic and the dominant in the harmony, strummed chords layered on top of a

syncopated rhythm reminiscent of traditional West African music153. But until the end of the

18th century, lundu had not acquired a definite form. It was not until the 19th century that it

had its definitive character of satirical songs and sensual dances. It often adopted the

sentimental character of modinhas - romantic Portuguese songs, usually performed on a

guitar.

One of the earliest examples of the moderated lundu written for the piano is the

composition “Lundu da Marrequinha”, composed by Francisco Manuel da Silva Fonte in

1863;

151
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 58.
152
M. Sodré, Samba..., op. cit., p. 30.
153
P. Fryer, Rhythms of Resistance: African Musical Heritage in Brazil, Pluto Press, London 2000, p. 69.

50
Figure 1: Fragment of the music score of “Lundu da Marrequinha” written by Francisco

Manuel da Silva (1863)154.

Here we can see the rhythm filled with syncopation, such as the sixteenth rest with an

eighth note followed by the sixteenth note; , a sixteenth rest and three sixteenth

notes; , as well as the sixteenth note, an eighth note and then once again a

sixteenth note; .

The vocal written for this piece is for opera singers155, which is what makes this piece

so special. As showed in the previous paragraph, the piece is filled with African-inspired

rhythms from lundu, but, at the same time, it is written for the piano and for an opera – a

clear mixture of the African and European in music from that time.

The fact that lundu had fundamental influences on the maxixe was even mentioned by

Heitor Villa Lobos. In a music magazine from 1917, the musicologist Marta Rosseti Batista

mentioned a diary-entry by the composer, who, in June 1928, described a conversation he had
154
Ibidem, p. 62.
155
Ibidem, p. 62.

51
had with another musician who argued that Brazilian syncopation had come from North

America. Villa-Lobos answered that this was a horrendous misconception, as the syncopation

in maxixe clearly had derived from lundu156.

3.3 Habanera

The habanera, also originally a dance, is written in a duple time measure 2/4, with

punctuated and syncopated rhythms, in which the first beat is accented157. It was brought to

Cuba and Haiti by the slaves, who just like the slaves in Brazil, originated from the western

part of Africa158.

Once established in Cuba, the habanera was brought to Spain and then spread to the

rest of Europe. Its intriguing rhythms arrived to Brazil after the second half of the 19th

century. It was the precursor of several Latin American ballroom dances 159. At first, habanera

was an urban folk music from the ports of Havana, but with time it became a genre very

popular also among the upper classes.

The form of habanera that became most common among the Brazilian composers was

the syncope of a dotted eighth note and a sixteenth note followed by two eighth notes160:

156
Ibidem, p. 62.
157
J. S. Neto, Brazilian..., op. cit., p. 9.
158
Ibidem, p. 10.
159
A. Carpentier, La Música en Cuba, Félix Varela, Havana 1979, p. 422.
160
Ibidem, p. 423.

52
 An example is the piece written by Henrique Luís Levy, a composer residing mainly

in São Paulo, who wrote the Brazilian habanera “Habanera op.31” in 1922:

Figure 2: Fragment of “Habanera op.31 by Luiz Levy, written in 1922161.

In this composition, looking at the left hand, one can see the rhythm mentioned in the

previous paragraph, present throughout the entire piece.

3.4 Polka

The polka was fundamental for the formation of the Brazilian genres. Together with

lundu, it had an immense influence on contemporary Brazilian popular music162. Originally

coming from Bohemia, polka was widely played by the Brazilian audience, becoming one of

the most popular dances in Rio de Janeiro163. Unlike the lundu, which had to struggle against

strong social prejudice, the polka was very much welcomed, simply because it had come

from Europe and not Africa. It was therefore considered to be more sophisticated and

161
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 66.
162
B. Ribeiro, Danças do Brasil, Felícitas, Rio de Janeiro 1959, p. 251.
163
Ibidem, p. 254.

53
respectable. Initially danced only by the upper classes, it soon got out into the streets and was

also danced by the lower classes164.

It was from the polka that many important characteristics were incorporated into the

maxixe: it also has a 2/4 binary measure, and it tends to be played very fast. The melodies

played in the polka usually contain many strict motifs, and the pieces often require an

experienced pianist to play the pieces properly. The melodies in a polka are often more

elaborate than the ones of maxixe. This is because the melodies in lundu, as mentioned

earlier, were simple and used small intervals. The melodies of maxixe are therefore

something in between the simple African vocals and the complex European melodies.

At the beginning, polka was played among the elites exclusively on the piano165.

However, it soon became so popular that many musicians began to adapt the piano pieces to

other instruments by writing them for guitars, flutes, and cavaquinhos, which is an example

of how the traditional Brazilian groups of choros eventually got shaped166. Thus, the polka

became so famous among musicians and Brazilian society in general that even a verb

“polcar” (“to polk”) was invented to describe the act of dancing to a polka, or just the act of

enjoying it167.

The first polka rhythms that arrived in Brazil had the accent on the upbeat on the

second eighth note of each measure. However, they would not have dotted notes or internal

syncopation168. The following figure in an example of how a typical polka-rhythm could

sound at the time:

164
Ibidem, 254.
165
J. G. Moraes, História e música no Brasil, Alameda, São Paulo 2010, p. 517.
166
Ibidem, p. 518.
167
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 140.
168
B. Kiefer, A modinha e o lundu, duas raízes da música popular brasileira, Movimento, Porto Alegre 1977, p.
44.

54
 Over time, as the polka developed in Brazil and was influenced by other genres, some

variations appeared in the rhythmic division of the accompaniment. One of these rhythmic

motifs consists of a group of an eighth note followed by two sixteenth notes in the first beat

of the measure, and then two eighth notes in the second beat:

This pattern, without any syncopation, would soon be altered by Brazilian composers,

mainly Nazareth and Gonzaga. In the piece “A Bella Melusina”, written by Ernesto Nazareth

in 1888, we can already see strong influences from the polka, mixed with the lundu;

Figure 3: Fragment of “A Bella Melusina” written by Ernesto Nazareth in 1888169.

169
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 76.

55
 Although Nazareth would still define this piece as polka, it clearly had the influence

of lundu in it, with the rhythmic patterns in the left hand made out of

sixteenth notes, to create the typical syncopation, creating the first

pieces of maxixe.

56
 Chapter 4

Analysis of Chiquinha Gonzaga’s and Ernesto

Nazareth’s pieces and their influence on Brazilian

contemporary music

In this chapter, one composition of each composer is going to be analyzed in more

detail in order to show more precisely what Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth did in

their music that contributed to the birth of maxixe. The two analyzed pieces are “Gaúcho/

Corta Jaca” (Chiquinha Gonzaga) and “Odeon” (Ernesto Nazareth). The reason behind this

choice is the fact that those are the most famous and successful pieces written by Gonzaga

and Nazareth, and they are also prime examples of what a typical maxixe would look like.

Despite writing numerous famous songs, Gonzaga and Nazareth continue inspiring Brazilian

music until today, which can be noticed not only in the choro or MPB (Brazilian popular

music), but also in the souls of the contemporary musicians of Brazil.

4.1 Analysis of “Corta Jaca” by Chiquinha Gonzaga

The piece “Gaúcho” by Chiquinha Gonzaga, better known by the name “Corta Jaca”,

was first composed for the operetta “Zizinha Maxixe” in 1895, but did not gain popularity

until 1904 when it was inserted in a second piece for the revue titled “Cá e Lá”. The name

“Gaúcho” comes from a dance move in maxixe that carries the same name. However,

because of the prejudice towards maxixe described in the third chapter, Gonzaga classified

57
this song as a Brazilian tango170. “Corta Jaca” is one of the most recorded songs of Chiquinha

Gonzaga, and it is considered a classic in the music of maxixe171. On the figure below we can

see an excerpt from the piece:

Figure 4: Fragment of “Gaúcho– o Corta Jaca” written by Chiquinha Gonzaha in 1895.172

Corta Jaca is a prime example of a maxixe, as it shows the most classical techniques

used by Chiquinha Gonzaga; in order to bring the beat in the right hand, Gonzaga used

sixteenth rest followed by three sixteenth notes; , which is an imitation of

170
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 50.
171
Ibidem, p. 50.
172
Ibidem, p. 51.

58
batuque, the percussion instruments - a typical characteristic of maxixe. The emphasis is

always on the first sixteenth note. This style is used in the score already in the first measures,

where the indication “batuque” is seen. The left hand in the introduction leads the melody.

This way of beginning a measure is also called an acephalic measure, which means that there

is a rest in the beginning of a measure, and the first note falls before the half of the measure.

We can observe the same pattern in the fifth measure right after the intro, where the melody

in the right hand begins. There is a sixteenth rest followed by a eighth note and a sixteenth

note: .

After the intro, the rhythm moves over to the left hand, which apart from the

accompaniment and keeping the tempo, also marks the rhythm: .

The rhythm in maxixe is very important. Composers such as Gonzaga or Nazareth

would frequently play around with it, adding many different beats in only a few measures.

By looking at the fragment of “Corta Jaca” one can see how the rhythm in the right

hand changes in each measure as soon as the intro is over. The piece is written in the key of

D minor, which is quite unusual for a maxixe piece, as most of them were written in major

keys in order to keep their light sound173. However, we can see that part B changes to a major

key, namely F major, which is the relative major key of D minor.

173
Ibidem, p. 156.

59
Figure 5: Fragment of “Gaúcho– o Corta Jaca” written by Chiquinha Gonzaha in 1895.174

Also, the motif in the bass line of “Corta Jaca” is responsible both for the rhythm and

the melody, which is one of the most used styles in the maxixe. This pattern may have

originated from the way of playing the basses by the pianeiros, as it is found in several piano

scores from that time175.

4.2 Analysis of the piece “Odeon” by Ernesto Nazareth

The piece “Odeon”, written by Ernesto Nazareth, was composed in 1909 by Casa

Mozart. It is considered to be the most famous piece by Nazareth, and it is still one of the

absolute classics of Brazilian piano music176.

The form of Odeon is the so called “rondo”. In a rondo, the principal theme,

sometimes also called the “refrain”, is a musical concept that alternates with one or more

174
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 52.
175
J. Efegê, Maxixe..., op. cit., p. 155.
176
A. R. Marques, Interpretações..., op. cit., p. 35.

60
contrasting themes, generally called “episodes”, but also occasionally referred to as

“digressions” or “couplets”177. Examples of some rondo patterns are ABA, ABACA, or

ABACABA. In the case of Odeon, it is a rondo ABACA - a form that would become one of

the most used ones in the choro178.

Almost all of the part A is based entirely on the motif marked below with the letter

M1 - that is, a descending chromatic anacrusis of sixteenths. An anacrusis, also known as a

pickup, or fractional pick-up, is a note or a sequence of notes that precedes the first downbeat

in a bar in a musical phrase. It is the span from the beginning of a group to the strongest beat

in the group179. An anacrusis, especially reoccurring anacrusis (an anacrusis motif played

before every measure or every other measure), is a common method to mark the first beat,

and thus strengthening or articulating the meter.

Figure 6: Fragment of “Oden” written by Ernesto Nazareth in 1909180.

This short introduction is then immediately followed by the motif M2 - a sequence of

descending chromaticism built out of a dotted eighteenth note followed by a sixteenth note.

These two motifs, both of descending melodic contour, have become so prominent in the

177
G. Cooper, The Rhythmic Structure of Music, University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1960, p. 43.
178
A. R. Marques, Interpretações..., op. cit., p. 36.
179
G. Cooper, The Rhythmic..., op. cit., p. 12.
180
A. R. Marques, Interpretações..., op. cit., p. 39.

61
choro culture, that this piece can be recognized only by listening to the beginning when these

two motifs appear.181

This overall descending melodic outline has its harmonic accompaniment in the right

hand, with descending chords. As we can see, the motif M3 is a sequence of descending

chords, until it reaches the ascending arpeggio in the fourth measure.

In the next measures we can see the syncope of a sixteenth rest followed by an eighth

note and a sixteenth note, a pattern very common in the works of Ernesto Nazareth, and a

syncope that would be present on a regular basis not only in maxixe and choro, but also

future Brazilian music genres182. In this case, Nazareth uses it to stress the descending nature

of the chords, which also contain the main melody.

Figure 7: Fragment of “Oden” written by Ernesto Nazareth in 1909183.

Another pattern very symbolic for the piece is the sixteenth rest followed by three

sixteenth notes in the right hand, whereas the left hand plays the base in the form of a quarter

note simultaneously with the sixteenth rest in the right hand:

181
Ibidem, p. 39.
182
L. N. Crook, Brazilian..., op. cit., p. 125.
183
A. R. Marques, Interpretações..., op. cit., p. 39.

62
Figure 8: Fragment of “Oden” written by Ernesto Nazareth in 1909184.

This pattern gives the upbeat rhythm that today is almost omnipresent in Brazilian

music, especially the choros185.

In the measures 13, 14, and 15, we see an interesting chord progression. In the 13th

measure, there is a major dominant chord (the piece is written in the key of C# minor), using

a seventh (f#) and a thirteenth (e), with the thirteenth sliding down to the fifth (d#). In the

next measure, the minor tonic (the minor C# chord) uses the ninth that slides down to the c

before it goes over to the subdominant minor chord (F#minor). The interval between f# and

h, as well as the elevation of a semitone in the base note, resolves into the minor tonic on the

sixth degree (a, c#, e), with the seventh (g#) in the base, and then once again repeats the

dominant chord with an added thirteenth:

Figure 9: Fragment of “Oden” written by Ernesto Nazareth in 1909186.

184
Ibidem, p. 39.
185
Ibidem, p. 129.
186
Ibidem, p. 39.

63
 This harmonic chord progression would later on be widely used in bossa nova in the

1950s and from there on187, where added sevenths and thirteenths characterize the Brazilian

style.

4.3 Choro

Similarly to ragtime in the United States or the tango in Argentina and habanera in

Cuba, choro is considered to be one of the first characteristically Brazilian genres of urban

popular music right after the maxixe188. It crystalized in the city of Rio de Janeiro during the

first half of the 19th century. In fact, musicologists such as Silvano Fernandes Baia argue that

choro arose directly from the first maxixes.

The term “choro”, popularly also called “chorinho” is a Portuguese noun that literally

means a cry or weep189. It can also be translated into lament. Despite its name, the choro

tends to have a fast and joyful rhythm. It is characterized by virtuosity, improvisation, and

subtle modulations. It is also filled with syncopations and counterpoints.

The melodic figuration of most choro pieces consists of two groups of four sixteenth

notes, usually with a pickup measure of three sixteenth notes. The melody lines are based on

scale passages, arpeggios, patterns of broken chords with chromatic passing tones, leaps, and

fast repeated notes. The phrasing accents, within the two groups of four sixteenth notes in

each measure, follow the rhythmic structure of the accompaniment, and are also syncopated.

The structure of the choro is usually of a simple nature. It is written in duple time

measure (2/4), in a rondo form ABACA (which was also the case of the piece “Odeon” by

187
Ibidem, p. 130.
188
T. Livingston-Isenhour, Choro: A Social History of a Brazilian Popular Music, Indiana University press,
Bloomington 2005, p. 107.
189
Ibidem, p. 110.

64
Ernesto Nazareth). The A section is usually repeated in the intro and outro. The middle entry

of A is presented just once, without repetition. The keys of the B and C sections are

frequently written in the relative minor, and the harmony often follows standard European

progressions (I – IV – V – I), usually elaborated with relative minor chords, based on the

circle of 5ths.

The success of choro began among groups of musicians that would play in pubs,

parties, or other social events. At first, the term “choro” was used informally when referring

to the style of playing an altered maxixe, or a particular instrumental ensemble190.

In a typical group of choro, the flute is usually the most preferred instrument to play

the melody line, because of its characteristics of agility and liveliness. Other solo instruments

also common in choro are the clarinet and the saxophone. From the string family, the

cavaquinho or the mandolin are often used. The “roda de choro”, which in Portuguese means

“circle of choro”, is a circle created by the musicians involved, and usually include

instruments such as the guitar, cavaquinho, flute, and the tambourine. Woodwinds alternate

as soloists try to impress the listeners with their improvisational abilities. It is also common

not to have scores for the pieces during the performances, as the accompaniments are learned

by ear - partially memorized, but mainly improvised.

When talking about the choro, it is impossible not to mention Pixinguinha and

Joaquim Callado. They are considered the fathers of choro by making it an official music

genre. In the 1870s, Joaquim Callado formed the first choro group in Brazil, called “Choro

Carioca”. Callado was a close friend of Chiquinha Gonzaga, and her maxixe pieces inspired

him when he composed choro191. He even invited her to be a part of his band, which she

190
A. Diniz, Almanaque..., op. cit., p. 398.
191
M. Abreu, O Piano na Música Brasileira: Seus Compositrores dos Primórdios até 1952, Movimento, Porto
Alegre 1992, p. 93.

65
accepted without hesitation192. Gonzaga was therefore the first woman to play in a group of

choro and also the first pianist - popularizing the piano in a way it had never been done

before, taking it out from the salons and straight into urban music.

Most Brazilian classical composers recognize the sophistication of the choro and its

major importance in Brazilian instrumental music. Radamés Gnattali said it was the most

sophisticated instrumental popular music in the world193. Heitor Villa-Lobos defined choro as

one of the finest examples of Brazilian music194. Both composers often talked about their

inspirations from choro, bringing it to the classical tradition195.

Today, the term choro is used to generally designate most genres of Brazilian music.

As an example, even Ernesto Nazareth’s Brazilian tangos tend to be classified in the music

collections as choros. There is much discussion among scholars today on how to classify and

separate maxixe (Brazilian tango) from choro, as they are sometimes extremely similar to

each other. They often share the same music elements of rhythmic structure, form, keys, and

character. However, maxixe is mostly written for the piano, whereas choro is usually

performed on cavaquinhos, pandeiros, and flutes196.

4.4 Influences from the music of Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth on

contemporary Brazilian music

The importance of Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth in the shaping of

Brazilian music is undoubtable. They were both pioneers of creating a purely Brazilian genre

192
Ibidem, p. 94
193
A. Diniz, Almanaque..., op. cit., p. 399.
194
Ibidem, p. 95.
195
Ibidem, p. 95.
196
T. Livingston-Isenhour, Choro..., op. cit., p. 109.

66
at the international level. However, the important role of these two composers in crystalizing

the Brazilian genres never really stopped;even long after their death what they achieved still

continues to inspire and influence contemporary Brazilian composers197.

Influences from Ernesto Nazareth

When talking about the influence of Ernesto Nazareth on contemporary Brazilian

music, it is worth mentioning that in 2013 Brazil celebrated the 150th anniversary of the

composer’s birth. Many interviews were conducted with renowned Brazilian musicians,

where several of them talked about how Nazareth’s compositions have influenced the

development of Brazilian music. An example of this are the words of André Mehmari, a

famous Brazilian pianist, composer and music arranger:

„My pursuit of blending the Brazilian elements with Western and European music

comes precisely from Nazareth. His compositions were an individual, pioneer musical

thought. My musical thinking comes from the seed that he has planted in all the Brazilian

musicians that aim to create something Brazilian and original.198”

Back in the early 20th century, even Heitor Villa-Lobos considered to be the greatest

Brazilian composer of all times, spoke of Ernesto Nazareth and his input with an utter

respect, saying that “Ernesto Nazareth is the true embodiment of Brazilian soul”199. Apart

from dedicating many of his pieces to Nazareth, Villa-Lobos would also frequently stress the

influences on his music from Ernesto200.

197
M. Abreu, O Piano..., op. cit., p. 97.
198
A. R. Marques, Interpretações..., op. cit., p. 40.
199
Ibidem, p. 42.
200
Ibidem, p. 42.

67
 Ernesto Nazareth’s pianistic virtuosity combined with his feeling for rhythm was so

impressive that Artur Rubinstein, a Polish pianist considered to be one of the best in the

world, got in contact with Ernesto Nazareth during his travel in Brazil in 1917. Nazareth

invited Artur to dinner, and the two spent the entire evening playing the Brazilian tango201.

Cacá Machado, a historian specializing in Brazilian music recalls a TV program in the

1980s called “Music according to Tom Jobim” (“A música segundo Tom Jobim”). At the

very beginning, he dedicated the entire episode to talking about Ernesto Nazareth and his

importance for Brazilian popular music, finishing with a concert where Radamés Gnattali

played the classics „Odeon” and „Brejeiro” by Nazareth202.

Furthermore, apart from inspiring Brazilian musicians for centuries and shaping the

maxixe, Nazareth also contributed very strongly to the creation of choro. Thanks to the

complexity of the piano and his virtuosic skills, he managed to include in his pieces the role

of both percussion instruments, such as pandeiro and cavaquinho by playing accompanying

chords in the left hand, and imitating the flute with the catchy melodies in the right hand203.

Nazareth’s contribution has been commented by Luiz Simas, a Brazilian pianist and

choro composer, during an interview in 2003;

“Already when I was very little, in the 50s, “Brejeiro” and “Odeon” somehow entered

my subconsciousness through the radio, even though I didn’t know they were Nazareth’s

compositions, or who Nazareth even was. Only after arriving in the US, in 1989, did I start

playing his pieces from a piano folio. I used to perform solo piano in a Brazilian restaurant in

Manhattan for happy hour, and his pieces were perfect for that atmosphere. It was then that I

noticed the similarities between ragtime and choro. Since then, his music has inspired me a

201
R. Robervaldo, Como..., op. cit., p. 120.
202
Ibidem, p.123.
203
F. P. Gondim, Maria de Lourdes Gondim: Valsas, Tangos e Choros para Piano, Edicões Contexto, Salvador
1997, p.61.

68
lot, and as a direct consequence I wrote the chorinhos that I recorded on my CD “New

Chorinhos from Brazil”. I find his music very catchy, and at the same time rich, full of

beautiful melodies and harmonies, and with very clever rhythmic solutions for the piano. He

has a high sense of form and unity, and there’s never a boring moment.204”

Nazareth’s contribution to the development of Brazilian national music style cannot

be overestimated. In his nearly 300 short piano works, Nazareth captured the essence of

popular Brazilian dance music, and combined it with the European style of Chopin, the

syncopation of Brazilian street music, and everything in between.

Influences from Chiquinha Gonzaga

The influence of Chiquinha Gonzaga, present in Brazilian music until today, has been

different from the one of Ernesto Nazareth, but not at all less significant. Apart from fighting

for equal human rights in Brazil and inspiring women from all over the country to follow

their passions independently, she also influenced Brazilian music tremendously.

As mentioned earlier, comparing to Ernesto’s virtuosic style, the pieces written by

Chiquinha Gonzaga were significantly easier. However, this made it possible for her pieces to

be spread on a wider scale, as they were more accessible and within reach even for pianist

amateurs. Because of this, Gonzaga contributed to a significant popularization of the piano in

Brazil – she showed that this prestigious instrument could work just as well in less formal

environments, such as in the choro groups205. She was one of the first pianists to play in a

choro band, as mentioned in the second chapter of this work.

204
A. R. Marques, Interpretações..., op. cit., p. 43.
205
S. Gandelman, Compositores Brasileiros: Obras Para Piano, Relume Dumará, Rio de Janeiro 1997, p. 178.

69
 Chiquinha Gonzaga, also referred to as the mother of maxixe and the queen of choro,

left more than 2,000 compositions, among them waltzes, polka, tangos and mainly

maxixes206. Her contribution to the recognition of African rhythms as an authentic component

of Brazilian music is definitive. Her enormous popularization of the maxixe among Brazilian

society made it possible for the maxixe to continue its development. In fact, the first samba to

be recorded in Brazil, “Pelo telefone” belonged to the samba-maxixe genre207.

Furthermore, it is important to stress that the 17th of October, Gonzaga’s birthday,

was in 2012 declared by the ex-president of Brazil, Dilma Rousseff, as the National Day of

Brazilian Popular Music208. Chiquinha Gonzaga is therefore officially considered to be the

symbol of Brazilian music209.

The Brazilian musician Carlos Henrique Machado commented on this in an interview

in 2012:

„The choice of Chiquinha Gonzaga as a symbol of Brazilian Popular Music is a very

wise choice of the President Dilma Rousseff. Chiquinha is the Brazilian musical expression

that reflects the deepest and most complex characteristics of Brazil. Brazilian popular music

is very rich and its permanent relationship with the reality has always been about making

artistic music a universal patrimony recognized throughout the world, and by everyone. 210”

Gonzaga did not only contribute to Brazilian music by leaving behind many

compositions, but she also changed the approach to music. She showed that music of high

206
Ibidem, p. 179.
207
J. P. Murphy, Music..., op. cit., p. 133.
208
C. C. Marcilio, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 161.
209
Ibidem, p. 162.
210
M. Lira, Chiquinha..., op. cit., p. 185.

70
quality does not necessarily have to be the most complex and sophisticated. She also united

the Brazilian people by putting music of all the social classes of the country into one, unified

music genre.

71
 Conclusion

The purpose of this paper was to investigate the process of introduction of the piano

in Brazil, its role and the extent to which its presence has shaped the music in Brazil, not only

in the years of 1850-1930, but since then until today, looking through the prism of the

compositions written by Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth. The presented arguments

allow me to confirm my initial thesis statement, namely that both the piano and these two

composers have indeed played a key role in crystalizing Brazilian music. In order to reach

such a conclusion, I answered my research questions.

The first research question demanded explaining the process of creating the piano,

and what impact it has had on the history of Brazilian music since it arrived in Brazil. The

history of the piano is long and complex, but although hundreds of years have passed by, the

piano is still considered to be the king of all musical instruments, which was also the reason

why the piano was very expensive for a long period of time, leading to an immediate link

between the instrument and economic welfare and prestige.

This was especially the case in a society like the Brazilian one, where the piano first

arrived at the very beginning of the 19th century, with the Portuguese court fleeing

Napoleonic wars. The transfer of the Portuguese court to Brazil had an immense cultural

impact on the colony, enhancing significantly not only a large spread of the European culture,

but also much more numerous European immigration, which almost left no space for the

indigenous or Afro-Brazilian cultures to appear in the salon, elite music. European art was

considered the quintessence of artistic perfection. Brazilian musicians, including composers,

would therefore strive to create music that was as European as possible. Any other musical

style, especially that of African origin, was looked down on, making it extremely difficult for

the European and African genres to merge and create something purely Brazilian.

72
 In the middle of the 19th century, the piano began to be produced on a much larger

scale due to industrialization; however, this did not automatically change the stereotypical

approach towards the instrument – the piano still had a high status in Brazilian society. But it

was precisely this stereotype that paradoxically made it possible for the piano to become an

important link between the musical worlds of African and European origin. Music with

African influences had been previously strongly criticized by the elites in Brazil, but when

the same genres were executed on a piano, the criticism, although still present, was

significantly smaller. This shows how important the piano became in merging the diverse

genres present in colonial Brazil.

The second research question, concerning the most important pianeiros and their

contribution to the Brazilian music, was answered by first explaining the phenomenon of

Brazilian pianeiros, and then focusing on Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth.

Considering the fact that radios and recorders were still not commonly used in Brazil in the

late 19th century, the role of pianeiros was crucial in introducing new musical styles.

Although being very different from each other, both pianist and composers shared the same

passion for combining the African rhythms with sophisticated melodies and harmonies from

European classical music. By doing so, they created the music genre called maxixe. The main

difference between these two composers is that Chiquinga Gonzaga was more of a popular

musician, playing in less formal events and her pieces required less technical skills. Ernesto

Nazareth, on the other hand, although working as a pianeiro, never stopped admiring

European classical music and thus his compositions are more refined and require much more

experienced musicians. They both composed between the years 1850-1930, hence the

importance and my introduction of this particular time span in title of this thesis. In my

opinion, their compositions and performances have played a key role in shaping Brazilian

music, because they were the ones who created, simultaneously, the first Brazilian genre.

73
 Next, I answered the third research question, describing in detail the creation of the

maxixe genre by means of looking more closely at specific rhythms and compositions written

during the period in which maxixe was being shaped. As I demonstrated, maxixe originates

from three main styles: the African lundu, the European polka, and the Caribbean habanera. It

started initially as a dance and eventually became a separate music genre. Due to the fact that

the main composers of this genre, Chiquinga Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth, were pianists,

most maxixe pieces composed between 1850 and 1930 were written for the piano. However,

most of these works would be classified as “Brazilian tangos” rather than “maxixes”. This is

because at first there was a strong prejudice and reluctance towards this genre, as it had clear

African influences in it, mainly recognized by the syncopation present in the pieces. Although

maxixe had to fight against discrimination in its development, there was still admiration for it

among Brazilians, which eventually made it fully recognized, even at the international level,

as a purely Brazilian style, cutting the colonial umbilical cord with European music.

Lastly, the fourth research question was answered by making a detailed analysis of

two maxixe pieces, one written by Chiquinha Gonzaga and the other by Ernesto Nazareth.

Given the fact that these are the two most popular and commonly played pieces by these

composers, they have also been the main source of inspiration among Brazilians, prime

examples of how typical maxixe compositions should look. In “Corta Jaca” we can observe

the syncopation in the right hand, which in the future would be played in choro groups.

Today, the cavaquinho plays the harmony by strumming the chords, whereas the pandeiro

plays the syncopated rhythm. The fast and joyful melody played with the right hand in “Corta

Jaca” is today usually played in choro groups on the flute. In the piece “Odeon”, apart from

syncopations and melodies that are very common in contemporary Brazilian music, there is

also the usage of sevenths and ninths in the chords, something that would become an essential

part of the harmony in Brazilian bossa nova.

74
 Due to the fact that Brazilian music was shaped by a mixture of different cultural

influences and music genres present in the country, and that the piano made this process

possible, it becomes clear that the instrument did play a key role in shaping Brazilian music.

Although there were other attempts to unify all the existing genres present in Brazil by means

of other instruments, such as the guitar, they were, nevertheless, much less successful.

Because of the piano’s sophistication, it was the ideal instrument to combine both melody,

harmony, and rhythm into one and its high status allowed for the controversial genres such as

the maxixe to find their way into the salons of Brazilian elites much faster. Had these

attempts been made using other instruments, the process and the degree of acceptance would

have been significantly slower and smaller. If it had not been for the piano and for the works

of these two composers, Brazilian music would today sound completely different.

In conclusion, although the piano is not the most popular instrument in Brazilian

music today, it is definitely the one that has played a key role in shaping it. This was

especially obvious between 1859-1930, when Chiquinha Gonzaga and Enresto Nazareth used

it to create the maxixe.

Despite the fact that the piano is nowadays not as important in Brazil as it used to be,

the pianistic culture is still actively present in the country, educating world-renowned

musicians, such as Hercules Gomes and Maria Teresa Madeira. Nevertheless, there is a large

lack of sufficient literature concerning the present culture of the piano in Brazil. The role of

the piano in contemporary Brazilian music could, therefore, be a topic for further

investigation.

75
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