Brazilian Rhythm and Poetry

Rio de Janeiro - The first time that I saw the American word "rap" used to describe an MPB song was when Caetano Veloso release Língua: "Gosto de sentir minha língua roçar na língua de Luís de Camões..." It was music that had a big impact, not just because it was (from any point of view) a powerfully poetic son, but because the national press could note with alacrity the triumphal arrival of yet another American trend on Brazilian soil. Every time a Brazilian manages, with a minimum of competence, to do some thing that Americans created and put on the market, we see this as a sign of esthetic maturity and cultural independence. Patience: it could be worse.

It is worse, for example, when the Americans begin to do something which we have already been doing for centuries, and we here in Brazil are amazed by their inventiveness. This is the case with "rap," an abbreviation that says everything: "Rhythm And Poetry". This style of singing basically consists of creating a rhythmic base and letting flow over it a verbal discourse that follows its meter, but with enough flexibility to hurry ahead, fall behind, jump and syncopate, stop for a moment and leap ahead to catch up. It is a demonstration of musical and verbal ability, because even if the harmonic and melodic content is the size of a pea (it usually is), the "groove" produced by the instruments (or electronic base, or claps and finger snaps) imposes a rhythmic frame into which the phrases have to fit.

Our “emboladores de coco” have been doing this for at least a century, with the tambourines or ganzás supplying the rhythmic basis, and Iberian Baroque poetry supplying the basic models (quadra, décima, verso setissílabo) on which they created variations. Both Coco and Rap can serve for singing memorized verses, or for improvising verses on the spot. The principal distinction to be drawn between the two is that there is more music and more melody in Coco than in Rap, just as in Coco there is more attention paid to the poetic meter, since Rap often becomes nothing more than a rhythmicized prose, without the presence of the regular caesuras which correspond to the lines of a strophe.

These kind of generalizations are dangerous, because every artist deviates somewhat from any rule that a theorist can lay down. The very song by Caetano cited above has a format which is much more creative, and rhythmically more supple, than the majority of Brazilian rap, which in general are limited to a simple "patatí-tatí-tatá". There are many songs in MPB with moments of "Rhythm and Poetry," in the sense that they contain passages which are spoken but which do not move away from the basic rhythm. Among them "Ouro de Tolo,” by Raul Seixas; "Nem vem que não tem" by Wilson Simonal; "Avohai" by Zé Ramalho, "O Calhambeque,” by Roberto Carlos; "Deixa isso pra lá" and "Zigue-Zague" by Jair Rodrigues; "Sá Marica Parteira" and the long introduction to "Respeita Januário" by Luiz Gonzaga.

Translated from the original Portuguese by Tom Moore. Tom is a classical musician and translator who lives in Rio de Janeiro. His most recent CD of trio sonatas by Boismortier is available from A Casa Estúdio.