These beats were generally associated with religious elements that formed some kind of ritual communication among the black communities through music and dance, percussion and body movements. Those rhythms gradually incorporated elements from other types of music. From the 19th century onwards, the city of Rio de Janeiro, which had become the capital of the Colony and later the capital of the Empire, started to experience a huge influx of black people coming from all over the country, especially from Bahia.
This was the landscape where the first samba circles pop up, mixing the elements of African beat with polka and maxixe. The word samba refers, basically, to fun and party. However, over time, it also embraced the battle between the genre experts; the battle between those who could improvise the verses in a samba circle better, leading to one of the most relevant subcategories of samba in Rio: the Partido Alto. The word samba probably comes from the Quioco ethnicity, in which samba means to hop like a goat, to play around, to have fun.
Some say that it comes from semba, which means bellybutton or heart. This is the term applied to bridal dances in Angola characterized by umbigada, which can be translated as a belly button dance , a sort of fertility ritual. In Bahia, there was a kind of samba circle dance in which the men played the instruments and the women danced, one at a time.
The samba circle became the trademark of the Rio de Janeiro samba, with the elements of improvisation and choruses sung and repeated in groups. Two samba dancers became very popular around that time. This is the original register of the song. There are controversies about who actually wrote it, but Donga is definitely the most referred name, alongside Mauro de Almeida.
The recording gear, as you might expect, is totally archaic. In Brazil, the acetate discs were produced only by Casa Edison, the only place with such cutting-edge technology. And, it is worth mentioning that only a handful of people in Brazil owned a gramophone to listen to the discs after they were recorded, which made this kind of business ultimately quite unprofitable.
Listen up. November 27, The day samba was born. But which samba are we talking about? Samba as a popular tradition, or a specific samba song? Researchers of popular music found that, on November 6th, , a certain musician, Ernesto Joaquim Maria dos Santos, A. On November 27th, , the National Library registered the work, and gave it the number 3, Another curious note is that, in order to be registered, the composition needed to be presented as sheet music.
They wanted to prove that the chief of police, Mr. Aurelino Leal, was just pretending to prohibit roulette gambling. The report came out and drew attention to the episode. The gatherings were filled with singing and drumming and took place on Saturdays. At a certain point, during the party, they started singing and improvising funny lyrics about what was going on in their daily lives.
As a matter of fact, the name of those parties was samba, or roda-de-samba samba circle and on a certain Saturday someone threw those popular phrases about the chief of police in. After registering it, he took it to Fred Figner, the American businessman born in the Bohemian region who owned Casa Edison, which was located on the number of Ouvidor Street.
Founded in , Casa Edison was a store that sold gramophones, typewriters and other high-tech gadgets. Figner also produced and sold rpm speed discs and held a massive catalog of Brazilian popular music.
At that time, copyright for phonographic reproduction was not regulated in Brazil. But Figner liked to buy the compositions to record them. He had been doing this since he arrived in Brazil 20 years earlier. Through the original recording, it is possible to feel the joyful and chaotic atmosphere that took over the environment and it is worth remembering that everything was captured on a single microphone.
In doing so, he reveals how this celebrated, often romanticized Afro-Brazilian form emerged out of an acutely material set of social conditions and in close relation to Brazil's modern struggles over race, artistic ownership, and popular culture. A remarkable contribution to popular music studies, suggesting compelling parallels with musical traditions to the north.
What these debates desperately needed was a fresh perspective, grounded in new and significant evidence, and that is just what Marc A. Hertzman provides in this deeply researched and cogently argued historical study. Making Samba takes the discussion of music, race, and authority to a whole new level of sophistication.
Hertzman explores the changing contours of the music 'business' in Brazil, the spaces that black performers could carve out for themselves, and the costs musicians incurred when they sought to challenge existing racial, intellectual, and economic hierarchies. The result is a social and cultural history of samba that is by turns fascinating and sobering, and a book that anyone interested in questions of race, music, and nation will want to read.
Bk Cover Image Full. Sign In. Search Cart. Search for:. Book Pages: Illustrations: 1 map, 16 figures Published: April This apparently simple act—claiming ownership of a musical composition—set in motion a series of events that would shake Brazil's cultural landscape. Before the debut of "Pelo telephone," samba was a somewhat obscure term, but by the late s, the wildly popular song had helped to make it synonymous with Brazilian national music.
Draper III, Hispanic American Historical Review "[T]his book is highly recommended for anyone interested in Brazilian culture with a focus on the following keywords: samba, race, gender, national identity, music industry, music journalism, authorship and royalty societies, as well as biographies of many outstanding musicians. Paperback Cloth. Availability: In stock. Add to cart.
Open Access. Request a desk or exam copy. Table of Contents Back to Top. In addition, he illuminates the links between popular music, race, labor, and intellectual property. This should attract considerable attention; no other study of Brazil has done similar work.
What these debates desperately needed was a fresh perspective, grounded in new and significant evidence, and that is just what Marc A. Hertzman provides in this deeply researched and cogently argued historical study. Making Samba takes the discussion of music, race, and authority to a whole new level of sophistication. Hertzman explores the changing contours of the music 'business' in Brazil, the spaces that black performers could carve out for themselves, and the costs musicians incurred when they sought to challenge existing racial, intellectual, and economic hierarchies.
The result is a social and cultural history of samba that is by turns fascinating and sobering, and a book that anyone interested in questions of race, music, and nation will want to read.
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