choro

CHORO: THE SOUND OF RIO

My work with Paulo Moura in both duo and ensembles has led to important concerts and our duo recording "Mood Ingênuo". The music Paulo is most associated with is the Brazilian genre called choro, and I'd like to give some information about the music and some of its most important practitioners in the next installments.

It is generally accepted that the first choro bands appeared in Rio de Janeiro's working class neighborhoods in about the year 1880. The ensembles were small, and almost always included flute as melody instrument, cavaquinho to provide rhythmic and harmonic support, and guitar to provide counterlines and bass lines ("baixaria").The original practitioners of choro generally held other jobs, many in the post or telegraph office, or railway station Central do Brasil (from where the name of the recent movie was taken); they did not consider music as their primary source of income. They gathered informally for the pleasure of playing together.

The formations were adaptable to the situations in which the musicians found themselves; there are early references to choro ensembles which included bandolim, clarinet, saxophone,and trombone. The pandeiro (a sort of Brazilian tambourine) often provided percussive rhythmic drive. The term choro is probably derived form the verb "chorar" (to cry), but this term was apparently used metaphorically to describe the expressiveness displayed by a good "chorão" (a practioner of choro). Perhaps it is similar to the way a good jazz soloist elicits reactions of encouragement from listeners like "speak to me", "tell your story", "cry for me"; the sense is that with the music the player is transmitting emotion or thought.

Choro developed as an instrumental, virtuosic genre, and the best players were expected to display improvisational skills. The improvisations were generally not of the type today associated with American jazz, in which the soloist uses a fixed harmonic form to generate new melodies. (I am speaking of the jazz based on song forms, not free improvisation). In early choro, the soloist usually added virtuosic embellishments or variations to the performance, and the musician responsible for the counterlines improvised those parts. As in any oral tradition, accepted practice developed and came to be expected. It would take a much longer essay to research and discuss the relationship of improvisation to common practice.

Choro ensembles used the ballroom dance forms imported from Europe and popular in Brazilian "high society", and transformed them into pieces considered undoubtedly Brazilian in nature. The polkas, schottisches, tangos, and waltzes composed in Brasil certainly displayed their roots, but did not necessarily remain "true to the form". Affected perhaps by the marketplace, which promotes and sells what is in fashion at the time, the designations were often applied without regard to the original style. There is a similar and perhaps parallel occurence evident in the development of ragtime, to which choro has been compared. A good choro was normally expected to have three sections, generally related by use of the subdominant, dominant, and relative or parallel major or minor keys as contrasting tonal centers.

Some of the important composers and practitioners of early choro were Chiquinha Gonzaga, Irineu Batina, João Pernambuco, K-Ximbinho, and the most famous Pixinguinha. Popular choros include Um a Zero (written to commemorate the score of a famous soccer match which ended 1x0, I think Brasil won), Tico-Tico no Fuba, Segura Ele, and Os Oito Batutas. The twentieth-century Brazilian classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos composed his own set of choros, reflecting the movement to establish artforms and styles indigenous to the country, and to bring "low" art into the "high" art circles (read popular for low, and European-based for high).

Though choro declined in popularity in mid-century, it is today experiencing a resurgence as new generations of musicians rediscover the genre. Paulo Moura is one of the prominent exponents of choro, and is one of the living artists who provide a link to the past. Pianist/composers Cesar Camargo Mariano, Laerçio Freitas, and Hermeto Pascoal have always included choros in their repertoire. In Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, small bars and restaurants are once again providing space for the new practitioners to come together to "exercise" and perform. The present day "chorão" reflects the developments in composition, improvisation, melody, and harmony which popular instrumental music and jazz has seen in the past forty years, remains aware of the tradition which has come before, and is producing a contemporary, revitalized mode of expression.

(See: "Dicionário Musical Brasileiro", Mario de Andrade, 1942, and the Enciclopédia da Música Brasileira, ed.Marco Antônio Marcondes, 1998)



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	Pixinguinha and “Os Batutas”, 1922 circa


CHORO: THE SOUND OF RIO My work with Paulo Moura in both duo and ensembles has led to important concerts and our duo recording "Mood Ingênuo". The music Paulo is most associated with is the Brazilian genre called choro, and I'd like to give some information about the music and some of its most important practitioners in the next installments. It is generally accepted that the first choro bands appeared in Rio de Janeiro's working class neighborhoods in about the year 1880. The ensembles were small, and almost always included flute as melody instrument, cavaquinho to provide rhythmic and harmonic support, and guitar to provide counterlines and bass lines ("baixaria").The original practitioners of choro generally held other jobs, many in the post or telegraph office, or railway station Central do Brasil (from where the name of the recent movie was taken); they did not consider music as their primary source of income. They gathered informally for the pleasure of playing together. The formations were adaptable to the situations in which the musicians found themselves; there are early references to choro ensembles which included bandolim, clarinet, saxophone,and trombone. The pandeiro (a sort of Brazilian tambourine) often provided percussive rhythmic drive. The term choro is probably derived form the verb "chorar" (to cry), but this term was apparently used metaphorically to describe the expressiveness displayed by a good "chorão" (a practioner of choro). Perhaps it is similar to the way a good jazz soloist elicits reactions of encouragement from listeners like "speak to me", "tell your story", "cry for me"; the sense is that with the music the player is transmitting emotion or thought. Choro developed as an instrumental, virtuosic genre, and the best players were expected to display improvisational skills. The improvisations were generally not of the type today associated with American jazz, in which the soloist uses a fixed harmonic form to generate new melodies. (I am speaking of the jazz based on song forms, not free improvisation). In early choro, the soloist usually added virtuosic embellishments or variations to the performance, and the musician responsible for the counterlines improvised those parts. As in any oral tradition, accepted practice developed and came to be expected. It would take a much longer essay to research and discuss the relationship of improvisation to common practice. Choro ensembles used the ballroom dance forms imported from Europe and popular in Brazilian "high society", and transformed them into pieces considered undoubtedly Brazilian in nature. The polkas, schottisches, tangos, and waltzes composed in Brasil certainly displayed their roots, but did not necessarily remain "true to the form". Affected perhaps by the marketplace, which promotes and sells what is in fashion at the time, the designations were often applied without regard to the original style. There is a similar and perhaps parallel occurence evident in the development of ragtime, to which choro has been compared. A good choro was normally expected to have three sections, generally related by use of the subdominant, dominant, and relative or parallel major or minor keys as contrasting tonal centers. Some of the important composers and practitioners of early choro were Chiquinha Gonzaga, Irineu Batina, João Pernambuco, K-Ximbinho, and the most famous Pixinguinha. Popular choros include Um a Zero (written to commemorate the score of a famous soccer match which ended 1x0, I think Brasil won), Tico-Tico no Fuba, Segura Ele, and Os Oito Batutas. The twentieth-century Brazilian classical composer Heitor Villa-Lobos composed his own set of choros, reflecting the movement to establish artforms and styles indigenous to the country, and to bring "low" art into the "high" art circles (read popular for low, and European-based for high). Though choro declined in popularity in mid-century, it is today experiencing a resurgence as new generations of musicians rediscover the genre. Paulo Moura is one of the prominent exponents of choro, and is one of the living artists who provide a link to the past. Pianist/composers Cesar Camargo Mariano, Laerçio Freitas, and Hermeto Pascoal have always included choros in their repertoire. In Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, small bars and restaurants are once again providing space for the new practitioners to come together to "exercise" and perform. The present day "chorão" reflects the developments in composition, improvisation, melody, and harmony which popular instrumental music and jazz has seen in the past forty years, remains aware of the tradition which has come before, and is producing a contemporary, revitalized mode of expression. (See: "Dicionário Musical Brasileiro", Mario de Andrade, 1942, and the Enciclopédia da Música Brasileira, ed.Marco Antônio Marcondes, 1998)