THE COUNTRY
Brazil is the largest country in South America and the fifth largest in the world. It has an area of 8.516.000 Km and over 209 million people. Brazil has one of the world’s largest economies (9th as of 2017) and its official language is Portuguese. The country, well known for its “continental proportions”, is divided in five different regions with twenty-six different states plus the Federal District. Although very united as a nation, each state has varied and peculiar traditions and cultural expressions.
SOCIAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
Understanding Brazilian music means understanding Brazilian complex history, diverse culture, and intriguing society. Brazil’s history as we know it begins in 1500 a.C. when Pedro Alvares Cabral was looking for new navigation roots to India and stumbled into the Brazilian coast, but when considering Brazilian culture it is important to remember that there is a whole other part of history that happened before that and that we know little of.
In the first few years after Cabral was in Brazil, Portugal wasn’t interested in exploring its new colony, but in 1530 the expeditions to Brazil started to uncover more and more sources of revenue for the Portuguese crown.
First it was the exportation of Pau Brasil, a Brazilian native tree valuable in the textile commerce at the time for its colour. Than, the possibility to extract gold and diamonds came to the Portuguese’s attention. After the mines were not lucrative anymore, the colonizers found other creative ways of making money out of its colony such as making use of its vantage point in the world (close to the Equator line) to explore its potential for agriculture. Enormous sugar cane and later on coffee plantations were Brazil’s main form of revenue for years. With each of the financial needs of the Portuguese crown, there was a consequence for Brazil as a country and consequently for Brazilian culture.
If in the beginning the explorers tried to force the natives to work for them, the contact with the Portuguese diseases and the excessive work quickly killed half of the native population (approximately 2 million people). Those who weren’t killed knew where to hide so that the Portuguese couldn’t find them which means that the colonizers had to look for new sources of labor. When the agricultural colonial period started, Portugal needed manpower so they started to bring in thousands of people from Africa (against their will) in order to work in the Brazilian plantations. The culture and music of those who were brought in as slaves has deeply influenced Brazilian culture. In over 500 years of history, Brazil had a huge number of immigrants from other countries such as Italy (end of XIX and beginning of XX century), Germany (XIX and XX century), Japan (XX century, especially after the beginning of the Word War I and after the end of World War II), Siria and Lebanon (end of XIX and beginning of XX century); not to mention the France, Spain, and England still in the colonial times. Considering all of the different cultures that were present in Brazil until the beginning of the XX century, what is Brazilian culture and what is Brazilian music?
Although most people outside of Brazil are only familiar with Samba and Bossa Nova, Brazilian music is even more diverse and rich than that. There are at least a couple dozen of musical stiles that are currently present in the Brazilian culture, not to mention the old musical genres that have been lost over the centuries (maxixe lambada,etc.). In the map bellow one can see a few of the Brazilian genres that are still live and breathing this day, but there are still many more.
BRAZILIAN MUSICAL GENRES
As you can see from the map, there are multiple musical genres that originated in different parts of the country. That doesn't mean that they are only known where they are from, many rhythms are really well known all around the country. Therefore, when presenting Brazilian culture (as it happens with most cultures) it is not possible to isolate one type of music that can describe what it is. A possible approach would be talking about how diverse Brazilian music is and focussing on one specific musical genre. In the Resources page there are lesson plans suggesting possible approaches to teaching the Embolada, Carimbó, and Samba rhythms. In the songs section you can also find suggestions about how to teach Ciranda as well as a wide variety of children's games.