New Voices

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Guilherme Agustini lowlife rascals, the carol of vagabonds. And the police, in their chief function of watching over the maintenance of public order, persecuted [samba] without rest‖ (11). On the other hand, at the end of the 1920‘s, an essential encounter for the invention of Brazilian popular culture would take place. In 1926, a meeting in the Catete Street café brought together the principal names of Brazilian musicians who wanted to analyze traditional elements. The meeting constituted a departure point for a change in the relationship between the elites and the popular classes, valorization of the common Brazilian things, the creation of national identity, theorization of racial and cultural mixing, examination of tension between regionalism and Rio-centered unity. Within these various currents of nationalist discourse, the samba emerged as the best Brazil has to offer. Again, even beyond samba‘s huge popularity, this music style gave birth to a unifying movement. Carnival blocks of samba were soon born in the area of Estacio de Sá and Osvaldo Cruz, and also in the hill of Mangueira, Salgueiro and Sao Carlos. Even today, these districts still make persistent rhythmic innovations in the samba . The first school of samba, Deixa Falar, rose from the highlighted Turma do Estacio. The Turma do Estacio changed the history of samba by accelerating and improving the rhythm of the songs with the endorsement of students such as Ary Barroso and Noel Rosa. The phenomenon of the samba schools took off, which helped to enhance the creation of subgenres of samba like partido-alto and samba-enredo. From 1930 through 1940, samba entered a new historical stage. Practically, a samba revolution of unity occurred in this second moment. Samba became a cultural experience for all social classes because of the popularization of a new device, the radio, which spread the samba across the whole country. The radio bridged relationships among all sectors of Brazilian society, making samba the emblem of Brazil because of the sambistas’ triumph in the carnival. The carnival festivities shook off police repression and gradually gained the support of society. Rube Oliven describes transformation thus: ―It was with the growing importance of carnival that samba began to be consumed by the rest of the Brazilian population, becoming into the Brazilian music par excellence‖ (qtd. in Vianna 12). According to Hermano Vianna, the transition from police persecution to unanimous celebration is a mystery. Regardless, this new image of Brazil would achieve both national and international popularity. The later came with a famous piece of music, ―Aquarela do Brasil‖ composed by Ary Barroso, which reached Hollywood films through Carmen Miranda in 1939. Moreover, that was the period where names like Noel Rosa, Ismael Silva, Almirante, Joao de Barro and many others gained national recognition as sambistas. They were key to the popularization of samba in 1960‘s.

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