Indianismo and Landscape in The Brazilian Age of Progress Art
Indianismo and Landscape in The Brazilian Age of Progress Art
Indianismo and Landscape in The Brazilian Age of Progress Art
by
2001
The Dissertation Committee for Maria Alice Volpe certifies that this is the
approved version of the following dissertation:
Committee:
Elliott M. Antokoletz
Hanns-Bertold Dietz
Michael C. Tusa
Enylton J. de Sá Rego
Indianismo and Landscape in the Brazilian Age of Progress: Art
Music from Carlos Gomes to Villa-Lobos, 1870s-1930s
by
Dissertation
Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Music
in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements
Doctor of Philosophy
Copyright 2001 by
Volpe, Maria Alice
________________________________________________________
To Régis Duprat
Acknowledgements
First I would like to thank all the scholars who have helped me, in one way or another, to
formulate the questions that I have pursued in this study, although I hold the sole
responsibility for any of its shortcomings. I am especially grateful to Dr. Régis Duprat
for the full and sustained support he has given to my intellectual development since my
thanks to Dr. Gerard H. Béhague, who kindly provided me with the most valuable
would also like to thank all the members of my Committee, including Dr. Michael C.
Tusa, Dr. Hanns-Bertold Dietz, Dr. Elliott M. Antokoletz and Dr. Enylton J. de Sá
Rego for all the support and enlightenment they provided me throughout my work in
this doctoral degree. They have made all the years that I spent in the U.S. most
I had in the Musicology and Ethnomusicology Program and at the Spanish and
Portuguese Department were very advantageous for the type of research and product
that I have been able to accomplish in this dissertation. I would like to mention, for
instance, reception history, new ways of looking into the issue of nationalism, key
notions concerning the nineteenth century such as Historicism and Romanticism, new
v
theoretical tools for the analysis of Villa-Lobos’ modernity, the understanding of music
in its cultural context, and issues in the literary studies and Brazilian literature that
My research also benefited greatly from the assistance of the librarians of the following
institutions: the Biblioteca Nacional, Rio de Janeiro; the Biblioteca da Escola de Música
of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro; the Museu Villa-Lobos, Rio de Janeiro;
Pública Municipal, São Paulo; the Benson Latin American Collection, the Fine Arts
Library, and the Inter-Library Loan Service of the University of Texas, Austin. Also, Dr.
Ricardo Tacuchian and Dr. Fátima Tacuchian, provided me with rare recordings of
Brazilian music and facilitated my work at the Rio de Janeiro’s archives. My doctoral
degree in the U.S. was also made possible by the financial support of CAPES
I am indebted to Jairo Correia Geronymo, who encouraged me to come and study in the
U.S., and to Deborah Schwartz-Kates for her support during the most difficult times of
my doctoral studies. I owe a debt of gratitude to Nicholas Parma and Jennifer Suzanne
O’Donnell, who kindly revised my manuscript. The final stage of my work benefited
greatly from the computer wizardry of David Hainsworth and Timothy Shaffer. At the
risk of making omissions, I should also like to mention Ketty Wong, Laura Cervantes,
Rebecca Sager, Rodolfo Coelho de Sousa, Ron Emoff, Rodrigo Herrera, Alberto
Requejo, Hope Munro Smith, Robin Moore, Sherri Canon and Antonio La Pastina for
all the friendship we shared during our graduate school years. I should also like to
mention my dear friends Gilson da Silva Jr., Suzana Salles and Tereza Cristina
vi
Fernandes Gomes for keeping me in their hearts while my work kept me away from
Brazil.
And last but not least, I would like to thank my family for the love, attention,
Narciso Volpe has offered me the paramount example of endurance, optimism, joy,
simplicity and inner strength. I can hardly describe how important my mother Alice
Krepischi Volpe has been throughout my life, but I should mention the chief role she
played in fostering the desire for knowledge and independence in me. I am also very
grateful for her sharing with me the words of wisdom she learned from my deceased
grandfather Horácio Krepischi. My brothers Narciso Volpe Jr., Horácio Curtis Volpe
and Ricardo Alberto Volpe have been the best friends that I could ever have in my life. I
would also like to thank my sister-in-law Renata Aparecida Sotini Volpe for the love and
spirituality with which she filled the chocolate truffles and rocamboles de doce de leite
she made especially for me. I am immensely grateful to my nephews Fábio Curtis
Volpe, Vagner Curtis Volpe and Bruno Krepischi Volpe for bringing so much joy to my
life. Special thanks to my uncle Valdemar Krepischi for the warm family gatherings he
offered me during my visits to Brazil, and my aunts Vilma Krepischi Friestino, Nair
Krepischi Metzker, Isa Amália Dalla Costa Krepischi, Sonia Victorino Krepischi and
Virginia Krepischi for always calling and writing me on my birthdays, and, finally, my
grandmother Antonieta Rossetti Krepischi for being the bedrock of our extended family
vii
Indianismo and Landscape in the Brazilian Age of Progress: Art
Music from Carlos Gomes to Villa-Lobos, 1870s-1930s
Publication No._____________
This study is intended to show that Indianismo and Landscape were major
symbols of national identity in Brazilian music between the 1870s and the 1930s. Their
legitimacy was supported by the Carlos Gomes paradigm, their association with literary
to convey shifting ideologies, and their continuous updating with European musical
styles and genres. The association of Indianismo and Landscape with Brazilian literary
and pictorial traditions informed music with a range of meanings that were collectively
recognized by Brazilian elite culture of the time. This study proposes that the
be denied but reframed, since it did not reside “simply in its literary aspect” (as it is
usually claimed) but carried major ideological issues concerning the construction of
and Francisco Braga’s Marabá and Jupyra, the construction of national identity evolves
from the ratification to the undoing of the myth of national foundation, from the positive
viii
to the negative view of miscegenation, up to the representation of Brazil as the land of
outcasts. This study also proposes that Brazilian musical nationalism must be
recognized not only in the use of “folk,” “popular” and “Indian” elements but also in
poetic emotion in works such as Gomes’ Al chiaro di luna, Braga’s Paysage, and
established the major elements for the construction of nationalist musical conventions
national “essence.” This group of operatic and symphonic works makes a continuum
ix
Table of Contents
List of Tables..........................................................................................................xii
List of Abbreviations...............................................................................................xv
INTRODUCTION 1
The Pan-American Congress (1906), the National Exposition (1908), and the
inauguration of the Teatro Municipal (1909) ...............................................112
Indianismo in the History of Brazilian Literature, the Visual Arts and Music .......155
Bibliography.........................................................................................................326
Vita .....................................................................................................................344
xi
List of Tables
xii
List of Musical Examples
xiv
List of Abbreviations
CR Cidade do Rio
GN Gazeta de Notícias
JC Jornal do Comércio
Ms. manuscript
RI Revista Ilustrada
RS Revista da Semana
xv
INTRODUCTION
that relied on stylized Indian subjects) and Landscape were major symbols of nationality
in Brazilian art music between the 1870s and the 1930s inasmuch as events with some
status of official culture relied upon musical works associated with Indianismo and
premiere on Emperor D. Pedro II’s birthday, 2 December 1870) was emblematic of the
national identity, and the Prelude “Alvorada” [Dawn] from Carlos Gomes’ opera Lo
landscape. Music during the First Republic (1889-1930) kept the Indianist symbology
prelude Paysage (1892) represented Brazil at the 1893 Chicago World Exposition, his
opera Jupyra (1899) was booked for the festivities of The Fourth Centennial of the
Discovery of Brazil in 1900, and his symphonic poem Marabá (1894) was performed
(1892) was staged at the inauguration of Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro in 1909;
Heitor Villa-Lobos’ symphonic poem/ ballet Uirapuru (1917) was staged at the Pan-
American Congress of Commerce in Argentina in 1935, and his symphonic poem/ ballet
Amazonas (1917) was performed during the visit of the President of Brazil to Argentina
in 1935. Not that these works were the only ones performed during those special events,
1
but they were the ones identified by contemporary reception as expressing something
This study elucidates the reasons why Indianismo and Landscape remained
significant national symbols in the music of the First Republican official culture.
Because the new regime failed to create its own national symbols,1 national symbology
of Imperial times still resonated among Brazilians. As the First Republic lacked new,
national identity in music was supported by the Carlos Gomes paradigm, their
association with literary and pictorial traditions, the continuous reformulation of their
In this study I believe I have shed a new light on a period of music history in
musical Romanticism (1850s-1920s) has always intrigued me for its underrated status
import of the music of the Colonial period and the nationalist status of twentieth-century
modernism. Brazilian Romantic composers are retrospectively put in the shadow of the
lionized genius of Villa-Lobos, but hardly understood in terms of their own values and
pursuits. It has always been difficult for me to accept the idea that two generations of
composers would be producing cultural products totally empty of social meaning. I have
always believed that the legitimacy of their agenda must be viewed in their own historical
context and in the specific issues they faced. Therefore, before jumping into the
tried to understand how that half-century of art music in Brazil had opened the path to
Villa-Lobos, the composer credited with the fullest and foremost expression of Brazilian
musical nationalism.
I have always suspected that if a historical period cannot be validated in its own
right, we must be analyzing it under an inappropriate light. Therefore, I took the major
namely, the use of folk, indigenous and popular materials by art music composers, as
1870s and the 1930s by focusing on two nationalist topoi that had a long-lasting
tradition in a larger cultural setting, especially Brazilian literature and the visual arts, and
that considerably shaped official views of national identity. These topoi were Indianismo
and Landscape.
fact that Indianismo had run its course in Brazilian literature when Carlos Gomes wrote
the first successful opera on the subject (Il Guarany) lead to the assumption that
Indianismo has been considered merely a literary element in Brazilian opera with no
major consequences to its musical expression and its social-cultural meaning. In this
Brazilian music needs to be reframed, not only because the choice of the literary subject
was central to the operatic genre, but also and above all because Indianismo conveyed
3
operas have corroborated or denied the narratives of national foundation conveyed by
literary works largely disseminated among the Brazilian elite. Although Indianismo did
not imply the use of authentic Indian music (obviously it could not do so since no
systematic research on the music of the Brazilian Indians had been undertaken at the
time) its ideological turn was key to the nationalization of Brazilian music during the
Romantic period. The use of Indian and mestizo characters as archetypal figures in
mythical narratives of national foundation and ethnic identity allowed the expression of
the historicist view of nationhood through major musical genres (the opera and the
symphonic poem). Also, and perhaps most importantly, Indianismo provided a major
landscape.
Although a major topos in Brazilian literature and painting, landscape has not
been pursued as a category of its own by current studies on Brazilian music. In this
study I propose the recognition of Brazilian musical nationalism not only through the
use of “folk,” “popular” and “Indian” elements but also through the musical
of Brazilian music both from the perspective of production and early reception.
expressing something particularly Brazilian. Also, I have tried to show in this study that
Brazilian composers made clear and sustained efforts toward the nationalization of
Brazilian music through the search of musical formulae of landscape description. Most
literature and the visual arts, such as the view of nature as poetic emotion, nature as a
local reality with local color, nature as historical locale, and nature as an Edenic locale in
4
its mythical and monumental dimensions. The increasing nationalization of musical
landscape, from Carlos Gomes to Villa-Lobos, relied on the musical painting of forest
murmurs and sounds associated with local nature and landscape, such as native bird
calls and the image of the sunrise. Brazilian music of the period reflects “the efforts to
construct a tradition focused on nature” that shaped Brazilian literature and visual arts.2
the period is seen both in their major role in contemporary reception and also in the
specific critical issues that shaped Brazilian literature and painting, and their reflections
recognize Brazilian musical nationalism since the nineteenth century solely in the use of
folk and popular elements, the study of early reception shows that landscape also played
an important role in the nationalization of Brazilian music. Critical criteria of the early
reception of Brazilian music, especially landscape and the use of folklore as national
Landscape was the major nationalist criterion making the historical continuity from the
early reception expressed in musical criticism of the daily or weekly press to the
Brazil. Chapter 1 deals with the latter body of Brazilian musical historiography offering
performed during official events of Brazilian First Republic. Chapter 2 also discusses
the development of symphonic concerts in Rio de Janeiro, the vogue of Wagnerism and
“the music of the future,” and their association with cosmopolitan ideals of
“progress” and “civilization.” The present study proposes that the lasting prestige of
Indianismo and Landscape in Brazilian music of the period is due to a large extent to
their continuous adjustment to new stylistic tendencies that could symbolize the
updating of Brazil through European culture, which allowed the gradual shaping of
the Indianist subject of their operas and symphonic poems with European musical
techniques, genres and styles of their time and preference. Carlos Gomes set Il Guarany
as Italian grand opera; Delgado de Carvalho wrote Moema under the harmonic and
melodic influence of Massenet, and under the impact of the popularity of Mascagni’s
and Leoncavallo’s one-act operas; Francisco Braga wrote Marabá and Jupyra
influenced by Massenet and Wagner, and also adopted the one-act opera fashion; and,
finally, Villa-Lobos promoted the modernization of Indianismo both in its literary and
musical aspects with Uirapuru and Amazonas. From D. Pedro II’s “enlightened”
policy through the First Republic Positivist banner of “progress” until twentieth-
century early “Modernism,” the shaping of Brazilian identity in alignment with the
European world sustained the social validation of Brazilian composers to a great extent
6
Brazil’s goal of integration into the “civilized nations” implied not only the
interplay between “progress” and national symbols but also the social validation of
national achievement and worth. Carlos Gomes was the only Brazilian composer with
the public, the critics and composers of the following generations considered him a
national genius to be emulated or superseded. Indianismo and Landscape were the topoi
that gave him national and international recognition (Il Guarany and Lo Schiavo), and,
therefore, were taken, critically or not, as symbols of national expression. The historical
construction of the Carlos Gomes paradigm, especially during the 1890s, is discussed
pictorial traditions informed music with a range of meanings that were collectively
recognized by Brazilian official culture of the time. The process of associating meaning
with musical symbols is an important factor for explaining how identity is musically
constructed. This study approaches this issue by accessing the literary and pictorial
tradition informing the topoi selected by Brazilian composers as a basis for their
musical compositions, and the musical criticism that appeared in newspapers and
This study aims to determine the symbolic value of a work in its early reception
therefore, not analyzing the work as a self-contained entity but understanding its
Indianismo and Landscape in literature and the visual arts may have charged the
production and early reception of Brazilian art music evoking those topoi. Chapters 4
and 5 show different emphasis on reception theory, literary ideological critique, and
imaginaires sociaux theory, due to the different sources available to reconstruct the
analyzing how the operatic adaptation of Indianist novels and epics affected the
ideological discourse related to the myth of national foundation and the issue of inter-
ethnic contact and miscegenation. The simplification resulting from the adaptation of
literary works into librettos is not discussed as a matter of adjusting literary into operatic
conventions, but rather in its impact on the ideological level of those musical works. The
comparative analysis between the literary sources and the librettos considers (1) what
Indianist myths (among which, the frontier myth, the myth of national origins, the
mythical couple, the Edenic myth, the myth of the good Indian, the myth of primitive
savagery, the captive myth, the diluvian myth, the sacrificial myth, and the identification
of the Indian with surrounding nature) are maintained, omitted or deflated in the opera in
comparison to the literary work upon which it was based, and how this new setting of
mythical relations reconfigures the ideological message of the opera; (2) which
characters and episodes are omitted in the libretto, and what are the consequences for
figures of mythical dimensions to flawed humans), and for the contextualization of their
actions (motivations and past events deepening the meaning of present events and
actions), and how the characters’ decisions are constrained by their historical and
8
mythical destiny; and, finally, (3) how all those changes impact the mythical narrative
imaginaires sociaux theory. Chapter 5 aims to link internal musical analysis and
periodicals and their interrelation with internal musical features is justified by the
opposed to the idea of “absolute music”) permeated not only Brazilian composers’
intention but also the early reception of those musical works. The approach to the
relation between musical works and their associated meanings inferred from coeval
music criticism is informed by the categories and issues as defined by literary and visual
arts studies, and studies on Brazilian cultural history of the period, especially the ones
associated with the imaginaires sociaux theory.6 Chapter 5 shows that the different
attitudes towards landscape – namely, nature as poetic emotion, nature as a localized and
temporalized reality (nature as local color, and nature as historical locale), the Edenic
music.
cultural setting (literature, painting, and music) is concerned, these topoi, although fairly
historical continuity of nationalism in Brazilian art music. Chapters 4 and 5 are meant as
a unit, since they offer a broad picture of the development of musical nationalism in
relation to the changing views of Brazil as a nation. The present study proposes that the
continuing power of Indianismo and Landscape within Brazilian culture laid in the
Braga’s Marabá and Jupyra, the construction of national identity evolves from the
ratification to the undoing of the myth of national foundation, from the positive to the
localized and temporalized reality aiming at “universal” aesthetics with works such as
landscape as a local reality (and with local color) with works such as Gomes’
and Landscape should be regarded as a unit, not only because they frequently overlap,
but also because they make the continuum between two major views of national identity
10
from the nineteenth to the twentieth century, namely, the historicist to the essentialist
view.
changing ideologies reflected in the operas Il Guarany, Moema, and Jupyra, with a brief
introduction to Marabá. Although the literary tradition of Marabá places the work
mainly discussed in Chapter 5 because of its close association with Landscape topos by
its early reception. The modern Indianismo of Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru and Amazonas
framed Indianismo even further within Landscape, for which reason those works are
discussed in Chapter 5.
The interaction between European style and national topics can reveal the extent
to which Brazilian composers were concerned with constructing national identity at that
historical moment, and, most importantly, how a given style relates to a given idea of
national identity. The interaction between the meanings associated with national topoi
and the genres that mediated them reflected changing conceptions of national identity.
Nineteenth-century Indianismo and the revival of its precursory works of the Colonial
period constructed a historicist view of Brazilian identity based on the myth of national
foundation, expressed in literature through epic poems and historical novels, and in
music through opera. Brazilian late nineteenth- and early twentieth- century elite culture
moved to an essentialist view of national identity by evoking social icons, Indian myths
and an “imagined landscape” that embodied the nation’s essence, and was expressed in
music through symphonic poems and ballets. For all that it entails, the association of
11
genres and topoi constructed discourses reflecting shifting conceptions of national
With this study, I hope to have contributed to the broadening of the current
national symbols. Brazilian musical nationalism should not be restricted to the idea of
regionalism and the use of folk and popular materials, but it should also embrace the
12
CHAPTER 1: NATIONAL IDENTITY IN BRAZILIAN MUSIC
HISTORIOGRAPHY
literary studies. Recent musical historiography will be discussed to the extent it has
retained or responded to the issues and views raised by Brazilian early musicological
writings.
nationalism (ca. 1870s-1930s) only in the use of folk and popular materials by art
music composers. This approach was influenced by Silvio Romero’s work and reveals
how his version of the Volksgeist hypothesis informed Brazilian scholars well into the
attention to landscape as nationalist topos, which is somewhat surprising since the first
two books on music history in Brazil (Melo 1908 and Almeida 1926) reflected the
nationalist critical issues that shaped Brazilian literature, literary criticism, art and art
criticism. Local nature was a major element in the nationalization of Brazilian literature
and painting, as well as a valuational element in the criticism that constructed Brazilian
music’s early reception since, as I argue in chapter 5, it was the topos most referenced
Brazilian musicology was born and institutionalized in the first half of the
twentieth-century, during a period in which musical nationalism played a major role. The
13
first book on music history in Brazil, A música no Brasil, desde os tempos coloniais até
o primeiro decênio da República [Music in Brazil from Colonial times to the first
purpose that reveals that the recognition of an entity that could be called “Brazilian
music” was not consolidated until the beginning of the twentieth century. The author
was strongly motivated to “write this book to show with undeniable proofs that we are
not a people without art and literature, as is usually said, and that at the least the music in
Brazil has distinctive and full national features.”2 The author’s need to claim the
existence of his subject of study points to the struggle for national identity with which
the Brazilian musical intelligentsia would increasingly engage. As part of the Brazilian
would only make sense if some degree of originality and autonomy could be claimed
and proved concerning Brazilian musical features, expressiveness or style. The second
Almeida views the history of Brazilian music as “the incessant search for its own
expression.”4
1 Guilherme Teodoro Pereira de Melo (1867-1932), Brazilian musicologist, was appointed librarian of
the Instituto Nacional de Música in 1928. According to his Preface, he researched at the Instituto
Geográfico e Histórico da Bahia and at the Gabinete Português de Leitura to write his book.
2 Melo 1908: i. Unless otherwise stated, all translations are the author’s.
3 Renato Almeida (1895-1981), Brazilian folklorist and musicologist, published a second edition,
corrected and enlarged, in 1942.
4 Almeida 1926: 108.
14
Brazilian music upon the ideology of “caráter national” inaugurated by Melo and
important to understand the different theories accounting for the shaping of the
“national character” springing from the Recife school, or the “1870s generation.”
Since the “1870s generation,” the explanations concerning the formation of Brazilian
national character were based on two theories: geographic determinism and racial
environment of a nation (its topography and its climate) would determine its stage of
Buffon, Haeckel, Ratzel and Buckle.5 According to racial determinism, the evolutionary
people. The cultural differences among the nations were determined by their racial
stock. Racial determinism had Gobineau as its most influential representative in Brazil.6
A more comprehensive framework was offered by the integral determinism of Taine that
5 Charles-Louis Montesquieu’s De l’esprit des lois (1748) was a forerunner in the formulation of a
general theory of climate applied to the different cultures of the entire planet. George-Luis Leclerc
Buffon’s Discours sur le style (1753) and Histoire naturelle de l’homme (1749-89) adopted
Montesquieu’s climateic theory. Henry Thomas Buckle (1821-1862), English historian affiliated with
positivism and determinism, applied the methods of science to history. Ernest Heinrich Haeckel (1834-
1919), German biologist and philosopher who defended the fusion of scientific and philosophical
knowledge and created monism, a naturalist and psychological theory that applied Darwin evolutionism
to the entire universe. Haeckel’s Histoire de la création des êtres organisés d’aprés les lois naturelles
(1884) offered a world map illustrating the influence of geographic determinism in differentiating the
many human races. See Ventura (1991: 19-43) for a detailed discussion on the influence of
Montesquieu, Buffon, and Buckle in Brazilian literary criticism.
6 The count Gobineau was a close friend of Emperor D. Pedro II.
7 Hippolyte Adolphe Taine (1828-1893), French literary critic and historian, applied determinism to art
and literary history, which supposedly corresponded to the intellectual and spiritual evolution of each
15
Geographic determinism had its Brazilian version with Araripe Júnior’s theory
environmentalist theory that derives directly from Taine’s three factors (race,
from Montesquieu and Buffon. With the obnubilação brasílica theory, “Araripe
nature on man, which explains the adjustments and transformations on the European
Racial determinism had its supporter in the figure of Silvio Romero.10 Although
Romero considered race the most determining factor in the formation of Brazilian
culture, he did not hold racial determinism in its entirety. According to Romero’s theory
the continuing whitening (“branqueamento”) of the Brazilian people through racial and
The factors, race and environment, had very specific meanings in the nineteenth-
century scientificist theories, and do not exactly coincide with the notions that were later
attached to them. In order to understand where Brazilian early construction of its music
history comes from, Melo’s and Almeida’s writings must be brought to the light of
those scientificist theories in vogue in Brazil during the late-nineteenth and early-
Melo’s and Almeida’s writings based upon new notions of race and environment that
came to operate after the 1930s, and Almeida’s own theoretical turn after the 1940s, this
study proposes to discuss Melo’s (1908) and Almeida’s (1926) books from the
perspective of the theoretical frameworks that were most likely to have informed their
conception rather than from the ones that came to function after their publication.
Both Melo and Almeida relied to some extent on the same determinist theories
that informed the historical construction of Brazilian literature since the influential
writings of Silvio Romero and Araripe Júnior. As most intellectuals tuned with the
“new ideas” of the “1870s generation,” Melo and Almeida considered race and
music and culture. See, for instance, how the following statement by Melo exposing his
approach reveals the same critical issues established by literary studies as indexes of
nationality, namely, local nature or landscape, and ethnic groups making up Brazilian
… I sought for the ethnic laws governing the formation of the genius, the spirit
and the character of Brazilian people and their music, as well as of its ethnology;
in other words, how the Portuguese people changed under the influence of the
American climate and the contact with the Indian and the African, constituting
intellectuals. This theory, which is evoked only briefly by Melo, will be fully developed
by Renato Almeida two decades later. Almeida will then propound his own version of
obnubilação brasílica theory applied to music. This theory would soon be abandoned
painting, nature was a major element differentiating Brazilian from European cultural
expressions. Melo admonishes that “it is necessary to seek inspiration in its pure
fountain, to drink the water that falls directly from the stone; to feel the earth with free
spirit from all prejudices, and not to try to see the Brazilian landscape entangled in
European nature.”13
Although Melo recognizes the importance of the natural environment, the most
direct references to the way music embodies national identity are related to Silvio
Romero’s version of the Volksgeist hypothesis. As Romero had done in literature, Melo
emphasized folk and popular traditions as sources for national music. Citing M. Julien
Tiersot, Melo writes that “popular music is the substratum upon which are based all the
different layers of music from its beginnings until the present.”14 This idea is closely
12 Melo 1908: 6.
13 Melo 1908: 113.
14 Melo 1908: 58.
18
spirit manifests itself at an elementary level in folk music and at a high level in art
music.”15
composers corroborate the influence of the Volksgeist hypothesis and its emphasis on
folklore and the popular: Nepomuceno’s Galhofeira, “a piece with local color
composed with art” and A. Levy’s Variações sobre um tema brasileiro, “which shows
the composer’s great inventive power and perfect musical education.”16 For Melo,
popular music is the basis for the culture of a people, and culture evolves historically
Music must do the same as architecture: to delve in history the pilasters of its
foundation, and to make the pedestal of its great works from its tradition. Thus
Wagner, the greatest drama composer of the nineteenth century, and also one of
the most energetic and deepest thinkers of all times, created the German school.
It was from the legends and traditions of his homeland that this great composer
created his masterly operas.17
For Melo, Volksgeist was at play not only as an element of national identity but
national character of music [which] would ensure for it a place in universal art.”18 See,
Melo’s work was truly a nationalist manifesto, two decades before Mário de
(1928). Melo describes the music, musical instruments, genres, and the musicality of
and Spanish influences]), and proposes a general program for the nationalization of art
music, including some specific guidelines for the nationalization of Brazilian opera. In
translated into music. Melo enumerates ways in which folk and popular music could be
Is it possible that Brazil - the land of music par excellence, where it is difficult to
say what is the most exuberant, if its fauna, its flora, or its music – cannot have
artists who could, as Glinka and Grieg, create national opera out of the popular
songs, the true flowers of national feelings? It is not only the Brazilian modinha
that can serve as a theme or as a basis for the foundation of national opera, as
some European learned men have said, among them lord Beckford, the critic and
historian Stafford, and the famous publicist Freycinet. Our legends and
traditional songs, if treated with art and mindfulness, be it as leitmotiv, main
theme of each act, solo, duetto, aria, cavatina, romance, etc., can be excellent
factors for the foundation of national opera. The Brazilian artist must forge art
as much as possible according to the nativist models that bear the national
feeling, but should also respect the general and fundamental forms of art, which,
as we all know, are cosmopolitan and do not have nationality.20
phenomenon with some doses of cultural relativism by recognizing that “the accurate
criteria for assessing the manifestation of the aesthetic genius of a people in any art or
literature lies in the understanding of the social phenomena and forms of each
of Brazilian folk and popular music with the work of Mário de Andrade two decades
later.
Melo’s basic view of Brazilianness in music. On the one hand, Almeida recognizes the
author emphasizes folk and popular expressions in the shaping of national culture.
Renato Almeida is the music scholar who states most clearly the influence of the Recife
School on his work: firstly, by dedicating his book to Graça Aranha,22 the writer and
intellectual who is credited with having carried Recife School’s modern thought to
exactly where Almeida lays out his aesthetic and critical standpoint. As in Melo’s case,
Júnior’s theories, Almeida considered that the “national character” was mostly shaped
by its natural environment rather than by its racial stock. In his introduction Almeida
formulates at length his own version of the obnubilação brasílica theory in Brazilian
music dramatized by the struggle of generations of Portuguese, and later Brazilians, with
tropical nature. Almeida’s introduction will be transcribed in its entirety due to the
First, Almeida describes the tropical environment and its wonders, so one can
understand later his explanation of the impact of nature on individuals. The excessive
use of poetic language in the first paragraph is not simply an exercise of erudition but
22 Graça Aranha (1868-1931) was a pupil of Tobias Barreto, the leading figure of the Recife School.
23 Martins 1977-8, 6: 55; Moraes 1978; and Paes 1992: 15-6.
24 Almeida 1926: 11-17.
21
rather indicative of the author’s view of nature’s overpowering sensorial impressions
The surrounding world is all allegory. Girdled by light, things shine and
shimmer touched by gold as in a marvelous flaming. Colors create and
transfigure in subtle, fickle glares among intense tones and light motives in an
amazing harmony. The sun singes, burns the forests, scalds the land and sets on
the sea refinement of sparkles giving joy and torpor, astonishment and
melancholy to nature. In the forest, leaves blister, tree trunks crack from which
warm resins outpour, and even the earth splits out in a voluptuous and cruel
anxiety. The vibration is a hallucination. It gives not only color but also sound.
See the prodigious symphony rising up! Red screams, green melodies, dried
leaves noise, lilac sobbing, and gray imprecations. It is the jungle’s voice
blaring. Sounds of violins, oboes, flutes, cellos, drums, bassoons and tympani
harmonizing a barbarian and grandiose rhythm. Even silence is a disturbing, low
toned voice that resonates and scares. Everything sings; the moaning stalks, the
murmuring rivers, the cascades in choral, the clicking cigarras, the buzzing bees
and moscardos, and all the birds, canaries, arapongas and coleiros, in polytonal
singing and screaming. The wild flowers and fierce fruits are vibrant notes in
this place where everything is sound, in this hesitant rumor of the chaste earth
which is all in all a song of joy and ecstasy.25
Then, Almeida tells the venture of the Portuguese in the tropics in its
Júnior’s explanation of the process of obnubilação brasílica. Almeida adds the musical
counterpart to the struggle between humankind and nature, reason and natural order.
25 “O mundo em torno é todo ele uma alegoria. Ao meio da luz, rebrilham e fulguram as coisas,
tocadas de oiro, como num incêndio maravilhoso. A cor cria e transfigura, nos reflexos cambiantes e
sutis, entre os tons intensos e os motivos suaves, numa surpreendente harmonia. O sol esbraseia,
queima as florestas, escalda a terra e põe no mar requintes de brilhos, dando à natureza a alegria e o
torpor, o deslumbramento e a melancolia. Na mata, torram as folhagens, arrebentam os troncos, donde
escorrem as resinas mornas, e a terra mesma se abre, numa ânsia cruel e voluptuosa. A soalheira é uma
alucinação. Não só dá cor, mas também som. Vêde a sinfonia prodigiosa que se levanta! Gritos
vermelhos, melopéias verdes, alaridos de folhas secas, soluços lilazes e imprecações cinzentas. São as
vozes da selva que estrugem. Sons de violinos e oboés, flautas, violoncelos, tambores, fagotes e
timbales, harmonizando um ritmo bárbaro e grandioso. Até o silêncio é uma voz grave e perturbadora,
que ressoa e amedronta. Tudo canta; as ramarias gementes, os rios murmurosos, as cascatas em corais,
as cigarras estridentes, os bezouros e os moscardos zumbindo e a passarada, na politonia dos gorjeios e
gritos, dos canários, das arapongas e dos coleiros. As flores silvestres e os frutos bravos são notas
vibrantes e em tudo há som, nesse rumor indeciso da terra virgem, que é toda inteira um canto de alegria
e de êxtase.”
22
Man came traversing the sea by caravels with nostalgia of the distant homeland,
and acclimatized in the ardent environment of the strange world. Fatigue and
lassitude followed astonishment, and [man] was humiliated by the brutal rhythm
of nature, eloquent in its feast of light and sound, because the tessitura of his
voice was too paltry to match the resounding orchestration. Desolated and sad,
melancholic in a golden palace with precious stones, man cried, and his singing
was a sorrowful melody of longing that came out of his scared heart in the
fulgor of the new land. The timbres of Brazilian symphony, which belittled the
daring foreigner, did not resound [make sense] in the weak imagination of the
European. It was earth’s first defense against the fearless conqueror. Earth
humiliated him and sung a painful, melancholic song in the middle of the
endless flurry of its astounding harmonies.26
The confrontation between nature’s music and man’s music is more than a
metaphor for the struggle between nature and civilization. The author maintains not only
that nature’s sounds impress upon humans, but also that the historical situation of
Brazilian offspring that will be expressed through the sentimentality of their music.
Man still has the superiority of which the great Pascal warns him: you can cry
out to every thing – you do not think but I do! Man would dominate the wild
land with his music of strident metals and long melodies. In the same way man
would not be afraid of facing nature to win her over, crossing the dreadful,
mysterious jungle on every side in dauntless expeditions, he would not silence
himself before the thousand-voice concert. He would sing, although sadly, until
his offspring born in the prodigious setting would feel through the heat of their
blood the harmonious language of the things around, interpreting it and joining
their voices with nature’s in an exalting tone. The ones who were born in the
new country were marked by innate astonishment. They were imaginative. The
wild land’s drive vibrated in their soul but melancholy was still in the bottom of
their heart. Ecstasy ceased once in a while to give place to sadness and
weariness, which were then translated by the lyric strings of acrid
sentimentalism. That pain of their parents remained with them as an implacable
tribute to an origin foreign to the American world. Earth revenges his defiler
once again. As long as nature’s voice resounds in their ears, nostalgia will lash
26 “O homem, que veio singrando os mares nas caravelas, com a nostalgia da pátria distante, pasmou-se
no meio ardente do mundo estranho. Ao deslumbramento sucedeu a fadiga e a lassidão e, ao ritmo brutal
da natureza, eloquente na sua festa de luz e de som, ficou humilhado, porque a tessitura da sua voz era
mesquinha para se altear na orquestração fortíssima. Desolado e triste, melancólico num palácio de ouro
e pedrarias, chorou, e seu canto foi uma melopéia dolente, de saudade, que lhe irrompia do coração
amedrontado no fulgor da terra nova. Na sua fraca imaginativa de europeu não se afinavam os timbres da
sinfonia brasileira, que amesquinhava o estrangeiro ousado. Era a primeira defesa da terra contra o
conquistador audaz. Humilhava-o. Cantaria uma canção dolorosa e melancólica, por entre o alvoroço
perene de suas harmonias formidáveis.”
23
their hearts of belittled men. This is the basis of the sadness of Brazilian
psyche.27
terms of environmental determinism: “we could only be musical.” Tropical nature not
only conditions Brazilian musicality but also grants its originality. The text closes with a
nationalist manifesto that emphasizes the importance of natural environment rather than
We could only be musical. Only cold natures are silent and our nature
symphonizes its own light. The forms of popular song, and the autochthonous
and imported transformations are of little importance; what remains is the
Brazilian rhythm with a golden color, full of sunlight, fulgent, and marvelous.
We will create our music with Brazilian rhythm, and those who despise it will
build nothing that will last, because works are flimsy out of their environment. It
is with this crude stone that we will carve the ideal statue, which will reborn to
the blow of the genius, in flesh and blood, translucid and alive. We must listen to
the earth’s voice and create the rhythm of our profound and immortal art.
Hybridization only produces monsters. We must learn how to make every beat
of the natural concert a motive of art and then we will create our own sounding
world.28
27 “Resta, porém, ao homem a superioridade de que avisa o grande Pascal: pode gritar às coisas – tu não
pensas e eu penso! Dominaria assim a terra bravia, com sua música de metais estridentes e melodias
largas. Da mesma forma que não temeria o embate da natureza para vencê-la, varando de lado a lado, em
bandeiras destemidas, a selva misteriosa e terrível, não se calaria ante o seu concerto de mil vozes.
Cantaria, triste embora, até que seus filhos, já nascidos no cenário prodigioso, pudessem sentir no calor
do sangue essa linguagem harmoniosa das coisas, interpretando-a e unindo a sua voz à delas no mesmo
tom de exaltação. Os que nasceram no país novo, já traziam a marca do deslumbramento. Eram
imaginosos. Fremiam-lhes na alma as ânsias da terra rude, mas no íntimo do coração ficara o travo de
melancolia. O êxtase, por vezes cessa, para dar lugar à tristeza e ao abatimento, que se traduzem nas
cordas líricas de um sentimentalismo um pouco amargo. Aquela dor de seus pais, perdura neles, como
um tributo implacável da origem diferente ao mundo americano. Mais uma vez a terra se vinga de seu
desvirginador. Enquanto ressoarem nos seus ouvidos as vozes da natureza, aperta-lhes o coração a
nostalgia de amesquinhados. Esse é o fundo de tristeza da psique brasileira.”
28 “Não podíamos deixar de ser musicais. Só as naturezas frias são mudas e a nossa sinfoniza a própria
luz. Pouco importam as formas do canto popular, as modificações autóctones ou importadas; ficou o
ritmo brasileiro, com uma cor dourada, cheia de sol, fulgente, maravilhosa. Com ele havemos de criar a
nossa música e os que o desprezarem não construirão nada de definitivo, porque fora do meio as obras
são precárias. Nessa massa rude é que havemos de plasmar a estátua ideal, que renascerá ao sopro do
gênio, com carne e sangue, viva e translúcida. Ouçamos as vozes da terra e criaremos o ritmo de nossa
arte, profunda e imortal. As enxertias só produzem monstros. Saibamos fazer de todos os toques do
concerto natural um motivo de arte e criaremos o nosso mundo sonoro.”
24
The acknowledgement of the obnubilação brasílica theory as a guiding concept
in Almeida’s thinking is key to the interpretation of his statement “works are flimsy out
of their environment,” since for Almeida “environment” is nature rather than social
meaning primarily “nature.” If Araripe had reinterpreted Taine’s trilogy with emphasis
on historical moment, then one could maintain that Almeida reference to “environment”
implied significantly in social context. Since this is not the case, it would be misleading
awareness.
preference of nature over race in defining Brazilian uniqueness in proposing that “we
must learn how to make every beat of the natural concert a motive of art and then we will
create our own sounding world.” Considering that Almeida was one of the greatest
promoters of folklore studies in Brazil, his statement about hybridization reveals how
uncomfortable Brazilian intelligentsia was in relation to Brazil’s ethnic stock in the first
decades of the twentieth century. Almeida’s perplexity was not different from Romero’s
common with Romero, his theory of nationalism proposed in his book of 1926 had
25
Almeida admonishes that Brazilian composers should not let the necessary
Although Brazilian composers should learn how to operate upon the European
framework, they should function within a Brazilian frame of mind. The obnubilação
to free themselves from the European bias and delve into the impact of tropical nature so
that their subjectivity will be fully shaped by their environment and express musically
Do not let the lesson that we must learn cut the freshness of our voice, trap us in
prejudices, or blind our eyes! It is necessary to feel the brutal contact with the
universe to keep the mark of the indomitable force that art transfigures without
waning. Let’s be artists touched by our marvelous habitat, where each spirit
must be free and sincere, and feel intensively the mystery of things. In the drives
of imagination and fears of melancholy, let’s make our ecstatic and gentle song
of heroism, tenderness, and pain. The artist, who is a creator of values, cannot
isolate himself from his environment without falling into sterile artificialism.
Enough is to transform life as it presents itself before him in motives of deep
emotion, force and beauty. It is a work of creation, an ever-renewing miracle
shining in man’s genius. The temperament does not eschew from its
environment. Instead, the heat of the environment helps to shape all forms in
which temperament reveals itself. Environment is a category inseparable from
our spirit.29
The overly florid style of Almeida’s text has provoked a negative reaction by
study of Brazilian music. However, it is important to realize that the implied meanings of
29 “Que a lição que tivermos de aprender não nos tolde a frescura da voz, não nos encadeie em
preconceitos, não nos escureça os olhos! É preciso sentir o contacto brutal com o universo para guardar
a marca de sua força indomável, que a arte transfigura sem apoucar. Sejamos os artistas comovidos do
nosso habitat maravilhoso, onde cada espírito deve ser livre e sincero, sentindo intensamente o mistério
das coisas. Nos arroubos da imaginação e nos temores da melancolia, façamos o nosso canto extasiado
ou suave, de heroismo, de ternura, ou de dor. O artista, que é um criador de valores, não se pode isolar
do meio sem cair no artificialismo falso e infecundo. Basta-lhe transformar a vida, como se lhe
apresenta, em motivos de emoção profunda, de força, ou de beleza. É a obra de criação, milagre sempre
renovado e fulgurante no gênio dos homens. O temperamento não refoge ao ambiente, mas em todas as
formas que tomar, o seu calor terá auxiliado a modelagem. É uma categoria inseparável do nosso
espírito.”
26
the metaphors used by Almeida derive from the scientificist view of culture from which
he drew, namely, Taine’s, Buckle’s and Araripe Júnior’s theories of the impact of
nature on individuals and therefore in the shaping of culture. It is from this perspective
that one must interpret Almeida’s discourse constructed upon metaphors in commenting
on the works by Brazilian composers. For instance, later in the book Almeida touches
on the issue of Brazilian landscape by noting its impact on Carlos Gomes’ soul and
music:
Carlos Gomes … had in his eyes the suggestive spectacle of our landscape in its
radiant color and constant wonderment since his childhood. This symphony of
majestic chords would never fade from his ears, and the admirable, strong
impression of the land would remain in his spirit. The clear lines of this first
contact with nature would resonate in his work.30
Almeida mentions neither the works nor the ways in which Gomes and Villa-
Nepomuceno’s work has the warmth and vibration, the sense of exorbitant
nature that makes man melancholic. … The pictorial note dominates over the
psychological, but the latter comes out sometimes in the sentimentality of many
musics as in his admirable songs that remind us of the vague and luminous
spirit of the land in the gracious fantasy of the motives. The aroused emotion
30 “Carlos Gomes … teve nos olhos desde menino o espetáculo sugestivo da nossa paisagem, em suas
cores radiosas e num deslumbramento constante. Essa sinfonia de acordes majestosos não se lhe
apagaria mais dos ouvidos, e a impressão admirável e pujante da terra, lhe perduraria no espírito. Na sua
obra fulgiriam as linhas claras desse primeiro contato com a natureza.” (Almeida 1926: 84)
31 Almeida 1926: 174.
32 Almeida 1926: 119.
27
reveals the artist’s profound sincerity towards nature, be it in the skies, in the
forests, or in people’s heart. The artist’s songs are pages of strange flavor and
intense poetry in which natural and sentimental lyricism are fused in a prolonged
vibration of ecstasy and love. There is an instinctive lyricism of exaltation,
tenderness and melancholy in Nepomuceno’s art.33
Almeida believes that Brazilian melancholy and nostalgia result from the impact
of nature on human beings, and considers them “the supreme motif of Brazilian art.”
The prelude to Garatuja, written with sweetness and dream, has the warm smell
of earth and expresses the pantheism that tends to love things rather than
decipher them. Nepomuceno felt nature with an ardent inspiration and revealed it
sincerely with notes coming from his heart. … The Série Brasileira [Brazilian
Series] for orchestra shows this spirit of intimacy with nature … brilliantly
flashing in those pages with light and clarity, in its vibrant and marked
expressions, now in intense colors, now in vague notes of a popular motive. …
The grace of his songs is sometimes melancholic, and its lyricism is sometimes
spirited, sometimes affectionate; it is the Brazilian nostalgia of which
Nepomuceno was one of the most sensitive poets. The strange environment, as
we have already shown, makes us sad and we decipher life through the resulting
melancholy. It is the supreme motive of Brazilian art.34
conferring it with the emotional attributes of the very culture that nature had affected.
33 “A sua obra [Nepomuceno’s] tem o calor e a vibração, o sentido da natureza exorbitante, que
melancoliza o homem. … A nota pictural domina mais do que a psicológica, mas essa remonta por
vezes, na sentimentalidade de muitas músicas, como nessas admiráveis canções que, ao ouvi-las, se nos
acorda na memória esse vago e luminoso espírito da terra, na fantasia graciosa dos motivos. A emoção
que desperta revela a profunda sinceridade do artista com a natureza, seja nos céus, seja nas matas, ou
seja no coração da gente. Suas canções são páginas de um sabor estranho e de uma poesia intensa, em
que se fundem o lirismo natural com o sentimental, numa vibração prolongada, de êxtase e amor. Na
arte de Nepomuceno há um naturalismo instintivo, de exaltação, de ternura, ou de melancolia.”
(Almeida 1926: 116-7)
34 “No prelúdio do Garatuja, feito com doçura e enlevo, com um cheiro quente da terra, freme um
panteismo amigo das coisas, mais para amá-las do que para decifrá-las. É que sentiu a natureza como
uma inspiração ardente e a revelou sinceramente, em notas vindas do coração. … A Série Brasileira
para orquestra mostra esse espírito próximo da natureza … e que fulge nessas páginas cheias de luz e de
claridade, nas suas expressões vibrantes e marcadas, ora num colorido intenso, ora na leve anotação de
um motivo popular. … Das suas canções … a graça por vezes é melancólica, e o lirismo, ora
espirituoso, ora comovido, é a suave nostalgia brasileira, de que Nepomuceno foi um dos poetas mais
sensíveis. O meio estranho, já o mostramos, nos faz tristes e, na melancolia resultante, vamos
decifrando a vida. É o motivo máximo da arte brasileira.” (Almeida 1926: 117-8)
28
[Francisco Braga] is a meritorious landscaper in Marabá. In this work he gives
us the impression of our endless, thick forests in the happiness of the sunrise
when everything turns gold in a radiant wonderment of light. One hears
Marabá’s sad song in this ambience and all voices join in the same lyricism as if
the ardent nature needed to humanize itself in that indefinable sorrow. In the
same way Jupyra, the prelude of which is above all a very Brazilian page, is a
poem of our nature in reflecting that melancholy to which we are led by the
surrounding world in its overwhelming opulence.35
If we needed a vibrant, living proof of the idea we have insisted upon in this
essay, i.e., the influence of the environment upon the artwork, Villa-Lobos’
music would give us the most absolute demonstration. He is neither merely a
landscaper that imitates nature nor a folklorist that stylizes popular motives, but
rather an expansive personality who has the spirit of the land nourishing his art
with the vitality of nature, the melancholy of man, and the uncertain Brazilian
psyche … the characteristics of the Brazilian soul.36
the Recife School on Renato Almeida. In this chapter the author continues to lay out his
theory with Taine’s three factors (race, environment, and historical moment) and Silvio
Almeida defines the Volksgeist of “the three races forming the Brazilian
nationality”37 (the Indian, the Black, and the Portuguese), and proposes a series of
35 “Em Marabá [Francisco Braga] é um paisagista de mérito, dando-nos a impressão das nossas matas
espessas e intermináveis, na alegria do amanhecer, quando tudo faz oiro num radioso deslumbramento de
luz. O canto triste de Marabá se ouve nesse ambiente e todas as vozes se unem no mesmo lirismo,
como se a natureza ardente precisasse se humanizar naquela mágoa indefinível. Por igual Jupyra, cujo
prelúdio sobretudo é uma página muito brasileira, é um poema da nossa natureza, no reflexo dessa
melancolia a que somos levados pelo próprio mundo que nos cerca, na sua transbordante opulência.”
(Almeida 1926: 129-30)
36 “Se precisássemos de uma viva e fulgurante demonstração pelo que vimos insistindo neste ensaio,
sobre a influência do meio na obra de arte, a música do Sr. Villa-Lobos nos daria a mais absoluta. Sem
ser um simples paisagista, que copiasse a natureza, nem um folklorista, que viesse aproveitando os
motivos populares para estilizações, sendo antes uma personalidade exorbitante, o Sr. Villa-Lobos tem
a animar a sua arte o espírito da terra, no fulgor da natureza, na melancolia do homem, enfim na incerta
psique brasileira … os característicos da alma brasileira.” (Almeida 1926: ?)
37 Almeida 1926: 31.
29
psychological characteristics making up their music. The shaping of melancholy, the
common feeling among all three ethnic groups, reveals more clearly how Almeida
In the case of new countries, the popular motive came with the conqueror and
reflects this pain of adjustment to which the daring spirit was dedicated. Among
us, in the ardor of exuberant tropical nature, the song was melancholic.
Melancholic was the Indian, hidden away and indolent, who lived full of
nostalgia in a perpetual awe for the surrounding things; melancholic was the
Portuguese, daring but sad, living out in the sea and longing for his homeland,
always in his heart; melancholic was the Black, hunted, stolen and slaved, who
suffered in captivity an incurable, annihilating pain. All voices raised in this
contrasting scenario of magnificent brilliance. The Brazilian soul keeps this
tragic core in which man is afraid of nature and tries to win her through exalted
imagination but falls in tiredness and languor. One cannot find a more vivid
symbol of this first encounter with the environment, of this restless, painful
ecstasy before a hurting hugeness, than in popular song that condenses the
endless melancholy like the marvelous, wild flower’s perfume. It is the mirror of
fear, exaltation, and sadness of human soul that looks at nature as if it was a
phantom, and sees malevolent gods in frightening things.38
Like Melo, Almeida also shares the Volksgeist hypothesis, according to which
the collective spirit of a people is “the truly fundamental, creative and stimulating
element in art.”39
Art needs eternal material for perpetual construction. This material is the soul of
each people, the sum of their joy and pain, the secret inclinations and the violent
drives, the unfulfilled desires and the bitter deceptions, enfin, human experience
in life’s suffering. The peculiar tendencies that mark people in similar
38 “Nos povos novos, o motivo popular veio com o conquistador e reflete essa dor da adaptação, em
que sagrou seu espírito audacioso. Entre nós, no ardor da natureza tropical, cheia de fulgurações, o canto
foi melancólico. Melancólico era o índio fugidio e indolente, que vivia a vida cheio de nostalgia, num
perpétuo espanto pelas coisas que o cercavam; melancólico era o lusitano, ousado mas triste, vivendo
no mar e com a saudade da pátria sempre no coração; melancólico era o negro, caçado, roubado e
escravizado, que sofria no cativeiro uma dor irremediável e aniquilante. Todas essas vozes que se
levantaram eram um contraste com o cenário, de magnífico fulgor. A alma do brasileiro guarda esse
fundo trágico, em que o homem teme a natureza e procura vencê-la pela imaginação exaltada caindo
depois em abatimento e langor. E esse primeiro encontro com o meio, esse inquieto e doloroso êxtase
ante uma grandeza que maltrata, não encontraremos em símbolos mais vivos do que no canto popular,
através da infinda melancolia que resuma, como perfume de flor agreste e maravilhosa. É o espelho do
temor, da exaltação e da tristeza da alma humana, que olha a natureza como um fantasma e cria deuses
adversos nas coisas que assombra.” (Almeida 1926: 23-4)
39 Dahlhaus 1989: 81.
30
circumstances related to the environment, the whim of the race, and the
necessities of life, constitute the distinguishing elements: the character of each
people that one can see in their monuments and that crystallized itself in the art
work.40
Gallet; 176 on Lorenzo Fernandez) enumerates the works in which Brazilian composers
have used folk and popular materials. He considers Levy among the first Brazilian
since the 1890s generation. However, Almeida concludes that “despite a few attempts,
such as by Alexandre Levy and Alberto Nepomuceno, we have not had a composer who
knew how to drink from the inexhaustible fountain of inspiration and translate the gifts
We do not have a perfect cultural formation, and the education of our taste has
not been refined yet. There is the foreign disturbance, an element of corruption
40 “A arte precisa de material eterno para sua construção perpétua. Esse material é a alma de cada povo,
é a soma de suas alegrias e de sua dores, as inclinações secretas e as ânsias violentas, os desejos
insofridos e as decepcões amargas, enfim a experiência humana no sofrimento da vida. As diretivas
peculiares, que dessas circunstâncias sempre iguais marcam os povos, ligadas ao meio físico, às taras da
raça, às necessidades da vida, constituem elementos de distinção: o caráter de cada um deles, que se revê
em seus monumentos e se cristaliza na obra de arte.” (Almeida 1926: 108)
41 “Apesar de algumas tentativas, como Nepomuceno e Levy, ainda não tivemos quem soubesse se
embriagar nessa fonte inesgotável de inspiração, traduzindo os pendores e anseios da alma popular.”
(Almeida 1926: 56).
31
that deserves attention, and the sterile concerns for schools that we want to
transplant to our environment, which is totally divorced from those quarrels.
Despite all barriers, music in Brazil has freed itself in search of harmonizing the
voices of the land, the fertile, creative rhythm, with the inflow of culture so as to
create an autonomous art that translates all drives of the modern spirit, (…)
aiming to reintegrate music to its origins in the land, and to link it through
culture to the universal spirit.42
had noted for European nationalism of the first half of the nineteenth century,43 namely,
Brazilian landscape, and Almeida offered specific examples in which music embodies
nationality through local nature. On the other hand, both authors gave specific examples
of folk and popular materials absorbed into art music, and only this aspect of their work
functioned as a paradigm for subsequent studies. Later studies of Brazilian art music
have mostly neglected landscape and pursued almost exclusively the issue of
nationalism in relation to the use of native, folk and popular materials. Renato Almeida
affiliated with Araripe Júnior’s obnubilação brasílica theory and influenced by Graça
Aranha, as it is expressed in his book of 1926. The second, corrected and enlarged
42 “Ainda não temos uma formação cultural perfeita e a educação do nosso gosto não está aprimorado
[sic]. Há a perturbação do estrangeirismo, que é um elemento de corrupção digno de nota, e as
preocupações infecundas de escolas, que queremos transportar para o nosso meio, alheio a tais quisilhas.
Mas, através de todos os entraves, a música no Brasil se liberta, buscando harmonizar as vozes da terra,
o ritmo criador e fecundo, com o influxo da cultura, para a criação de uma arte autônoma, que traduza
todas as ânsias do espírito moderno, (…) buscando reintegrar a música nas origens da terra e ligá-la pela
cultura ao espírito universal.” (Almeida 1926: 220-1)
43 Dahlhaus 1989: 82-3.
32
“national,” probably influenced by Mário de Andrade. Renato Almeida’s theorical turn
reflected increasingly in his activities during the following decades: Almeida created the
Weeks] in 1948, 1949, 1950 and 1952, the first Congresso Brasileiro de Folclore
historiography what Nunes (1998, 232) has noted in relation to Brazilian literary
historiography, namely, that “the Romeroan system persisted in its great lines until
Modernism.”44
(represented by his book of 1942 and his activities as folklorist henceforth) turned to
Silvio Romero’s ideas in framing the issue of nationalism. This perspective was adopted
by later Brazilian musicologists, such as Luis Heitor Correia Azevedo,46 who like
Almeida and Andrade, was also a folklorist. The importance these later Brazilian
Brazilian characteristics has shaped most of the views about Brazilian art music
Luciano Gallet47 and Flausino Rodrigues do Vale,48 were scrutinizing what and how
44 Silvio Romero’s thought had a major impact not only on literary but also on social-anthropological
studies. (Leite 1983: 192)
45 Mário de Andrade (1893-1945), Brazilian writer, poet, critic, musicologist and folklorist, founded the
Sociedade de Etnografia e Folclore de São Paulo in 1937.
46 Luis Heitor Correia Azevedo (1905-1992), musicologist and folklorist, was the first professor of
Brazilian folklore at the E.N.M.U.B. (formerly Instituto Nacional de Música, currently EM-UFRJ),
appointed in 1939. In 1943 he founded the first center of folklore research in Brazil.
47 Luciano Gallet (1893-1931), composer and folklorist, published Canções Populares Brasileiras
(1924, 2 vols.; 1926, 3 vols.), and Estudos de folclore (1934; with Introduction by Mário de Andrade).
33
much of Indian, Portuguese and African contribution one could find in Brazilian folk,
The issue of national identity did not have the same polemic tone among music
scholars as it had in the literary circle. While Romero and Araripe Júnior had battled
theory were simply dropped. Andrade’s nationalist ideas on Brazilian music were
epitomized in his Ensaio sobre a música brasileira (1928). Andrade criticizes the
misinformed the European equation of the Brazilian identity with the Indian.
One piece of advice Europeans have given is that if we want to make national
music we must search aboriginal material because only the Indians are
legitimately Brazilian. This is naïve and reflects the ignorance of sociological,
ethnic, psychological and aesthetic problems. (…) The Amerindian does not
participate of those things [social norms, racial elements and geographic
borders], and despite living in our territory they are still Amerindian and not
Brazilian.50
The last two sentences of the previous quotation echoes Romero’s ideas on the
34
culture, according to which “the Amerindian element is psychologically assimilated but
Romero held for literature and culture at large. Andrade inherited from Romero the
research attitude towards popular (folk) cultural expressions aiming to apprehend the
national spirit. Andrade was influenced by Romero’s emphasis on Volksgeist and its
echoes in Melo and Almeida in the idea that “the musical characteristics of race … [lay]
in popular music”52 and that “Brazilian popular music is the most complete, the fullest
Andrade rephrases the same idea as follows: “The artist has only to give a
learned transposition to the already existing elements so as to make art music out of
popular music.”55
Although Andrade had held that “the Brazilian composer must search in
corresponded to his contemporary historical moment57 and remarked that “if we accept
exotic even to ourselves,”58 and that “the composer must be neither exclusionist nor
unilateral. If exclusionist, the composer risks turning his work into a false and falsifying
phenomenon. … If unilateral, the artist becomes anti-national and makes music that is
characteristic of Brazilian people and culture, and therefore, of its Volksgeist (“espírito
nation as a whole transcending into a “general spirit” (“espírito geral”), the “Brazilian
One of the problems that it has been possible to change in its obsolete sense was
that of literary nationalism. It was an old obsession to search for a somewhat
fluctuant and incorrect nativism that did not even know what it aimed for. This
particular concept of nativism had two phases that must not be mistaken with
each other as it is frequently the case. In the first phase nativism had an ethnic
fancy and looked for a race that characterizes us and therefore despised the other
ones. Sometimes it was the Portuguese, sometimes the Black, sometimes the
caboclo; the latter predominated. Later the nativists were convinced of the
artificiality of these attempts and abandoned the idea of race and adopted the
idea of regional classes based on the large geographical areas of the country.
They did not go any further. It was not the caboclo, or the Black or the
Portuguese anymore. It was the sertanejo, the matuto, the caipira, the praieiro,
etc. All this was only external. They made costumes and dressed these people,
and that was it. However, Brazil is none of these because it is more than all of
these. It is true that those types are real, but they are isolated particularities and
do not fill the entire national gallery. There is the general spirit that comprises
and dominates them; it is the popular spirit, nation’s subjectivity that cannot be
fabricated but has to be spontaneous. The national character lies neither in
mentioning maracás and tangapemas nor in evoking xiba, bumba-meu-boi,
samba, etc. The national character lies in the original feeling, in the Brazilian
especial way of feeling. Therefore, nationalism cannot be an objective literary
thesis … First of all it is necessary to study our contemporary people in their
origins, in their anonymous productions, defining their emotional intimacy, their
artistic vision. It is necessary to study our popular poetry and beliefs convinced
(general spirit), “espírito popular” (the spirit of the people), and “sentir especial do
brasileiro” (the Brazilian special way of feeling) are related to his espousing of
Romero’s idea of “sentir especial do brasileiro” and the term “caráter nacional”
translating it into the expression “alma brasileira” (Brazilian soul) which was not by
Mário de Andrade had however left behind the racist theories implied in
Romero’s and Araripe Júnior’s views. This attitude did not originate with Andrade,
since the idea of racial superiority of the European and racial inferiority of the Black, the
60 “Um dos problemas que se conseguiu modificar em seu sentido obsoleto foi o do nacionalismo
literário. Era uma velha teima a de procurar um certo nativismo flutuante e incorreto, que nem mesmo
sabia o que visava. O conceito desse nativismo atravessou duas fases, que não devem mais ser
confundidas como o têm sido comumente. Na primeira tinha veleidades étnicas e andava à procura de
uma raça que nos caracterizasse e, por via de regra, dizia mal das outras. Ora era o português, ora o
negro, ora o caboclo. Este predominou. Convencidos mais tarde os nativistas do que havia de artificial
nessas tentativas, abandonaram a idéia de raça e apegaram-se à de classes fundadas nas grandes divisões
geográficas do país. Ficaram neste ponto. Não era mais o caboclo, ou o negro, ou o luso: passou-se ao
sertanejo, ao matuto, ao caipira, ao praieiro, etc. Tudo isto, porém, externamente. Talhavam-se vestes e
enroupava-se esta gente e nada mais. Entretanto, o Brasil não é nada disto; porque é mais do que tudo
isto. Aqueles são tipos reais, é certo; mas particulares, isolados, e não enchem toda a galeria pátria. Há
o espírito geral que os compreende, que os domina; é o espírito popular, subjetivo à nação, que não
pode fabricar, que deve ser espontâneo. O caráter nacional não está em se falar em maracás e
tangapemas, tampouco está em se lembrar o xiba, o bumba-meu-boi, o samba, etc. Deve estar no
sentimento original, no sentir especial do brasileiro. O nacionalismo não há de, pois, ser uma tese
objetiva de literatura … Deve-se antes estudar o nosso povo atual em suas origens, em suas produções
anônimas, definindo a sua intimidade emocional, a sua visualidade artística. Deve-se proceder ao estudo
de nossa poesia e crenças populares com a convicção do valor dessa contribuição etnológica, desse
subsídio anônimo para a compreensão do espírito da nação.” (Romero 1888, quoted in Weber 1997: 72-
3)
61 Leite 1992: 189-190.
62 Capistrano de Abreu, quoted in Martins 1977-8, 5: 115.
37
Indian and the miscegenated people has been attacked by Brazilian intellectuals since the
The central point of discussion between Manoel Bonfim63 and Silvio Romero64
was the issue of race and miscegenation. Romero (influenced by Agassiz65 and
Gobineau66) distinguished between inferior and superior races while Bonfim refuted all
the supposedly scientific arguments supporting the doctrine that miscegenated societies
are inferior by definition. The chapter “As Novas Sociedades” [The New Societies] of
Qualities and defects attributed to the Black resulted from the “situation to
which they were constrained” (slavery) and not from their race; the savagery of
the Indians was not worse than the Spanish in Cuba, the British in Carton, the
American in the Philippines, and the Portuguese in the East. Actually, imperialist
nations considered themselves superior and designated inferior the races under
their domination: it was a political, if not a purely material or tautological
concept. (…) The inferiority of South-American nations (where miscegenation
predominates) was not of racial but of historical and psychological order. (…)
The largest part of the defects attributed to mestiços [miscegenated people] were
due to their deficient education and can be corrected by proper education: South-
American nations were not decadent, but nations that had not had their historical
opportunity, and nations to which the benefits of instruction have been
systematically denied.67
Propaganda] initiated in 1919, which adopted the principle of racial equality in its
agenda,68 and Alberto Torres’69 ideas reproaching the uncritical acceptance of European
63 Manoel Bonfim (1868-1932), A América Latina: males de origem. Rio de Janeiro: Garnier, 1905.
64 Romero published a series of 25 articles criticizing Bonfim’s book in the weekly periodical Os
Anais. Romero’s articles were later published in his book of 1906 A América Latina: análise do livro
de igual título do Dr. M. Bonfim. (Ventura 1991: 146)
65 Agassiz, Journey in Brazil (1868).
66 Gobineau, Essai sur l’inegalité des races humaines (c.1854).
67 Quoted in Martins 1977-8: 5, 276-7). For further discussion on the issue, see also Leite (1992: 250-
5), Skidmore (1974), Ortiz (1994: 22-7), and Ventura (1991: 156-8).
68 Ortiz 1994: 35.
69 Alberto Torres (1865-1917), a politician and intelectual, published O problema nacional brasileiro:
social reality.70 In the same decade Álvaro Bomilcar rejected the idea of racial inferiority
africana e seus costumes na Bahia” [The African race and their customs in Bahia]
(1916) made evident that prejudice against race and color was not only non-scientific
but also anti-scientific, twenty years before this idea became a common place in
intelligentsia reached out to the arts. The Revista do Brasil (February, 1916) presented
which the author reacts against racist theories instilled in Brazilian self-image since
Gobineau and Agassiz stating that “we are neither inferior nor decadent people. It is
just that we have not reached the maturity as a nation … with a thinking, a feeling, and a
Andrade went back to the Herderian concept and searched for Brazilian “caráter
nacional” following “the notion, prevalent in the nineteenth century, that lying in the
major composer.”73
and popular songs in Brazil] (1936) Andrade “studies some rhythmic, tonal, harmonic,
melodic, and formal patterns and tendencies of popular music in Brazil.”74 In his
Andrade remarks “some coincidences between Carlos Gomes operatic music and our
popular melody,”75 and in his “Evolução social da música no Brasil” [Social evolution
of music in Brazil] (1939) Andrade calls attention to the pioneer role of Alexandre Levy
and Alberto Nepomuceno in the nationalization of Brazilian art music “through popular
themes.”76
Andrade was a very influential voice through his criticism in periodicals, books,
and letters, not to mention his personal contacts and activities with the Brazilian
intellectuals of the period. The impact of Andrade’s thinking is felt in Luís Heitor
Correia de Azevedo’s work as musicologist and folklorist and also in more recent
studies such as Gerard Béhague’s “Popular Musical Currents in the Art Music of the
University, 1966), a portion of which was later published as The Beginnings of Musical
Nationalism in Brazil (1971). Among many Andradean influences, one may point out
that Azevedo adhered to the idea (stated in Ensaio, 1928 and “Evolução social da
música no Brasil,” 1939) that “music is the most sociological of all arts.”77 This
postulate was also crucial in inspiring Béhague’s earnest transit between musicology
Béhague to legitimately proclaim the ideologue of modernism and nationalism the first
Brazilian ethnomusicologist.
Brasil [Popular Songs in Brazil], pub. 1883) Romero divided Brazilian population into
inhabitants of the forests (matas), seashores and riverbanks (praias e margens de rio),
backlands (sertões), and cities (cidades).78 Azevedo (1959) distinguished nine musical
areas that coincides largely with geographic-cultural areas: Amazon (which was
musically an incognito for the author), cantoria (which coincides with the sertão), côco
(the Northeastern coast), autos (some areas of the Northeastern, Southeastern and
In his article “A música brasileira e seus fundamentos” [Brazilian music and its
foundations] (1950) Luís Heitor Correia de Azevedo80 attests his sharing of Gilberto
Freyre’s81 “racial democracy” ideology and corroborates Bilden’s idea that in the
antagonistic class to the Indian and the Black, or merely constituting a superficial layer
that is not representative of the reality of national formation, accepted to cohabit with
them in a fecund leveling that is unique in the entire hemisphere.”82 Azevedo also
78 Ortiz 1985: 16.
79 See map in Béhague’s article “Brazil,” in The New Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians
(1980) vol. 1, 223); see also Rafael José de Menezes Bastos, “Las músicas tradicionales del Brasil,”
Revista Musical Chilena 125 (1974): 21-77, especially pp. 31-73.
80 Regis Duprat (1998-99) “Luís Heitor Corrêa de Azevedo: o cinqüentenário de um livro” offers an
acute discussion of Azevedo’s work in relationship to the development of Brazilian musicology as well
as to compositional issues concerning nationalism and the twentieth-century modernization of the
musical language.
81 Gilberto Freyre (1900-199) studied with Franz Boas at the Columbian University, and was the major
scholar who replaced “race” with “culture” as the guiding concept in Brazilian anthopological studies.
Casa Grande e Senzala (1933).
82 Azevedo 1950: 16-7 paraphrasing Ruediger Bilden, Race relations in Latin America with special
contribution of each of the three ethnic groups (the Indian, the Black, and the
worked in relationship to music, namely, that the Indian had contributed less to Brazilian
culture than the African and the Portuguese.84 As had Andrade, Azevedo asserts the
music.
Azevedo had stated that “we must search the foundations of Brazilian music in new
in Brazil (1956) did not carry the nationalist-manifesto tone of the previous books by
Melo and Almeida. Duprat considers the year 1950 “a watershed in the attitude towards
the issues still faced by Modernism concerning national identity, and the modernization
Música e músicos do Brasil [Music and musicians of Brazil] (1950) the musicological
latter’s ability to retain and express his own personality and create an individual style, or
in other words, the issue of originality; and how Brazilian composers were able to
“nationalistic” criteria to evaluate, interpret and represent Brazilian music history, and
this can be identified mostly in the various attempts to identify “earlier gestures of
Many scholars have battled over the earliest piece using popular or folk elements
bitu’ (1887) was claimed to be the first nationalist work by a Brazilian composer. 88
Later, Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha’s A Sertaneja, Op. 15 (pub. 1969), a piano fantasy that
quotes the Brazilian popular tune “Balaio, meu bem, balaio” and presents many other
an earlier date,89 and many other scholars made efforts to date this piece.90 Finally,
87 The nationalist composer Camargo Guarnieri proclaimed Nepomuceno the “father of Brazilian
music;” Rodrigues Barbosa, among others, considered Nepomuceno the “founder of Brazilian music.”
(Béhague 1967: 271).
88 Gelásio Pimenta (1925) article in São Paulo ano II No. 20.
89 João Itiberê da Cunha, “Um precursor da música brasileira,” Ilustração Musical 1/1 (August,
1930); Andrade Muricy, “Música brasileira moderna,” Revista da Associação Brasileira de Música 1/1
(1932): 2-14; and Renato Almeida (1942: 424). See also Magaldi (1994: 292).
90 Almeida (1942: 424) and Lange (1982: 157) dated this work as 1860; Rezende (1954) dated between
1863 and 1865; and Cameu (1970: 34) dated as 1867 or 1868. See also Magaldi (1994: 291)
43
Gomes’s A Cayumba (1856), which uses Afro-derived rhythm and pentatonic scale,
Gerard Béhague (1966, 1971) did the most systematic study on the use of
popular material in the art music of the period between 1870 and 1920. The major
contribution of his study lies in the close examination of “the process of transformation
of folksong and dance into urban popular forms, as well as the transformation of
European urban dances into popular forms.”92 It was also the first study to provide a
solid basis for the identification of popular elements in Brazilian art music along with a
competent analysis of their interplay with European style and techniques. Béhague
offers detailed analysis of the following pieces: Cunha’s A Sertaneja, Levy’s Variações
sobre tema brasileiro ‘Vem cá bitu,’ Levy’s Tango brasileiro (1890), Levy’s Suite
absorbing popular elements into European techniques. Magaldi also examines pieces by
immigrant composers using Brazilian popular melodies and rhythms in brilliant piano
pieces, such as: Sigismund Neukomm’s fantasie for flute and piano L’Amoureux
91 Carlos Penteado de Resende “A música em São Paulo,” São Paulo, terra e povo (Porto Alegre,
1967: 266) dated this piece as 1857. Magaldi (1994: 288) gives a definitive proof that this piece was
published in 1856.
92 Béhague 1966: 2.
93 Béhague 1966: 167-178, 181-189, 190-195, 195-218, 224-238, 238-241, 241-254, 254-258, 258-
261, 263-271.
44
(1819), based on the modinha La Melancolie by the Brazilian mulatto Joaquim Manuel
Brésilien (1819), which makes use of a lundu; Ercole Pinzarrone’s piano fantasia A
Saloia, based on the popular cantilena Moda da Saloia (185?) by Angelo Frondoni, and
variation on the waltz Terna Paixão (1854); Fantasia Brasileira (185?) based on a
lundu melody; and Arthur Napoleão’s Caprice Brésilien, which uses some rhythms of
polka-tango.94 Magaldi calls attention to the fact that “foreign visitors preceded native
extracted either from the operatic repertory or from folk music. In the last case, it
as Gottschalk, to pick up a local theme to pay homage to his audiences during his tours.
The practice of arrangements on popular themes calls into question whether Itiberê da
case in point is Carlos Gomes’ suite Quilombo, quadrilha sobre os motivos dos
negros (1857-8). Recently, Magaldi has discovered that the pieces “Bamboula” and
Gottschalk’s pieces with the same title, namely, the Bamboula, Danse de Nègre,
Bananier (1845-6) derived from the Creole song “En avan’ Grenadie.”97 That finding
puts former nationalistic claims to Gomes’ suite under a new perspective. The fact that
music calls into question whether this suite was composed and perceived through the
twentieth-century musicology reinterpreting its own past under its “nationalist” bias,
rather than making an effort to access nineteenth-century ideology and the cultural
The period between 1870 and 1920 has been considered the beginning of
musical nationalism in Brazil on the basis that the use of popular sources would
Dahlhaus that nationalism is a matter of reception and intention rather than of internal
musical features, we will have to give more attention to “the meaning invested in a piece
who make and hear the music.”98 This kind of approach will certainly enrich and
The scholarship on Villa-Lobos has developed from the premise attributed early
in his career by Ronald de Carvalho, on the occasion of the Week of Modern Art
(1922), that
the music of Villa-Lobos is one of the most accurate expressions of our culture.
In it quivers the flame of our race, what is most beautiful and original in the
Brazilian race. It does not represent a partial state of our psyche. It is not the
Portuguese, African or Indigenous temperament, or the simple symbiosis of
these ethnic quantities that we perceive in it. What it shows us is a new entity, the
special character of a people that begins to define itself freely.99
contemporaries shows how the modernists advanced from Romero’s idea of “general
the recognition of Brazilian culture and its music in toto.”100 Andrade and Carvalho
inherited from Romero the idea that Brazilian identity is neither compartmentalized into
Indian, African or Portuguese traits and influences nor corresponds to their regional
mixed derivations, but rather encompasses all of these, and it is more than all of these.
As Romero (1888) stated, “Brazil is none of these; because it is more than all of these”
(“o Brasil não é nada disto; porque é mais do que tudo isto”). Carvalho’s idea of a
1920s with Andrade and Carvalho through the 1950s with Azevedo and Muricy up to
the 1970s with scholars such as José Maria Neves. In his acute study on Villa-Lobos’
One finds in [Villa-Lobos’ Choros] neither Indian…, nor Black, nor European
music, but something that descends directly from these many musical roots. It is
Villa-Lobos. It is Brazil. The notorious assimilation of the different ethnic
groups forming the people of this country and their culture, the breaking down
of racial boundaries that will characterize the social and cultural development of
the people, who found in Villa-Lobos their utmost composer.102
Villa-Lobos was perceived by early (and late) reception as the first Brazilian art
music composer to express Brazilian identity truly and fully. That perception has
shaped most of the studies on Villa-Lobos’ nationalism and the views on his role in
Brazilian music history. Among numerous examples are Neves (1977) statements such
as “the result of the odd combination of [Brazilian folklore’s] elements was the most
complete synthesis produced in Brazil and one of the most original musical
an important element in Villa-Lobos’ music. In this case, nature not only stimulated
Lobos’ music. In commenting on the tone poem/ ballet Amazonas, Andrade (Música,
doce música, 1930) proclaims that Villa-Lobos “rescued the marvels of the entire nature
These elements, these sonorous forces are profoundly “nature,” and the little
they take from the Amerindian musical aesthetics is not sufficient to place [the
work] within [the category] of indigenous music. It is more than this. Or less, if
you want. It is not Brazilian either: it is nature. They appear like voices, sounds,
noises, thuds, whirring sounds, symbols coming out of meteorological
phenomena, of geological accidents and irrational beings. It is the rowdy
impudence of the virgin land106
The identification of Villa-Lobos’ music with tropical nature and the idea of
abundance and exuberance of a wild, mythical place has gone beyond Villa-Lobos’
early reception and has persisted in recent musicological studies. Two musicologists
who illustrate this are Beaufils and Neves. For instance, Beaufils qualifies Villa-Lobos’
qualities with the profusion of the sertão and the Amazonian forest: “Frequently Villa-
same line, Neves (1977) states in the opening and closing pages of his study:
Villa-Lobos was a great lover of nature, the man who left in music the
indestructible mark of his land. More than the singer of this people, Villa-Lobos
was the singer of his country’s nature.108
Villa-Lobos was above all the composer of nature, of the virgin, indomitable, hot
nature of his country. His works reflect the history of his nation’s fields and
forests with their undecipherable magic, their myths and gods, their fauna and
native inhabitants.109
The study of nationalism in Villa-Lobos’ music had a new spin with José
Béhague’s Heitor Villa-Lobos: the search for Brazil’s musical soul (1994). These
music dissemination, and to the reception of the music presented during the Week of
Modern Art at the Teatro Municipal of São Paulo in 1922. The musical analysis
provided by the author aims to show that Villa-Lobos’ music presented during the
Week was neither as nationalist as the later nationalist modernism would lead one to
techniques towards the boundaries of music and noise was associated with a sense of
exuberant nature, primitive and future that made up Brazil’s ufanista image, “the
dissemination in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo between 1900 and 1922, and to early
reception including the audience’s reaction and the critics’ articles. Kiefer approaches
the issue of modernism rather than of nationalism in Villa-Lobos’ music, and discusses
the repercussion of the Week of 1922 in Villa-Lobos’ works between 1922 and 1930.
aspects of Villa-Lobos’ early works and its relationship with Rio de Janeiro’s and São
Musical nationalism as an ideology, therefore, can and does take place outside
the preconceived notion of a stylistic format. What seems to define it, therefore,
is the whole complex of attitudes consciously expressed or not toward specific
sets of cultural values, equally perceived by the transmitters and the receptors as
possessing qualities of collective and individual identity. Certainly, many
specific musical parameters relate to that identity, but those relations are
culturally determined by association or invention. Indeed, numerous purely
sound structures that appear similar or identical in the abstract may be given
totally different significance in different cultures. Moreover, the potential
On the other hand, Béhague does not neglect internal musical features and
discusses the use of local sources manipulated by Villa-Lobos into a modern musical
language. Few scholars are more knowledgeable than Béhague in distinguishing the
folk, popular and Indian sources in Brazilian art music and in discussing the problem of
to
(1969), Olin Downes (1969), Lisa Peppercorn (1972) Eero Tarasti (1980, 1987), Simon
Wright (1992), and Béhague (1994).114 The sources of folk and popular material have
always been a matter of discussion among virtually all scholars who have approached
51
In the specific case of Villa-Lobos, Béhague argues that there was the
combination of two important elements: on one hand, Villa-Lobos constructed his image
so as to legitimate his knowledge of folk, popular and Indian musical sources; on the
other hand, the public recognized Villa-Lobos as the spokesperson of his country.
Regardless of the degree of true assimilation and the amount of field collection
of Brazilian folk and primitive musical cultures and his long and curious trips
around the country, he [Villa-Lobos] came back to the big city, the nest of the
Brazilian intelligentsia, presumably with the knowledge of the musical
“realities” of the common people and the Indians, as no other composer could
claim at the time. This in itself was a prodigious accomplishment because it gave
him veracity and credibility that no one else in the 1910s and 1920s could
invoke.117
style (…) is the result of his attempts to integrate national sources of music with various
Antokoletz (1992) in his analysis of Choros No. 10 further exploring the problems of
method that fully integrates the use of local musical material (be it folk, Indian, popular,
or sounds of nature such as birdcalls and forest sounds) into the tonal fabric (updated
local planes and layers, which are distinguished by their own intervallic construction,
rhythmic pattern, contour, and timber.122 For example, the use of azulão birdcall is
explained in relationship to the structural role it plays in the pitch-sets of its section
(block 1) and of the work as a whole. The Parecis Indian chant is explained in the
context of its thematic relation (a chromatic manifestation of the choral theme) and its
(often compared to the chaotic abundance of tropical forests) due to his lack of formal
musical education and his irreverent personality. Also, Antokoletz’s analytical approach
explanation of how the use of local musical sources became more and more structural in
of the twentieth century, race and natural environment were the guiding principles of the
discussion of Brazilian identity. The issue of nationalism was discussed in terms of two
main theoretical lines accounting for the shape of the “national character” (Volksgeist):
the folklorist line represented by Silvio Romero’s theory of racial and cultural
miscegenation. The folklorist line eventually predominated and the Romerian approach
to national identity remained in its broad lines in Brazilian musicology throughout the
twentieth century.
54
CHAPTER 2: THE CONSTRUCTION OF AN IMAGE: THE
“CAPITAL FEDERAL”
cosmopolitan ideal of “civilization” and “progress” that aimed to integrate the nation
into world economy and emulate the European life-style.1 The reurbanization of the
Brazilian capital in French style that reflected that cosmopolitan ideal and the
consequent transformation of the public space had its parallel in Rio de Janeiro’s
musical life, especially in the renovation of opera and concert music repertory, the
changes in the official school of music’s goals and program, the increasing number of
with official events, and the building of Rio de Janeiro’s Teatro Municipal.
Republican ideals gave them access to institutional power after the Proclamation of the
Republic on 15 November 1889. The major agents of negotiation between the state
power and music institutions were the composer Leopoldo Miguez and the music critic
José Rodrigues Barbosa.2 The friendship between Rodrigues Barbosa and Marshal
Deodoro da Fonseca, chief of the Provisional Government, and with Aristides Lobo,
Minister of the Interior, was critical to the reshaping of the official music school’s rank
In 1855, the Conservatory had become an annex (the fifth section) of the
Academy of Fine Arts. However, the Conservatory and the Academy of Fine Arts
continued independent from each other. The conservatory retained its autonomy because
1 Sevcenko (1983: chapter 1 “A Inserção Compulsória do Brasil na Belle Époque”) and Needell (1987)
provide extensive discussions on Rio de Janeiro’s cultural history of the period.
2 José Rodrigues Barbosa (MG 1857-RJ 1939), music critic, contributed to the Jornal do Comércio
Since the latter’s death in 1865, the Conservatory had lost much of its self-ruling power
and direct access to the monarchical authorities. Fifteen days after the Proclamation of
the Republic establishing the new regime, Rodrigues Barbosa’s request to Fonseca and
Leopoldo Miguez and Alfredo Bevilacqua were members, that dissolved the
12 January 1890 (Decree No. 143). Most importantly, the Instituto Nacional de Música
Among the first measures of the new regime was the appointment of Republican
Republican who had close relations with Republican partisans, was appointed the head
of the Instituto Nacional de Música. Miguez substantially changed the official school of
deprioritized the instruction of musicians for the opera house, which had been the
Conservatory’s chief goal during Imperial times,4 and gave emphasis to instrumental
and symphonic music of German and French traditions. Miguez’s report on the
German educational system, and, as Azevedo has pointed out, “the tendency of current
Brazilian thought, so clear in Tobias Barreto’s and Silvio Romero’s work, to search in
German culture the impetus that it had drawn hitherto exclusively from the French
spirit.”5 Despite Miguez’s personal preference for Wagnerism and “the music of the
3 Azevedo 1950: 81, 114; Siqueira 1972: 43, 63-5; Marcondes 1998: 514.
4 Magaldi 1994: 13-14.
5 Azevedo 1956: 132.
56
future,” his educational management at the Instituto Nacional de Música was very open
minded. “His administration was liberal and allowed free teaching, essential in art,
substantial change in the federal capital’s musical culture during the First Republic.
From a predominantly operatic musical culture (Italian and French), Rio de Janeiro
gradually shifted to a broader instrumental repertory that included the “music of the
D’Indy, and Debussy, in addition to having its Wagnerian vogue. All these changes
resulted from the cosmopolitan aspirations of the Brazilian music circle to update with
done to the literary Romanticism of the first half of the nineteenth century.7 Some
Brazilian composers, professors and critics of the last decades of the nineteenth century
can be considered part of the Brazilian intelligentsia, since their self-attributed function
can be compared to Brazilian writers and intellectuals of the period; they all shared the
attitude of having a mission to “civilize” the country, and that was taken as a patriotic
The artistic success of Francisco Braga keeps increasing and a curious fact is
that even our musical Montechi and Capuleti congregated spiritually to honor
the young musician with the most eloquent demonstrations of esteem and
admiration for his brilliant talent. As far as we know, there has never been
6Almeida1926: 215.
7I apply here to Brazilian art musicians the idea proposed by Barros (1973) in relationship to the
Brazilian literary circle and the educative function of Brazilian Romantic movement.
57
greater unanimity of opinion in our milieu. All of them – liberals and ultra-
radicals, moderate and unyielding, in the art of sound – accorded that if
Francisco Braga keeps his track the way he has done so far, he will contribute
immensely to the musical development of our country providing it with
inestimable service.8
Brazilian intelligentsia at large since they were neither tackling critical issues of national
The efforts to renovate the Brazilian musical scene since the 1870s found a
fertile environment with the new regime in the 1890s showing its impact in opera with
Wagnerism, and in concert music with the symphonic poem, and German, French and
businessmen such as Tiago Henrique Canongia and Angelo Carrero in the 1860s,11
8 “O sucesso artístico de Francisco Braga continua, pois, em aumento sempre crescente e, fato curioso,
até os nossos Monteceli [sic] e Capuleti musicais congregaram-se espiritualmente, para prestar o jovem
músico as mais eloquentes demonstrações de simpatia e de admiração pelo seu brilhante talento./ Ao
que nos consta, nunca houve neste nosso meio maior unanimidade de opiniões. / Todos -- liberais e
ultra-radicais, moderados e intransigentes, na arte dos sons – todos são acordes em considerar
Francisco Braga o artista que, se proseguir no caminho até aqui trilhado, contribuirá poderosamente para
o desenvolvimento musical do nosso país, prestando com isso um serviço inestimável.” (JC, 26 Jan.
1901, p. 3, T&M, article about Francisco Braga’s concert of 22 January 1901 by unidentified São
Paulo’s special correspondent)
9 On the Brazilian writers’ role in “thinking the nation,” see Sevcenko (1983), especially chapter 3 “O
exército intelectual como atitude política: os escritores-cidadãos” [The intellectual army as a political
attitude: the citizen-writers].
10 The term “classical music” was then used as opposed to “operatic music” and referred to the
Classical and Romantic repertory by “the great German masters, Chopin, Liszt, Saint-Säens, and some
Brazilian composers.” (Azevedo 1956: 217-8)
11 Magaldi 1994: 23.
58
piano teachers such as Alfredo Bevilacqua in Rio de Janeiro after the 1870s12, Luigi
Chiaffarelli in São Paulo after the 1880s,13 virtuosi such as the Ritter-Patti-Sarasate Trio
in Rio de Janeiro in the 1870s,14 and José White in Rio de Janeiro in the 1880s,15 and
1880s.16 Most of these performances however targeted a selected public, usually people
These private clubs [1867-1900] were enterprises ruled by the privileged few
whose money, political position, or intellectual status qualified them to become
members. Concerts organized by these institutions were never advertised
alongside the activities of the theater in the public entertainment section of daily
newspapers. Instead, short notices usually appeared in the ‘communications’
section as reminders to members of important administrative meetings or
concerts.17
Symphonic concerts directed to a larger public had a meager start in the 1860s
with isolated attempts such as the Concertos Populares [Popular Concerts] (1862)
organized by Tiago Henrique Canongia and Angelo Carrero, and took place more
regularly in Rio de Janeiro’s musical life only in the 1880s and 1890s with Carlos
from 1883 to 1889, the concerts of which introduced the German canon to Brazilian audiences (Magaldi
1994: 24). For further information on the Sociedade de Concertos Clássicos’ activities, see Almeida
(1942: 390-1), and Magaldi (1994: 85-88).
16 Benjamin promoted recitals, chamber and symphonic concerts in the Clube Beethoven from 1882-
1890 (Azevedo 1956: 95). According to Magaldi (1994: 110), these symphonic concerts were in a
three-part format: the first part opened with an orchestra overture, the second started with a Beethoven
symphony, and the third ended with an orchestral piece. For further information on the Clube
Beethoven’s activities, see Almeida (1942: 390), Needell (1987: 64-5), and Magaldi (1994: 66-74,
107-110).
17 Magaldi 1995: 62.
59
Mesquita’s series of Concertos Populares (1887-1893; 1897-1902).18 Mesquita’s first
series of public symphonic concerts (1887) introduced the French repertory to Rio de
Janeiro’s public, including symphonic works by Massenet, Franck, Delibes, and Saint-
Saëns.19 One of the greatest merits of Mesquita’s concerts was to constantly perform a
substantial number of works largely unknown to the Brazilian public. That was still the
case with Mesquita’s 1901 matinee series at the Teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara, which
was praised in advance by the Jornal do Comércio’s music critic, Rodrigues Barbosa,
“for the performance of descriptive and symphonic works never heard in Rio de Janeiro
before.”20
Cavatina from the opera Pêcheurs de Perles, Ernesto Giraud’s Suite d’orchestre, Saint-
concerts also introduced the German canon to Brazilian audiences, and considers
60
Contemporary criticism noted the relevance of public symphonic concerts in the
renovation of Brazilian musical values. The profile of those popular symphonic concerts
was the judicious mixing of light with serious compositions, so audiences would
gradually become acquainted and fond of art music by listening to art compositions in
concerts that were able to keep the audience’s attention throughout the session by the
It is commonly believed that lyric opera is the loftiest musical expression. This
is the source of the great enthusiasm with which the public celebrates the opera
companies every season, and of the best attendance to these spectacles that have
become a matter of fashion and a requisite of good taste. Unfortunately, this is a
totally erroneous concept, the implications of which result in the delay of
upgrading musical education among us. Maestro Carlos de Mesquita, who
founded among us the Concertos Populares, was one of the first artists to
realize the need of giving a new, upright direction to Rio de Janeiro’s musical
dilettantism by offering the audition of absolute and symphonic music. Maestro
Carlos de Mesquita revealed the abilities of a disseminator by rejecting
unjustifiable intolerance and recognizing the need to fulfill public taste with
concerts combining classical works based on irrepressible forms of beauty and
inspiration with compositions associated with genres in which predominate
picturesque elements and rhythmic cadences rather than developed ideas
elaborated under complex compositional techniques. This propaganda,
interrupted by the absence of Maestro Carlos de Mesquita, had continuators
with Vincenzo Cernicchiaro and Maestro Alberto Nepomuceno after his return
from Europe in 1895.22
22 “De ordinário se acredita que a ópera lírica é a mais elevada expressão musical: daí o grande
entusiasmo com que o público festeja as companhias que fazem as temporadas, a afluência da melhor
sociedade nesses espetáculos que se tornam uma questão de moda, uma condição de bom tom.
Infelizmente aquele conceito é erradíssimo e a convicção que dele resulta tem contribuído enormemente
para retardar os progressos da educação musical entre nós. // Um dos primeiros artistas que
compreenderam a necessidade de dar direção nova e acertada ao diletantismo musical fluminense,
proporcionando-lhe a audição da música pura, da música sinfônica, foi o Maestro Carlos de Mesquita,
que fundou entre nós os Concertos populares. // Sem intransigência descabidas, ao contrário,
reconhecendo a necessidade de satisfazer em parte o gosto do público, o Maestro Carlos de Mesquita
revelou a habilidade de um vulgarizador, arranjando os seus programas de modo que, depois da audição
de um trabalho clássico moldado em formas irrepreensíveis e de beleza de inspiração, se ouvisse
também a composição de gênero em que predomina, não a idéia desenvolvida, artisticamente com os
recursos complexos da técnica, mas o elemento pitoresco e as cadências do ritmo. // Essa propaganda,
interrompida pela ausência do Maestro Carlos de Mesquita, teve depois continuadores no professor
Vincenzo Cernicchiaro e no Maestro Alberto Nepomuceno quando regressou da Europa em 1895. (JC, 6
May 1901, T&M, p. 2)
61
Public symphonic concerts had its expansion since the 1890s with the
(1892-7)23 and Cordiglia Lavalle’s Festival Sinfônico (1900), and other Brazilian
composers who like Mesquita had recently returned from their studies in Europe,
among which one may mention Alberto Nepomuceno’s Concertos Populares (1896-
7),24 Jerônimo Queirós’ Concerto Histórico (1896)25 and Concerto Sinfônico (1899),26
Concertos Populares Mesquita presented his own compositions and works by other
the Fantasia-Abertura for orchestra by his pupil Francisco Braga in his first popular
concert on 4 June 1887 at the Teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara, Rio de Janeiro, and repeated
it on 21 August 1887 at the same theater.33 The second matinee of Mesquita’s 1901
first series, at the Teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara on 12 May, premiered in Brazil the 1º
Episódio Sinfônico, by Carlos de Mesquita, the Intermezzo Sinfônico from the opera
Dhalma, by Ernesto Ronchini, and the Suite d’Orchestre, by Saint-Säens, and presented
Janeiro concerts were advertised with the following prices: “Camarotes de 1ª ordem, 120$000; Ditos de
2ª ordem, 80$000; cadeiras e Varandas de 1ª classe, 20$000; Cadeiras e Varandas de 2ª classe, 12$000.”
The add also remarked the the concerts counted with an orchestra of 60 “professors” (JC, 31 Oct. 1900,
p. 10). The 1901 concert series in São Paulo were held on 17, 22 and ca. 24-26 January at the Teatro
Santana (CR, 24 Jan. 1901, Gambiarras). Although the first concert in São Paulo was previously
announced for 8 January 1901 (CR, 4 Jan. 1901, p. 2, Gambiarras), it actually happened on 17 January
(JC, 14 Jan. 1901 p. 2 and JC, 23 Jan. 1901 p. 4). Braga’s tour to São Paulo was announced in the
newspapers since the month before (JC, 1 and 15 Dec. 1900, p. 2). The newspaper articles repeatedly
called attention to the fact that the orchestra consisted almost entirely of “professors” especially brought
from Rio de Janeiro to perform in those concerts (CR, 4 Jan. 1901, p. 2, Gambiarras; JC, 14, 23 and
31 Jan. 1901, T&M). The 1901 concert series in Rio de Janeiro were held on 26 May, and 2, 7 and 14
June at the Teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara. (JC, 23 and 26 May 1901; JC, 2, 7 and 14 June 1901). The
prices of each concert lowered in that year, so that the subscription to Braga’s four symphonic concerts
of 1901 was the following: “Frisas e camarotes de 1ª ordem, 130$000; camarotes de 2ª ordem, 90$;
cadeiras de 1ª classe, 20$; cadeiras de 2ª classe, 12$; galeria nobre, 15$000” (JC, 26 May 1901, p. 8,
entertainment advertsiment section).
31 JC, 5, 10, 12, 19 and 28 Dec. 1901.
32 JC, 22 July 1900, p. 2; CR Nº 162, 10 July 1900, p. 2, Vida Social; CR Nº 166, 14 July 1900, p.
1. For an institutional study about the Clube dos Diários, see Needell (1987: 72-74).
33 Santos 1945: 17-8.
63
other works. The second matinee of Mesquita’s 1901 second series, at the Teatro S.
Sinfônico and presented French composers such as Saint-Saëns and Pierné.35 Francisco
Braga’s two Concertos Sinfônicos held in Rio de Janeiro in November of 1900 and
repeated in São Paulo in January of 1901, and the four Concertos Sinfônicos held in
Rio de Janeiro in May-June 1901, presented his own compositions, other Brazilian
and German-canon composers. For instance, the first symphonic concert of the 1901
for two pianos op. 37 and Gavotte in C minor, Braga’s Episódio Sinfônico, Giraud’s
Levy’s Andante for string orchestra, and Gounod’s Marcha festiva. The second
and Schubert’s Rosamunde ouverture. The third symphonic concert on 7 June 1901
presented Mozart’s “Jupiter” Symphony and Piano concerto in D minor No. 20,
Braga’s Marabá and Wagner’s Flying Dutchman overture, among others. And the
solemne 1812, Op. 49, F. Braga’s Minuette for string orchestra, Saint-Säens’s Gavotta
34 JC, 9 May 1901, p. 2, T&M; JC 11 May 1901, last page; JC, 1 Dec. 1901, p. 12.
35 JC, 24 Oct. 1900, p. 3; JC 25 Oct. 1900, p. 2. Half of the revenue of Lavalle’s symphonic concert
at the Cassino Fluminense, Rio de Janeiro, on 28 October 1900, was collected in benefit to the victims
of Ceará drought (JC, 23 and 24 Oct. 1900, p. 2). For an institutional study about the Cassino
Fluminense, see Needell (1987: 64-72).
64
in C minor, C. Gomes’ Aria de Zuleida (from the opera O Condor), Braga’s Marabá
Polonaise for violin and orchestra, Lima Coutinho’s Hino Sinfônico (premiere), and
Some Brazilian composers achieved great success with the performance of their
Marabá had an encore in the concert at the Teatro Santana of São Paulo between 24 and
26 of January, 1901; and so did his Episódio Sinfônico in the concert at the Teatro S.
music critic Rodrigues Barbosa, “if it wasn’t for Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, the
concert would have consisted entirely of Brazilian music – at least in its origin since
these musical works lack any Brazilian national school’s blueprint.” In addition to
Beethoven’s already mentioned work, Queirós conducted his Scherzando for orchestra,
Coquette for orchestra, and played his Apassionato and Capri e Pastoral for piano and
Sylvia for string orchestra, F. Braga’s Minuetto for string orchestra, and João Gomes
Araújo’s Scherzo.38
nationalism in Brazil, not only by music critic’s assessments such as the one above and
36 JC, 26 May 1901, p. 10; JC, 2 June 1901, p. 10; (JC, 7 June 1901, p. 3, T&M; JC, 14 June
1901, p. 3, T&M.
37 JC, 31 Jan. 1901, p. 3, T&M; JC, 27 May 1901, p. 2, T&M.
38 JC, 2 Oct. 1899, p. 3.
65
his extensive article on exoticism in music,39 but also by performing European repertory
associated with national schools and folklore. Some examples are Saint-Säens’
Rhapsodie Bretonne, which “is already known here [in Brazil] as a good result of
The visits of Henrique Oswald to Brazil in 1896, 1897, 1899 and 1900 and his
final settlement in Rio de Janeiro in 1903 were crucial to the renovation of Brazilian
musical culture with a repertory strongly influenced by French late Romanticism. The
composer and pianist, who taught in both areas, affected an entire generation of
composers and musicians.42 The visits of Camille Saint-Saëns to São Paulo and Rio de
Janeiro in 1899 and 1904 also had significant impact in updating musical culture in
Brazil, not only by the performance of his own works, but also by discussing recent
The expansion of public symphonic concerts in Rio de Janeiro was due to two
main factors: on the one hand, many Brazilian composers of the generations following
Gomes who had significant impact in Brazilian musical life studied in European musical
centers other than Italy, namely, France, Belgium and Germany, and returned to Brazil
with new ideals, including a higher valuation of instrumental and symphonic music.44
On the other hand, the expansion of a new social class with the establishment of the
66
Republican regime created a different market, whose non-aristocratic origins demanded
new ways of negotiating and legitimizing social status, among which subscription
Differing from the symphonic concerts held in music societies, these public
newspapers, and had also short notes in the music critic’s section announcing them and
encouraging the public to attend them. These public symphonic concerts usually
received extensive articles of music criticism in newspapers the day(s) after the concert,
reflecting the Brazilian intelligentsia’s campaign for educating the public at large
Public attendance in the 1890s and 1900s was usually meager, which made
Barbosa) of Jornal do Comércio, the four symphonic concerts Ciclo Miguez (1897) a
loss of Rs. 8:000$000 and the two symphonic concerts promoted by the Centro
Artístico (1898) suffered a loss of Rs. 2:000$000. The critic also points out that
including the low quality of the orchestral performance, the lack of education of Rio de
Janeiro’s public at large, and the appeal of other kinds of entertainment. In an ironic
assessment, Jornal do Comércio’s music critic assured that the lacking attendance of
Mesquita’s symphonic concert in early May 1901 could not be attributed to poor
publicity, since it was extensively advertised by the media, but rather to the preference of
However, none of the competing factors for the dispersion of Rio de Janeiro’s
larger public seemed to provide a cogent explanation for the withdrawing of the elite
from symphonic concerts. If poor orchestral performance was among the reasons for
the sparse attendance of Mesquita’s concert of May 1901, that was definitely not the
Maestro Francisco Braga has advertised his concerts more than enough. Also,
all press of this capital calls extensively the public to all kinds of spectacles and
musical auditions, and referred daily to Braga’s concerts remarking upon its
excellent value and program. Very well! At 2 p.m. yesterday, the Teatro S. Pedro
de Alcântara was empty! The spectators could be handcounted as some dozens
in that cold room. Where did the dilettantes of this capital go yesterday? Is it
true that Rio de Janeiro has public only to the Cafés-Concerts happening at the
46 “Infelizmente as coisas de arte são difíceis aqui e encontram no público uma resistência que se
explica pelo analfabetismo da população, que tanto se tem falado ultimamente com demonstrações
irrecusáveis. Foi por isso que desapareceu o Centro Artístico; foi por isso naturalmente que não mais se
fizeram concertos sinfônicos em continuação aos que já se tinham realizado com êxito incontestável.
Parece, entretanto, que a campanha vai recomeçar, e desta vez travada por que iniciou a propaganda.
Ontem, no teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara, o Maestro Carlos de Mesquita deu o primeiro de uma série de
concertos populares; apesar dos anúncios, das referências dos jornais, e do magnífico tempo que
convidava a uma diversão intelectual na audição de bela música, a sala estava vazia. Que querem? Os
café-concerto davam matinées e por lá havia, além do mais, o atrativo do chopp gelado, cor de âmbar,
levispumoso, entre duas coplas da cançoneta brejeira. A arte que espere a sua vez, para quando for do
agrado do público. (…) Poderíamos dizer algo da orquestra, mas o que haveria a notar está justificado
pela falta de conjuntos que eduquem e pela insuficiência dos ensaios; preferimos, porém, esperar os
futuros concertos, quando o conjunto estiver mais bem equilibrado.” (JC, 6 May 1901, T&M, p. 2)
68
same time? Is this the compensation that such a superior artist deserves,
especially if one considers that Francisco Braga also has the credit of being a
Brazilian? Or is this condition an anathema? However, the concert was excellent.
(…) The program was excellently performed. And how much work and money
demanded this fine performance to a audience of only fifty people! The public is
definitely becoming an undecipherable enigma, and day after day we understand
them less and less. That is not to say that we reproach the ones who go to café-
concerts and similar entertainment. Not at all! Rio de Janeiro has population to
fill all these events. What we want to know is what has happened to the
intellectual sector of our society and that particular class whose education,
resources, artistic and literary relations and concerns would impel them to attend
maestro F. Braga’s second symphonic concert. Is that possible that a weird
phenomenon has transformed the flower of our society into a rude crust?47
Although some people claimed that the poor attendance was due to the large
symphonic concert, Jornal do Comércio’s critic insists that Rio de Janeiro’s public
simply neglected “high art.” Furthermore, the critic considered a social anomaly that
the elite, namely, that one percent of Rio de Janeiro’s 800,000 population would not
attend symphonic concerts during days that there were no other especial event. The critic
closes the article suggesting that the lacking education of the public at large and the
47 “O maestro Francisco Braga tem anunciado mais que suficientemente os seus concertos sinfônicos.
Além disso, toda a imprensa desta Capital, que prodigaliza espaço para chamar o público a tudo o que
seja um espetáculo ou uma audição musical, referiu-se quotidianamente a esses concertos, realçando-lhes
o valor, o excelente programa. Pois bem! Às 2 horas da tarde, ontem, o teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara
estava vazio! Fazia frio na sala, onde os espectadores podiam ser contados em números de algumas
dezenas. // Onde se meteu ontem o diletantismo desta Capital? // Porventura o Rio de Janeiro só tem
público para os Cafés-Concerto que regorgitavam à mesma hora? // É essa a recompensa que se dê a
um artista superior como Francisco Braga, que tem ainda a seu crédito a condição da nacionalidade? Ou
essa condição é um anátema? // Entretanto o concerto foi excelente. (…) Todo esse programa teve
excelente execução. E quanto trabalho e despeza custou essa interpretação, polida e esmerada, para um
auditório de cinquenta pessoas! // Decididamente o público vai se tornando um enigma indecifrável, e
dia para dia menos o compreendemos. // Não é que nos revoltemos contra quem vai para os cafés-
concerto ou para outras diversões semelhantes, não; o Rio de Janeiro tem população para tudo isso. // O
que desejaríamos que nos explicassem é o que foi feito da parte intelectual da nossa sociedade, de certa
classe que pela sua educação, pelos seus recursos, pelas suas relações e pelas suas preocupações
literárias e artísticas, deveria estar ontem no segundo concerto sinfônico do maestro F. Braga. // Será
possível que um fenômeno estranho tenha transformado em uma camada groseira a flor da nossa
sociedade?” (JC, 3 June 1901, p. 1, T&M)
69
neglect of the elite for “high art” were a phenomenon of social concern that deserved
Some people said that we were unfair when we censured the lack of public
attendance at Francisco Braga’s second symphonic concert because there were
many other parties attracting the population’s preferences on that particular day.
As if there were some intellectual amusement higher than a symphonic session
presenting acclaimed composers!… As if a city of 800,000 inhabitants cannot
have one percent of its population attending Sunday [symphonic] parties! Very
well, it was a lovely Sunday yesterday; it was a sunny, fresh day with a
tenderness delighting the ones who like to contemplate the incomparable
beauties of our land, where the Winter has all the enchantments of other
countries’ Spring! Newspaper announced only a few theater matinees and a
horse race. The theaters had short attendance; and so were the races. The Teatro
S. Pedro de Alcântara, where Francisco Braga offered his third symphonic
concert, was not as empty as it was on the second, but had only an audience of
three hundred people. Where was that limited percentage of Rio de Janeiro’s
population that could have attended the [symphonic] parties? Where were the
ones who expressed sorry for the undeserved abandonment to which Francisco
Braga had been left, and promised to be present in the next concert? We do not
even want to explain this phenomenon. We leave it here by only reporting the
fact as a worrying symptom of our social state that deserves the attention and
study of the ones who govern us.48
The potential public of those popular symphonic concerts was the “expanding
elite and middle-sector market” defined by Needell49 as “the narrow sector of Carioca
48 “Algumas pessoas disseram que foramos injustos censurando a ausência do público no segundo
concerto sinfônico do maestro Francisco Braga, porque nesse dia houve muitas outas festas que atraíram
de preferência a população. // Como se houvesse mais elevada diversão intelectual do que uma sessão
sinfônica de compositores consagrados!… Como se uma cidade de 800.000 habitantes não pudesse dar
um contingente de um por cento, ao menos, para as festas de domingo! // Pois bem, ontem tivemos
um domingo magnífico, um dia de sol, luminoso, fresco, com uma doçura a deliciar os que se
comprazem em admirar as belezas inigualáveis da nossa terra, onde o inverno tem todos os encantos da
primavera dos outros países! Não constava nos jornais senão umas matinées de teatro e uma corrida de
cavalos. // Os teatros tiveram pouca gente; o mesmo aconteceu às corridas. O teatro S. Pedro de
Alcântara, onde se dava o terceiro concerto sinfônico do maestro brasileiro, não estava deserto como no
dia 2, mas tinha apenas um auditório de trezentas pessoas. Onde estava ontem aquela porcentagem
limitadíssima de população que podia comparecer às festas? Onde estavam os que mostravam
compungidos do abandono imerecido a que foi votado o maestro Francisco Braga e prometeram a si
mesmos não faltar ao concerto seguinte? // Não queremos nem mesmo tentar explicar o fato; deixamo-
lo aqui, apenas consignado, como um sintoma grave do nosso estado social, que reclama a atenção e o
estudo daqueles que nos governam.” (JC, 10 June 1901, p. 2, T&M)
49 Needell 1987: 197.
70
and a masculine contingent of students, literati, and would-be literati” to which one
could add music students, composers and musicians, would-be composers and
The year 1901 reflected great concerns about the development of the
“symphonic concert industry” in the Federal Capital. As the beginning of the season
was imprinted by the critic’s hopeless remark, “doesn’t the reader find it useless to ask
the public not to abandon the concerts?,”50 the end of the season was sealed by a
50“Não acha o leitor que é inútil pedir ao público que não abandone os concertos?” (JC, 6 May 1901,
T&M, p. 2)
71
happened already so that those [symphonic] parties have not had good
attendance.51
music enterprise by targeting and making concerts accessible to the general public.
Rodrigues Barbosa explained that “the concerts organized by the cellist Mr. Luís
Cândido de Figueiredo are essentially popular … popular because they are accessible to
all pockets and associated with a genre, limited to chamber music and string orchestra,
51 “Está provado por inúmeros precedentes que a indústria dos concertos sinfônicos – populares ou não
–é inviável entre nós, sendo muito provável que a razão desse insucesso proceda do sistema curioso por
que os músicos de orquestra exercem entre nós a sua profissão. // Qualquer artista, de qualquer ramo
profissional, só se incumbe de trabalho que esteja habilitado a fazer, e só recebe retribuição pelo
trabalho realmente feito, porque ninguém está disposto a pagar-lhe para aprender e depois para
confeccionar o que aprendeu a fazer; entretanto, com o músico de orquestra dá-se justamente este
fenômeno original: o empresário paga-lhe para que ele se sente junto a uma estante e aprenda a música
que lhe foi distribuída até que a saiba e possa executá-la em conjunto. E não é só isso. O regente marca
o ensaio, por exemplo, para nove horas da manhã. A essa hora aparecem alguns músicos raros – os que
são pontuais; às nove e meia começam a chegar outros; às nove e quarente começa o ensaio com a
metade dos músicos, e os outros vão chegando sucessiva e lentamente, de modo que, quando chegam os
últimos, os primeiros vão saindo, ou porque já estão ali há muito tempo, ou porque têm uma festa ou
outro serviço qualquer a fazer. Como obter bons ensaios nessas condições? // Não para por aí, e vamos
tocar o ponto essencial. Músicos que não têm execução suficiente no seu instrumento e não podem
vencer certas dificuldades que se lhes oferecem, de modo que forçam a repeticão frequente desses trechos,
tomando tempo, embaraçando o adiantamento dos ensaios, prejudicando o empresário, e (o que é, como
dissemos, curioso) sendo pago para aprender a sua parte, porque ele não ensaia de graça. // Assim sendo,
o empresário, ou terá de despender um capital, que não encontrará compensação, ainda que o concerto
seja muito concorrido, ou terá de economizar ensaios, e o concerto, deixando a desejar na sua realizacão
artística, afugentará o público – o que aliás, já se dá, de modo que essas festas não têm concorrência.”
(JC, 26 Nov. 1901, p. 3, T&M, article commenting upon Mesquita’s Concertos Populares second
series)
52 “São essencialmente populares os concertos organizados pelo violoncelista Sr. Luís Cândido de
Figueiredo … populares porque estão ao alcance de todas as bolsas e porque se cingem a um gênero
compreensível para todas as inteligências, limitado à música de câmara e a conjunto de instrumentos de
corda” (JC, 5 Dec. 1901, p. 2). The prices advertised were the following: “Camarotes 30$; Cadeiras de
1ª classe 5$; Entradas 2$000” (JC, 10 Dec 1901, p. 8).
72
Concertos Figueiredo combined solo, vocal, chamber music and music for small
them.”53 Among the works by Brazilian composers were Ernesto Ronchini’s Quarteto
in C and Lamento de Cupido for string orchestra, Nepomuceno’s Suite antique for
string orchestra, Henrique Braga’s Gavota and Minuete for string orchestra, Francisco
Braga’s Madrigal Pavana and Aubade for string orchestra, Alexandre Levy’s Andante
for string orchestra, Delgado de Carvalho’s Gavote et Musette for string orchestra;
orchestra), Lidner’s Canção Sueca for string orchestra, Saint-Säens’ Piano Trio,
The critic also suggested that the good attendance of these series was due to the
fact that “Rio de Janeiro’s public has realized that it is better to listen to a well-
performance:
Populares series of 1901 indicates the integration of symphonic popular concerts into
for different reasons, corresponded not only to taste change but also, and perhaps most
importantly, to Rio de Janeiro society’s increasing recognition of their cultural value and
the attached social status of participating in what was then considered high culture. The
The French influence in Brazil reached all areas, from philosophy, science, and
politics, to literature, architecture, sculpture, painting, and music. The Francophile culture
in Rio de Janeiro belle epoque was associated, in Needell’s words, with “the
behavior, values and status symbols embodied in fashion, entertainment and public
repertory that, as discussed below, were brought to Brazil mostly through the
Francophile influence.
Marseillaise was the anthem of the Brazilian republican movement symbolizing the anti-
monarchical, revolutionary ideology, and it was sung in street demonstrations and after
Ciclo Miguez e depois em dois concertos sinfônicos do Centro Artístico.” (JC, 6 May 1901, T&M, p.
2)
57 The concert was “honored with the presence of your excellency Mr. President of the Republic and
his excellent family.” (JC, 19 May 1901, p. 10)
58 See insightful summary in Needell 1987: 198.
59 Needell 1987: 179.
74
the pro-republican’s meetings.60 Bastille Day was national holiday in Brazil during the
first decades of Brazilian First Republic. Levy’s Himne au 14 Juliet in Eb for orchestra
and fanfare (using themes reminiscent of Chant du Départ and Marseillaise), was
composed for the 1889 celebrations.61 A decade later, the celebrations included the Fête
opened with La Marseillaise and the Brazilian National Anthem, and presented 14
musicians. The works included Aime Maillart’s Ouverture and “Espoir Charmant”
from the opera Dragons de Villars, Saint-Säens’ Allegro appasionato for piano, V.
Massé’s “Sa couleur est blonde et vermeille,” from the opera Galathée, Vieuxtemps’s
Polonaise for violin, Gounod’s “Depuis hier je cherche en vain mon maître,” from the
opera Roméo et Juliette, Raoul Pugno’s Valse lente for piano, Tagliafico’s O nuit!,
romance for voice, Meyerbeer’s “Va-va, dit elle,” from the opera Robert le Diable,
Sarasate’s Bolero for violin, Boursaut’s Les Deu baverdes, and Ambroise Thomas’s
France, France! for chorus; the concert closed with Rouget de L’Isle’s La
promoted the 14th of July Celebrations with morning and night concerts, the last of
which was attended by the President of the Brazilian Republic, in addition to Italian and
U.S. ambassadors.63
The revolutionary and patriotic tone of Republic’s first decade fostered the
60 Carvalho 1990: 122; Medeiros de Albuquerque’s Quando eu era vivo: 90-1, 116-7; Azevedo 1956:
113.
61 Azevedo 1956: 159-160.
62 JC, 14 July 1899, p. 6.
63 JC, 16 July 1900, p. 2)
75
November 1889 the Provisional Government set a competition for the music of the
Republican anthem adopting Medeiros de Albuquerque’s lyrics, which was until then
sung to the tune of La Marseillaise. The jury, members of the Provisional Government,
and a full audience gathered at the Teatro Lírico on 20 January 1890, to hear, campaign
and vote for the best musical setting among thirty-six pieces. The most important
Nepomuceno, Jerônimo Queirós, and Leopoldo Miguez, among others.64 The director
of the Instituto Nacional de Música, Leopoldo Miguez, won over strong competition by
Francisco Braga and Alberto Nepomuceno, who were then awarded a grant to study in
Europe.65 Miguez’s anthem, paraphrasing La Marsellaise, reveals once more the impact
The 1890s sees the opening of the Federal Capital’s culture to a larger
repertory.
After founding symphonic concerts in its popular guise among us, Mr. Carlos
de Mesquita stayed away for a long time. Returning after many years, he
thought that we had not made any advance in musical matters, and that he could
take from where he left. He was totally mistaken. Our public is much more
educated today, and neither exclusionist programs nor the limited symphonic
literature of Mr. Carlos de Mesquita (whose musical culture is not very
extensive) satisfy our public anymore. This became clear in the last three
symphonic concerts, which are without any doubt inferior to all the symphonic
concerts that we have had in the last ten years.66
64 For an insightful study on the social and symbolic dimensions of the Brazilian national and
republican anthems, see Carvalho 1990: 122-128.
65 “Pouco depois da Proclamação da República, o Governo Provisório abriu concurso para a
composição de um hino republicano. Escolhido o de Miguez, entendeu o mesmo governo que o alto
mérito revelado por Francisco Braga e Alberto Nepomuceno merecia ser premiado e pensionou-os para
que fosse à Europa aperfeiçoar-se. (CR, 29 July 1900, p. 90) Braga’s grant to study at the Paris
Conservatory for two years was later extended to four years upon Massenet’s appeal. Nepomuceno
studied at the Meister Schulle in Berlin upon the Republican government’s grant for two years (1890 to
1892). For a systematic approach to Brazilian Romantic composers’s study in Europe, see Volpe
(1994-5: 51-76).
66 “Depois de ter fundado entre nós o gênero popular do concerto sinfônico, o Sr. Carlos de Mesquita
ausentou-se por muito tempo. Acreditou, talvez, que nada tivéssemos adiantado em matéria musical, e
76
Although Mesquita had been among the pioneers of musical renovation in
limited by Rio de Janeiro’s public and critics in the 1890s. Paradoxically, that
German culture in Brazil. This was a large phenomenon that included not only music
but also philosophy. German authors were known in Brazil through French translations.
and Liszt, Wagner’s music drama, and their followers) was no exception and entered
Brazil mostly through Francophile connections. Composers who most disseminated the
symphonic poem and the Wagnerian drama in Brazil got acquainted with the “music of
the future” while in Paris and in French-dominated centers. Leopoldo Miguez studied
Wagnerian advocate; Miguez wrote symphonic poems and the first Brazilian musical
drama.67 Alexandre Levy, who studied at the Paris Conservatory in 1887, wrote
symphonic poems, and in the end of his life studied Wagner’s scores dearly but died
before writing any Wagnerian work.68 Composers such as Francisco Braga, Alberto
Nepomuceno, Carlos Mesquita, Francisco Vale and Elpídio Pereira studied in Paris
regressando depois de muitos anos decorridos, pensou que poderia recomeçar do ponto em que nos
deixara. Enganou-se completamente. O nosso público está muito mais educado, e já não lhe satisfazem
os programas exclusivos, nem a limitada literatura sinfônica do Sr. Carlos de Mesquita, cuja cultura é
muito pouco extensa, como ficou evidenciado nestes três concertos sinfônicos, inferiores, sem dúvida, a
tudo que temos tido de há dez anos a esta parte.” (JC, 20 May 1901, p. 2, T&M)
67 Azevedo 1956: 97-8. See also Volpe 1994/5: 54.
68 Azevedo 1956: 161.
77
during the decade of greatest polemic and dissemination of Wagnerian music in France.
In his auto-biography Elpídio Pereira recounts the strenuous polemics around Charles
Pereira recalls how the French people hated Wagner and would not allow any of his
opened the doors of many other French theaters to Wagner’s music resulting in its
dissemination to the French public at large.69 As we shall see later, the triumph of
Wagnerism in Brazil succeeded only by one year its French acclamation. Braga moved
from Paris to Dresden in 1896 searching for a direct contact with Wagnerism and had
the opportunity to make the pilgrimage to Bayreuth twice to attend Der Ring des
Nibelungen (1896) and Parsifal (June 1897).70 Braga composed his symphonic poem
Marabá and his opera Jupyra in Dresden under the influence of Wagnerism.
The “music of the future” entered Brazil in the 1880s but had a broader public
exposure and acceptance only in the 1890s. Thereafter symphonic poems and
Wagnerian operas were a large portion of works that gave more visibility to Brazilian
musicians as far as their compositional worth. That is the case with Francisco Braga’s
recognition with his symphonic poem Marabá in 1900-1, and his acclaim with his
Wagnerian opera Jupyra in 1900. That is also the case with Leopoldo Miguez’s
plaudits with his symphonic poem Ave Libertas!, and his ultimate acclaim with his
Pedro II’s widely known admiration for Wagner’s music was not enough to persuade
Ferrari Opera Company premiered Lohengrin in Rio de Janeiro with poor reception.
The work was considered “monotonous and tiresome,” and a considerable number of
people left the theater scandalized in the last intermission.72 Rienzi’s first performance
It seems however that only the modernization brought by the Republican regime,
especially the urban reforms in Rio de Janeiro and the increasing middle-sector market
in Rio de Janeiro, Machado de Assis noted that modernization and progress were the
common ground between urban improvements and musical innovation in the Federal
Capital. The modernization brought by the first electric streetcars in Rio de Janeiro was
We finally have these novelties on earth. Teatro Lírico impresario did us the
favor of bringing the famous opera by Wagner, while Botafogo Company
brought us faster transportation. Will the donkey and Verdi fall all at once? It
will all depend upon the circumstances.74
foundation of the Club Ricardo Wagner in Rio de Janeiro around 1883, but had a
breakthrough in Rio de Janeiro’s musical life only with Mancinelli opera seasons after
1892, and the foundation of the Centro Artístico in 1893. Contemporary critic attests
71 See detailed study on Emperor D. Pedro II and Wagner in Lacombe (1993). See also Schwarcz
(1999: 152).
72 Bevilacqua 1934: 6; Azevedo 1956: 97-8.
73 Bevilacqua 1934: 7.
74 “Temos finalmente na terra essas grandes novidades. O empresário do Teatro Lírico fez-nos o favor
de dar a famosa ópera de Wagner, enquanto a Companhia de Botafogo tomou a peito transportar-nos
mais depressa. Cairão de uma vez o burro e Verdi? Tudo depende das circunstâncias.” (Machado de
Assis’ chronicle “Tannhauser e bonds elétricos,” 2 October 1892, in Obra Completa 1973: 546, quoted
in Hollanda 1992: 123)
79
that only the authority of the Italian maestro Marino Mancinelli had the power to open
the way to Wagner’s music drama into Rio de Janeiro public at large triggering a
following years along with operas such as: Donizetti’s Vespri Siciliani; Verdi’s Il
1893 opera season and gained increasing public favor in the following years.78 The
popularity of Tannhäuser was such that Mancinelli had to book it in the place of Il
Trovatore upon the request of the subscribers of the 1894 opera season.79 The
75 “O maestro Marino Mancinelli foi incontestavelmente o eco dos progressos da escola wagnerista
[sic] no Rio de Janeiro; introduzindo com o peso de sua autoridade óperas de Wagner no nosso
repertório lírico, promoveu uma verdadeira revolução no nosso meio musical, deixando boquiabertos os
que, denunciando competência de profissionais, não acreditavam que o Tannhauser fizesse carreira no
Rio de Janeiro e diziam que o Lohengrin era ópera que fazia adormecer.” (JC, 17 Aug. 1894, p. 1)
76 JC, 2 Oct. 1901, p. 4, T&M. Bevilacqua 1934: 6.
77 See for instance, JC, 28 July 1894, p. 2, T&M; JC, 3 Aug. 1894, p. 10, advertisement; JC, 4 Aug.
80
performance of Lohengrin in the 1894 opera season went with a nearly full-house and
in its symphonic concerts during 1896 and 1897, as, for instance, the “Einzug der
Götter in Walhall” from Das Rheingold, and “Der Ritt der Walküren.”81 Even the
Italian maestro V. Cernicchiaro, criticized for his Italian exclusionism in his book on
The 1900 opera season of the Italian Lyric Company G. Sansone, at the Teatro
Lírico of Rio de Janeiro, gave special emphasis to Wagnerian music. The program
staged on 8 October 1900, were enthusiastically received by the public and widely
commented by the critics.85 Although advertised, Leopoldo Miguez’s I Salduni was not
staged in 1900, but only in the 1901 opera season upon the campaign of the Rio de
ditos de 2ª, 80$; cadeiras de 1ª classe, 25$; cadeiras de 2ª, 12$; varandas de 1ª, 25$; ditas de 2ª, 15$;
galerias de 2ª e 3ª fila, 5$000.” The prices for the last perfomance on 18 August 1900 rised to the
following: “Camarotes de 1ª ordem, 150$; ditos de 2ª, 100$; cadeiras de 1ª classe, 30$; ditas de 2ª (da
letra N a H), 15$; $; ditas de 2ª (da letra G a A), 12$; varandas de 1ª, 30$; ditas de 2ª, 20$000. A
empresa resolveu não alterar os preços das galerias.”
84 Public entertainment section of JC, 22 Sept. 1900, p. 10 announced: “Camarotes de 1ª ordem, 75$;
ditos de 2ª, 40$; cadeiras de 1ª classe, 15$; cadeiras de 2ª, 8$; varandas de 1ª classe, 15$; ditas de 2ª,
10$; galerias, 3$000.”
85 JC, 5 Aug. 1900, p. 3; 28 Sept. 1900, p. 2, T&M.
81
The different reception of Wagner’s music reflects not only a changing musical
taste but also a changed political institution that needed to dissociate itself from the
regime it had just overthrown by promoting new cultural symbols. Wagnerism earned
currency in Brazil during a period in which the breaking with the old political regime
needed to be actualized at the symbolic and cultural levels. The increasing acceptance of
German music, which had had a limited dissemination in Brazil until then, meant a
rupture with the monarchical culture. The musical culture of monarchical era was
dominated by Italian opera, and its institutions were predominantly devoted to that
genre: the chief goal of Rio de Janeiro Conservatory of Music was to prepare singers
and musicians for the opera theater, Rio de Janeiro musical societies and domestic
music cultivated vocal and instrumental music related to the operatic culture, and even
opera and symphonic poem were associated with the advent of the republican regime in
Brazil and symbolized the cutting off from monarchy. The Instituto Nacional de Música
was founded upon the dictum of symphonic music and Wagnerism. The “music of the
future” inaugurated a new era in Brazilian political history that was legitimized to a
in the “music of the future” cause. In the 1890s the central concern of Brazilian
musical intelligentsia was the updating of Brazilian music with European trends rather
than the revision of its major symbols of national identity. This is very clear in the sole
86See, for instance, article on Lohengrin that preceded its performance at the Teatro Lírico of Rio de
Janeiro on 10 August 1894 in JC, 9 Aug. 1894, p. 2.
82
organized musical society that promoted some reevaluation of Brazilian art music
artists and elite members founded the Centro Artístico aiming to “elevate and dignify
Brazilian art” and “resuscitate the national lyric theater.” The Centro Artístico was
directed by the composer and conductor Leopoldo Miguez, and had the contribution of
personalities such as the writers Coelho Neto and Artur Azevedo, the music critics Luís
de Castro and Rodrigues Barbosa, the composer and conductor Alberto Nepomuceno,
the composer, pianist and music publisher Artur Napoleão, the dilettante composer
Delgado de Carvalho, renowned artists such as Bernardelli and Amoedo, and other
members of Brazilian elite such as Antonio Bustamante, the Bacharel Silvio Bevilcqua,
and Dr. Ildefonso Dutra.87 The leading figures of this association were strongly bound
by the ideology of artistic “progress” and had the fostering of Wagnerism in Brazil as
a major item in Centro Artístico’s agenda.88 Coelho Neto was designated honorary
librettist of the “new Brazilian opera” and contributed with Miguez in I Salduni and
almost a decade of activities, the Centro Artístico was dissolved in May of 1901.90 Pelo
amor! was produced by the Centro Artístico and staged at the Cassino Fluminense on
87 Azevedo 1950: 51; Azevedo 1956: 97-8, 111-112, 384. “Seguiu-se a eleição da nova Diretoria que
ficou constituída do seguinte modo: Leopoldo Miguez, Presidente e Antonio Bustamente, 1º Secretário
(reeleitos); Bacharel Silvio Bevilcqua, 2º Secretário e Dr. Ildefonso Dutra, Tesoureiro.” (JC, 16 May
1900, p. 3)
88 Azevedo (1956: 111-112) considers the Centro Artístico the headquarters of the “apostolado de
Wagner no Brasil.”
89 Azevedo 1950: 51.
90 “Centro Artístico, que desapareceu ingloriamente, se é verdade o que sobre ele publicou há poucos
dias um dos colaboradores da Gazeta de Notícias.” JC, 6 May 1901, T&M, p. 2. The contributor of
the Gazeta de Notícias was one of the members of the Centro Artístico, Luís de Castro.
83
24 August 1897.91 Artemis and Hóstia were performed in Centro Artístico’s fourth
Lírico of Rio de Janeiro, after the dissolution of the Centro Artístico and in the year
before the composer’s death. The musical production fostered by the Centro Artístico
makes evident that national subjects and symbols were not at stake in the resurrection of
national theater in the 1890s, and to dignify Brazilian art meant to emulate European
intelligentsia with the Wagnerian musical drama and the symphonic poem.
On the one hand, very few concerts presented the European repertory of the genre, and
the newspapers and magazines did not promote a campaign for the genre through
educational articles and debates among critics, as happened with Wagnerism. On the
other hand, the significant number of symphonic poems by Brazilian composers, many
of them performed to the Brazilian public, indicates that this genre earned currency in
Brazil. Among the few symphonic poems by European composers performed in Rio de
Janeiro during the 1890s were Saint-Säens’ Phaeton, Liszt’s Les Preludes, and
for Carlos Gomes monument, organized by Federal Capital high school students and
conducted by Cordiglia Lavalle at the Teatro Lírico on 8 November 1896,93 and was also
84
conducted by Nepomuceno at the Teatro Lírico on 4 October 1898.94 The Brazilian
premiere of Liszt’s Mazeppa was only on 24 November 1901 with Carlos Mesquita’s
during the 10th concert of the Associação de Concertos Populares at the Teatro Lírico
on 27 June 1897, and repeated during the 11th concert of the Associação de Concertos
Populares at the Teatro Lírico on 11 July 1897.96 The small number of European
symphonic poems performed in Rio de Janeiro contrasts with the large number of
symphonic poems written by Brazilian composers since the 1880s, most of them
performed for the Brazilian public: Henrique Oswald’s Festa (1885), Alexandre Levy’s
Poema Sinfônico (n.d.), Werther (1888), and Comala (1890);97 Leopoldo Miguez’
Symphonic Poem No. 1 Parisina (1888),98 Symphonic Poem No. 2, Op. 18 Ave
Rio de Janeiro, after Vale’s return from his studies at the Conservatory of Paris (1887-1891) with
Charles-Marie Widor and Charles-Wilfrid Bériot. This work was performed again in Rio de Janeiro in
1906. (Marcondes 1998: 798-9)
102 Premiered at the Teatro Lírico on 25 July 1897, in a symphonic concert promoted by Associação de
Concertos Populares, conducted by Alberto Nepomuceno. (Concert note BNRJ)
85
Pacheco’s Romeu e Julieta (1892);103 Francisco Braga’s Marabá (1894),104
Cauchemar (1895)105 and Insônia (1908);106 Elpídio Pereira’s Após a Vitória (n.d.),
and A Missão de Jesus (n.d.);107 Silvio Deolindo Fróes’ Poema Sinfônico (n.d.);108 and
Ernesto Ronchini’s Pedro Álvares Cabral (n.d.).109 There are also some orchestral
“progress” as well as Brazilian First Republic’s need to dissociate itself from the
103 Marcondes 1998: 599.
104 Sources and performances of Marabá are exposed in chapter 5 on Landscape.
105 Performed during the concerts of Brazilian music directed by Francisco Braga in Paris, at the Salle
s’Harcourt in 1895, and at the Galerie des Champs Elysées in 1896. (Azevedo 1956: 179). Conducted
by Nepomuceno at the Teatro Lírico, Rio de Janeiro on 5 January 1903. (Corrêa 1985: 34) Performed
in Rio de Janeiro at the Teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara on 16 June 1901, conducted by the composer.
Based on The Dream, by Shakespeare. (JC, 14 June 1901, p. 10)
106 Performed during the innauguration of the Teatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro in 1909.
107 Both of them were performed at the Instituto Nacional de Música on 13 June 1904. (Concert note
BNRJ)
108 Azevedo 1956: 101.
109 Premiered during the National Exposition, symphonic concert conducted by Alberto Nepomuceno
at the Pavilhão da Praia Vermelha on 27 August 1908. (Corrêa 1985: 35)
110 Sources and performances of Paysage are exposed in chapter 5 on Landscape.
111 Dedicated to José Rodrigues de Azevedo Pinheiro, his former teacher and the director of the Instituto
Profissional of Rio de Janeiro. Inspired by Gonçalves Dias’s poem. Published by Rio de Janeiro, Vieira
Machado & C. n.d., and reprinted by Rio de Janeiro, FUNARTE, 1982. Premiered at the Festival
Sinfônico directed by Cordiglia Lavalle at the Cassino Fluminense on 28 October 1900. Half of the
profits of this concert were in benefit of the victims of the drought in Ceará state. (JC, 23, 24, and 25
Oct. 1900, p. 2). Performed at the Teatro Lírico on 18 and 25 November 1900, and at the Teatro S.
Pedro de Alcântara of Rio de Janeiro on 26 May 1901, conducted by the composer; also in the
Concerto-Festival organized by Artur Napoleão at the Instituto Nacional de Música on 20 October
1904. (Concert note BNRJ; and JC, 19 and 26 Nov. 1900, p. 2; 27 May 1901, p. 2)
112 Premiered in Carlos de Mesquita’s Concertos Populares at the Teatro S. Pedro de Alcântara of Rio
de Janeiro on 12 May 1901, conducted by the composer. (JC, 13 May 1901, p. 2)
113 This work was performed at the Instituto Nacional de Música on 13 June 1904. (Concert note
BNRJ)
114 According to Dahlhaus’s (1989: 243) discussion on the symphonic poem.
86
cultural symbols of the old monarchical regime. In addition to this, and perhaps most
meaningful during times of establishing a new regime and reshaping national identity.
The revolutionary tone of the Brazilian Republic’s first decade motivated the
Libertas! is the foremost example of the symphonic poem genre. This work was
composed to celebrate the Proclamation of the Republic’s first anniversary and was
Libertas! was inspired by the following text “describing the triumph of the republican
idea in Brazil:”115
1890.117 The concert note of a later performance states the patriotic tone of this work as
the following:
The composer of Parisina has condensed in this brilliant page of Ave, Libertas!
all his ideals as a Brazilian, and all his enthusiasm as an artist; his inspiration is
large, and his orchestration has amazing splendors. This poem evokes the past,
since the first grumbling of the victims smashed by the tyrants for having dreamt
a patriotic ideal. These victims tell us their aspirations, their suffering and torture,
and how they disappeared in gibbets and in exile. The battle continues and
harshens. Tumult increases and the crowd takes on. The apostles of the holy
idea advance unfurling the banner, and triumphal fanfares strike the heroic
march of victory as the sun of 15 November 1889 rises.118
Miguez’ Ave Libertas! kept its strong patriotic appeal in the following decades,
as is indicated by its later performances, all of which were associated with humanizing
and civilizing causes of local and national interest. The fourth symphonic concert on 14
July 1897 at the Salão do Instituto Nacional de Música closed the Ciclo Miguez
symphonic concerts series, “the profits of which were destined to the Caixa Beneficente
dos Professores of the Instituto Nacional de Música; the Rs. 500$000 awards to
national students who assiduously and expediently attended the Instituto in the classes
of horn, bassoon, bass and oboe; and the acquisition of musical works and instruments
for the Instituto.”119 A second performance on 27 September of the same year, was
included in the benefit concert for the widows and orphans of Canudos War soldiers
(praças de pret) and disabled soldiers. This work was presented again during the
117 Concert note BNRJ of the concert held at the Teatro Lírico on 15 November 1916.
118 “O autor da Parisina condensou nessa página brilhante do Ave, Libertas! todos os seus ideais de
brasileiro, todos os seus entusiasmos de artista; a inspiração é larga, a orquestração tem esplendores que
deslumbram. Há nesse poema como que uma evocação do passado, desde o gemido das primeiras
vítimas esmagadas pelos tiranos por terem sonhado um ideal patriótico. Essas vítimas nos contam as
suas aspirações, os seus sofrimentos e torturas, como desapareceram na forca e no exílio. A luta
perdura, recrudesce; aumenta-se o tumulto, empenha-se o prélio; os apóstolos da idéia santa avançam
desfraldando o lábaro e as fanfarras triunfais entoam a marcha heróica da vitória ao raiar o sol de 15 de
Novembro de 1889!” (Concert note BNRJ idem.)
119 Concert note EM-UFRJ.
88
Festival in benefit to the victims of the drought in Northern Brazil held at the Instituto
conducted by Francisco Braga. Ave Libertas! was the last number performed before the
National Flag Anthem that closed the Symphonic Concert of Brazilian Music held at the
Teatro Lírico of Rio de Janeiro on 15 August 1906, on the occasion of the Third Pan-
American Congress. This work was performed again in the Proclamation of the
following statement:
Ave Libertas! is a perfectly national poem the impetuosity and lyric emotion of
which embodies much of the impulsive at the same time ecstatic Brazilian
enthusiasm. (…) Its motives became allegories and created ornamental
suggestions that abound to compensate subjective flaws.121
The revolutionary and patriotic tone of Republic’s first decade contrasted with
Marshal Floriano Peixoto’s terms) was a period of political and economic instability.
The 1889 coup provoked great hesitation; capital was withdrawn from Brazil, and
hands of the Minister of Finance Rui Barbosa) continued along the same lines of the
preceding monarchical government (in the hands of the Minister of Finance Ouro
Preto). The crash of 1892 resulting from a period of unsustainable economic growth,
financial speculation, and untrustworthy privileges (the boom period based on a great
speculative wave known as encilhamento, race track lingo for the saddling-up)123
harshened domestic criticism towards the Republican government and shook Brazilian
through several ways, among which was its participation at the World’s Columbian
repeat D. Pedro II’s last participation at Paris World’s Fair (1889)124 by constructing
Brazilian fine arts and music exhibits. It was as if highbrow culture would redeem
Brazil’s from the stigmas of a nation recently emerged from its Colonial, monarchical,
Beaux-Arts was the showcase of Brazilian aspirations towards “civilization.” The Fine
Arts Department offered the most impressive representation of Brazilian high culture by
exhibiting 109 items including sculpture, oil painting, water color painting, carvings and
engravings.125 The fine arts exhibit indicates that the Republic did not have much to
show of its own yet and had to resort to Imperial times’ artistic output. Most artists
patronage: Vítor Meireles, Pedro Américo, Rodolfo Amoedo, Antônio Parreiras, and
Rodolfo Bernardelli, professors of the former Imperial Academy of Fine Arts, then
National School of Fine Arts, the last of them nominated director of the institution under
the Republican regime; Almeida Júnior, João Batista da Costa, Aurélio de Figueiredo,
Belmiro de Almeida, Modesto Brocos y Gomes, students of the same institution, the last
two, along with Henrique Bernardelli, were nominated professor of the National School
of Fine Arts. Other artists included Eliseu Visconti, student of the Liceu Imperial de
The fine arts exhibit timidly exalted Republican authority with an oil painting
and the Republican spearhead Benjamin Constant with a bronze bust by Rodolfo
Bernardelli, and an engraved gem by A. Giradet. The President Floriano Peixoto did not
have any portrait, sculpture or gem exhibited. The fine arts exhibit also paid tribute (or
perhaps a late apology) to the mercilessly deposed, exiled emperor D. Pedro II (recently
125 Catalogue of the Brazilian Section at the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893: 103-109).
91
deceased on 5 December 1891) with a marble bust by Rodolfo Bernardelli. Some
images of monarchical times also found a place in the Republic’s first display at a
world’s fair for their liberal ideologies, as it is the case with José Bonifácio’s marble
bust by Martinelli, and Tiradentes’ oil painting portrait by Aurélio Figueiredo,126 and
for their national foundation ideology, as it is the case with A primeira missa no Brasil,
by Vítor Meireles. Among the works that gave greater visibility to Brazilian participation
The Music and Theater Division had a fair representation that exhibited about
two hundred works by 31 composers, and music collections of five music publishers:
Artur Napoleão, Isidoro Bevilacqua, and Buschmann & Guimarães, from Rio de
Janeiro; Costa e Silva & Cia., from Pará; and Vitor Préalle, from Pernambuco.127 The
Alfredo Napoleão, Henrique Braga, Paulo Faulhaber, Leopoldo Miguez, and Francisco
Braga. For some unknown reason, the Mexican composer Juventino Rosas is also listed
126 After the Proclamation of the Republic, the civilian cult to Tiradentes increased and the day of his
death, 21 April, was established a national holiday in 1890, along with 15 November, the
Proclamation of the Republic’s Day. (Carvalho 1990: 64) For an in depth study on the construction of
Tiradentes myth and its relation to Republican ideologies, see Carvalho (1990: 55-73) “Tiradentes, um
herói para a República.”
127 Catalogue of the Brazilian Section at the World’s Columbian Exposition (1893: 131-133).
128 According to Magaldi 1994: 198.
92
in the Brazilian catalogue. Considering the composers mentioned and the commercial
line of those publishing houses, one may infer that a significant portion of these piano
pieces refer to musical theater and salon music, and include popular genres associated
with stylized dance in process of nationalization such as valsa, polka and schottische,
and the new synthesis of Brazilian tango. This piano repertory also includes virtuoso,
lyric and character pieces most of which were associated with the European style. The
catalogue also refers to some compositions for piano and orchestra by Francisco Braga,
Leopoldo Miguez, who became “an indispensable man to the Republican government
concerning musical affairs in the last decade of the nineteenth century,”130 had
published until 1893 only his piano compositions, and therefore did not have his
symphonic music and his Sonata for violin and piano (which were published only in
Fair. No work by the Alberto Nepomuceno is listed in the already mentioned catalogue.
The catalogue indicates that lyric opera was the silver of the house since they
were the only compositions listed by title: Carlos Gomes’ Il Guarany, Fosca, Salvator
Rosa, Maria Tudor, Lo Schiavo, Condor, and Colombo; and Henrique Eulálio Gurjão’s
Idália. It seems that symphonic music was not highly regarded by the Brazilian
Commission since orchestral works were not distinguished by a full title listing.
129 Antonio Carlos Ribeiro de Andrada Machado e Silva was “um dos mais esforçados apreciadores de
música … em cuja casa se davam frequentes reuniões musicais, pelo que era sempre procurado e
frequentado pelos artistas que vinham a esta capital [São Paulo].” (Conference by Chiafarreli published
in JC, 14 Dec. 1900, p. 3)
130 Azevedo 1956: 113.
93
despite the composer’s well-known monarchical conviction, and the performance of his
highlights. Carlos Gomes composed his vocal symphonic poem Colombo for the
competition that would select the cantata to be performed at the World’s Columbian in
Chicago (1893), but in the end several problems precluded the performance of this
capitalized on the respectability that the performance of Carlos Gomes’s works would
grant. On the other hand, Brazilian music had to be illustrated by works of composers
Francisco Braga showed the results of his studies at the Paris Conservatory
supported by the Republican government grant with his symphonic prelude Paysage
music. Paysage was awarded a medal by this Exposition132 indicating not only that
symphonic music was the genre that musically represented Brazilian alignment with
“civilization” and “progress” but also that landscape topos was a major symbol of
Brazilian identity for outsider’s perception, although this particular work was not
number of landscape paintings of the Fine Arts Department, Braga’s Paysage could
evoke a wide range of meanings associated with the landscape topos, from the
131 Azevedo (1950: 27). Colombo premiered on 12 October 1892 by the Companhia Lírica Italiana
“Ducci & Ciacchi,” directed by Marino Mancineli at the Teatro Lírico in Rio de Janeiro. (André
Cardoso, article in CD EM-UFRJ 004)
132 Francisco Braga received in September, by way of José de Souza Rocha, a great friend since his
childhood, the medal with which Braga had been awarded by the Exposicao Internacional de Chicago for
his symphonic poem Paysage. (Exposição [1968]: 14)
94
exuberance and local color of Brazilian tropical nature to the refinement of Romantic
subjectivity.133
The management of Brazilian image abroad and domestic affairs had bad timing.
situation, it was a period of political instability with violent upheavals in early 1892,
September 1893, and the armed conflicts in Rio Grande do Sul from February 1893 to
July 1895.134 It was in this context that Brazil participated in the World’s Columbian
conditions with which Carlos Gomes had to deal in promoting the Brazilian musical
The Brazilian Republic tended towards greater financial stability with the civilian
administration, which put in office presidents representing the São Paulo coffee
Rodrigues Alves (1902-6) – and Minas Gerais oligarchy’s force – Afonso Pena (1906-
1909), and Nilo Peçanha (1909-1910). Moraes still had to deal with armed conflicts, of
which the Canudos War (1896-7) was the bloodiest and the deadliest.
The previously mentioned benefit concert for the widows and orphans of
Canudos War soldiers and disabled soldiers135 underscores Rio de Janeiro elite’s
winning side, and not the massacred group perceived as anti-republican, pro-monarchic
fanatics. Once more, Miguez’ Ave Libertas! extolled patriotic feelings and the triumph
of the Republican regime over its opponents. The lack of remorse for such a slaughter
was rationalized by Nina Rodrigues’ scientificist interpretation of this war that was
made public through the publication of his article “A loucura epidêmica de Canudos”
political feeling that corresponded to their inferior mental and sociological stage in an
evolutionist line in which republicanism was a more advanced stage.136 Therefore, the
bloody victory of the republican regime over those fanatics was legitimized by the
inevitability of the progress of Brazilian nation that would place it in the “civilized”
world. Progress was musically equated with “the music of the future.” The choice of
the symphonic poem Ave Libertas! to crown that concert refers to the ideology of
progress implied in its genre symbolically representing the victory of the most advanced
regime over the old one in conjunction with its literary program that located progress in
national domain. The symphonic poem Ave Libertas! conveyed not only patriotism but
also the reshaping of national identity through the ideology of progress and civilization.
The year 1897 in Brazil is recognized as “a moment of intense search for national
identity,”137 of which the Canudos campaign was among the nationalist manifestations
that most affected contemporary imagination, especially if one considers the impact of
citizen’s nationalist feelings. The celebration of that event was not an official initiative
but came from members of Brazilian intelligentsia in response to Coelho Neto’s call
that initiated a campaign in the newspaper Gazeta de Notícias extolling patriotic feelings
One of the most telling symptoms that we are a social collectivity with strong
and well-defined national feelings is that movement for celebrating the Fourth
Centennial of the glorious event of discovery of Brazil. What makes that
movement so nice and gives it the highest meaning is its origin and propelling
power: it was born in the press, when a writer reminded his compatriots every
day of the civilian duty to be fulfilled, and received from private sector the
necessary elements to its completion. That movement spread all over the
Union’s States in its increasing march bringing to every corner where a
Brazilian heart beats the conviction that the day recording the fourth century of
Brazilian communion must be celebrated. A small group of citizens answered to
Coelho Neto’s daily call in the Gazeta de Notícias, and gathered to work for the
patriotic aspiration; this group soon became larger and larger as a snow ball, and
the Fourth Centennial Association was promptly founded. That task was not
unattainable, and despite the short time left to make arrangements of such major
festivity, great triumphs could be attained if the private initiative had official
support. State’s high power preferred however to omit itself, so that only the
people has the glory of what has been and will be done, and that is the nicest and
most eloquent note of that celebration.138
138 “Um dos sintomas mais característicos de que somos uma coletividade social com o sentimento de
nacionalidade bem acentuado e definido, é esse movimento que se operou para comemorar no 4º
Centenário o fato glorioso do descobrimento do Brasil. E o que torna esse movimento mais simpático e
lhe dá mais alta significação é a sua origem e a força que o impulsiona: ele nasceu da imprensa, onde
um escritor lembrava todos os dias aos seus concidadãos o dever cívico a cumprir, e recebeu da
iniciativa particular os elementos necessários para a realização que se propunha. Na sua marcha
crescente esse movimento irradiou-se pelos Estados da União, levando a todas as localidades onde
palpitavam corações brasileiros, a convicção de que deviam festejar a data que marcava o IV século da
vida brasileira na comunhão social. // Ao apelo cotidiano do Sr. Coelho Neto nas colunas da Gazeta de
Notícias respondeu um pequeno grupo de cidadãos que se reuniram para trabalhar em prol da aspiração
patriótica da comemoração; esse pequeno grupo em breve se avolumou como a bola de neve, e dentro
em pouco estava organizada a Associação do IV Centenário do Brasil. A tarefa não era irrealizável,
conquanto fosse limitado oprazo para preparar festa de tanta monta e grandes triunfos poderiam ser
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Campos Sales’ administration (1898-1902), characterized by the “política dos
national unity in Brazilian imagination as much as it was with regional power relations.
civilians, and financial support was raised in the private sector. Therefore, the honors in
and civilians.
Although the committee was praised for the great weight it gave to art in
celebrating the Fourth Centennial, it was also criticized for not having included music
When it was time to evoke in all spirits the glorious fact that immortalized
Cabral; when it was necessary to unify the national spirit through this evocation;
when it was imperative to establish communication among all consciousness so
colhidos se a iniciativa particular tivesse os favores do bafejo oficial. Os altos poderes do Estado
preferiram, porém, abster-se, de modo que só o povo tem a glória do que está feito e ainda se há de
fazer, e é justamente essa a nota mais simpática e mais eloquente da comemoração.” (JC, 8 May 1900,
p. 3, T&M)
139 This expression refers to a Brazilian version of American federalism, or more specifically, to Sales’
decentralizing politics in a reciprocal power relation between the Federal government and its states in
which Sales’s power was strengthened by his policy of giving greater autonomy to each state’s
governor, and vice-versa.
140 “A diretoria da Sociedade Comemorativa do 4º centenário do descobrimento do Brasil, instalada em
S. Vicente, estado de São Paulo, composta de cavalheiros da melhor sociedade, distinguiu a redação da
Cidade do Rio, e pessoalmente o nosso diretor José do Patrocínio, com diplomas que lhes conferem os
direitos de sócios honorários desta patriótica sociedade. Os diplomas obedecem ao plano artístico de B.
Calixto, … e oferecem um belo conjunto onde se destaca a cópia do quadro A Fundação de S. Vicente,
trabalho de B. Calixto, e a da Partida de Monção, a obra-prima do saudoso pintor brasileiro Almeida
Júnior.” (CR, 31 Aug. 1900, p. 1)
98
that they would awake in the glorification of the heroes that brought the first ray
of the civilizing light to the cradle of Brazilian nation – what was the powerful
element that was able to bring together the feeling of so many millions of
Brazilians to this work of justice, gratitude and glorification? Art! Yes, Art
because only Art has the marvelous faculty of creating communion of feelings,
only Art has the irresistible power of joining all souls in the same aspiration;
only Art can the make all heart’s aims beat in the same rhythm; finally, only Art
can socialize. (…) We are convinced that the Associação do IV Centenário
realized that Art should the essential element of its celebrations.141
Music is considered by the critic as the most powerful tool of arousing collective
consciousness and feelings, and therefore, it should had been explored more extensively
141 “Quando se cogitava de evocar no espírito de todos o acontecimento glorioso que imortalizou
Cabral; quando era necessário unificar nessa evocação o sentimento nacional; quando cumpria
estabelecer comunicação entre todas as consciências para que acordassem na glorificação dos heróis que
trouxeram o primeiro raio da luz civilizadora ao berço da nacionalidade brasileira – qual o elemento
poderoso capaz de fazer convergir para essa obra de justiça, de gratidão e de glorificação o sentimento de
tantos milhares de Brasileiros? // – A arte! // Sim, a Arte porque só ela tem a faculdade maravilhosa de
criar comunhão de sentimentos; só ela tem o poder irresistível de fundar todas as almas na mesma
aspiração; só ela consegue concertar no mesmo ritmo os anseios de todos os corações; finalmente, só
ela pode socializar. (…) estamos convencidos de que a Associação do IV Centenário compreendeu que
a Arte deveria ser o elemento essencial dos festejos de comemoração.” (JC, 8 May 1900, p. 3, T&M)
99
service they have done for the sake of this patriotic celebration, but susceptible to
error for its human contingency.142
but few of them went through, and none of its musical works earned canonization as
happened with the fine arts. The association established a competition for the Centennial
Anthem, which was won by Nicolino Milano.143 Ernesto Ronchini run with “a beautiful
march in triple meter … that does not lack refinement” but it was disqualified because
the jury considered the piece’s meter inappropriate to its genre.144 The domestic
142 “Efetivamente, a Associação do IV Centenário mostrou desconhecer completamente que, entre
todas as artes, a Música distingue-se por excelência pelo seu alto valor social, pelo seu poder superior
de evocação, pela sua ação prodigiosa na representação da vida, e também pela sua força irresistível de
atração. // Não se reúnem assembléias numerosas para, num momento dado, admirar os quadros dos
grandes mestres, para contemplar as grandes obras da arquitetura, para considerar a beleza dos mármores
primorosamente trabalhados ou a grandeza majestosa dos monumentos genialmente concebidos e
audaciosamente realizados. Essas criações constatam-se com a admiração de visitantes que se sucedem
ou dos transeuntes que passam. // A Música, porém, tem o dom de formar os grandes ajuntamentos, as
numerosas assembléias, fazendo nascer no seio dessas multidões um sentimento coletivo que condensa a
emoção de todos os ouvintes. Além disso, a Música é a arte que mais intimamente penetra na nossa
alma (…) Poderíamos detalhar todo o valor sociológico da Música, já na sua história, já na sua
natureza, já nos seus efeitos; cremos, porém, não ser preciso fazê-lo, porque ninguém contesta verdades
aceitas por consenso unânime. // Entretanto, que papel foi reservado à Música nos festejos da
comemoração? // Papel nulo, e aí está o erro, podemos afirmá-lo, sem que nisso pretendamos irrogar
uma ofensa ou um demérito à Associação do IV Centenário, na qual figuram homens de ciência,
homens de letras e representantes ilustres de diversas classes sociais – todos eles benemérios pelo
heróico esforço e pelo serviço ingente que têm prestado nessa comemoração patriótica, mas susceptíveis
de erro pela sua contingência humana. (JC, 8 May 1900, p. 3, T&M).
143 JC, 4 Feb. 1900, p. 2; and 4 May 1900, p. 6.
144 “Uma bela marcha em três tempos … que nada tinha de vulgar,” (JC, 13 May 1901, p. 2, T&M).
“Hino a Cabral, é o título de uma composição de R. R. Caramuru, de que são editores os Srs. Fertin de
Vasconcelos, Morand & C. Essa composição tem a sua pequena história que covém referir. Quando
esteve em concurso o Hino do Quarto Centenário Brasileiro, entre as composições apresentadas
encontrava-se uma firmada com o pseudônimo Caramuru e que, dizem, foi rejeitada por artista eminente
consultado pela Associação do centenário sob o retexto de que não era um hino, por causo do ritmo
ternário. Não queremos crer tão estranha versão que não pode significar a opinião do iluestre artista
aludido, diremos mesmo que o ritmo preferido nessa composição concorre, e não pouco, para dar-lhe
uma forma pouco comum, mas traduzindo perfeitamente na idéia da composição um caráter nobre e
cheio de dignidade. O próprio autor já nos revelou, em carta, que em tempo publicamos, que sua
composição fora muito bem classificada pelo Sr. Leopoldo Miguez, a quem ninguém contestará
competência inteira no assunto. Se a composição em questão nada mereceu da Associação do
Centeneario, nem por isso deixa de merecer dos competentes um apluaso significativo, única
recompensa que satisfará realmente o seu autor, o Sr. Ernesto Ronchini, Professor do Instituto Nacional
de Música.” (JC, 4 Feb. 1900, p. 2)
100
entertainment sector also took advantage of this centennial to make its profits with piano
music, as was the case with J. Paranhos’ Valsa do Centenário, published by Casa Fertin
de Vasconcelos, Morand & C., and the Marcha do Quarto Centenário, arranged by
José Croccia, and published by Casa Vieira Machado & C.,145 the latter submitted to the
mentioned competition.
newspaper informs that “the Associação included a lyric spectacle in its program” and
made initial arrangements for the performance of two of them, although only one was
finally staged on that occasion, and that was apparently without the association’s
financial support.
The cantata Brasil was written by the poet Olavo Bilac upon the request of the
association, and its text was intended to be set to music and performed during the 1900
celebrations. The nationalist tone of Bilac’s poem is revealed by its episodes recounted
in three parts: “A Partida” [The departure], “Terra” [The Land], and “A Cruz” [The
Cross]. Bilac’s Brasil was read by the author during the magna session of 3 May 1899,
and set to music by his friend Assis Pacheco, who was awarded with the first prize by
producing opera seasons in the Federal Capital, Giovanni Sansone, to perform the
of November 1899 to F. Buschmann, Braga informs that he has been invited to present
his opera Jupyra in Rio de Janeiro by the Committee of the Centennial. In a letter of 20
February 1900 Braga informs that Sansone proposed the performance of Jupyra in Rio
director) seems to have arranged with Coelho Neto (Centro Artístico’s and Associação
newspaper its intention to promote “an art festival of the loftiest rank,”150 but this was
contemporary newspaper that “the Associação has committed itself with the maestro
Leopoldo Miguez to promote the performance of the lyric drama Saldunes during the
festivities of the Fourth Centennial.” In the same article, Coelho Neto denounced the
association’s mistaken decision to deny the already-promised financial support for the
operatic production of this work concerning stage setting, costume, miscellanies, and
The impresario Sansone kept his plan of performing both operas at least until
August, stating in a contemporary newspaper that “the Company will perform other
149 “pois minha opera foi oficialmente escolhida pela comissão do 4º Centenário do Brasil.” Exposição
[1968]: 34.
150 “O Centro Artístico pretende comemorar o IV Centenário do Brasil com uma festa de arte da maior
elevação.” [The Centro Artístico intends to celebrate Brazilian Fourth Centennial with an art festival of
the loftiest rank] (JC, 16 May 1900. p. 3, T&M)
151 GN, 1 May 1900; partially reprinted in JC, 8 May 1900, p. 3.
102
operas that did not figure in its earlier prospect, including two operas by national
The arrangements preceding the staging of Braga’s Jupyra at the Teatro Lírico
of Rio de Janeiro on 7 October 1900 were quarrelsome, but only understatedly reported
Rio de Janeiro’s official institutions, Leopoldo Miguez, his prestigious rival Francisco
Braga, the leading Italian impresario producing opera seasons in the Federal Capital,
Giovanni Sansone, and the association’s committee member and librettist of the rival
opera, Coelho Neto. In addition, the music critics of the daily newspapers that most
commented upon that affair were either directly involved in it, as it was the case with
Coelho Neto in Gazeta de Notícias, or had friendly relationships with the contesting
parts and did not want to openly take sides, as had done Rodrigues Barbosa in Jornal
do Comércio.
Miguez attempted to impose the performance of his opera Saldunes through the
prestige of his institutional status. Francisco Braga had a good reputation among public
opinion, especially after a newspaper article publicized the commendatory criticism that
his opera Jupyra had received from the German conductor Herman Levy.153 Sansone
152 “A empresa conta dar outras óperas que não constam do seu prospecto, dizendo-se até que serão
cantadas duas óperas de autores nacionais: Saldunes, do Maestro Leopoldo Miguez e Jupyra, do
Maestro Francisco Braga.” (JC, 4 Aug. 1900, p. 2)
153 Herman Levy’s assessment of Braga’s opera Jupyra was published in JC, 16 Oct. 1899.
(Exposição [1968]: 34). Francisco Braga was also a well-articulated man and engaged many contacts to
make possible the European performance of Jupyra. In Dresden Braga showed his opera Jupyra to
Herman Levy (a distinguished musician who had friendly relationships with Richard Wagner) and
received unrestricted aproval: “none of its notes can be changed”( “não podia ser mudada uma só de suas
notas”). Levy mediated Braga’s contact with the directors of the Royal Theater of Munich, who
promised to stage Jupyra. (Tapajós Gomes 1937: 16) Postcard dated April 1899 from Braga to F.
Buschmann informs his travel to Munich to make arrangements for the performance of Jupyra in that
city: “I don’t know if it will be worth it… anyway… let’s see…” (“Não sei se valerá a pena ...Em todo
caso... Veremos em que dará...”). Braga’s postcards of July and August 1899 to Buschmann indicate the
103
did not want to clash with any of his Brazilian colleagues and decided to cancel the
performance of both operas.154 Towards the end of the 1900 opera season, the finances
of Sansone company were in a dismal state, and the impresario made the last-minute
Lírica and its impresario,156 the performance of Jupyra went without Sansone’s
partnership. The eve of Jupyra’s premiere, Sansone’s name was absent from its
advertisement,157 and on the day of its performance the Lyric Company communicated
composer’s hopes: “Having Levy’s letter in my hands, I came back here with Jupyra, my dear little
mestizo Indian, upon the request of the gentle and celebrated Director of the Munich Theater.” (“Tendo
tido uma carta do Levi, para aqui voltei com a Jupyra, a minha carina caboclinha, às ordens do amável e
célebre Diretor do Teatro de München.”) Letter dated 25 March 1900 from Braga to Villaça mentions
the possibility of staging Jupyra in Paris (Exposição [1968]: 34). See also Santos 1945: 32-3.
154 “Sansone teve medo de provocar ressentimentos nos brasileiros, e as operas de Braga e Miguez
forma canceladas do programa.” (Hora 1953: 15-6)
155 Hora (1953: 15-6). Sansone’s financial problems are flagrant in September 1900. The Italian
empresario had the following communications published in a daily newspaper: “Giovanni Sansone,
empresário da companhia Lírica Italiana, deve ao público, especialmente aos Srs. assinantes, explicando
o motivo porquê resolveu suspender os espetáculos. Alguns artistas não tendo recebido adiantadamente
no dia 18 do corrente a quinzena a findar em 3 de outubro vindouro, e exigindo o seu pagamento
adiantado, sem atenção à crise que atravessa a praça, e que naturalmente atingiu os frequentadores do
teatro, diminuindo a concurrência, recusaram-se a representar os respectivos papéis, de tal modo a
impedir a continuação dos espetáculos até que possa ser feito o pagamento exigido, não aceitando o
pagamento no dia de vencimento da quinzena, como foi proposto pela Empresa. Este é, pois, o motivos
de suspensão dos espetáculos, cuja série continuará se os artistas aceitarem o pagamento por quinzenas
vencidas. Convém fazer saber o respeitável público, que pagamentos de importância superior aos
exigidos pelos aludidos artistas estão feitos adiantadamente até 30 deste mês.” (JC, 23 Sept. 1900, p.
3) “Houve acordo entre o empresário Sansone e os artistas da companhia lírica. Os espetáculos
continuam … – Escreve-nos o Sr. Sansone: ‘tenho a honra de comunicar ao respeitável público que,
tendo efetuado uma reunião com os meus artistas, achei-os cavalheirosamente e gentilmente dispostos a
entrar em acordo para que se possa concluir a estação lírica e satisfazer os empenhos com os assinantes.
Esclarecidas, pois, as dúvidas que determinaram a suspensão dos espetáculos nesses dois dias, recomeça
amanhã com a representacão da Tosca. Peço aos frequentadores do Lírico para mim e para todos os
artistas aquela benevolência que sempre nos dispuseram. Rio, 24 set. 1900. Giovanni Sansone.” (JC,
25 Sept. 1900, p. 3)
156 Sansone’s payment to the singers and orchestra musicians was past due. It seems that he had the
means but did not want to settle the issue. See detailed report of the meeting of Sansone, his
musicians, and Braga witnessed by some members of Rio de Janeiro society interested in the issue, in
CR, 6 Oct. 1900, p. 2.
157 JC, 7 Oct. 1900, p. 10.
104
that it had split up with its impresario Sansone and would carry the last three spectacles
of the season on its own. The Lyric Company remarked that Sansone had yielded all the
necessary material for the performance, and the theater’s owner had freed the Company
totally disorganized and deprived of its best artists; the orchestra was reduced by half
and was no longer conducted by the “energetic baton” of Mascheroni. The uneven
orchestral group had not rehearsed sufficiently to “penetrate the soul and emotions of
the art work” since the musicians were “concerned with the box office rather than with
translating the instrumental polyphony of the opera.” Due to the contingencies of the
moment, Braga had to make last-minute changes in the opera that affected major aspects
of the composition. The one-act opera was divided into two acts, and some segments
had to be cut off. Originally written for a dramatic soprano, Jupyra’s part was rewritten
for soprano leggero, and was extensively modified so that it would be adjusted to the
abilities of the “inexperienced and limited” singer, who lacked “dramatic qualities as
an actress,” and whose “vocal mechanism was unable to translate the intensity of
passion” of the character. All those factors made it imperative for Braga to rehearse and
158 “A companhia lírica, que trabalhava nesse teatro por conta da empresa Sansone, rompeu seus
compromissos com o empresário, dando por sua conta os três últimos espetáculos, tendo obtido, para
esse fim, do referido empresário o material necessário, e do proprietário do teatro permissão gratuita
para dar ali as récitas. … hoje será cantada a Jupyra, do maestro Francisco Braga, repetindo-se amanhã o
mesmo espetáculo para a despedida da Companhia. Os Srs. assinantes têm direito à récita de hoje.” (JC,
8 Oct. 1900, p. 2)
159 “A temporada terminou ingloriamente com a Companhia inteiramente desorganizada e já privada
dos seus mais valiosos elementos. Foi nesse último período de dissolução, quando a orquestra, reduzida
quase à metade, já não era animada pela batuta enérgica de Mascheroni, e quando eram escassos os
recursos do corpo de cantores, foi então que coube ao maestro Francisco Braga o ensejo de fazer cantar a
sua ópera em um ato Jupyra, dividida em dois atos por circunstâncias e exigências do momento. (…)
Francisco Braga teve de sacrificar a sua ópera, modificando tanto ou quanto a parte da protagonista,
105
Despite all of the shortcomings, Jupyra’s premiere was a great success. The
same newspaper article reports that Francisco Braga was enthusiastically applauded
before, during and after the performace,160 and the opera was repeated the following
day.161
events and ultimately carried out by the composer himself and the Companhia Lírica
Italiana without Sansone’s partnership. In addition, its last advertisements do not make
musical spectacles due to dissension within its Committee. In commenting upon the
escrita originalmente para soprano dramático, afim de confiá-la a um soprano ligeiro, inexperiente, sem
qualidades aprecieaveis que recomendasse a cantora como atriz, e possuindo um órgão vocal incapaz de
traduzir a intensidade da paixão de que se acha revestida a figura da protagonista do libretto do Sr.
Escragnolle Doria. Essa modificação, já essencial, porque afeta o caráter do personagem que move todo
o drama, não foi a única concessão do autor, que teve de consentir também em alguns cortes,
precisando, ele mesmo, ensaiar e reger a sua partitura, confiada a uma orquestra desigual e deficiente e
mais preocupada com a receita dos espetáculos para o seu pagamento do que com a tradução da polifonia
instrumental da ópera. Acrescente-se a tudo isso a falta de ensaios em número suficiente para que os
próprios cantores e orquestra chegassem a penetrar o sentimento da obra de arte e a compreender a
espiritualidade da composição, e ninguém dirá que a Jupyra teve a execução que merecia do amor dos
artistas que a interpretaram.” (JC, 10 Oct. 1900, p. 3) CR, 6 Oct. 1900 also comments on the
difficulties of Jupyra’s production.
160 “Quando o maestro Francisco Braga ocupou a cadeira de regente, sobre ele choveram flores e o
público vitoriou-o por muito tempo. (…) [after Quirino’s phrase ‘Come la mia non vibra La sua
passion giammai’] O auditório rompeu então em aplausos prolongados. (…) Interrompeu-se o ato final
da sexta cena, e o público aplaudiu durante mais de um quarto de hora: os moços das galerias foram à
caixa e por muitas vezes trouxeram à cena, vitoriando-o, o maestro Francisco Braga, e depois os artistas
encarregados da representacão, Tromben, Berlendi, Rambaldi e Arcangelli. Continuou depois a
representação.” (JC, 10 Oct. 1900, p. 3) Article in CR, 9 Oct. 1900, p. 2, “No mundo da solfa”
corroborates the enthusiastic reception of Jupyra’s premiere.
161 JC, 9 Oct. 1900, p. 8; advertisement. The box office of Jupyra’s second performance was bound
for the orchestra’s musicians and chorus. “em benefício dos professores de orquestra e corpo de coros.”
(JC, 8 Oct. 1900, p. 6, advertisement)
162 See, for instance, JC, 4 Oct. 1900, p. 10; 5 Oct. 1900, p. 8; 7 Oct. 1900, p. 10; 8 Oct. 1900, p.
6; 9 Oct. 1900, p. 8.
106
withdrawing of I Salduni’s performance, Coelho Neto elegantly insinuates the
While the Associação clique’s bias was probably real, there is some evidence
that neither I Salduni nor Jupyra had the ideological substance capable of securing the
whose subject “has nothing to do with Brazilian geography and ethnography, and with
the tradition of the melodic spirit of the people to which the poet and the composer
belong.”164 On the other hand, Francisco Braga’s opera Jupyra is based on a short
novel by Bernardo Guimarães with the same title that conveys a pessimistic view of
Brazilian ethnic origins and its future as a miscegenated nation.165 Although Jupyra’s
Indianist literary tradition assured its association with national symbols, its ideological
spin to the myth of national foundation (consolidated during the Second Empire) did
not fit the conservative tone demanded for such a kind of patriotic celebration.
Centennial that, although it was not directly supported by the Associação, kept
163 “Fica-nos do Centenário o formoso monumento de Bernardelli, por que não nos havemos de mover
com um pouco de patriotismo para que a música, que é a nossa arte ingênita, seja também representada
e nobremente, na grande apoteose cíclica que se prepara?” (GN, 1 May 1900; partially reprinted in JC,
8 May 1900, p. 3)
164 “… pela geografia e pela etnografia, não tem nada que ver com as tradições do espírito melodioso do
povo a que pertencem o poeta e o músico.” (“Saldunes,” article [probably by Lobo Cordeiro] in JC, 10
May 1900, p. 3)
165 For a comparative study between José de Alencar’s positive view of the integration of the Indian
into Brazilian society as a process of national foundation expressed in his novel Iracema, and Bernardo
Guimarães’ pessimistic view on the issue expressed in his short novel Jupyra, see Magrans (1995).
For a comparitive analysis between Guimarães’s short novel Jupyra and the libretto of Francisco
Braga’s opera and their ideological implications, see chapter 4 on Indianismo.
107
ceremonial relations with it. The Gala Recital celebrating the Fourth Centennial of the
Discovery of Brazil to which were invited the President of Brazilian Republic, the
Portuguese Ambassador, and the Executive Committee of the Fourth Centennial, by the
Empresa Dramática Fluminense at the Teatro Apollo of Rio de Janeiro on 4 May 1900,
de Figueiredo with music by maestro Nicolino Milano,” among other numbers. This
personifications of Portugal, Brazil, America, the European nations, and the American
nations; historical figures of Nuno Alves Pereira, Bartolomeu Dias, Vasco da Gama; the
poet who immortalized Portuguese conquests, Camões; and allegorical figures of Fame,
Calliope, and the Muses.166 This patriotic epopee illustrates Brazilian bonding relations
with Portugal and the persisting Lusophile culture in spite of a century of anti-
contexts of Jupyra and I Salduni indicates the unsuitability of the operas for the Fourth
of national identity concerning its ethnic stock,167 its pessimistic view of miscegenation
not only downplayed the myth of national origins (if miscegenation was strictly
166 “Récita de gala comemorativa do 4º Centenário do Descobrimento do Brasil e para a qual foram
convidados o Exm. Presidente da República, o Exm. Embaixador de Portugal e a Comissão Executiva
do 4º Centenário do Brasil” … “epopéia patriótica em 3 quadros, original de Eugênio Silveira e Manoel
de Figueiredo, música do maestro Nicolino Milano.” (JC, 4 May 1900, p. 6)
167 Indianismo was criticized for electing the miscegenation of the Indian and the Portuguese as
representative of Brazilian identity, once Brazilian intellectuals associated with folklore studies and
anthropology acknowledged that the Black corresponded to the largest portion of Brazilian ethnic and
cultural mix. See further discussion on this issue in chapter 4 on Indianismo.
108
interpreted as between the Indian and the Portuguese) but also shed a dooming light on
Brazil’s future (if the character Jupyra is taken as a metaphor for miscegenation as a
comrade loyalty and warrior heroism could be associated with the revolutionary and
patriotic ideology of the origins of Brazilian Republic, it could also evoke the political
corroborates Melo’s estimation that perhaps the actual reason for the turning down of
“this important opera,” I Salduni, was the fact that the “wise and distinguished”
celebration was “essentially of local color” and it would be awkward to include a work
ethnography.”168
The musical theater piece O Centenário follows the official vantage point made
in 1897,169 and in the many symbols endorsed by the Associação, such as Olavo
Bilac’s poem Brasil, Rodolfo Bernardelli’s bronze monument to Pedro Álvares Cabral,
Aurélio de Figueiredo’s painting, Amadeu Zani’s bas-relief, and the Fourth Centennial
book.170
national foundation that had been consolidated during Imperial times exalting the
168 “Talvez que a verdadeira causa que determinou a supressão desta importante ópera fosse o ter a sábia
e distinta Diretoria compreendido logo cedo que o programa do Centenário agravar-se-ia aproveitando
para assunto de uma festa nacional e essencialmente de cor local, uma ópera cujo lance dramático, tanto
pela geografia como pela etnografia, nada tinha que ver com as nossas tradições.” (Melo 1947: 299)
169 Costa and Schwarcz 2000: 110-1.
170 Melo 1947: 298.
109
Portuguese and the noble savage. The Rs. $20 stamp and Bernardelli’s monument exalt
the braveness of Pedro Álvares Cabral, the Portuguese navigator who discovered Brazil
and represents the arrival of Western civilization. The civilizing role of the Portuguese is
also represented in the Rs. 1$000 stamp illustrated with Meireles’ famous painting A
primeira missa no Brasil dealing with the myth of conversion that legitimized the
Portuguese conquest over the Indian. The Rs. $10 stamp portrays the indigenous
population in its primitive guise rather than in its noble savage idealization legitimizing
once more the Portuguese colonization implied in the victory of “civilization” over the
milestone (the Rs. 2$000 stamp illustrated with Pedro Américo’s oil painting
(Benjamin Constant, Deodoro da Fonseca) and milestone (the Rs. 5$000 stamp
The Fourth Centennial was also an opportunity for the Brazilian elite to express
its ideals of civilization and progress. The above mentioned Fourth Centennial stamps
Brazilian history from the lowest valued Rs. $10 stamp portraying the primitive Indian
to the highest valued Rs. 10$000 stamp illustrated with the “Alegoria da civilização”
monarchy to republic. This evolutionist view asserting the victory of civilization also
influenced the group that dominated Rio de Janeiro’s major music institutions and
110
influence on Braga, Miguez’s I Salduni was the only one that sufficiently adopted
elite’s fantasy of civilization and progress. This lyric drama in four acts, based on
Coelho Neto’s poem “Os Saldunes, ou o Crepúsculo das Gálias” (translated into
Italian by Heitor Malaguti), was conceived in the most orthodox Wagnerian spirit, and
Neto’s poem can be associated with situations of the Wagnerian dramatic cycle, and
each page of Miguez’s music can be associated with some movement, process or
Rodrigues Barbosa and Luís de Castro, “the two relentless fighters who have done so
much for the victory of the lyric drama in Brazil,”172 I Salduni was widely commented
upon in Brazilian newspapers and magazines from 1899 to 1901. The numerous articles
campaigning for the performance of I Salduni and elucidating the public on its
Centennial was considered “an opportunity to show a work that will make us proud,
and will demonstrate to foreigners our artistic development if it goes beyond our
borders,”173 and its cancellation was taken with deep frustration. From the perspective
of the Wagnerian clique, Brazilian music missed the opportunity to show its progress.
The Fourth Centennial however demanded not only a display of “civilization” but also
civilization could play in those celebrations only if integrated into the gallery of national
survival consolidation, and the reestablishment of a sound economy. The next terms
were in a better position to carry out Rio de Janeiro’s urban reforms planned since
Imperial times but barely effected during the preceding decades. The reurbanization of
the nation’s capital resulted from a joint venture of federal and municipal levels during
(the so-called “bota abaixo” that demolished Colonial street design and buildings) and
constructing new wide streets and avenues, boulevards and modern buildings.174 The
Federal Capital’s urban reforms conveyed Brazil’s aspirations towards civilization and
carried out by Haussmann were adapted to Rio de Janeiro by Pereira Passos and his
contributors. Buildings were constructed following the French École des Beaux-Arts,
either in its “pure,” exotic or eclectic trends.175 After the inauguration of the Avenida
Central on 15 November 1905 (the anniversary of the Proclamation of the Republic), the
venue in the official events promoted by the Republican government. The civilian
in 1908, and the inauguration of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro in 1909. These
events reflect the persisting currency of musical trends responsible for Rio de Janeiro’s
musical renovation in the previous decade as well as the continuing prestige of the old
axis of Brazil’s foreign relations from Europe to the U.S.. Barão de Rio Branco,
appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs by Rodrigues Alves in 1902, was the head of a
strengthening continent-oriented policy for the next ten years. On the one hand, Brazil’s
foreign policy promoted neighboring relations with the other Latin American countries.
On the other hand, it advanced closer relations with the U.S., resulting in the creation of
the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C. in 1905, with Joaquim Nabuco appointed
Brazil’s representative. Among the strategic measures for the improvement of Brazilian
economy was its foreign policy, the major goal of which was to reshape the terms of
Thus the Third Pan-American Congress held in Rio de Janeiro in 1906, presided
over by Joaquim Nabuco, constituted a major event that articulated Brazil’s continent-
oriented policy during this period. The Congress opened on 23 July 1906 with Barão de
113
Rio Branco’s speech setting the guidelines of Brazilian relations with the U.S. The
Third Pan-American Congress “opened Brazil’s doors to the most distinctive guests
and all American nations, … even the U.S.! … to show all the greatness of our
cosmopolitan image of Brazil to foreign visitors.177 Brazil also aimed to enhance its
countries.178
series of symphonic concerts for the Congress that contributed to Brazil’s agenda of
image construction. These concerts were held from 23 July to 26 August 1906. The
members and held at the Teatro Lírico on 15 August 1906179 can be viewed as an
accomplishment and cultural worth. The program opened emblematically with Carlos
Gomes’s Protofonia of Il Guarany, and closed with a patriotic assertion with Miguez’s
symphonic poem Ave, Libertas! followed by the National Flag Anthem (Olavo Bilac’s
Ouverture of Tiradentes.180
176 JC, 30 March 1908, “A Semana,” quoted in Sevcenko 1983: 70. Among the distinctive foreign
guests was the U.S. Secretary of State, Elihu Root (from 23 July until 27 August 1906).
177 Sevcenko 1983: 35.
178 Martins 1977-8, 5: 295.
179 “Concerto Sinfônico (Audição de Obras Brasileiras) oferecido pela Prefeitura do Distrito Federal aos
Membros do 3º Congresso Pan-Americano, e organizado por Francisco Braga e Elpídio Pereira com o
Valioso Concurso dos Distintos Artistas Alberto Nepomuceno, D. Zilda Chiaboto, Violinista
Francisco Chiaffitelli e Professor José De Larrigue De Faro.” (Concert note BNRJ)
180 Concert note BNRJ.
114
The extent to which these works symbolically represented Brazilian identity can
Ave, Libertas!, Nepomuceno’s Suite brasileira, and Braga’s Marabá, discussed more
extensively elsewhere, indicate that those works were perceived by Brazilian audiences
Braga’s Marabá by the use of Indianist literary theme, the quoting of two popular
melodies, and the musical painting of local landscape as nationalist topoi.182 Cultural
Pereira’s Ouverture of Tiradentes had a patriotic appeal due to its political subject
pertaining to Brazilian history that evokes one of the first independence movements and
the hero-martyr that became part of the gallery of national symbols during the First
from the historicist view of national identity implied in its literary theme to Gomes’
1906 Congress expressed both patriotic and cultural nationalism through symphonic
181 These definitions are based on Kallberg (1990: 245), who identifies two main varieties of
nationalism perceived in Chopin’s music by its early reception: cultural and political. “Cultural
nationalism” evoked [folk] customs, beliefs, social forms, ethnic groups, and language while “political
nationalism” addressed the political status of the country and the issue of sovereignty.
182 Braga’s Marabá will be analyzed more extensively in chapter 4 on Indianismo, and chapter 5 on
Landscape.
183 For an in depth study on the construction of Tiradentes myth and its relation to Republican
ideologies, see Carvalho 1990: 55-73, “Tiradentes, um herói para a República.”
184 The first aspect is studied in Chapter 4 on Indianismo, and the second aspect is discussed in Chapter
3 on Carlos Gomes paradigm.
115
music, from major genres such as the symphonic poem (Ave Libertas and Marabá),
genres associated with opera tradition (Guarany protofonia and the overture of
nationalism that relied on folk and popular traditions to represent national identity. Also,
both works were associated with landscape, which, as the following chapters will show,
was a major topos of national identity in the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries.185
The remaining portion of this concert expressed the Brazilian elite’s yearning
for the refinement of European sensibility with works such as Carlos de Mesquita’s Un
Faulhaber’s Diálogo. This concert note also displayed Brazilian operatic tradition with
Araújo Viana’s “Raconto” of Act I of Carmela, and most importantly, Brazilian music
aims towards high genres with João Gomes de Araujo’s Allegro of his first symphony,
Henrique Oswald’s Allegro and Andante of his violin concerto, and Francisco Valle’s
Pastoral.
This concert encapsulated how Brazilian musical intelligentsia in the early 1900s
“progress” with Brazilian identity. The balanced repertory presenting works associated
with European models as well as with nationalism makes this concert very indicative of
185 See further discussion on Marabá and “Alvorada na serra” in chapter 5 on Landscape.
116
the identity crisis in Brazilian music that occurred in the following decade. On the one
“civilization” were quite conservative since they relied mostly on the Romantic
character piece and could hardly be associated with the latest musical “progress.” The
likewise could not be associated with the latest musical “progress.” On the other hand,
the works which supposedly represented Brazilian identity reflected the dialectical
relation between the Romantic Indianist tradition and a newly-sprung sense of ethnic
origins that acknowledged the Black contribution, and of culture that sought the essence
of Brazilian people in folklore. The ultimate issue was how to reconcile Brazilian
identity with the search for modernization and cosmopolitan ideals that imprinted the
cosmopolitanism”186 that did not escape objections. The slogan “o Rio civiliza-se”
superlatively reflects contemporary amazement by the city’s changes but also conveys
some skepticism.
during the Third Pan-American Congress that was recalled two years later with sarcastic
contributor:
In the climax of the party, the hideous savages show up with their uncultivated
hair in the middle of hairdressed people spoiling the fidalgy of the homages,
demoralizing us before the foreigners, and destroying our chic-ism with their
exoticism. Unfortunately there was no time to do anything to take that
The above account shows how Brazilian elite was uncomfortable with Brazilian
uniqueness and considered modernization more imperative than the assertion of national
identity. The Brazil elite’s fantasy of civilization and progress contrasted with the
problems inherited from its Colonial past, particularly the ones related to Indian
frontiers and the integration of the Black into society and citizenship. Considering that
miscegenation was for the most part a baffling issue, the performance of Braga’s
touching upon the issue of miscegenation could only fit in such an official event if
framed within Romantic sentimentalism. Also, the framing of miscegenation upon the
Indianist metaphor allowed elite culture to evade contemporary uneasiness with the
187 “No melhor da festa como se tivessem caído do céu ou subido do inferno eis os selvagens
medonhos, de incultas cabeleiras metidas até os ombros, metidos com gente bem penteada, estragando a
fidalguia das homenagens, desmoralizando-nos perante o estrangeiros, destruindo com o seu exotismo o
nosso chiquismo. Infelizmente não era mais tempo de providenciar, de tirar aquela nódoa tupinambá da
nossa correção parisiense, de esconder aqueles caboclos importunos, de, ao menos, cortar-lhes o cabelo
(embora parecesse melhor a muita gente cortar-lhes a cabeça), de atenuar com escova e perfumaria aquele
escândalo de bugres mestiços… Não houve remédio senão aturar as feras, mas só Deus sabe que força de
vontade tivemos de empregar para sorrir ao Sr. Root, responder em bom inglês ao seu inglês, vendo o
nervoso que nos sacudia a mão quando empunhávamos a taça dos brindes solenes e engolir, de modo que
não revelasse aos nossos hóspedes que tínhamos índios atravessados na nossa garganta. Foram dias de
dor aqueles dias de glória. A figura do índio nos perseguia com a tenacidade do remorso. A sua cara
imóvel interpunha-se à dos embaixadores e à nossa. As suas plumas verdes e amarelas quebraram a
uniformidade negra das casacas. Broncas sílabas tupis pingaram, enodoando o primor das línguas
educadas.” (JC, 30 March 1908, “A Semana,” quoted in Sevcenko 1983: 35-36)
118
qualities of the European that is welcomed neither by the Indian nor by the white world.
forest that, by taking her out of her social context, lessens substantially the ideological
the first musical works to raise to the surface the issue of miscegenation and social
displacement in an official event. However, that was made possible only by its Romantic
brasileira. The official event of 1906 displayed the Black at all only by a work that
stylizes Black rhythms within an European musical discourse and depoliticized the
Black issue through “cultural nationalism” evoking ethnic customs and traits. The
Black culture was whitened by Europeanized musical stylization and portrayed within a
the following decade the “cultural” approach became a strengthening trend in Brazilian
musical nationalism.
The framing of local themes within European style and subjectivity was among
the few ways Brazilian uniqueness could have a place in official events during the 1890s
and 1900s. The Brazilian composers’ Europeanized style corresponded to the Rio de
Janeiro elite’s cosmopolitanism during this period of urban reforms and economic
themes (such as landscape, Indianismo, and folklore), even if stylized, was in sharp
ethnic groups and cultural expressions from the “civilized” center of the city.189
More than cultural motivations, the modernizing trend in the Federal Capital was
infrastructure was indispensable to its integration into the world economy. Rodrigues
Alves’s and Pereira Passos’ administrations (1902-1906) carried out the port capital’s
reform, which allowed a greater flow of foreign capital and trade, and European
immigration. In this context was promoted the next Brazilian showcase, the National
Exposition in 1908, also known as The Opening of Brazilian Ports Centennial. This
exposition also included the centennial celebration of Brazilian Press and Medicine.
The National Exposition of 1908 was built in the Praia Vermelha (Red Beach),
inaugurated on 28 January 1908, and closed with a solemn section officiated by the
November 1908, the Proclamation of the Republic Day.190 The location of this event at
the Praia Vermelha was symbolic of its historical and contemporary significance as a
strategic site, since the Praia Vermelha was the area of the first landings of Portuguese
navigators in Rio de Janeiro, and the contemporary site of the military headquarters that
promoted the armed intervention for the establishment of the republican regime in Brazil
two decades earlier and would impose a military president (Hermes da Fonseca) two
years later.
189 See Sevcenko (1999: 33-4) on the censure of carnival’s cordões, batuques, and pastorinhas, and
the replacement of European harlequins, pierrots and columbines by popular customs so dear to the
populace such as the cobra viva and the Indian costumes.
190 RS, 15 Nov. 1908, no. 444, p. 1055.
120
This exposition celebrated Brazil’s cultural relations with the “civilized”
countries of the Northern hemisphere and its economic relations with the foreign
market.
Braga, and Assis Pacheco, and held at the Teatro João Caetano with good attendance
during their two-month period.192 Francisco Braga had his public acclamation as a first-
rate conductor during the Opening of Brazilian Port Centennial’s symphonic concerts.
Alexandre Levy, Francisco Braga, and Leopoldo Miguez, and included many premieres.
The works by major Brazilian composers performed during this series were: Carlos
Gomes’ Overture from O Guarani (August 13), Overture from Fosca (August 24),
(August 13 and 25), aria from Pelo Amor (August 20), Ave Libertas! (October 10),
Scherzetto fantástico (August 29), cortege from I Salduni, Cena dramática, Prometeus,
prelude from Pelo Amor, Suíte Antiga, and Ave Libertas! (Festival Leopoldo Miguez on
September 8), Amanhecer for voice and orchestra (August 27), Suíte Brasileira
(September 8), and Romance e tarantela for cello and orchestra (September 10); the
only work by Francisco Braga performed during this series was Chant d’Automne
(August 13 and 22); the only work by Henrique Oswald performed during this series
was Prelúdio (September 1). Works by some minor composers were also performed,
such as Ernesto Ronchini’s symphonic poem Pedro Álvares Cabral (August 27);
Araújo Viana prelude from the opera Carmela (September 28); Edgardo Guerra’s
Devaneio pastoril (October 6); and Francisco Nunes’ Tarantela (October 11).193
The great impact of this series, however, sprung from the repertory innovation
introduced by Nepomuceno, Francisco Braga, and Assis Pacheco, who conducted works
Glazunov, Cesar Franck, Chabrier, Paul Dukas, and Debussy.194 Debussy’s Prélude à
l’après-midi d’un faune and Dukas’ L’apprenti sorcier had their Brazilian premiere
during this series.195 Azevedo considers that, as far as music is concerned, the National
Exposition concerts were “Brazil’s official entrance in the twentieth century … since
they initiated the Brazilian public to modern music and works that had opened the way
122
to modern music.”196 Cosmopolitanism upon modern brand was a major mark of
The National Exposition of 1908 gave a major turn concerning the construction
of a national image by including native Indian and popular expression in its key events.
The closing section of the Brazilian Press Centennial Exposition promoted by the
the Macro-Ge, Bororo language classification, located in Central Mato Grosso) at the
Teatro João Caetano.197 At the same theater Ernesto Nazareth played his tangos
brasileiros and was enthusiastically applauded, which made him repeat his “lindos
tangos.”198
be accepted into the elite domain only if framed within an “exotic” and “primitivist”
display. On the one hand, the Bororos were considered the most “primitive” Indian
culture in Brazil and were in direct opposition to the Tupis, who embodied the noble
savage in Indianist literature. On the other hand, this theater display did not idealize the
taking their ritual out of its original context and framing it as an “ethnographic”
the Indian in Brazilian culture strengthened over time and was adopted and reformulated
others.
123
Despite the new attitude towards the Indian promoted by sertanistas
The time in which we welcomed with sympathy our relatives who came
barefooted and poorly dressed to tell us about their misfortune and suffering is
gone. The city was then inelegant, barely paved and dark, and since we did not
have monuments, the waving of the palm trees fondled our vanity. We received
then the natives and their affliction in our big houses in the shade of our trees
with no greater uneasiness, and expressed our fraternal cordiality… by giving
them cleavers, knives, hoes, and old shirts. It is not the humble stoned house
under the coconut trees anymore; it is the salon with rich carpets and big
chandeliers with electric light. On that account, when the savage shows up, it is
like a relative who makes us ashamed. Instead of looking into their distressed
hearts, we look with terror at their muddy feet. Our smartism spoiled our sense
of fraternity.200
In the late 1900s, the tradition of Romantic Indianismo’s noble savage struggled
with the contemporary Indian reality as well as with the image of the primitive Indian
anthropologists’ reports would impact upon the Brazilian elite’s sense of national
identity.
The inauguration of the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro in 1909 was another
occasion for Brazilian elite to display its fantasy of civilization and cosmopolitanism but
also to reflect upon national identity. The construction of the Teatro Municipal of Rio de
the paragon buildings of Rio de Janeiro’s belle époque. Its inauguration was purposely
and symbolically scheduled for Bastille Day, 14 July 1909, also a national holiday in
After a decade of polemics around the delay of its construction and the way
public money was being used for that purpose,201 the Teatro Municipal inauguration
Capital’s theater with a spectacle by the Réjane Company was considered, but the idea
of entrusting the opening of the most important national theater to a foreign company
triggered objections from all sides. The Revista da Semana was among the agents
opposed to this idea. Public opinion urged the representation of national worthiness.
The nationalist issues raised against the inauguration of the theater with foreign artists
involved an ongoing campaign by members of the Rio de Janeiro artistic and literary
circle for the revival of national theater. That campaign included the fostering of
Brazilian actors and actresses, domestic theater production and playwriting, and the
aesthetic evaluation of new works which ultimately would entail the issue of national
201 Already in 1900, Coelho Neto claimed that the Republic had not met its promise of building a
Municipal Theater to Rio de Janeiro, and denounced the suspicious managing of public revenues
designated to a non-existent municipal theater. See, for example, CR Nº 206, 30 Aug. 1900, and Nº
214, 8 Oct. 1900.
202 The Revista da Semana commented extensively on the inauguration of Rio de Janeiro Municipal
Theater between 1908 and 1909. See detailed account on the construction of this theater in João do Rio
(1913); and Chaves Júnior (1971: 14).
125
On the demand to inaugurate the Teatro Municipal in 1909 with an opera
de Carvalho’s Moema seems to have been the most readily available. Although Gomes’
Il Guarany and Braga’s Jupyra were in the repertory, their symbolic associations with
particular times of national history made them inappropriate for the celebration of the
new event. The emblematic work Il Guarany was associated with Imperial times and
could not represent the new modernizing phase of the First Republic. By 1909, Braga
had became one of the key figures in Rio de Janeiro’s musical institutions, and perhaps
he could have managed to stage his opera Jupyra for this important occasion, especially
if one considers that Braga directed the inaugural concert. However, Jupyra had been
acclaim) during the year of the IV Centennial of Discovery of Brazil. It is most likely
that Braga did not want to perform his opera Jupyra under unfavorable conditions again,
and gave the opportunity to someone else. On the other hand, Carvalho’s Moema had
not been under great visibility by 1909, nor had it been associated with any official event
or historical period, and could therefore be listened to with fresh ears on the occasion of
the Teatro Municipal inauguration. In addition, Moema had a good reception at the time
of its first performance in 1895. All these factors suggest that Moema was a reasonable
last-minute solution to the problem of opening the Teatro Municipal of Rio de Janeiro
was a diplomat, it is very likely that personal contacts and political network influenced
performing Carvalho’s Moema, and some symphonic works, among which his own
126
Under these circumstances – last minute decision, amateur singers – the 1909
performance of Delgado de Carvalho’s Moema did not go well and the public received
it with indifference. With the exception of one, all the singers were amateurs belonging
to the Centro Lírico Brasileiro.203 The female protagonist Moema (Soprano) was
performed by Laura Malta and the male protagonist, the Portuguese Paolo (Tenor), was
father, was performed by Oswaldo Braga. The sole professional singer of the cast,
Mario Pinheiro,204 performed the least important role of Japyr (Bass), son of Tapyr and
performance, and some dared to say that the performance went cold and the singers
were mediocre.206 The stage setting painted by the artist Crispim do Amaral did not
emblematic, since it crystallized issues of Brazilian modernization and identity that were
at stake in the previous decades and would be reshaped in the following decades. On the
one hand, it was the last building inaugurated during Rio de Janeiro urban reforms,
the achievements of its era rather than to challenge contemporary views and culture. This
is the ideological connection between the official event and the repertory performed
during the inaugural concert. The ideology of civilization and progress that had guided
Rio de Janeiro urban reforms was symbolically rendered by “the music of the future”
with the performance of Braga’s symphonic poem Insônia, or, in other words, with a
work associated with the trend that had guided Rio de Janeiro’s musical renewal in the
preceding two decades. Paradoxically, the “music of the future” would soon become
outdated, and the Brazilian intelligentsia would engage in another updating movement
that would acclaim the modernism of Villa-Lobos’ music during the Week of Modern
Art in 1922.
Brazilian intelligentsia since it did not reflect the latest anthropological findings of the
proportions of white, Black and Indian in Brazilian racial and cultural mix. However, the
Indianist tradition was very strong, and the public at large still perceived it within the
nationalist framework. Second, Brazilian music of the first decade of the twentieth
century had not fully established new national symbols, and the most important official
libretto promotes a major turn in the myth of national foundation that had been fostered
by official culture since the Second Empire. Moema is the work that opened in 1892
and closed in 1909 the critical phase of Indianismo in Brazilian music that downplays
the representation of the Portuguese as a heroic character, and sheds a pessimistic light
128
on miscegenation.208 As discussed in subsequent chapters, that critical view applied to
other works of the period, such as Braga’s Marabá and Jupyra. That critical phase of
Indianismo in Brazilian music crystallized major issues of national identity. The dispute
over representing the Indian as a national symbol implied the inclusion of other ethnic
late Indianismo, the recognition of the Black ethnic and cultural stock raised scientificist
views that reinforced the negative assessment of the Brazilian past and future as a
reshaping of Indianismo and his emphasis on Landscape topos. Although these ballets
were supposedly composed in 1917,209 they were premiered only in 1929 and 1935,
respectively, and had an impact on Brazilian image and identity in a period of Brazilian
political history that is beyond the scope of this study. However, it was against this
As the music associated with the official events discussed in this chapter
since the Second Empire. The emphasis on Indianismo and Landscape allowed the
approach to the issue of miscegenation. The Indian element was part of elite culture in
three forms: the noble savage as a continuation of Second Empire official ideology that
fostered the myth of national foundation; the outcast symbolizing the impossibility of
growing ethnographic view. The Brazilian First Republic did not create its own national
symbols, so Indianismo and Landscape remained national musical topoi, while the
attempt to create a new image for the new regime was effected at the level of its index of
progress, which in music meant the continuous updating with cosmopolitan styles.
Brazilian art music composers during the 1890s and 1900s strove to reconcile national
models of “civilization” and “progress,” and imprinting to the First Republic the
culture of the “music of the future.” The incomplete reformulation of national identity
left by the First Republic was a result of the priority given to the alignment of Brazilian
130
CHAPTER 3: THE CARLOS GOMES PARADIGM
After the Proclamation of the Republic (15 November 1889), Carlos Gomes was
marginalized by Rio de Janeiro institutions. Gomes had been supported by the recently
deposed Emperor D. Pedro II and remained a monarchist even after the installation of
the new regime. Gomes put himself in hostility with the new regime immediately after
the installation of the Republic by refusing to compose the new national anthem
commissioned by the authorities. The offense was even greater since Gomes refused the
commission even despite the sum of money sent in advance from the Republican
government. That gesture had a harmful repercussion in Gomes’ relation with Rio de
Janeiro power structure for many years. Gomes’ negative view of the new regime did
not change even during occasions on which he served in an official capacity such as
during the World’s Columbian Exposition (Chicago, 1893), as is shown by the letter
You must have followed the revolutionary occurrences in Brazil… The civil war,
or better, the uncivil war – because it is among the military – has ruined the few
hopes we had for the future. The candid men seem to have gone crazy! Emperor
D. Pedro’s prophecy has come true. I don’t need to mention the horrible
impression that we, all the components of the Brazilian Commission had.
Surprise, uncertainty, confusion… tablau! [sic] So far, everybody ignores the
truth about the occurrence [the installation of the Republican regime] and the
progress of the revolution that will perhaps spread all over the continent. But we
all can calculate the ruin that this will bring… I don’t care about politics, not
even the politics of my own country, but unfortunately I know Melo and Peixoto
very closely, and I am afraid this is only the beginning! I hope I am wrong.
Amen!1
Gomes’ association with the old regime was an excuse for younger composers
to neutralize his prestige and keep him away from the federal capital’s National Institute
direction of the Instituto Nacional de Música, there was no place for Carlos Gomes in
that Rio de Janeiro institution.2 A letter sent by Gomes to Salvador de Mendonça dated
4 October 1892 reveals that Gomes’ awareness of the negative way he was treated by
the Republicans: “The Government of our dear fatherland seems to have me in high
regard. However, I have not been summoned to any position at the Capital’s
Conservatory of Music.”3 Three years later the situation seemed very clear to Gomes.
In a well-known letter (12 July 1895) from Gomes to Manoel José de Sousa
Guimarães, Gomes stated: “No one wants me in Rio; not even as the Conservatory’s
doorman.”4
In another letter to Manoel José de Souza Guimarães dated from Bahia (12
August 1895), Gomes reiterates his discontentment with the new regime:
I will not miss this world and even less the Republican Government, which has
been so unfair to me. I regret I cannot destroy everything my hands
enthusiastically wrote for the sake of our national art... (...) I know everything
that goes on in the poisonous office of Rio de Janeiro’s Conservatory. I know
very well that since the Provisional Government times [1889-1891] until today,
they have never failed to think of me, only to purposely exclude me from any
position that was or will ever be filled! I thank you for your good will in finding
a place for me in the Conservatory. I know about this matter because in former
times and even lately, before my travel to Chicago, I had expressed my desire; I
even insisted to the point of playing the inopportune person’s ridiculous part.
You say: “If I wanted Rio de Janeiro’s’ Conservatory and if Miguez would give
in etc.” I don’t believe, however, that he can give something that does not belong
to him. I don’t believe either that the Government will accept another director
who has not been nominated by professor Miguez.5
Gomes’ public favor was then in decline. The most advanced and assiduous
attendants of opera spectacles, including the students, considered Gomes archaic
and outdated. The first performance of Colombo, on 12 October 1892, a couple
of days after the triumphal premiere of Tannhäuser [in Rio de Janeiro], resulted
in a total disaster for the tormented old years of the unhappy composer.6
that the failure of Colombo’s premiere was due not only to the “coldness of the
audience” resulting from its perception of Gomes’ dated musical style but also to the
One would expect that Gomes’ lack of institutional power in the federal capital
and the public failure of his last work Colombo would reflect the decline of his
popularity among the Brazilian public at large and of his shadow on younger
composers. The research of Brazilian newspapers and periodicals of the 1890s has
indicated, however, that Carlos Gomes remained much more than an old eminent figure
of the Brazilian musical scene, as his popularity did not decrease among the public at
large. In addition, the period of his illness gave a new spin to his mythification process
as Romantic hero, and galvanized national cohesion and identity. After his period of
suffering and death, the Brazilian titan entered the national pantheon of civil celebrities.8
Soube desse assunto, porque já em outros tempos e até ultimamente, antes da viagem a Chicago, já
havia manifestado esse desejo, chegando até a insistir fazendo a parte ridícula do inoportuno! Você me
diz: “Se eu quizesse o Conservatório do Rio e se o Miguez quizesse ceder etc.” Não creio, entretanto,
que ele possa (querendo) ceder o que não lhe pertence. Não creio também que o Governo aceite outro
diretor que não seja indicado pelo professor Miguez.” (Quoted in Revista Brasileira de Música 1936:
365)
6 Azevedo 1956: 26.
7 “insucesso porque o público é de uma frieza glacial ... o conjunto vocal/orquestral era muito ruim ...
e o concerto foi mal executado.” (Revista Ilustrada Nº 651, Oct. 1892, p. 3)
8 For a detailed study on Gomes’ mythification during his final period in Belém do Pará, see Coelho
1995.
133
This chapter approaches the reception history of Carlos Gomes in the last
paradigmatic role for the late nineteenth- and early twentietth- century Brazilian
composers. Since Gomes was the only Brazilian composer with international
recognition during that period, it was virtually inevitable that composers of the following
generations looked at him, critically or not, as a model for success, and that the critical
Carlos Gomes was at the apogee of his glory in the 1880s. The lionization
process started in 1870 with the international success of Il Guarany, which bolstered
nationalist feelings, and culminated with boasting assertions such as “the first musical
genius of the Americas,” “one of Brazil’s glories (...) [and] the great American
genius.”9 In the last decades of the nineteenth century the Protofonia of Il Guarany
became a sort of second Brazilian national anthem.10 In the 1890s, Gomes’ success
composer that makes South America’s glory.”11 Carlos Gomes was the only Brazilian
composer until the 1890s that could afford any aspiration towards Brazilian parity with
the “civilized” countries. The Concerto Histórico promoted by J. Queirós at the Teatro
Lírico on 28 June 1896 is among the earliest attempts to legitimize the inclusion of
Brazilian music within the larger historical construction of the European canon. The
purpose stated by the promoter in the concert note makes clear that “although the
9 “o primeiro gênio musical da América” (O Liberal do Pará, 27 July 1882, quoted in Coelho 1995:
127-8); “uma das glórias do Brasil (…) o grande gênio americano.” (A Constituição, 7 July 1883,
quoted in Coelho 1995: 131)
10 Lange 1969: 403.
11 “o único compositor de que se gloria a América do Sul.” JC, 15 Aug. 1894 p. 2: “Carlos Gomes e a
that illustrate this retrospective study of four centuries of music, [Gomes] is the sole
Brazilian composer on the genre who imposed himself to the nations that created the
divine art.”12
opera,”13 and Brazilian composers trying their hands in the operatic genre could hardly
1894, the critics agreed upon comparing him with Carlos Gomes:
The article above, written by “one of the most creditable Brazilian journalists
(...) earned the approval of the maestro Euclides da Fonseca from Pernambuco, who
after careful reading, considered it a fair and well-informed review, and asked
12 “Será pouco, depois de tantos nomes celebres que ilustram o estudo retrospectivo da música em
quatro séculos, mas é o único brasileiro que nesse gênero se impôs às nações que criaram a divina arte.”
(Concert note BNRJ)
13 “o criador da ópera romântica brasileira” (JC, 15 Aug. 1894 p. 2: “Carlos Gomes e a sua opera Lo
individualidade, que descobre as raras aptidões do jovem compositor, que teve do público a mais justa, a
mais entusiástica, a mais solene consagração. // E aquela manifestação de apreço, e aquela ovação que
deve orgulhar o compositor, não faz somente o orgulho dele, faz também o de todos nós brasileiros, que
vemos no nosso ilustre compatriota o continuador de nossas glórias musicais, o herdeiro das tradições
honrosas que para o nome brasileiro conquistou Carlos Gomes.” (GN [1895, article by Luís de Castro],
quoted in Melo 1908: 330-1)
15 “um dos mais abalisados jornalistas brasileiros (…) mereceu a aprovação do maestro pernambucano
Euclides Fonseca, que tendo lido detidamente, como diz, um exemplar da partitura, achando-o justo e
135
On the occasion of the premiere of the Wagnerian drama Saldunes by Leopoldo
previously published in the Revista Artística de São Paulo, which discusses whether or
The ommitted reasons refer to the fact that the conservative music critic of O
Paiz, Oscar Guanabarino, was a fervid defender of Italian opera and reacted strongly
against Wagnerism in Brazil. After Miguez presented his Wagnerian opera I Salduni,
By 1900s, the Brazilian public was still waiting anxiously for a composer
article. On his return from Europe in 1900, Francisco Braga was received by critics and
criterioso, pedira permissão para transcrevê-lo no Amphion, jornal de música lisboense do qual era
correspondente e colaborador.” (Melo 1908: 330-1)
16 “Quando a 21 de Janeiro de 1890, O Paiz escrevia sobre o ato do Governo Provisório adotando por
decreto o Hino da Proclamação da República, terminou o seu artigo com essa saudação ao Sr. Leopoldo
Miguez, autor do hino escolhido em concurso: // ‘Parabéns ao ilustre autor da «Parisina», a maior
glória musical de nossa pátria.’ // Estas palavras podiam, mesmo naquele tempo, exprimir um
conceito justo e um juízo verdadeiro; entretanto dificilmente convenceriam os profanos, fascinados
pelos triunfos mais evidentes de Carlos Gomes. // Não posso afirmar que O Paiz, em uma continuidade
de coerência e de critério, continue a pensar do mesmo modo; creio mesmo que o seu redator musical
tenha renegado aquela opinião por motivos que não vêm a pelo explanar neste momento.” (JC, 20 Oct.
1899, p. 3, T&M)
136
Therefore, the matinee was plentiful with fortunate factors; and for this very
reason, in addition to the allurement of Francisco Braga - who was acclaimed by
nearly the entire press the successor of our glorious Carlos Gomes - it attracted
a numerous and festive attendance. We do not share with those who consider a
genius our young compatriot [Francisco Braga]. Also, perhaps due to our age or
temperament, we are incapable of feeling the enthusiasm of those who pulled his
triumphal car for many kilometers. We do not applaud the snobbism of those
who exhibited his effigy crowned by fame in the chic vitrines even before his
first public presentation. Also, we cannot invest him with the glory of being
Carlos Gomes’ successor - an elected dramatic temperament - right after he
[Braga] earns his “spikes of knight” [credentials of a fully-grown composer].
However, more sincerely than all the enthusiasts, we are very glad to see the
public coming to the Teatro Lírico to garland the efforts of a promising Brazilian
who has the valuable quality of being a untiring worker.17
of 1900, which “closed brilliantly with the beautiful, grandiose, vibrant Guarany’s
protofonia,” the critic reiterated that “the genial talent of Carlos Gomes continues
without a successor in the lyric scene, despite the eagerness of those who are
In the same article, the critic’s statement that “the Guarany’s protofonia
translates all the greatness of this dear land” shows that although Brazilian
historiography since Renato Almeida (1926) has discredited Carlos Gomes’ work of
17 “A matinée tinha, pois, fartos elementos de sucesso, e por isso mesmo, e pela magia do nome de
Francisco Braga, - que quase toda a imprensa proclamou sucessor do nosso glorioso Carlos Gomes -,
atraiu uma concorrência festiva e numerosa. (...) Não somos, é verdade, solidários com os que
qualificam de gênio o nosso jovem patrício [Francisco Braga]; também somos incapazes, talvez por
questão de idade ou de temperamento, de sentir o entusiasmo daqueles que lhe puxaram o carro muitos
quilômetros; não aplaudimos tão pouco o snobismo dos que, nas vitrinas do chic, lhe expuseram a
efígie coroada pela fama, antes mesmo da sua primeira apresentação ao público; igualmente não nos
julgamos habilitados a investi-lo da sucessão das glórias de Carlos Gomes - um temperamento
dramático de eleição - quando ele conquista suas esporas de cavaleiro. Não obstante, talvez mais sinceros
do que todos esses entusiastas, vemos com satisfação o público afluir ao Teatro Lírico para galardoar os
esforços de um Brasileiro que promete e que tem a qualidade valiosa de ser uma trabalhador infatigável.”
(JC, 19 Nov. 1900, p. 2, T&M [by Rodrigues Barbosa], on the occasion of the first symphonic concert
by maestro Francisco Braga, 18 Nov. 1900, Teatro Lírico RJ)
18 “Terminou brilhantemente o concerto a belíssima protofonia do Guarany, grandiosa, vibrante,
traduzindo todas as grandezas desta terra querida, cantando o talento genial de Carlos Gomes, que
continua sem sucessor na cena lírica, apesar do açodamento dos que só cuidam em dar-lhe substituto.”
(JC, 26 Nov. 1900, p. 2, T&M [by Rodrigues Barbosa] on the occasion of the second and last
symphonic concert by maestro Francisco Braga, 25 November 1900, Teatro Lírico RJ)
137
“true” musical nationalism, his work was charged with nationalist appeal for
contemporary reception. The nationalist appeal of Gomes’ music is also evident in the
two other articles by Cernicchiaro (JC, 15 Aug. 1894) and Barbosa (JC, 17 Aug. 1894)
commenting on the descriptive power of Gomes’ “Alvorada” and emphasizing that his
orchestral passages “always reflect Brazilian originality” (see full quotation below).
composing operatic music as the Brazilian public still demanded opera in order to
19 “Entretanto, se naquela ocasião o Sr. Leopoldo Miguez trazia na sua bagagem musical uma Sonata
para violino e piano, um poema sinfônico a Parisina e a Sinfonia em si bemol, além de outras
produções valiosas de menores proporções, essa bagagem foi desde então enriquecida com abundante
literatura sinfônica, pianística e melodramática, que firmou definitivamente a individualidade musical do
Diretor do Instituto Nacional de Música. // Neste meio comercial e político, avesso às artes, onde a
ignorância predomina falseando o sentimento estético pouco educado, a preeminência do Sr. Leopoldo
Miguez só receberia a consagração popular quando ele escrevesse uma ópera, porque - é um fato digno
de nota e significativo - entre nós se acredita geralmente que a ópera é a mais elevada produção musical,
e o verdadeiro estalão do talento musical, e o verdadeiro estalão do talento do compositor. E o Sr.
Miguez, ... animado pelo successo da música do melodrama Pelo Amor, ansiava por um poema que o
138
Among the works that gave greater recognition to Leopoldo Miguez as a
composer were two Wagnerian operas and one symphonic poem. Pelo Amor! (n.d.), a
two-act opera, with libretto by Coelho Neto, was produced by the Centro Artístico and
symphonic poem No. 3, was performed in the 7th concert of the Associação de
Concertos Populares at the Teatro Lírico on 30 August 1896, in the 8th concert of the
by Alberto Nepomuceno,21 and during the Ciclo Miguez (four orchestral concerts) in
1897. Prometheus was considered by Viana da Mota “the best of all Miguez’s
works.”22 However, Miguez was most acclaimed for I Salduni (1899), a four-act opera
with libretto by Coelho Neto, staged at the Teatro Lírico on 20 September 1901 by
Giovanni Sansone’s opera company. I Salduni was Miguez’ most discussed work in
Brazilian periodicals. A large number of articles appeared years before and months after
its first performance. Its importance lies mostly in defending a new trend in Brazilian
Chamber music, such as the Sonata for violin and piano in A (c. 1886) and
Sylvia for strings, and Miguez’s piano solo works had a repercussion in a smaller
sphere, bolstering his reputation among a selected public, the critics, and his circle of
impressionasse, cuja dramaticidade ele sentisse ... Muitos assuntos lhe foram lembrados, e um amigo
versado em boas letras chegou a trabalhar o arcabouço de um poema inspirado no Paraíso perdido, para
receber dele a investidura musical; nada disso, porém, inspirou o compositor ... Coelho Neto,
primoroso escritor ... teve a felicidade de encontrar o assunto que fez vibrar a emotividade do artista
músico, escrevendo a ação legendaria em três episódios, Saldunes, que o Sr. Miguez musicou em dois
ou três meses, em uma febre ardente de trabalho e inspiração.” (JC, 20 Oct. 1899 p. 3)
20 Azevedo (1956: 117); EMB (1977: 483).
21 Concert notes BNRJ.
22 Azevedo (1956, 116-7).
139
Francisco Braga also realized the public demand for opera and engaged in the
composition of Jupyra for the making of his triumphal return to Brazil after ten years in
Europe.23 Braga’s arrival was celebrated with a big reception organized by his friends
associated with Rio de Janeiro music institutions and press.24 The reception included a
musical band, laurels, and street ovations by his fans, friends and music critics.25
Braga’s return was widely commented by the Rio de Janeiro press days before and after
his arrival.26 Braga wanted to repeat Gomes’ deed of having his opera Jupyra
acclamation.
Jupyra’s libretto was translated into French, Italian, and German, since the
composer had sought to have his opera performed at Teatre Lyrique du Renaissance in
France, the Neapolitan Theater, and the Munich Theater (directed by von Schuch). None
23 “However, the great aspiration of our compatriot was to write an opera. After receiving a libretto on
a national subject, by Dr. Escragnolle Doria, maestro Francisco Braga departed to Capri Island where he
wrote the one-act opera Jupyra.” [A grande aspiração do nosso compatriota era, porém, escrever uma
ópera. Tendo obtido um libretto do Dr. Escragnolle Doria Escragnolle Doria, de assunto nacional,
partiu o maestro Francisco Braga para a ilha de Capri e lá escreveu a sua ópera em um ato, intitulada
Jupyra.] (JC, 24 July 1900, p. 2).
24 “A Cidade do Rio, cujos redatores viram a eclosão deste talento prodigioso ... vai recebê-lo a bordo
do Duchessa di Genova, e convida todos os seus colegas de imprensa, todos os homens ilustres que
amam e aplaudem a arte, para irem a borda dar as boas vindas a Francisco Braga. Segunda-feiraa teremos
o prazer de participar a nossos colegas de imprensa e ao público a hora em que poderão achar-se no cais
Pharous para tomar lugar nas lanchas especiais que colocaremos à disposição de pessoas que quizerem
tomar parte conosco nesta manifestação justíssima a uma glória nacional.” (CR, 21 July 1900, p. 2.)
25 The newspapers reported extensively on Francisco Braga’s arrival from Europe and described
minutely the reception organized at Rio de Janeiro’s port, followed by public speech and festive dinner.
Braga was received with a band music and honored with the presence of distinguished people of Rio de
Janeiro society, among which the director of the Insituto Profissional, José Rodrigues de Azevedo
Pinheiro, the composer Francisca Gonzaga, and the political activist and editor of the newspaper
Cidade do Rio, José do Patrocínio, in addition to other professors at the Instituto Profissional and a
large number of friends and Instituto Profissional students. See, for instance, article originaly published
in CR, 26 July 1900, and reprinted in JC, 27 July 1900, p. 2.
26 See, for example, CR, 21, 23, 24, 25, 26 July 1900; and JC, 23, 24 and 27 July 1900, p. 2 have
articles entirely dedicated to Francisco Braga. Among other periodicals that widely reported Braga’s
arrival were Revista Ilustrada and Revista da Semana.
140
of these offers were consummated and the only European performance of the one-act
opera Jupyra involved the second scene at Teatre La Bodimère in Paris on 30 December
Brazil in France, and the crème de la crème of the Brazilian community with residence
in Paris.27
Further proof of the importance of the operatic genre among Brazilian audiences
resides in the fact that several contemporary critics refer to Brazilian composers by their
Carlos Gomes was not only a model for his prestigious career as an opera
composer, but also for the nationalist paradigms his work had established in music. The
musical paradigms refer mostly to the use of Indianismo as a literary source, and
with an opera on an Indianist subject, which, although it had been received in Italy under
Carvalho’s Moema and Braga’s Jupyra. However, those three Indianist operas deviated
from the important nationalist premise of using the vernacular, which was established by
the Brazilian literature since the 1830s and adopted by the Brazilian opera movement
started in 1850s and aborted in the early 1860s. José de Alencar’s nationalist
spoken in Portugal in the Brazilian novel did not echo in the operatic version of his
novel O Guarany. Although Carlos Gomes was a product of the National Opera
1864 Gomes had Alencar’s novel Il Guarany in mind,29 and in 1865, over a year after
his arrival in Italy, Gomes had spent Fr $800 on the libretto adaptation.30 Gomes had
initially planned this opera for José Amat’s Company at the Academia Imperial de
Música e Ópera Nacional,31 and, therefore, would most likely follow its nationalist
precepts. That supposition suggests that Gomes might have had the intention of
Amat’s company in 1864 discouraged him temporarily to keep the Guarany project.32
The Imperial Academy of Music and National Opera did not succeed in creating a
Brazilian school of singing, and its project of nationalizing Brazilian opera by using the
vernacular failed for the lack of skilled singers. The Imperial Academy was able to
motivate composers to write operas in Portuguese, but their performances still relied on
foreign singers whose lack of proper diction jeopardized the reception of those operas.
singing national operas in Portuguese was completely aborted, and Gomes’ Il Guarany
was done in the language that had made him famous in Italy. “This example was
considered a rule by other Brazilian composers, who, from that time on, abandoned the
vernacular to compose exclusively in Italian.” This paradigm was subdued only in 1937
subject following Gomes’ Il Guarany, such as: Assis Pacheco’s Moema (1891) and
Jacy (n.d.); Delgado Carvalho’s Moema (1892); Gama Malcher’s Iara (1895;
Francisco Braga’s Marabá (1894) and Jupyra (1899); J. Octaviano’s Iracema (n.d.;
staged in 1937; Amazonian legend); Vitor Ribeiro Neves’ Ponaim (n.d.; staged in 1935;
Amazonian legend); Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru (1917; 1935), Amazonas (1917; 1935), and
Iara (1917); Lorenzo Fernandez’s Imbapara (1928); and Francisco Mignone’s Iara
(1942).
point to Gomes’ paradigm. For instance, the verse “Tutto é silenzio!” with which
Gonzales opens the Scena e Duetto “Donna tu forse l’unica” (Act II) from Il Guarany
is the opening statement of Moema’s first scene with Recitativo e Romanza “Quanta
sventura” from Delgado de Carvalho’s Moema. That verse is also set in ascending
the pitches eb-gb upon Eb minor chord, in Carvalho’s Moema it is d-f upon G minor
Braga’s restrictions in dealing with Indianismo in his opera. In a letter to his librettist
Luis Escragnolle Doria (1869-1948), dated of April 1893, recommending the dramatic
assemblage he wanted for his first opera, Braga stated: “I would like a national subject
but with no Indians (...) or ballets on stage.”35 This opera came to be Jupyra, based on
Bernardo Guimarães’ short novel with the same title. Although Braga’s opera had an
Indian female as its protagonist, she did not dress with native feather apparel.36
Obviously, Braga did not want to follow the Indianist model of Il Guarany in its exotic
ballets and costumes. In that case, the paradigm was evoked only to be rejected.
Actually, Braga had been reluctant in writing an opera on a national subject, and realized
the importance of this endeavor only upon the continued urging from his friends.37
Before Villa-Lobos, Gomes was the first composer whose public image was
Histórico at the Teatro Lírico on 28 June 1896 “closed with Guarany’s protofonia, the
35 “Gostaria que o assunto fosse nacional, mas que não tivesse índios (…) e nada de bailados.” (Quoted
in Azevedo 1956: 182)
36 Azevedo (1956: 182).
37 Letter by Francisco Braga to [Corbiniano] Villaça, dated Dresden, 9 March 1897: “Diversas vezes me
foram dados conselhos por amigos do Rio (que, brasileiros daqueles que como nós também, dão a vida
pela pátria) me fazendo ver a necessidade, o dever quase, de eu estreiar com um trabalho de assunto
nacional, de autor nacional. Outrora fiquei em dúvida porém, hoje compreendo a razão que tinham os
meus amigos quando sugeriam-me a idéia... Estas e outras razões esclareceram o meu espírito e
sugeriam-me a idéia de voltar ao meu primeiro assunto, o nacional, a bela legenda de Bernardo
Guimarães, brasileiro de temperamento apaixonado e profundo conhecedor das coisas pátrias. Ai nos
meus papeis, deves encontrar um manuscrito em prosa com o título Jupira de Escragnole Doria -
música de Francisco Braga.” (Hora 1953: 40-2)
144
battle cry of the American jungle’s son.”38 Another instance is the illustration in the
cover page of the book Antonio Carlos Gomes published in Milan, Nuove Edizioni, n.d.
Gomes also established musical paradigms for the importance of melody and
orchestration as the main qualities of Carlos Gomes’ music. Criticism refers constantly
Cernicchiaro, the Italian violin player, critic and composer who settled in Rio de Janeiro
and wrote an important book of music history in Brazil,39 emphasized Gomes’ skillful
composer’s death.
Carlos Gomes is the great artist whose daring, terrible, threatening, austere,
delicate, elegant and colorful orchestration is not afraid of comparison.
Orchestrator by excellence, from the simple bombardão to the difficult violin,
each instrument is masterly managed and shows the composer’s knowledge of
technique, range and effect equal to any skillful performer. This is a quality that
not all maestros have, even if this is indispensable to all who dedicate themselves
to the symphonic and dramatic genres, and face the challenge of bringing forth
calculated effects from each instrument’s properties, which according to Boury,
were made to idealize nature’s sounds. The finely and skillfully orchestrated
descriptive music of Carlos Gomes’ Prelude to act four, scene four is a splendid
proof of his ability to idealize nature’s sounds. This musical piece shows with
beautiful, charming effects the sea’s murmur, the waves of which break against
the stoned shore in the middle of night’s profound silence as another phrase
preluding with varied sounds prepares the Brazilian dawn with all its majesty;
the warring inubia’s sound is heard from the far away Tamoyo’s camp.
Clarions hit at the dawn contrasting with the cuckoo’s lament and the sabiá
bird’s trills. The orchestral effect remains rich, daring and varied. A progression
beginning in pianissimo prepares a grandiose crescendo, an effect of utmost
sonority in which the dominant phrase seems a grandiose anthem to the first
38 “Com a protofonia do Guarany será encerrado o Concerto Histórico, ao grito guerreiro do filho das
selvas americanas.” (Concert note BNRJ)
39 Vincenzo Cernichiaro, Storia della musica nel Brasile; dai tempi coloniali sino ai nostri giorni,
1549-1925. (1926)
145
sunray that kisses the incomparable land of Guanabara. [Gomes is] a highly
skilled colorist.40
The 1900s also had a critical view of Gomes’ legacy pointing out the
inadequacy of some of his musical formulae to express Brazilian nature. The following
criticism shows the manners in which the following generation of composers was
looking for very specific ways to express Brazilian uniqueness and how reception was
tuned with this concern. The storm in the second act of Manuel Joaquim de Macedo’s
Brazilian nature:
40 “o grande artista, cuja instrumentação ousada, terrível, ameaçador, austera, delicada, elegante e
colorida, não receia comparação. Orquestrador por excelência, desde o simples bombardão até o difícil
violino, cada síngulo instrumento é manejado por ele com mão de mestre, conhecendo neles ao par de
qualquer provecto executante, técnica, extensão e efeito; qualidade esta que nem todos os maestros
possuem, ainda que indispensável para todos aqueles que se dedicam ao gênero melodramático e
sinfônico, cujo problema a resolver é o de saber tirar efeitos calculados, pondo assim em evidência as
virtudes e as propriedades dos instrumentos, que na opinião de Boury, foram feitos para idealizar os sons
da natureza. // A este respeito uma prova esplêndida nos oferece o maestro Carlos Gomes no Preludio
do IV acto, scena IV, cuja música descritiva, fina e habilmente instrumentada, mostra com bonitos e
encantadores efeitos o rugido do mar, cujas vagas, no profundo silêncio da noite, rompem-se contra a
beira pedrosa, enquanto outra frase, preludiando com sons muito variados, prepara o aparecimento da
aurora brasileira em toda sua majestade, e ao longe ouve-se o som da Unubia [sic; instead of Inubia]
guerreira no campo Tamoyo. Os clarins tocam a alvorada e contrastam com o lamento do cuco e com
os trinados do sabiá. // O efeito orquestral continua rico, audacioso e variado. Uma progressão, que
começa com pianissimo, prepara com um grandioso crescendo, um efeito de máxima sonoridade, em
que a frase dominante parece um hino grandioso ao primeiro raio de sol que beija a incomparável terra
do Guanabara. (...) colorista muito hábil” (JC, 15 Aug. 1894 p. 2, “Carlos Gomes e a sua opera Lo
Schiavo,” special contribution by V[incenzo] C[ernicchiaro])
41 “Sabendo orquestrar admiravelmente, pelo conhecimento que adquiriu de cada instrumento, as suas
partituras contêm páginas descritivas, cheias dos mais belos efeitos, sempre com um cunho de
originalidade brasileira.” (JC, 17 Aug. 1894, p. 1, T&M [by Rodrigues Barbosa], article on the
performance of Carlos Gomes’ Lo Schiavo)
146
The second act renders the “Conspiracy.” The insurrectionists are caught by a
storm; the Itacolomy mountain can be seen far away lightening electric sparks.
The maestro describes this horrendous, beautiful nature’s scene with admirable
realism. One cannot express the beauty of this inspired page of astonishing
orchestral effect. The crack of dawn is painted beautifully by the symphony; one
can hear canário bird’s trills and the most beautiful Brazilian birds’ calls; the
singing of the siriema bird (crested cariama) is rendered in pastoral style with
paired [parallel] descending minor tenths. Those who have traveled, as we have,
throughout Minas Gerais’ backlands will recognize the exactitude of this
doubled singing by the orchestra. Carlos Gomes, the immortal, was not so
fortunate in his prelude of Lo Schiavo. Perhaps influenced by the European
suggestion of Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony - in the passage Au bord du
ruisseau - Gomes placed a cuckoo’s call in a Brazilian farm’s daybreak.42
At the same time that late 19th-century Brazilian composers had Carlos Gomes
as a paradigm, they were also updating their style. Delgado de Carvalho’s Moema
Massenet and Wagner. The stylistic changes of the 1890s affected Gomes’ reception to
some extent. According to Cernicchiaro, Gomes’ prestige waned among a sector of Rio
An entire generation applauded and honored the talented maestro echoing the
European ovation (...) Unfortunately that generation has disappeared taking
along the esteem owed to a man with such a privileged talent. Why? Does the
new generation have good taste and aesthetic feeling as good as the old
generation? If so, why has the enthusiasm for beauty disappeared? Why has
indifference towards an art work associated with the classical tradition taken
over? Perhaps because it is Carlos Gomes? Why such an enthusiasm for other
works with no importance and so little care for the ones carrying the name of a
illustrious Brazilian? Very well, this contradiction, this injustice is due not to the
Brazilian society that has an innate good taste for music but to a sect of anarchist
42 “No segundo acto se dá a «Conspiração». Os conjurados são surpreendidos por uma tempestade,
vendo-se ao fundo o Itacolomi, iluminando por faíscas elétricas. O maestro descreve-nos esta horrenda e
bela cena de natureza com uma realidade admirável. // Não se pode exprimir a beleza dessa página
inspirada, que na orquestra será de um efeito arrebatador. Vem a madrugada, que é pintada pela sinfonia
de um modo belíssimo, ouvindo-se o trinar dos canários e o gorgeio de nossas mais belas aves
brasileiras, destacando-se de maneira pastoral o canto das siriemas, em par, em décimas menores
descendentes. Quem tiver, como nós, viajado pelo sertão mineiro, reconhecerá a exatidão desse canto
duplo em música. Carlos Gomes, o imortal, nesta parte não foi feliz no prelúdio de Lo Schiavo. Talvez
por uma sugestão européia, ouvindo a «Sinfonia Pastoral» de Beethoven, na parte -Au bord du
ruisseau- introduzisse o canto do cuco no albor da aurora numa fazenda do Brazil.” (JC, 22 Nov 1900,
p. 4, T&M; transcription of article published originally in the Jornal of Belém do Pará; author’s name
is not mentioned) See further discussion of this issue concerning Gomes’ “Alvorada” in Chapter 5.
147
musicians [the critic refers to the Wagnerian circle in Brazil, and to the Instituto
Nacional de Música’s hostile politics towards Gomes], whose insidious spite
aims to tarnish the glory of the salutary maestro. This is peculiar to those
lacking genius and potential for reaching the loftiness of art. There is no other
explanation for the surreptitious war waged against Carlos Gomes for many
years with insinuations and sarcasm that hurt him in the bottom of his heart.43
substantial change in Brazilian public taste. For this critic, the decline of Gomes’
In the last six years there have been substantial changes in Brazilian musical
taste, which is naturally inclined to the transformations occurring in the music of
the main European centers from which emanates the perfume of the great
musical sensations. (...) Lo Schiavo ... as all other Carlos Gomes’ operas ...
cannot be heard with the same relish of enthusiasm as six years ago. What
happens to Carlos Gomes here happens also to Verdi here and all over the
world. Although their old repertories are always enjoyed, they do not impress as
before, during a time in which the effects of a simple melody satisfied the owner
of a ticket to a lyric spectacle.44
43 “Uma geração inteira aplaudiu e honrou o talentoso maestro, fazendo eco aos aplausos da Europa (...)
Infelizmente aquela geração desapareceu, e com ela o apreço que é devido a um homem de talendo
privilegiado. Porque? Não está esta geração na altura daquela pelo bom gosto e pelo sentimento
estético? Se assim é porque desapareceu aquele enthusiasimo pelo belo? Porque subentrou a indiferença
diante de uma opera de arte atingida `as tradições clássicas; talvez porque é de Carlos Gomes? Porque
tanto entusiasmo por outras que não têm maior importância, e tanta indiferença pelas que trazem o
nome de um brasileiro ilustre? Pois bem, esta contradição, esta injustiça não cabe à sociedade brasileira,
que tem inato o gosto de boa musica, mas a uma seita de músicos anarquistas, cuja terrível inveja
pretende obscurecer a glória do benemérito maestro. É este o distintivo de gente a quem falta gênio e
possibilidade para alcançar as alturas da arte. Não teria outra explicação a guerra surda que, desde há
muitos anos, se move a Carlos Gomes, com insinuações e sarcasmos que vão feri-lo no profundo do
coração. (...)”(JC, 15 Aug. 1894 p. 2, “Carlos Gomes e a sua ópera Lo Schiavo,” special contribution
by V[incenzo] C[ernicchiaro])
44 “Nos seis anos decorridos não poucas alterações se têm operado no gosto musical brasileiro, que está
naturalmente afecto às transformações da música nos principais centros europeus, de onde nos emana o
perfume para as grandes sensações musicais. (...) O Escravo ... como todas as óperas de Carlos Gomes
... já não pode ser ouvido com o mesmo sabor de entusiasmo de há seis anos. O que sucede a Carlos
Gomes sucede aqui e em toda a parte a Verdi com o seu repertório antigo, que, agradando sempre, já não
impressiona como outrora, em que os efeitos de uma simples melodia satisfaziam o possuidor de um
bilhete para um espetáculo lírico. ” (JC, 17 Aug. 1894, p. 1, T&M [by Rodrigues Barbosa], article on
the performance of Carlos Gomes’ Lo Schiavo)
148
This criticism reflects the initial impact of Wagnerism in Brazil that temporarily
shook Gomes’ prestige. However, the public continued to fill Brazilian theaters to see Il
The day before yesterday the Teatro Lírico was filled up to hear the opera Il
Guarany, which has been the target of noisy manifestations. (...) The opera of
our talented compatriot Carlos Gomes, unfairly regarded by the ferocious
Wagnerian exclusionists, has flaws, that’s true, but it does not lack qualities that
elevate its author to the heights of a superior talent. It could not be more
auspicious as an opera opening the composer’s career. If only all the “learned
persons” who are beginning and the ones who are behind in their productions
could present in their first works the same understanding of dramatic effects and
orchestral color, and as much inspiration as Carlos Gomes had in his Il
Guarany. In this opera affiliated with the Italian school, which has lost its
former prestige due to the Wagnerian influence in modern schools, the
predominant element is the constant melody with varied orchestral effects. It
does not have lofty musical ideas but it has the inspiration of an ardent spirit and
the extraordinary unity of conception in its development. Imitations in the course
of the opera are tolerable, even admissible; celebrated authors whose reputation
was built in the theater also imitated their predecessors taking them as models
without jeopardizing their own originality and notoriety. The opera, which has
unquestionably reached great popularity here and in all countries where it has
been performed, had a plain rendition the day before yesterday. 45
Newspapers show clearly that the public was still very enthusiastic about
Gomes’ Lo Schiavo even six years after its premiere: “Many numbers of the opera
45 “Encheu-se anteontem completamente a sala do nosso teatro Lírico para a audição da ópera Guarany,
cujo desempenho tem sido alvo nesta capital de ruidosas manifestações (…) A ópera de nosso talentoso
patrício Carlos Gomes, injustamente considerada pelos ferozes exclusivistas do wagnerismo, tem, na
verdade, defeitos, mas não lhe faltam qualidades, que elevam o seu autor às alturas de um talento
superior. Como ópera de estréia de um compositor, não poderia ser mais auspiciosa; oxalá que todos os
“entendidos” que começam e os que estão em atraso em matéria de produções, pudessem apresentar o seu
primeiro trabalho com a mesma compreensão de efeitos dramáticos, com o mesmo colorido orquestral,
com a mesma inspiração que teve Carlos Gomes para o seu Guarany. // Nesta ópera, filiada à escola
italiana, que perdeu o seu prestígio anterior pelo atual desenvolvimento wagnerista aplicado às escolas
modernas, a nota predominante é a constante melodia, com seus variados efeitos orquestrais. Não tem
elevação de idéias musicais, mas possui a inspiração de um espírito ardente e extraordinária unidade de
concepção no seu desenvolvimento.// As imitações que se apresentam no correr da ópera são toleráveis,
mesmo admissíveis; autores célebres, de tirocínio feito na carreira teatral, imitaram seus predecessores,
tomando-os por modelo, sem que por isso perdessem a sua originalidade e a sua notoriedade. // A ópera,
que incontestavelmente adquiriu um caráter de popularidade aqui e em todos os países onde tem sido
representada, teve anteontem um desempenho regular. (JC, 1 Aug. 1894, p. 2, T&M, article by
[Rodrigues Barbosa])
149
were applauded in the course of the performance, and in the end of each act the artists
and the maestro Mancinelli, to whom belong the honors of the night, were called three or
In accord with public opinion, the music critic Vincenzo Cernicchiaro upheld
[Gomes’ detractors, i.e., the Wagnerians] want it or not, Carlos Gomes is and will
always be to the Brazilian school what Glinka was to the Russian, Massenet to the
French, Brahms to the German, and Verdi to the Italian, and his name as well as his
work will survive from the first to the last artistic evolution.”47
cause, advocating that “it is fully justified to pay the homage to the great Brazilian
composer who was applauded by the most critical European audiences” and remarking
spelled out an evaluation that came to correspond to Gomes’ lasting prestige among the
public in the next decade, which is attested, for instance, by Rodrigues Barbosa’s
Despite the bad weather of the night before yesterday [16 August 1901], the
Teatro Lírico was literally filled up to attend one more time the performance of
46 “No correr da ópera foram aplaudidos vários trechos e nos finais dos atos os artistas e o maestro
Mancinelli, a quem cabem as principais honras da noite, foram chamados três ou quatros vezes ao
proscênio.” (JC, 17 Aug. 1894, p. 1, T&M, article by [Barbosa Rodrigues])
47 “E assim, queiram ou não queiram os tais répteis [os detratores de Carlos Gomes, i.e., os
wagneristas] Carlos Gomes é e será pela escola brasileira o que foi o Glinka pela russa, o Massenet pela
francesa, Brahms pela alemã e Verdi pela italiana, e o seu nome, como também as suas obras, hão de
sobreviver desde a primeira até a última evolução da arte”(JC, 15 Aug. 1894, p. 2, “Carlos Gomes e a
sua opera Lo Schiavo,” special contribution by V[incenzo] C[ernicchiaro])
48 “É justa a homenagem prestada ao grande compositor brasileiro que na Europa fez-se aplaudir pelas
mais exigentes platéias. A Fosca, influenciada pela música de Wagner, será a sua melhor partitura.”
(Concert note BNRJ of J. Queirós’ Concerto Histórico at the Teatro Lírico on 28 June 1896)
150
the popular score by the unforgettable Brazilian maestro A. Carlos Gomes. The
high attendance was motivated not only by the everlasting public appreciation
enjoyed by Il Guarany, the opera that triumphally opened the composer’s
brilliant career fuller with thorn than flowers, but also by the cult of love, longing
and reverence for the one who received the greatest and most solemn
consecration to his superior talent and his steadfast work as a musician with a
splendid apotheosis made by his compatriots on his landing in the country from
where no other traveler ever returned. Joining this new manifestation symbolized
by this extraordinary attendance to the performance of Il Guarany was Mr. G.
Sansone’s, the cast’s, maestro Anselmi’s and the Lírico orchestra professors’
tribute. On one side of the proscenium was an arch of crimson velvet decorated
with flowers and palms upon which laid Carlos Gomes’ bronzed bust. Before
opening the stage curtain, the orchestra played solemnly and respectfully the
National Anthem before the silent audience. Both musicians and the public
stood up during the National Anthem performance. Once it was over, clamorous
ovation broke from all corners of the hall.49
maestro Carlos Gomes,” also filled the Teatro Lírico’s matinee on 18 August 1901, and
After the Wagnerians in the 1890s and 1900s, the Modernists, in the 1920s
carried out the second assault upon Gomes’ legacy. Mário de Andrade was among the
49 “Apesar do mau tempo que reinava ante-ontem à noite, encheu-se literalmente o vasto âmbito do
Teatro Lírico, onde se devia executar mais uma vez a popular partitura do inolvidável maestro brasileiro
A. Carlos Gomes. // A afluência ao teatro não era apenas motivada pelas simpatias que aos apreciadores
da música sempre mereceu e continuará a mercer a opera Il Guarany, com que o pranteado compositor
campineiro logrou abrir triunfalmente a sua brilhante carreira mais repleta de espinhos que de flores;
havia outro incentivo para esse acontecimento, e esse era o do culto de amor, de saudade e de respeito
para com aquele que recebeu, ao trasladar-se para o país de onde nunca mais viajor [viajante] algum
regressou, na esplendida apoteose que lhe fizeram seus compatriotas, a maior e mais solene das
consagrações ao seu talento genial e no seu esforçado trabalho de musicista. // À nova manifestação
simbolizada nessa extraordinária concorrência à representação do Il Guarany juntaram-se a do
empresário Sr. G. Sansone, a dos artistas do atual elenco, a do maestro Anselmi e a dos professores da
orquestra do Lírico. No proscênio, a um lado, estava armada uma espécie de ara, forrada de veludo
carmesin e toda enfeitada de flores e palmas, sobre a qual descansava o busto em bronze do saudoso
Carlos Gomes. Antes de descerrar-se a cortina do palco, a orquestra, de pé, em solene e respeitosa
atitude, executou o Hino Nacional, que foi ouvido em meio a reverencioso silêncio por toda a
assistência, e conservando-se esta na mesma attitude dos respectivos executantes. Terminado o Hino,
irrompeu de todos os ângulos da sala estrondosa ovação.” (JC, 18 Aug. 1901, T&M, p. 3)
50 JC, 20 and 24 Aug. 1901, p. 3, T&M.
151
Brazil has not produced a more inspired and important musician than Carlos
Gomes. However, his time has gone. His music is of little interest today and
corresponds neither to current musical needs nor to modern sensibility. The
performance of Gomes’ opera in current days would mean to acclaim the yawn
an aesthetic sensation.51
Gomes’ image was insulted during the Week of Modern Art in 1922. The critic
Oscar Guanabarino “was upset with all ‘avangardists of Modern Art’” and headed a
fierce reaction against Gomes’ detractors and Modernism’s champions, among which
Graça Aranha, Oswald de Andrade, Menotti del Picchia, and Ronald de Carvalho.52 The
polemics around Gomes and Villa-Lobos during the Week of Modern Art offers a clear
evidence that the nineteenth-century composer was still a paradigm in the 1920s, even if
represented not only the tradition but the “old” whereas Villa-Lobos represented the
promise of the future and the “new.” The critic Oscar Guanabarino was insolently
called “the being of the tertiary era” (“o ser da época terciária”) by Menotti del
Picchia for defending Gomes and deprecating “the New Art’s monster” (“o monstro
Oswald de Andrade’s and Menotti del Picchia’s criticism. Oswald de Andrade criticized
Gomes’ music, considering it “‘inexpressive, fake, and corrupting, which were all
attributes associated with opera’s artificiality and conventionality with blushed tenors
51 “O Brasil não produziu músico mais inpirado nem mais importante que o campineiro. Mas a época
de Carlos Gomes passou. Hoje sua música pouco interessa e não corresponde às exigências musicais do
dia nem à sensibilidade moderna. Representá-lo ainda seria proclamar o bocejo uma sensação estética.”
(Mário de Andrade, “Pianolatria,” Klaxon Nº 1, May 1922, quoted in Wisnik 1977: 81)
52 Wisnik 1977: 84.
53 See fuller discussion in Wisnik 1977: 80-91.
152
falling on stage in final scenes, and fat sopranos strangulated with lyrical
hypocrisy.’”54
However, this criticism was not shared by the public at large. According to
Ernani Braga’s account, Graça Aranha’s lecture on the occasion of the Week of
Modern Art attacking Gomes provoked a violent reaction from the audience in the
Graça Aranha was dethroning the old idols one after another. All the giants,
Bach, Beethoven, Wagner, successively fell. The public enjoyed the demolition
finding the demolisher [Graça Aranha] funny. But when he, an irreverent
iconoclast raised his sacrilegious hand to overthrow the idol Carlos Gomes, that
was it. It was all right to overthrow the demigod of the Oratory, of the
Symphony, and of the Tetralogy. It was just an innocent joke. But to deride
Guarany’s father, the paulista from right there in Campinas! No Mr. Graça
Aranha. This was spite and deserved punishment. The audience booed
tremendously and formidably; it was a hellish noise or something from another
world. ... It is said that the police intervened to cool down the exalted people in
the galleries.55
and identity. The public reaction in defense of Gomes in 1922 was made official by the
Although Villa-Lobos has been associated with the Vargas populist era, Gomes was
indeed a major cultural ancestor conferring some sense of Brazilianness, at least at the
wrote in the opening pages of the especial edition of the Revista Brasileira de Música
dedicated to Carlos Gomes (1936): “To serve Brazil is not only to act on current affairs
at the current moment, but also to look back at the past to the exceptional figures who
constructed the meaning of our destiny.”56 Gomes was seen not only as part of the past
but also a shaping influence on Brazil’s sense of future. Gomes was Brazilian music’s
paradigmatic legacy against which Villa-Lobos had to duel. Only Villa-Lobos was able
56 “Servir o Brasil não é apenas atuar sobre o momento que passa, sobre as coisas presentes. É também
olhar para o passado, para as figuras excepcionais que compuseram o sentido que deve ter o nosso
destino.”
154
CHAPTER 4: INDIANISMO
The first texts offering a programmatic basis for the nationalization of literature
in Brazil emphasized the importance of the Indian and the natural environment as key
(1826)1 - the first historiographical text recognizing the possibility of national identity
The first group of Brazilian writers with an explicit nationalist program had
Denis’ ideas as their guiding principles.2 This group, called “grupo da Niterói,”
Francisco de Sales Torres Homem, João Pereira da Silva, and Cândido de Azeredo
de Ciências, Letras e Artes (1836)3 reiterated Denis’s emphasis on the Indian element
155
uniqueness.4 Romanticism acknowledged the Indian as the legitimate inhabitant of the
conquered land, and, consequently, considered the Indian as the authentic Brazilian
ancestor. Therefore, the native inhabitant and local nature became the key elements of
Although Denis’ Résume had included the many “races” that formed Brazilian
critics emphasized the Indian and his natural environment as indices of national identity
through the Indian was not unanimous and found criticism from scholars such as the
Brazilian poetry] (1853), disagreed with Gonçalves de Magalhães upon the legitimacy
historians like Varnhagen, who called them ‘patriotas caboclos’ [back-country patriots],
the Indianists earned popularity and succeeded in imposing the Romantic representation
Indianist literature had been a paradigm of national identity since the revival of
Basílio da Gama’s O Uraguai (1769) and Santa Rita Durão’s (1720-1784) Caramuru
(1781),9 and the appearance of new works such as Gonçalves Dias’ (1823-1864)
(1856), Gonçalves Dias’ Os Timbiras (unfinished, 1857), and culminanting with José
Indianismo was also cultivated by later writers such as Fagundes Varela (1841-1875) in
Indianismo in the visual arts was closely associated with the representation of
official power and the iconographic construction of national history. Eduardo de Sá’s
oil painting As três raças e a formação da Bandeira do Brasil [The three races and the
formation of the Brazilian Flag]10 represents the First Empire and its historical role in
national foundation. The hierarchy depicted in this painting is very symbolic of the
in the foreground holding the Brazilian Flag, surrounded by Emperor D. Pedro I and
the three characters representing the three ethnic groups forming Brazilian people. The
the foreground with José Bonifácio, suggesting Black’s prominent role in Brazilian
importance and noble character regardless of ancestry. The Indian stands up besides
Emperor D. Pedro I symbolizing the Americaness of the recently independent nation (as
opposed to Portugal).
discussion on the importance of the research on Brazilian colonial literature done by the generation that
preceeded Romero, especialy by Varnhagen, Joaquim Norberto e Pereira da Silva.
10 See black-and-white reproduction in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro 7
(1938).
157
Emperor Pedro II systematically adopted Indianismo in the symbolic
vestments.12 D. Pedro II also fostered a official culture constructed by the literature and
arrival of the Portuguese in Brazil blessed by the first mass service watched by Indians
(Vítor Meireles’s oil painting A Primeira Missa no Brasil [The First Mass in Brazil],
[Nóbrega and his companions], c. 1843; and Pedro Perez’s Elevação da Cruz em Porto
Seguro [The rising of the Cross in Porto Seguro], 1879), and the crowning of D. Pedro
with official symbols of the nation such as Francisco Manuel Chaves Pinheiro (Rio de
Brazilian Empire] (1872) representing the Brazilian nation with the Indian male, and
América (1872) representing the American continent with the Indian female.14
Indianismo ideology of national ethnic origins with academic artists such as Vítor
11 See, for instance, the 1841 Imperial consecration commemorative coin by L. Ferrez in Schwarcz
(1998: 81)
12 See, for instance, the famous neckpiece (murça) made of native-bird feathers resembling Indian-chief
garment used by D. Pedro II at official occasions in Schwarcz (1998: 141).
13 See, for instance, the lithography, anonymous c. 1840, representing D. Pedro II consecrated by
indigenous male and female and European deities in Schwarcz (1998: 142); see also, the xylograph on
the same topic, anonymous c. 1868, in which the Empire is symbolically represented by the Indian
male, who crowns D. Pedro II with laurels in Schwarcz (1998: 144).
14 For an in-depth study on the official symbology associated with Indianismo, see Schwarcz (1998).
158
(1857-1941) oil paintings Marabá (1882) and O Último Tamoio [The last Tamoio]
(1883), José Maria Medeiros’ (1849-1926) oil paintings Iracema (1884) and Lindóia
(n.d.), Augusto Bracet’s (1881-?) oil painting Lindóia (n.d.), Décio Vilares’ oil painting
Moema (n.d.), and José Maria Oscar Rodolfo Bernardelli’s (1852-1931) bronze
sculpture Moema (1895). These feminine paintings did not aim at ethnographic
figurative canons, and emphasizing the “emotional truth” invested with local color.
and iconography but also in music. The nationalist ideas of its leading ideologue,
Gonçalves de Magalhães, had a substantial impact outside the literary realm, especially
music nearly two decades later with the national opera movement.15 “Although music
did not have a nationalist program of its own, the repercussions of Magalhães’s
15 The first movement towards the creation of Brazilian national opera started in 1852 under the
leadership of the director of the Teatro Provisório, desembargador João Antonio Miranda, and was
continued some years later by the Spanish José Amat, settled in Rio de Janeiro, until it fell short in
1863. The national opera movement resulted from the combination of its leaders’ motivations with
Brazilians’ nationalist aspirations. In 1852 the Director of the Teatro Provisório promoted the
composition of an opera with national subject, and launched a competition for opera on national
subject sung in Portuguese. In 1856, Amat engaged in the creation of national opera in Brazil by
analogy with the nationalist movement that had promoted the revival of the zarzuela in Spain, and the
fostering of French Grand Opera as opposed to the Italian tradition. Amat’s proposal was befitting to
Brazilian nationalist environment. Rio de Janeiro press applauded the foundation of the Imperial
Academia de Música e Ópera Nacional and endorsed its cultural project. (Azevedo 1938: 102-3; Andrade
1967, 2: 83; Kiefer 1977: 77-82)
16 “Although music did not have a nationalist program of its own, the repercussions of Magalhães’s
manifesto in Brazilian music and musical historiography since the Romantic period are quite evident,
persisting to some extent in current discussions on musical nationalism. (…) The first endeavors
towards the creation of national opera in Rio de Janeiro since 1856 were associated with Magalhães’
manifesto (…), and Carlos Gomes’ operas, such as Il Guarany (1870), were late echoes of Magalhães’
nationalist program in Brazilian musical culture.” (Duprat 1989: 34-5)
159
and the popularity of José de Alencar’s Indianist novels, were of germane importance to
The national opera movement fostered the use of national subject and language,
and eventually the development of a national operatic style. The national opera
engaged the musical circle in the ongoing literary discussion about the differences
between Portuguese spoken in Portugal and Portuguese spoken in Brazil,17 and brought
the new discussion in the musical circle about the use of Portuguese as opposed to
Italian. Therefore, the search for national identity in Brazilian opera involved the
reevaluation of Brazil’s cultural and political relationship with Portugal as well as with
(local nature, and the people’s customs, character and tendencies) selected by an
Brazilian literature:
Music is absolutely not identical among all nations. Although subjected to the
great rules of art, music changes in style and taste according to each nation’s
inspirations by local nature, and customs, character and tendencies of its people.
Brazil has its own music; imitations of Italian lyric style is gradually destroying
Brazilian originality. National lyric theater should reject it, and take advantage of
its own originality, as the art rules recommend, and give to Brazil its own
cultivated music reflecting the level of civilization reached by our people.18
17 See, for instance, article in Correio Mercantil, 19 July 1857, partially quoted in Azevedo (1938:
100-1): “What is the true pronounciation of the Portuguese language? That from Lisbon, Minho, Rio
de Janeiro, Bahia, Minas Gerais or São Paulo? Every time we attend comedies in our theaters we hear
many words pronounced in different ways, depending on the actor.”
18 “A música não é absolutamente a mesma em todas as nações; sujeita às grandes regras da arte ela se
modifica no estilo e no gosto de cada nação, segundo as inspirações da natureza do país, os costumes, a
índole e as tendências do povo. O Brasil tem a sua música: as imitações do canto italiano vão pouco a
pouco destruindo a sua originalidade; o teatro lírico nacional deve regenerá-la, aproveitando, com os
160
Although musical stylistic nationalization was expected (as the article quoted
above indicates), the nationalizing elements effectively attained in the operas of that
period were literary, namely, the use of national language and subject, in which
Indianismo predominated over subjects based on national historical events and anti-
slavery tendencies. The impact of the Indianismo canon is evident with three out of the
six operas based on national subject using Indianismo themes: Lindóia, Moema e
Paraguaçu, and Moema.19 Furthermore, Gomes’ Il Guarany, and even Lo Schiavo, are
Indianismo motivated operatic and symphonic adaptations. Musical Indianismo had its
first public exposure in Brazil in 1861 with the staging of Sangiorgi’s Moema e
Paraguaçu, culminated in 1870 with Gomes’ Il Guarany, and continued with Gomes’
The Caramuru myth (about the earliest Portuguese settler in Brazil) was the first
Indianist subject in Brazilian opera,21 and received three libretto adaptations in the
conselhos da arte, essa originalidade e dando ao Brasil a sua música própria, cultivada e digna do grau de
civilização a que já tem chegado o nosso povo.” (JC, 3 April 1857, quoted in Azevedo 1938: 106)
19 The other operas based on national subject are Véspera dos Guararapes (historical subject
conceived as opera to be sung in Italian but produced as cantata sung in Portuguese), Marília de
Itamaracá (historical subject with anti-slavery tendencies, opera sung in Portuguese), A Noite de São
João (non-historical subject, lyric comedy set in Colonial Brazil). The remaining five operas were not
based on local subject: Noite do Castelo (lyric opera on non-historical subject during Cruzade times),
Os dois amores (orientalism), A Corte de Mônaco (musical farce), Joana de Flandres (non-historical
lyric drama during Cruzade times), O Vagabundo (non-historical melodrama semi-serio in seventeenth-
century France). (Azevedo 1938; and Kiefer 1977: 77-82)
20 Duprat 1989: 34-5 quoted above.
21 Azevedo 1938: 112.
161
1850s, one in the 1880s, and two in the 1890s. The lyric poem or cantata, Paraguaçu,22
by José O’Kelly23 and Junius Constâncio de Villeneuve,24 was sung at the Théatre
Lyrique of Paris on 2 August 1855.25 Two other operas based on the Caramuru myth
were written for the competition opened by the director of the Teatro Lírico Fluminense,
Paraguaçu,26 and Moema.27 Lindóia28 was the third libretto based on Indianist theme
These librettos were sent to the Conservatório Dramático, where all texts
intended to be performed at the theaters, including opera librettos, were required, by law,
judging the librettos submitted by the director of the Teatro Lírico Fluminense.
Although Silva recommended Moema, with “coro de índias,” as the best libretto to be
set to music,29 only Francisco Bonifácio de Abreu’s30 libretto Moema e Paraguaçu was
22 Printed score for voice and piano by the Parisian printing house Choudens. (Azevedo 1950: 70-1).
23 The Frenchman of Irish origin José O’Kelly was a pianist and composer, and studied with
Kalkbrenner and Halévy. (Azevedo 1950: 70)
24 The Frenchman Junius Constâncio de Villeneuve (1804-1863) served the Brazilian Marine in Rio de
Janeiro until 1832, when he bought the Jornal do Comércio and was the editor of the most important
Brazilian newspaper until his death. Villeneuve returned to France in 1844. Villeneuve was also an
amateur musician, and wrote the poem of Paraguassú, and colaborated with O’Kelly in the
composition of its music. (Azevedo 1950: 70-1; and Inocêncio da Silva 1973, 13: 270)
25 Azevedo 1950: 47. See further explanation of the opera in Azevedo 1950: 70-1.
26 Francisco Bonifácio de Abreu, Moema e Paraguaçú, episódio da descoberta do Brasil; lyric opera
in three acts; translated into Italian by Ernesto Ferreira França. Rio, J. J. da Rocha, 1860. (Driver
1942: 143)
27 The libretto of Moema, by father Miguel Alves Vilela, is held by the Arquivo Nacional (Seção de
1942: 142)
29 Andrade 1967, 2: 87-9. This bibliographical source offers a full transcription of Francisco Manuel da
Silva’s report, dated of Rio de Janeiro, 31 December 1850, on the three librettos: Lindóia, Moema e
Paraguaçu, and Moema. “... coro das índias... julgo que o libreto da ópera Moema deve ser preferido
aos outros...”
162
eventually set to music, by the Italian maestro Sangiorgi. On 29 July 1861 Sangiorgi’s
Moema e Paraguaçu was staged at the Teatro Provisório on the occasion of Princes
Isabel’s birthday. This performance was promoted by the Academia de Ópera Nacional.
The singers were Carlota Milliet (Moema), Luiza Amat (Paraguaçu), Eduardo Medina
Ribas (Tabira), Trindade (Taparica), Francisco R. Lima (Palmira),31 José Amat (Diogo
Sangiorgi’s opera did not have a warm reception.33 According to the newspaper article
published two days after its performance, the cold reception was due not only to the lack
of originality in its music but also to the public’s unfamiliarity with this sort of subject
in opera.
The opera Moema e Paraguaçu, premiered the day before yesterday at the
Teatro Lírico before a large number of spectators, provoked the predictable effect
that any new composition on such an unusual subject in the lyric scene would.
Our public is so used to the classical works by the great masters interpreted by
celebrities that they cannot easily listen to other melodies, enjoy other voices, and
applaud with the same enthusiasm other works whose merit is different. (…)
The great number of spectators filling the theater expected more originality in
the music treating such an unexplored subject in the lyric scene. In spite of that,
the audience distinguished and applauded the assault of the savages, the tercetto
by Caramuru, Moema and Paraguaçu, and some other passages revealing more
distinctive stylistic innovations.34
30 Francisco Bonifácio de Abreu was high-surgeon of the Army and was commended Baron Vila da
Barra in 1870. He was also governor of the states of Pará and Minas Gerais. (Andrade 1967, 2: 99-100)
31 F. R. Lima was twelve years old when he premiered as student of singing and declamation at the
Ópera Lírica Nacional, annex of the Conservatório de Música. (Andrade 1967, 2: 99-100)
32 JC, 29 July 1861 p. 4, add; Azevedo 1938: 112; and Andrade 1967, 2: 99-100.
33 “Vilela’s opera was not a success.” (Azevedo 1938: 112)
34 “A opera Moema e Paraguaçu, representada anteontem pela primeira vez no theatro Lyrico, causou
no avultado número de seus ouvintes o efeito que era de esperar em uma composição nova, sobre
assunto tão diverso dos que até hoje temos visto aproveitados na cena lírica. // Habituado como se acha
o nosso público às obras clássicas dos grandes mestres e à sua interpretação por artistas célebres, não
pode ainda sem esforço ouvir outras melodias, extasiar-se ao som de outras vozes, aplaudir com o
mesmo entusiasmo outras obras cujo mérito é diverso. (...) O grande número de espectadores que enchia
o teatro esperava talvez mais originalidade na música tratando-se de assunto ainda tão pouco explorado
na cena lírica; apesar disso porém distinguiu e aplaudiu o assalto dos selvagens, o terceto entre o
163
This subject would have a better fate three decades later with Delgado de
the 1890s, Viscount Alfredo de Escragnolle Taunay also wrote a literary version of
Moema in the 1880s, and sent it to Carlos Gomes upon the latter’s request of a story
about slavery and freedom. Gomes worked on Taunay’s version of Moema (before
article:
Indianismo entered the Brazilian operatic canon with Carlos Gomes’ Il Guarany
international success with that opera, but the fact is that Il Guarany was the first
Indianist opera to be accepted as such by Brazilian audiences largely due to its earlier
Caramuru, Moema e Paraguassu, e outras onde se revelam novidades mais pronunciadas de estilo.” (JC,
31 July 1861, p. 2, Gazetilha)
35 Fernandes (1994: 147). Azevedo (1938: 45) and Fernandes (1994: 230) list Moema as one of
appeal to European audiences or for its nationalist meaning to him and his Brazilian
or not Brazil should keep constructing its image in relationship to an Indian identity was
a long polemic among figures such as José de Castilho, Franklin Távora, Araripe Júnior,
Joaquim Nabuco, Silvio Romero, Teófilo Braga, and Capistrano de Abreu. Araripe
Júnior (1868) gave more importance to the influence of the environment, and privileged
Romero opposed Indianismo (and Romanticism) conspicuously from his first book on
modern criticism] (1880), to his Estudos sobre a poesia popular no Brasil [Studies on
alleged that Indianism was not representative of Brazilian national identity since it did
not correspond to the latest anthropological findings of the proportions of the white,
Black and Indian in the Brazilian racial pot and culture.39 Capistrano de Abreu contested
the scientificist validations of the Academia Francesa do Ceará (of which Araripe Júnior
to the “struggle for life” in the tropics. This theory attributed Brazilian “uniqueness”
to the Indian and the tropical environment and legitimized Indianismo’s representativity
of national identity in Brazilian literature.40 Melo Moraes attacked the Indianismo of the
Romantics, especially that of Gonçalves Dias, on the ground that it was not a true
None of the Romantic writers “based their fictional Indians on real observation
or direct experience of the life of the country’s aboriginal inhabitants, (…) [but]
received their vision of the Brazilian Indian through the Colonial chronicles.”42 José de
Under the influence of the doctrinal complex that characterized the Realist era,
necessary condition for the progress of Brazilian literature.45 For Romero, “Indianismo
was a Romantic mistake in the search for national tradition and the most legitimate
ancestor”46 for many reasons. First, reflecting Comte positivism’s phases, Romero held
166
that “the Indians had not reached a level of civilization high enough to make them
stated that there was no solid study on the cultural contact between the Indian and the
European remarking the deficiency of everything that had been written on the subject.47
For Romero, Brazilian reality is neither Luso, nor Indian, nor African, but miscegenated;
the many types of mestiço constitute the true character of Brazilian people” in which the
Black had a prominent role in the structuring of Brazilian psyche.48 Machado de Assis
seems to have kept the most lucid view of his time about the relationship between
national identity and the literary creative process. Machado de Assis (1872) considers
“mistaken the two predominant attitudes towards Indianismo - one reducing Brazilian
civilization to the Indians, and the other rejecting that Brazilian poetry has anything to do
with Indians.” Assis states that “the Indian element is a legitimate theme and its
The arguments between all these authors reveal that, if “during Romanticism,
last three decades of the nineteenth century had a divided view on this issue. However,
despite all the controversy in Brazilian literature and social sciences, Indianismo
Indianismo’s impact in the visual arts and music lasted beyond its heydays in
literature. The 1890s saw an Indianist vogue in opera with the composition of new
Indianist operas, and the frequent staging of Gomes’ Il Guarany and Lo Schiavo. After
the previously mentioned version of Moema by Taunay was submitted to Gomes in the
version of Jupyra was sent to him during his final years in Belém do Pará, but due to
his severe illness, Gomes yielded the task of composing an opera on this subject to
Francisco Braga.51 Newly composed operas during the 1890s included Assis
Pacheco’s Moema (premiered at the Teatro São José in São Paulo on 18 January
1891)52 and Jacy (n.d.); Delgado de Carvalho’s Moema (composed between 1890 and
1892; premiered at the Teatro Lírico in Rio de Janeiro on 6 December 1895);53 Gama
Malcher’s Iara (1895; premiered at the Teatro da Paz in Belém do Pará on 20 March
168
of the Rio Negro [Black River] by Dr. Mello Moraes Filho;” musical score is currently
lost),55 and Francisco Braga’s Jupyra (1899; premiered on 7 October 1900).56 The Rio
Gomes’ Indianist operas: Il Guarany was staged on 3, 4 and 30 July; 5, 16, 18, 22 and
29 August; and 7 September (Independence Day) at the Teatro Lírico of Rio de Janeiro;
and Lo Schiavo was staged on 15, 17 and 24 August at the same theater.57 The
Jupyra in 1900 indicates that Indianismo was in full force in Brazilian music of the
period. Indianismo also penetrated the symphonic genre with Braga’s Marabá (1894),
and continued in the twentieth century under a new guise with Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru
The vogue for Indianismo continued in the 1900s with the staging of Gomes’
Proclamation of the Republic Day, but transferred to the 17th) and 21 November 1901,
and Il Guarany on 26 September 1901 at the Teatro Lírico of Rio de Janeiro; the
American Congress of 1906; the staging of Braga’s Jupyra during the celebrations of
the Fourth Centennial of the Discovery of Brazil in 1900; and the staging of Delgado’s
Moema during the inauguration of the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro in 1909.59
All of these performances indicate that music, especially opera and symphonic poem,
was an important medium that kept Indianismo alive in Brazil in the 1890-1900s.
press. From the 1870s to the 1900s, the major cultural expression using Indianismo
were the cartoons in periodicals and newspapers. The dyad America (represented by the
Indian female) and Brazil (represented by the Indian male) was disseminated in the
popular press with cartoons such as the one in Revista da Semana issue of 9 September
1900 p. 135. The figure of Romanticism’s Indian male was used in political caricature
Frei Vital (21 March 1876) and O Brasil, Terra da Santa Cruz (1 September 1877) in
Indianismo survived in the 1910s in Brazilian films and music. Paulo Emílio
Sales Gomes e Adhemar Gonzaga have called this decade the “indiada” era (Indian-
of the Indian, Villa-Lobos was already shaping his mythical representation of the Indian
with the composition of his symphonic poems/ ballets Uirapuru (1917) and Amazonas
59 See Chapter 2 for Marabá, Jupyra and Moema performances mentioned in this paragraph. As
already discussed in Chapter 2, Moema’s performance of 1909 did not go well.
60 Amaral 1998: 62.
170
(1917), which reached the public only between late 1920s and mid-1930s,61 and Iara
(1917). The music of Villa-Lobos became more “exotic” during his period in Paris,
when he frequently used Indian melodies collected from Colonial chronicles and
scientific expeditions’ reports; this is the case with Trois poèmes indiens, Fifth
image as “the Indian in tails” (o índio de casaca) well into the twentieth century.
Subsequent composers tried their hands in the Indian-mania, for instance, Lorenzo
Fernandez in the ballet Imbapara, Vitor Ribeiro Neves in the opera Ponaim, and J.
Octaviano in the opera Iracema, the last two of which were based on Amazonian
legends.
The Indian permeated Brazilian imagination, and along with nature, was the
“metaphorical realm of the similarity between the nation’s reality and its literature.”
Indianismo had such a fundamental ideological role that it remained alive albeit
transformed in many different ways until the twentieth century with Modernist
Indianist literature and its precursory works have been studied as a mode of
discourse closely related to myth.64 Epic poems such as Basílio da Gama’s O Uraguai
61 Amazonas premiered as an orchestral work on 30 May 1929, at the Concerts Poulet series, in Paris,
then, in Brazil in the following year, and was later performed as a ballet, with the participation of Serge
Lifar, on 19 September 1934. Uirapuru permiered as a ballet on 25 May 1935, at the Teatro Colón, in
Buenos Aires, and was performed as an orchestral work on 9 November 1935 in Rio de Janeiro.
62 Azevedo 1950: 17.
63 Coutinho 1968: 92; Nunes 1998: 222-3.
64 The studies that have adopted some brand of myth literary criticism for the study of Indianismo are
Andrews (1973), Zilberman (1977), Sant’Anna (1973), Treece (1984), Brookshaw (1988), Ortiz (1988),
Moreira (1991), Bosi (1992), and Magrans (1995). Other studies discussing the idealization of the
171
(1769) and Santa Rita Durão’s Caramuru (1781), and historical novels such as José de
Alencar’s O Guarany (1857) and Iracema (1865) were searching for primordial events
in Brazilian history that could explain Brazilian national origins. As mythical narratives,
they were “quintessential stories” that offered “matrices for the creation of collective
events.”66 Like myth, Indianist literature was largely stamped with foundational
to found the nation’s noble origins in a mythical past.”67 The border between literature
foundation conveyed by the literary works upon which they were based. From
The myth of national origin was created out of the experience of discovery and
conquest, and involved the union of the Portuguese and the Indian as a necessary
condition for the birth of the Brazilian nation. Therefore, miscegenation became a key
Indian (noble savage), the construction of national origins, and the Edenic vision of the American
natural environment have contributed to myth-lit-crit interpretations although they are not directly
affiliated to this particular approach; that is the case with Franco (1937), Hollanda (1959), Candido
(1959: 1965), Coutinho (1968, 1969), Barros (1973), Bosi (1981), and Nunes (1998).
65 Geertz 1973: 220.
66 Doty 1986: 17.
67 Bosi 1981: 101.
68 Schwarcz 1999: 136.
172
José de Alencar’s O Guarany is among the major works that empowered the
the extent that its historical and fictional elements earn mythical dimensions for their
“a foundational novel that, by searching the origins of Brazilian society, invents the
primordial couple that engendered the nation and offers an account of the nation’s
genesis.”69
In O Guarany, many of the precepts of the Romantic historical novel merge with
the structure of mythical narrative, including its time and place, characters’ portrayal and
destiny, and narrative unfolding. The remoteness of time defined by Alencar in the year
origins,” “the primal times,” “the times of beginnings and creations,” “the
foundational period” when “new patterns are established and old ones
associated with Colonial history: in 1567 the historical character D. Antonio Mariz
to Cabo Frio against French invasion; and in 1582 D. Antonio Mariz retreats into Rio
de Janeiro hinterland discontented with the Spanish sovereignty over Portugal. However,
none of these years (1567, 1578, 1582, and 1607) correspond to any historical event that
thought. The late sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century did not carry foundational
located within a period that is not of historical momentousness but conveys the “state of
The remoteness of place is realized as a mythical locale since the Serra dos
Órgãos, near the Paquequer river, is a place untouched by civilization (“a civilização não
“when the land had not yet been profaned.”73 Also, that novel bounds the mythical
locale with the frontier myth by “locating the events at the margins of civilization, at the
frontier line of the land to be conquered, a mythical locale that stands so isolated from
the metropolis that it can to some extent operate outside historical time and colonial
rule.”74
Therefore, the historical novel’s remoteness of time and place creates a mythical
“center” (according to Mircea Eliade’s concept), a “foundational point from which the
mythic history unfolds,”75 since only the “immaculate context of the struggle between
nature and civilization” can be “the juncture of vital energies and the appropriate place
for the initial act of creation.”76 This mythical “center” is the setting of the encounter
of Pery and Cecília, the “mythical couple” that engendered the Brazilian nation.77
This core is maintained in the libretto adaptation of the novel. The change of
year, from 1607 (in the novel) to 1560 (in the opera) does not substantially affect the
historical meaning and can operate within the mythical “center” proposed by the novel.
libretto did not affect substantially the Indianist ideology conveyed by the novel, it
disrupted the symbolic relationships that empowered the novel as a mythical narrative of
national foundation. The opera impaired the novel’s mythical potential by withdrawing
mythical dimension and some of the motifs and occurrences that fulfilled the mythical
narrative. For example, lacking are the motifs of the outcast and the deluge, and the
mythical necessity of the failure of Isabel and Alvaro’s union. The mythical conditions
that are altered include the captive motif in which Cecília is captive of the Aimorés
instead of Pery, and the conflict triggerer in which an (unidentified) adventurer is guilty
principle according to which the birth of Brazil as a nation comes out of a rite of
passage that goes from the retreat of the Portuguese civilization into the American eden
(pre-liminal phase), the fatal attack of the Aimorés followed by the deluge that destroyed
the old order (liminal phase), to the renewing union of the surviving couple Pery and
Cecília symbolizing the two mythical races (post-liminal phase).78 The libretto
adaptation maintains this tripartite narrative structure in its great lines, but promotes
some changes in the liminal phase that affects greatly the narrative mythical import/
meaning. First, in the operatic version, the enactment of the liminal phase that started
with the destruction of D. Antonio Mariz’s castle is not consummated by the deluge,
78The rite of passage concept is according to the analysis of Alencar’s O Guarany by Ortiz ([1988]
1992: 81). Similar idea is defended by Moreira (1991: 138).
175
which withdraws the cosmic power of the rite of passage symbolized by the diluvian
myth. Secondly, in the novel, the Aimorés burn D. Antonio Mariz’s castle, while in the
opera D. Antonio Mariz discharges the explosion of his castle himself. This change in
the agency of the destruction of the Portuguese world affects the meaning of the liminal
phase. While the novel implies that the American nature turned to its primitive savagery
(personified by the Aimorés) in order to preclude the corruption of the American eden
European order in the American eden in the recognition by the Portuguese himself. That
change of agency in the operatic adaptation further lessened the cosmic power of the rite
of passage symbolized by the diluvian myth, placing the turning point of Brazilian
history in an incidental cause rather than in nature’s might. On that account, the opera
flaws the symbolic system of the rite of passage ratifying the myth of national origins
The opera maintains most of the archetypal characters and the binary
oppositions between them, namely, the myth of the good Indian (the noble savage
personified by Pery, the Indian male belonging to the Guarany group) stressed by the
opposition to the myth of primitive savagery (personified by the barbarous and cannibal
Aymoré tribe), the opposition between the good white as the prototype of the
Portuguese colonizer (personified by the Portuguese D. Antonio Mariz and Alvaro) and
the vile white (personified by the adventurers and the Italian Loredano in Alencar’s
novel, who is replaced by the Spanish Gonzales in Gomes’ opera). The archetypal
characters have a mythical destiny; and more than to live their individualities, they
represent social roles and fulfill the necessities of the mythical narrative.79
Pery embodies the myth of the good Indian and the identification of the Indian with
American nature. The myth of the good Indian arose from the Rousseaunian view of the
“natural man,” the prototype of “natural virtue” and of “the perfect integration
between nature and the human kind.”80 The Indian that Indianismo recognizes as the
ancestor of the Brazilian nation is the “natural man” in the age of innocence in close
communion with nature, who inherently carried values in close affinity with Christianity,
the Indian invested him with qualities of the Christian man.81 Furthermore, Brazilian
Romanticism’s idealized construction of the noble savage entitled him to the fulfillment
of his historical and mythical destiny. The archetypal good Indian was “in close
communion with the colonizer,”82 bounded as an individual by the captive myth and as
a mythical race by the sacrificial myth.83 Pery’s heart was captive of Cecília’s, and their
union demanded that he sacrificed his Indian identity and undergo the rite of passage
individual act of volition but an imperative of the mythical history,”84 so that the
mythical couple could be united and national origins could be legitimately engendered.
80 Coutinho 1968: 91; Coutinho 1969, 1: 316. On the myth of the good Indian, see Afonso Arinos de
Melo Franco, O Índio Brasileiro e a Revolução Francesa (1937); G. Cocchiara, Il Mito del Buon
Selvagio (1948); Mircea Eliade, “Le Mythe du Bon Sauvage...” (1955); P. Jourda, L’exotisme dans la
Littérature Française (1956); and Sergio Buarque de Hollanda, Visão do Paraíso (1959).
81 Candido 1980: 82.
82 Bosi 1992: 177.
83 According to Brookshaw (1988)’s definition of the captive myth, captivity can be physical (hold
hostage or sexual contact) or of the heart. According to Bosi (1992)’s definition of the sacrificial myth,
the Indian sacrifices his or her identity or life through symbolic or actual death for the sake of
“civilization.”
84 Ortiz 1992: 86.
177
All these aspects, the myth of the good Indian and his mythical-historical
destiny, are well emphasized in the opera. On the other hand, the opera refers only
briefly to the identification of the Indian with nature in Pery’s scene of Act II by
presenting him alone in the jungle with descriptive music of forest murmurs (see
Chapter 5 for further discussion on this landscape topos and Pery’s scene; musical
example No. 12). The opera does not render the Indianismo convention of the Indian
struggling with nature since it omits two major episodes, namely, the scene that
introduces the Pery character by portraying the brave Indian imperturbably and
skillfully confronting the jaguar (chapter “A Luta” [The Fight]), and the final scene in
which Pery mightily unearths the palm tree in the middle of the deluge (chapter “ A
Tempestade” [The Tempest]). These omissions are among the libretto’s most
“picturesque” and “local color” of the novel, the omission of these episodes by the
communion with nature, which ultimately allowed the survival of Pery and Cecília from
the natural catastrophe, and therefore, the accomplishment of the rite of passage that
brought the mythical couple to the mythical beginning of the Brazilian nation.
The archetypal import of Pery grows even further in contrast with the myth of
primitive savagery represented by the Aimoré tribe.86 The binary opposition between the
myth of the good Indian and the myth of primitive savagery is framed by the myth of
85 “The story of O Guarany offers a rich theme for an extremely original musical poem, but the poet
did not take advantage of the extravagant nature of José de Alencar’s novel, and reduced the novel’s
subject to the conventional forms of the libretto as we know it for more than half-century.” (Filippo
Filippi, quoted in Cunha 1987: 140)
86 Tribes known for their resistance to the Portuguese (Tabajaras, Aimorés) became the archetypal
antithesis of European civilization. (Brookshaw 1988: 6)
178
conquest, which “reflects the ethnocentricity of the first settlers” by portraying “the
Indian as a barrier and an implement in their plans to develop the new lands.”87 The
opera expresses the dichotomy between Pery’s affinity with and the Aimoré tribe’s
antithesis to European civilization by putting Italian lyric singing in Pery’s voice88 and
and “Gran marcia – baccanale indiano” (Act III). The ethnocentric mythification of the
“primitive” is flagrant in the “exoticist” approach to the music representing the Indian,
using traditional formulae of “Turkish music” in portraying Aimoré ritual dances. The
mimic action opens with a musical pattern based on rhythmic-melodic repetition (e upon
long accented notes) followed by downward melodic motion of short accented notes in
unison texture (musical example No. 1a). The melody of the “savage step” is based on
the repetitive use of grace notes upon accented staccato notes followed by embellishing
the accented staccato repetition of the triad without the third and on the displacement of
the metric accentuation to the weak part of the beat through the accentuation on the
dissonant chord containing the augmented fifth and the major second intervals (musical
example No. 1b). The grand march also uses musical patterns based on repetition, static
harmony and accented staccato inflections to depict the exotically primitive (musical
example No. 1c). Therefore, these ballet numbers show the basic patterns of the musical
87Brookshaw 1988: 15
88“While in Alencar’s novel, the Indian speech is unequivocally differentiated from the white
colonizers’ language, in the opera both mingle in the same arias, in the same modulations, and in the
same accents. However, the Indians of our forests had their own music – free and fearless music.”
(Almeida 1926: 86-8)
179
representations of the exotic: the mimic action is a case in point of “pieces beginning in
long values going in on quicker ones;” the savage step makes use of repeated figures of
short grace notes and of percussion instruments such as the triangle or cymbals; all
three excerpts make extensive use of repeated notes, either in the melody or in the
accompaniment; the savage step and the grand march use the 2/4 meter; and all three
excerpts the “preference for harmonic simplicity and brightness” or unison texture.89
>˙ >˙ >œ >œ >œ n >œ . >œ >œ n >œ > n >œ >
Pery è tratto presso l'albero e legato Gli indiani si dispongono intorno al campo.
œ œ > >
œ œ n œ œ n œ œ œ >œ œ >œ >œ œ
ALLEGRO RISOLUTO
## ˙ ˙ œ œ œ nœ.
& # c Ó J œ œ œ œ œ œ
ƒ >
>˙ >˙ >œ >œ >œ n >œ . >œ >œ n >œ > n >œ > > >
œ œ > >
? ### c Ó ˙ ˙ œ œ œ nœ. œ œ n œ œ n œ œ œ œ œ œ >œ œ
J œ œ œ œ œ œ
>
Musical example No. 1b: Carlos Gomes’s Il Guarany, “Passo Selvaggio” (Act III)
n œ œ̈ œ œ̈ œ œ̈ œ œ̈ œ œ œ n œ œ œ œ. œ.
œ œ œ n œ œ œ œ. œ.
j j j
bb 2
nœ
œ
j œ̈ œ
j œ̈ œ
j œ̈ œ
j œ̈ œ
j
&bb 4 6
6
Ϭ Ϭ
brillante
Ϭ Ϭ Ϭ >
n b œœœ œ. œ. >
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ¨ œ¨ œ¨ œ¨ œ¨ n b œœœ œ. œ.
? bb 2 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
bb 4
89The definition of the distinctive features of “turkish music” is based on Whaples (1958: 157-8) and
Hunter (1998).
180
Musical example No. 1c: Carlos Gomes’s Il Guarany, “Gran marcia – baccanale
indiano” (Act III)
ALLEGRO MARCATO
.
b 2 . œ. œ
Questo ballabile sarà composto di uomini e donne della tribù
&bb 4 ‰ œœœ œœ œœ œœ ‰ ‰ œœ œœ œœ œœ ‰ œ. œ. œ. œ œ œ œ. œ. œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ . v v
f v v v v v v v v v
j marcate
œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ j
? b 2 œ ‰ ‰ œ ‰ ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
bb 4 œ œ J œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
> > > > > > > >
ballets from Act III. This choreographic display of the exotic enacts through mimic the
sacrificial scene of Pery, who, like his beloved Cecília, is captive of the Aimorés. In these
ballet scenes, the Aimorés are dehumanized through their absence of speech, and
comparison with the merely human personified by the Portuguese adventurer Álvaro, the
young nobleman D. Diogo, and the Italian adventurer Loredano. D. Diogo is a good
young nobleman who lacks the mastery of the archetypal Portuguese colonizer. Álvaro
is a good white man initiated into the American environment but who is ultimately
defeated by primitive savagery. The flawed moral qualities of Loredano are equated with
Differently from Álvaro, D. Diogo, and Loredano, Pery is the only character who
masters American environment and primitive savagery, and is also invested with the
moral qualities of the noble savage, which places him as an equal to D. Antonio Mariz,
the archetypal good white man. The opera maintains all this symbolic network that
aggrandizes Pery’s character, except for D. Diogo, who is excluded from the operatic
The mythical locale in which the characters operate correlates with their
archetype. Alencar’s novel merges the mythical locale with the Edenic myth by
associating the frontier line with natural abundance and the hopes of a piece of “heaven
on earth.” The “uncorrupted” American land in the age of innocence and receptiveness
to Christianity is personified by Pery, the noble savage. The utilitarian version of the
Edenic myth is evident in the novel through the eldorado myth (the land of promise and
the land of plenty) that attracted the Portuguese settlers (personified by D. Antonio
Mariz, his family and the adventurers) and triggered human greed and treachery
(personified by the Italian adventurer Loredano in Alencar’s novel, and replaced by the
other two protagonists, Cecília and D. Antonio Mariz, through comparative contrast with
secondary characters. In the opera, the suppression of some secondary characters, such
as Isabel, Lauriana, D. Diogo, and the Indian chief’s daughter, undoes the multi-
the novel makes within the Portuguese world and between the European and the Indian
enhanced by the binary opposition between her innocence and the prejudice of her
mother Lauriana, and between her fair chastity and the sensuality of the half-Indian,
half-Portuguese Isabel. The novel constructs the “polarization between a dark, sensually
182
dangerous woman” through the character of Isabel “and her fair, chaste opposite”
through the character of Cecília.90 Isabel is the Indian-Portuguese offspring that gender-
wise stands for the Brazilian type of womanhood, and race-wise stands for
miscegenation and social displacement. The novel denies the mestizo woman as the
progenitor of Brazilian nation through the character of Isabel by leading her to love-
death, and, on that account, it further reinforces the character of Cecília as the feminine
ideal of the Brazilian nation’s progenitor. By omitting the character of Isabel, the opera
not only lessens the archetypal magnitude of Cecília but also evades the issue of
miscegenation. The love triangle between the Portuguese man, the Portuguese woman
(representing the legitimate love), and the mestizo woman (representing the illegitimate
love), was embodied respectively by Álvaro, Cecília and Isabel in the secondary plot of
Alencar’s O Guarany. By suppressing the character of Isabel and the love triangle, the
operatic version evaded the implied values associated with the sensuality of the mestizo
woman, and the illegitimacy of the love between the Portuguese colonist and the mestizo
woman.
The novel magnifies the characterization of Cecília as the feminine ideal of the
Brazilian nation’s progenitor by contrasting her with the Indian female, placing them in
the binary opposition between “culture” and the “primitive.” The chastity of Cecília is
the Indian chief’s daughter (novel’s chapters “O Sacrifício” [The Sacrifice], and
primitive passion that contrasts with and enhances Cecília’s purity of feelings.
this array of feminine characters (Lauriana, Isabel, and the Indian chief’s daughter)
Cecília the feminine ideal or the mythical female that engendered the Brazilian nation,
Cecília’s exceeding purity places her in the age of innocence allowing that
sympathy for Pery’s world engages her in a rite of passage through which she will
accomplish the conciliation between culture and nature. The novel gradually constructs
the feminine ideal for engendering the Brazilian nation. The opera does not reproduce
Cecília’s naturalization process in its many shadings, such as her wonderment and
fondness for all the articles of Brazilian nature that Pery brings her and with which she
(“cultura naturalizada”), and part of the initiation process that will place her in the
origins of the Brazilian nation. The final deluge consumates the rite of passage that
Cecília goes through in the novel and fulfills a major necessity of the mythical narrative.
The operatic suppression of the deluge affects the final phase of Cecília’s initiation
process into the American environment subtracting the cosmic endowment of her
legitimacy as the mythical female of Brazilian origins. The supression of these two
“naturalization of culture” that makes her the mythical counterpart to Pery’s symbolic
by the novel demands that only after “the baptism of the savage and the naturalization
of culture, can Brazil be born out of the fusion of two mythical races, and not of two
different ethnicities.”92 By maintaing only Pery’s rite of passage in its totality (from
natural man to conversion into Christianity) and suppressing Cecília’s initiation into the
American world, the opera unbalances the binary complementation between “naturalized
culture” and “tamed nature” that bonded the mythical couple destined to engender the
Brazilian nation.
world is expressed through the comparison between his perfect conduct and the
reproachable vainglory of his son D. Diogo that caused accidental misfortune of deadly
consequences,93 and between his upright character and the corrupted character of
Loredano and his companions. Álvaro is the younger parallel to D. Antonio, since he
possesses high moral values such as loyalty and courage but is also tempted by the
Antonio Mariz since he is not a Portuguese nobleman. Therefore, the failure of Álvaro’s
love towards Cecília fulfills the necessities of the mythical narrative since it symbolizes
the impossibility of engendering the Brazilian nation upon the old Portuguese order.
The opera maintains the binary opposition between D. Antonio Mariz and
Mariz and Álvaro, and the mythical necessity that did away with the arranged matrimony
between Cecília and Álvaro. However, the suppression of D. Diogo in the operatic
92 Ortiz ([1988] 1992: 94). Similar idea is defended by Moreira (1991: 139).
93 The Indian maid fell “victim of the caprice of the hunter, who did not want to waste his target.”
[“vítima de um capricho de caçador, que não desejava perder a sua pontaria.”] (Alencar p. 82, chapter “A
Índia”)
185
version not only lessens the aggrandizement of D. Antonio Mariz’s character achieved
in the novel through the comparison with his lesser descendant, but also affects the myth
of national foundation, since it puts the cause of the ill-fated contact between the
Portuguese and the native Indians in a gray area. The accidental killing of the Indian
maiden by D. Diogo symbolizes the violation of the American nature and the ill-fated
contact between the Portuguese predator and the primitive Indian world. While the novel
recognizes the misconduct of the Portuguese nobleman towards the Indian, the opera
attributes the wrong-doing indistinctly to “one of our men,” which in that context is
most likely to be one of the low-born adventurers. However, the adventurers and
Loredano do not represent the Portuguese old order since they are the opposite of the
virtuous colonizer archetype. While the novel places the flaw in the good Portuguese
archetype’s descendant, the opera transfers it to the evil white man archetype, undoing
the mythical narrative predication according to which the Brazilian nation cannot be born
out of the old Portuguese order. The only symbolic similarity between D. Diogo’s
misconduct and that of the adventurers, is the mythical predication that the Brazilian
nation cannot be born upon the spoliation of American nature, which is still sustainable
change in the captive motif by the libretto adaptation spoiled the sacrificial myth through
which the novel constructed the myth of national foundation. The sacrificial myth,
according to which the Indian sacrifices his or her identity or life through symbolic or
actual death for the sake of “civilization,” was a key element of Indianismo ideology.
Pery’s unconditional loyalty to D. Antonio and Cecília fulfills a major necessity of the
mythical narrative. Pery carries out the sacrificial myth in many episodes of the novel,
186
including his numerous life-risking endeavors to please Cecília and to keep D. Antonio
and his family safe, his conversion to Catholicism, and his surrendering to the Aimorés
in place of D. Antonio and his family. The opera maintains Pery’s symbolic self-
sacrifice carried out by his conversion, but suppresses one of his major gestures of
bodily self-sacrifice. Whereas in the novel, Pery lets himself become a prisoner of the
Aimorés, in the opera, Cecília is abducted and held prisoner by the Aimorés. The
sacrificial myth accomplished in the novel through Pery’s willingness to die for D.
Antonio and Cecília is turned into a conventional motif of rescue opera in which the
female awaits to be saved by the hero. By curtailing the complexity of the sacrificial
myth (which results for the interaction of symbolic and bodily sacrifice), the opera does
not reproduce the magnitude of Pery’s character in the mythical narrative of national
foundation.
operatic clichés. The opera flaws the network of symbolic relationships rounding off the
subject that conveys the myth of national foundation, but unlike Gomes’ Il Guarany,
Carvalho’s Moema does not sustain the same ideology. On the contrary, it undoes the
dooming the love between the Portuguese and the Indian, by depriving the Portuguese
187
and the Indian from any rite of passage that could symbolize the “naturalization of
culture” and the “civilizing of nature,” by shifting the emphasis to the Indian female,
whose contact with a white male will transform her into an outcast, and, ultimately, by
period.
and Delgado de Carvalho, and its plot is a loose adaptation of the Caramuru myth.94
This myth presents the conventional literary motive of the white man who is rescued or
captured by Indians, falls in love with an Indian maiden, and is on his way to be
executed by the tribe. The construction of the Caramuru myth in its early historical and
Diogo Álvares as the archetypal pioneer colonist whose ability to interact with the
Indians gave place to a founding event in Brazilian history. As a foundational story, the
Caramuru myth operates upon the frontier myth and mythical time by evoking the
By the time that Carvalho and Pacheco wrote the libretto, there were seven
Brasil (1663), Francisco de Brito Freire’s Nova Lusitânia (1675); Sebastião Rocha
94 This one-act opera in Italian can be divided into 8 scenes. The characters are Tapyr, the Indian chief
(Baritone); Moema, young Indian maiden, daughter of Tapyr (Soprano); Paolo, European hunter
(Tenor); Japyr, head warrior, brother of Moema (Basso); and the Savages. Opera synopsis: A
supposedly Portuguese hunter is lost among the Indians, has a love affair with Moema, the Indian
chief’s daughter. The ferocious Indians will sacrifie him. Moema arranges his escaping, and unable to
live without him, commits suicide.” (translated from Azevedo 1938: 68-9)
188
Adolfo Varnhagen’s O Caramurú perante a história (1846) and História Geral do
Brasil (nineteenth century; publ. 1959) – and four literary versions – Frei José de Santa
the anthology Florilégio da Poesia Brasileira (1853), and Domingos José Nogueira
definition. This chapter contains discussions of only those sources that are most likely
to have informed Pacheco and Carvalho in the writing of their libretto or that are relevant
(1781) was the most popular version of the Caramuru myth since its revival by the
Romantics in the 1830s,96 and was certainly a major reference for the writing of
Pacheco-Carvalho’s libretto. This libretto seems to have also been informed by other
95 See Calmon (1959); Candido (1975, 1: 329); Candido (1981: 179); and Treece (1984).
96 According to Cidade (1961: 98-103) and Candido (1959, 1: 17-22), Durão’s Caramuru revival in the
nineteenth century included Almeida Garret, Bosquejo de História da Literatura Portuguesa (1826);
Francisco Adolfo de Varnhagen, O Caramurú perante a história (1846; reprint in Revista Trimestral
de História e Geografia or Jornal do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, no. 10, 2d. semester
of 1848); Costa e Silva, Ensaio Biográfico e Crítico Sobre os Melhores Poetas Portugueses (1853);
Francisco Sotero dos Reis, Curso de Literatura Portuguesa e Brazileira (1867); Camilo Castelo
Branco, Curso de Literatura Portuguesa (1876); and was followed by a string of studies until the
present, including Silvio Romero, História da Literatura Brasileira (1889), José Veríssimo, Estudos
de Literatura Brasileira (1901); Fidelino de Figueiredo, História da Literatura Clássica (1922);
Ronald de Carvalho, Pequena História da Literatura Brasileira (1925); Artur da Mota, História da
Literatura Brasileira (1930); Antonio Soares Amora, História da Literatura Brasileira (1955);
Waltensir Durão in Afrânio Coutinho, A Literatura no Brasil (1955). Durão’s Caramuru 19th-century
editions are: 1836, 1837, 1845, 1878, 1887, and 1880-1890s (Candido 1980: 190).
189
Varnhagen was the official historian of the Second Empire and his historical studies and
literary work on Caramuru challenged the traditional view of the historicity and role of
Brazilian lands and native people, the union of the Portuguese with the Indian
symbolizing the creation of the new nation, the “naturalization of culture” represented
by the Portuguese male protagonist’s rite of passage, and the “taming of nature”
which legitimize the origins of Brazil as a nation. Durão’s Caramuru conveyed, from
the Portuguese perspective, the myth of conquest, and, from the Brazilian perspective,
sufficient stature which would express a sense of nationality.”98 The close bond
between the epic and myth made the epic one of the most influential literary genres in
the consolidation of national consciousness.99 The epic was befitting to the glorification
of national past, usually encapsulated by the good deeds of a male hero during primeval
times.
considered so important that they are mythicized.”100 The hero Diogo Álvares is a
Portuguese sailor shipwrecked on the coast of Bahia at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, who impressed the Indians with his musket, earning through this deed the name
his union with the Indian Paraguaçu lays in the origins of Bahia people, and, therefore,
pattern consisting of “separation from the world, penetration to a source of power, and a
passage that detaches him from culture and reintegrates him with nature, allowing him to
free himself from all the corruption brought about by civilization and to reconnect him
with his natural humanness and original innocence.103 Once empowered by the
the engendering of the Brazilian nation, accompanied by his Indian wife converted into
The opera maintains the mythical time and locale established by Durão’s epic
(“La scena ha luogo in una foresta del Brasile. Epoca 1600,” according to Ms. EM-
trend towards diminishing the traditional status of Diogo Álvares as repository of all
that was best in colonial values” since Varnhagen’s studies until the end of the
aristocratic ancestry of Diogo Álvares, and therefore does not reflect any attempt to
depict him as the archetypal colonist of the foundational myth of Brazil. This aspect also
asserted by Salvador (1600s), Vasconcellos (1663) and Rocha Pitta (1730; 1880). Also,
the opera shifts the Iberian name of the male protagonist Diogo to the Italian name
Paolo, depriving this character from any claim of a legitimate founding role of the
Brazilian nation. Furthermore, the opera turns the Portuguese sailor into an ordinary
characterization obliterate the purpose of the male protagonist and his role as the
archetypal colonist. And by not contextualizing Paolo’s appearance among the Indians
within the Portuguese overseas expansions, the opera eliminates much of the conquest
traditional heroism of Diogo Álvares in his role of pioneer and colonizer” by defining
his alter ego Paolo as a character “incapable of doing anything for himself ... and [who]
has to be saved by” the Indian woman.105 The libretto subverts “the myth of Caramuru
The plot of Pacheco-Carvalho’s libretto does not contain the most famous
episodes of Durão’s poem, namely, Diogo’s feat with the musket which earns him the
name of Caramuru, and the drowning of Moema. The first affects greatly the heroic
characterization of the male protagonist, while the latter aggrandizes the heroic import of
the female protagonist. Ultimately, their combination undoes the myth of conquest and
national foundation.
By omitting the musket episode, the opera empties the heroic stature of the white
man. The male protagonist Paolo does not show the archetypal colonist’s ability to
communicate and win over the Indians. On the contrary, he proves to be helpless and
Furthermore, the way the libretto deepens Paolo’s character portrayal in the solo
number placed at his appearance out of the cave does not help with investing him with
Paolo laments his fate (“Squillò l'inubia col suo rauco suono, dell'estrema ora mia
nunzio fatale. Per me non v'ha pietà, non v'ha perdono, sotto l'ira io cadrò, sotto il
pugnale”) [Soa a trombeta com seu rouco som, Termo fatal da minha extrema hora. Pra
mim não há piedade nem perdão Padeço a ira e sucumbo ao punhal.] and farewell to his
European homeland (“Ed or, o amata terra mia natia, o mia patria lontana, o madre,
addio! (…) A voi foreste, a voi olezzanti fior Addio per sempre o monti, o fiumi, o mar!
ripeta l'eco vostro il mio dolor”) [So, my beloved native land, distant homeland, o
mother, good by! (…) Farewell to you all, forest, fragrant flowers, mountains, river and
sea! May your sounds echo my sorrow]. However, the librettists did not create a solo
193
number for Paolo to express his mixed feelings and thoughts about abandoning
Moema. Therefore, his character can only be judged by his actions in comparison to his
never fulfilled promise to Moema of “partir, giamai” [Leave you, never] (scene 2),
can never leave you lonely oppressed in abandonment!] (scene 6; musical example No.
3). Paolo’s assurance not to abandon Moema, which is sung to the most memorable
melodies of the opera (scene 2, musical example No. 2 and scene 6, musical example
No. 3), falls short as he soon agrees to flee with the excuse that “tua prece, tuo
comando mi strazian l’alma, il cor” [Your pray, your command tear my soul and my
Musical example No. 2: Carvalho’s Moema, Scena e Duetto ‘Se uniti non vivremo”
[Scene 2] Moema and Paolo (S, T)
Paolo
œ œ œ œ j˙
(con dolore e molto commosso)
œ œ œ œ j
(con amore)
b 3 œ j œ œ œ œ
V b b 4 œJ œJ œJ œ ˙ œ J J J œ ˙ œ J J Jœ ˙ œ
Par-tir? ah no! mi - rar - ti O-gnora vo-glio e sem - pre. Sem-pre mi-rar- ti io vo - glio, O mia Mo - e - ma!
b 3 Più Agitato
˙. œ >œœ œœ œ ˙.
&bb 4 ∑ œœœœœœ œœœœœœ œ œ œ ˙.
œ œ ˙. b œ ˙˙ ..
˙˙ .
˙ œ
> > >>
π 3
f
˙˙ .. ˙˙ .. >œ >œ >œ >œ ˙ .
? b b 43 ˙ . ˙. ˙˙˙ ... >œ >œ œ œ œ œ
b ∑ œ
j j
œ œ
j Jnœ Œ Œ ˙.
œ
° * œ
° * œ
° *
194
Musical example No. 3: Carvalho’s Moema, Scena e Duetto “Amore, amore dolce
sogno...” [Scene 6] Moema and Paolo (S, T)
˙˙ . . ˙˙ b # œœœ ˙ ..
? 3 ˙ .. ˙˙˙˙ ... ˙ œ ˙˙˙ ..
b 4j j j j
œ œ œ œ
is the shift of the title, and therefore, of the hero role, from the masculine to the feminine
protagonist. This has implications not only to the genre but also to the ideology of the
story. As an epic genre, Durão’s Caramuru exalts the good deeds and high moral
principles of the male hero. Conversely, Pacheco-Carvalho’s Moema empties the heroic
rank of the male protagonist, and confers a higher moral stature and courage to his
female counterpart. By crediting the white man’s survival to the female Indian savior
masculine heroism of Durão’s Diogo Álvares with the feminine heroism and self-
European values and politics,” and “diminish[es] Diogo’s moral stature in comparison
The incident of Moema’s drowning in the sea was the most popular episode of
Durão’s Caramuru during the nineteenth century, constructing this Indian maiden as
107 Treece 1984: 153.
108 Treece 1984: 169-170.
195
the symbol of love-death and self-sacrifice. The oil paintings by Vitor Meireles (1866)
and Décio Vilares’ o (n.d.), and the bronze sculpture by Rodolfo Bernardelli (1895)
imagination. Moema embodied “the myth of the abandoned, tragic female” and the
of national foundation.
commits suicide in the conventional way by stabbing herself instead of using the
original image of swimming in the sea after the ship that is taking her beloved away until
drowning by exhaustion. In both cases, the female Indian dies for the white man’s love.
However, while Moema’s death was nearly accidental in Durão’s poem, in Pacheco-
Carvalho’s libretto Moema was the result of a conscious decision emanating from the
ethical imperative. In the Recitativo e Romanza “Quanta sventura” [scene 1, mm. 68-
88], Moema supplicates: “Tupan, gran Dio! concedimi salvarlo; A morte tanto ria, deh!
non serbarlo: Prendi mia vita, la sacro a te. Pietà di lui! pietà di me!” [Tupan, oh mighty
god, let me save him from such a cruel death. Oh! I will not have him any longer! Take
my life; I consecrate myself to you. Have pitty on us!]. In the opera, Moema becomes
an outcast after her physical contact with Paolo, and her suicide would be the only way
she could expiate her offense and restore her tribe’s dignity. That gesture aggrandizes
woman” in the character of Moema “and her fair, chaste opposite” in the character of
between moral and physical characteristics: Paraguaçu, the Indian chief’s daughter, is
described in terms which distinguish her from other Indians: her moral and physical
qualities are white. Moema is the brown maiden who represents jealousy, illicit love,
associate with Paraguaçu’s high status rather than with Moema’s low status in the tribe.
daughter) with Moema (the abandoned Indian maiden) under the name of the latter. This
poem, Moema is an Indian maiden of lesser status representing sensual and passionate
love while Paraguaçu is the female noble savage representing “sexual innocence” and
“the Indian convert” into Catholic and Colonial family ethic.112 Although Pacheco-
Carvalho’s libretto shifts the female protagonist’s name from Paraguaçu to Moema, it
maintains the high social status of Indian female combining it with the sensuality of the
ideological element in Durão’s poem, reflecting Durão’s vision of the indigenous living
paralleled by the exaltation of Diogo’s character for his living up to Catholic morality.
Pacheco-Carvalho’s libretto makes the unchastity of the protagonists the main trigger of
plot development and the cause of the tragic outcome. Pacheco-Carvalho’s libretto
differs from all the other accounts, including Durão’s and Varnhagen’s poems, in the
Since Paolo did not win over the Indians as Diogo did, his contact with Moema did not
happen as a gift of the tribe but as an act of treachery. The moral emphasis of the
libretto is on Indian values of kinship and honor, rather than on Catholic values of purity
as in Durão’s poem. The opera does not put the couple through any rite of passage that
could legitimate their union, making their sexual contact an illicit love, and placing
emphasis on the impossibility of miscegenation between the Indian and the Portuguese.
Unlike Durão’s Caramuru, the opera does not put the white man and the Indian woman
through the reciprocal rite of passage of the “naturalizing of culture” and the “taming
of nature” that would make them a mythical couple. Therefore, the male and female
protagonists of the opera do not fulfill the mythical conditions that would allow them to
through her denial of her own religion and life with her Indian community, and
exhaustion. By accomplishing the sacrificial myth only physically and leaving its
between the Indian and the Portuguese, affecting greatly the myth of national
foundation.
closure of meaningful events. In Durão occurs the blessed marriage between the Indian
and the Portuguese, which is further legitimized by the conversion of the Indian to the
Catholic faith and the acceptance of their union by the white society. While Durão’s
epic “celebrates the marriage of Diogo and Paraguaçu [for it] confirms and symbolizes
198
social harmony and conciliation,”114 Pacheco-Carvalho’s libretto reflects a pessimistic
While Durão’s epic poem conciliates the two lovers from different worlds
through the “naturalization of culture” and the conversion of the Indian into
apart. The ill-fated love between the white male and the Indian female symbolizes the
hostile, untrustworthy contact between the European and the Indian tribe, and undoes the
In the Scena e Duetto “Se uniti non vivremo” (scene 2) Paolo proposes “let’s
escape together” (“Vieni; fuggiamo insieme”) but Moema does not agree and decides
to let him go and then commits suicide. The death of Moema implies the historical
fatality of the inter-ethnic contact. As the Indian female, Moema carries the symbol of
fertility, and her death when in contact with the Portuguese symbolizes the impossibility
of miscegenation. The opera blames only the Indian for that misfortune, since the reason
for the suicide of Moema, the fertility symbol, is the Indian community’s refusal to mix
with the white. The Indian community is represented as unwilling to break from their
origins and beliefs. The Indian resistance symbolizes the doomed Brazilian nation,
which will not reconcile the Indian and the white culture. If miscegenation does occur, it
In Pacheco-Carvalho’s libretto, the union between the white and the Indian is not
accepted by the tribe, and the Portuguese character’s alter ego does not have enough
dignity to make his love for the Indian chief’s daughter win over the adversities. Paolo
flees cowardly, and Moema commits suicide to restore the honor of her tribe. The
symbolizes the inevitability of fusion and friction of the Portuguese and the Indian, and
therefore, implies the undoing of the myth of national origins: Brazil is not the result of
miscegenation between the Portuguese and the noble savage, but of inter-ethnic conflict
resulting in the death or in the isolation of the Indian, which, according to the opera, has
its roots in the eternal hostility cast by the Indian chief. In Scena Finale “O caro idol
diletto,” Tapyr curses Paolo, and, therefore, what he stands for, namely, Western
civilization: “Tu fuggisti, o aventuriero, miserabile straniero! Mia vendetta sulla terra ti
persegua a eterna guerra!” [You, adventurer, has escaped; You miserable foreigner! My
revenge upon earth will follow you eternal war!]. If this opera was supposed to convey
the myth of national origins, Tapyr’s final statement would certainly define the fatal
The ill-fated love between Moema and Paolo is represented throughout the opera
by two themes: Moema’s theme from the Recitativo e Romanza “Quanta sventura”
[scene 1] (musical example No. 4); and the “somber theme” from the Scena e
Moema’s first statement in the opera in the recitativo, “Tutto é silenzio! Qual
atra sorte! Tutto qui spira sol lutto e morte!” [All is silence! What a cruel fate!
Everything here only spawns death and morning!] (musical example No. 4; mm. 9-12),
is followed by her lamenting romanza “Quanta sventura” (piano vocal score pp. 7-9,
mm. 21-55) sung to the opening melody of the scene played by the oboes, clarinets, and
200
Musical example No. 4: Carvalho’s Moema Recitativo e Romanza “Quanta sventura”
[scene 1] (Moema)
ANDANTE
b 3 b
&bb 4 ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ ∑ n b 68
& b 8 ≈ œr œr œr œ œ œ œ œ œ œ J œJ œ bœ ≈ œ œ œ j
œ œ
j
π Tut - to è si - len - zio! Qual a - tra sor - te! Tut - to qui spi - ra Sol lu - to e mor - te.
LENTO
j œ.
b 6 œ.
b œœœ ... œœ ... b œœœ ...
(ob.)
œœ . œ œ b œœ . œ œ.
& b 8 œœ .. œ œ. œ. œ.
Œ ‰
(ob., clar.)
π (clar.)
>œ .
rall.
œ.
col canto
? b 6 ∑ ∑ ∑
b 8
π
Early reception calls attention to “the general tone of the opera [which] is a little
somber; but if some would consider this a flaw, I consider it a quality because it shows
how the composer responded to the libretto’s content following the dramatic author’s
intention faithfully.”115 The somber tone can be associated with the theme that opens
the orchestral prelude, constitutes the main musical material of scene 3, links to scene 4,
recurs in scene 7 and 8, and closes the opera in the orchestra’s last statement.
115“O tom geral da partitura é um pouco lugubre, mas isto que para muitos será um defeito, para nós é
qualidade, porque mostra que o compositor cingiu-se a letra do libretto, acompanhando-a fielmente, sem
desviar da intenção do autor dramático.” (Gazeta de Notícias, [1895, article by Luís de Castro], quoted
in Melo 1908: 331)
201
Musical example No. 5: Carvalho’s Moema, Somber theme, from Preludio
The importance of the somber theme associated with the Moema-Paolo death-
fated love is shown in the Prelude, which opens with the somber theme. The Preludio
foreshadows that the Moema-Paolo love is death-fated, and by using other themes it
points to the reasons for that by stating musical material associated with key moments
The most important musical material of the Scena e Racconto “L’aurora già
spuntava” (scene 3) is the somber theme, since it sets the tone of the scene at the very
beginning (piano vocal score p. 26, mm. 1-4), reappears in the middle of the scene in the
form of comment (counter-melody) (p. 31, mm. 69-72; p. 32, mm. 92-98; pp. 36-38,
mm. 128-133, mm. 140-141), and is a fundamental material of the closing segment of
this scene (p. 38, mm. 145-149). The somber theme not only installs the dramatic tone
of the scene 3 but also brings it to a conclusion. The appearance of the somber theme at
the beginning of the scene not only sets the tone of the scene but also anticipates its
dramatic outcome since the restatement of the somber theme in the closing segment
confirms that this scene did not bring any change to Moema’s fate. Since its first
appearance the somber theme determines that the love between Moema and Paolo is
doomed to death. The somber theme links the closing segment of scene 3 with scene 4,
the Scena “O ciel! salva il mio bene!” (p. 39, mm. 1-8).
202
In scene 7, the invocazzione the precedes Moema’s aria of suicide (piano vocal
score p. 70-74, mm. 44-90) opens with the recall of the recitativo “Tutto é silenzio!”
(piano vocal score p. 66, mm. 1-5) followed by the somber theme (piano vocal score p.
66, mm. 12-13). The episode of Moema stabbing herself with the knife (piano vocal
score p. 73, mm. 61-63) is set to the somber theme played by the orchestra. The somber
theme returns in the final scene (scene 8) when Moema’s father finds her dead (piano
vocal score pp. 77-8, mm. 18-25), in his final curse to Paolo “Tu fuggisti, o
aventuriero” (piano vocal score pp. 79-80, mm. 43-46), and in Tapyr’s dismay in the
final segment of the opera (piano vocal score p. 84, mm. 104-107).
The dissolution of the epic nature of the work by the operatic version is implied
in the lessening importance of the myth of conquest and national foundation, and in the
increasing importance of the romantic love encapsulated in the conventional figure of the
two lovers separated by two different worlds. Carvalho’s Moema deherofication of the
European man and herofication of the Indian female, along with the shift of emphasis
from the Indian male to the Indian female, points to an increasing tendency in
Indianismo of placing more and more the emphasis on the outcast. The undoing of the
myth of national foundation shifts from the optimistic to the pessimistic view of the
203
The Land of Outcasts: Jupyra and Marabá
The focus on the male noble savage as the genuine progenitor of Brazilian ethnic
representation of the Indian female with Delgado de Carvalho’s opera Moema, and
Francisco Braga’s symphonic poem Marabá and opera Jupyra. The increasing
emphasis on the Indian female with its symbolic associations with sensuality and the
the historical moment of encounter of two cultures (Santa Rita Durão’s Caramuru and
José de Alencar’s O Guarany), but in a negative light when dealing with mestizo
offspring (Gonçalves Dias’ Marabá and Bernardo Guimarães’ Jupyra), in which case
Brazil is represented as the land of outcasts. The figure of the outcast emerged from
secondary characters and subplots (such as Isabel from Alencar’s O Guarany) and was
placed in the foreground of the story to be told (Gonçalves Dias’ Marabá and
feminine portraits, such as Bizet’s Carmen (1875), Massenet’s Manon (1884) and
Thaïs (1894), and Puccini’s Manon Lescaut (1893) and La Bohème (1896), which were
The Indian and the Indian-mestizo female stirred Brazilian imagination. The
sensuality of exotic women appealed to the audience and to the composer as well. The
poem and Rodolfo Amoedo’s celebrated painting charged the composition and
116 Bosi (1992) proposed the idea of the sacrificial myth in Brazilian Indianist literature, and includes
an interesting analysis of Alencar’s Iracema.
204
reception of Francisco Braga’s symphonic poem, as it did the sensual dead nude
the mestizo Jupyra was clearly stated by Francisco Braga as a motivation for composing
his opera: “the nationality of the subject Jupyra is a delicious, mouth-watering, dramatic
and very genuine Brazilian cabocla (backland mestizo woman).”117 That statement
must have reflected how the composer, like the Brazilian reader in general, reacted to
If with savage clothes on Jupyra resembled Moema or Lindóia for her grace and
kindness, dressed like civilized people she was a seductive maiden able to stir the
heart and heat up the blood of an elderly anchorite. She was tall and well-
shaped. Her black, shiny, straight hair, like the feathers of the anu bird, was so
full and long that the beautiful cabocla, who hasn’t mastered the hair-styling art
yet, found herself into trouble fixing them up onto the top of her small head;
many times, her hair, as if rebelling against laces and prisons, broke them apart
spreading in freedom all over her tanned and sleek shoulders. Her well-shaped
eyes, a little raised in the outer edges, had sparkles in their black beads that
denounced her ardent temperament, and energetic and resolute soul. Her ruby,
pulpy, and moist mouth was like turgid honeycombs of the most ineffable
voluptuousness; when her mouth opened in a smile, it showed two lines of
extremely bright teeth, a little sharpened like the ones of carnivorous animals;
and her smile had a singular and indefinable expression of ingenuity and savage
ferociousness. All these charms and voluptuous contour were dazzlingly
enfolded by her original skin color of a peculiar golden pink tanned by the
sunrays that gave an appealing frame to her beautiful figure.118
117 “A nacionalidade do assunto da Jupyra é um deliciosa, apetitosa e dramática bem genuina cabocla
brasileira” (Letter by Francisco Braga to [Corbiniano] Vilaça, dated Dresden, 13 July 1897, quoted in
Hora 1953: 45)
118 “Se com trajos selváticos Jupira por seu garbo e gentileza fazia lembrar uma Moema ou Lindóia,
vestida à maneira da gente civilizada era uma rapariga sedutora, capaz de alvoroçar o coração e inflamar o
sangue de um anacoreta. Era alta e muito bem feita. Os cabelos negros, corredios e luzentes como asa
do anu, eram tão bastos e compridos que a linda cabocla ainda pouco adestrada na arte de se toucar, via-
se em apuros para acomodá-los sobre a sua pequena cabeça e muitas vezes rebelando-se contra as fitas e
prisões, as quebravam e tombando-lhe pelo colo se derramavam em liberdade pelos nédios e morenos
ombros. Os olhos um pouco levantados nos cantos exteriores, eram bem rasgados, e dardejavam das
pupilas negras lampejos, que denunciavam o ardor de seu temperamento e uma alma energética e
resoluta. Os lábios rubros, carnosos, e úmidos eram como dous favos túrgicos de mel da mais inefável
voluptuosidade, e quando se fendiam em um sorriso mostravam duas linhas de alvíssimos dentes um
pouco aguçados como os dos carnívoros, e seu sorriso tinha singular e indefinível expressão de
205
In another letter, the composer exposes what pathos guided his composition of
Jupyra when he started working on the music even before having the libretto: “I have
prepared and sketched scenes combining pathetic, dramatic and sensual effects even
without the libretto based on the many episodes that I recall from the celebrated story by
The Indian and the Indian-mestizo female were constructed as national Romantic
icons. Moema and Jupyra were icons of sensually exotic love-death. Marabá was the
icon of the castaway. Love-death and social abandonment were their historical destiny.
All these sensually exotic women fell into social displacement for their crossing over the
Indian and the white world. They were all outcasts embodying the sacrificial myth:
Moema and Jupyra had a physical death, and Marabá was socially dead. They all
conveyed a pessimistic view of miscegenation, and endorsed the view of Brazil as the
land of outcasts.
ingenuidade e de selvática fereza. A todos esses encantos, a todas essas linhas e voluptuosas formas,
servia como de brilhante invólucro a tez de uma cor original, um róseo acaboclado, como que dourado
pelos raios do sol, que dava peregrino relevo a sua linda figura.” (Chapter 5 from Bernardo Guimarães’
Jupyra 1976: 162-3).
119 “Vou preparando, esboçando cenas e combinando efeitos patéticos, dramáticos, sensuais, mesmo
sem o libreto, guiando-me pelos diversos espisódios que conheço da célebre história de Bernardo
Guimaraes.” (Letter of Francisco Braga to [Corbiniano] Vilaça, dated Dresden, 13 July 1897, quoted in
Hora 1953: 45). Braga composed Jupyra in Capri Island in the Tirreno sea in the Neapolitan gulf
(Gomes 1937: 14). He worked on the orchestration in November of 1898 (Exposição [1968]: 13-19),
and concluded the composition in March or April of 1899. In 1935, he wrote a Fantasia for brass band
on themes from the opera Jupyra (Exposição [1968]: 13, 19). And in 1942 he composed a ballet
number (Bailado) that divided the opera into two acts (Postcard to Mimica, dated 20 May 1942,
according to Exposição [1968]: 36). See information on Jupyra’s premiere in Chapter 2.
120 “cabulosa caboclinha” (Hora 1953: 14)
121 Bernardo Joaquim da Silva Guimarães (1825-1884). The novel Jupyra was published in 1872 in the
book História e Tradições da Província de Minas Gerais, which also contained the novels A cabeça
206
with the promising union of the mythical couple in the emergence of the Brazilian
nation, Guimarães’ short novel narrates the destiny of the following generations
Portuguese and Indian progenitors and by putting emphasis on the social displacement
The story takes place in the hinterlands of Minas Gerais state, by the tributary
river Rio Verde. Jupyra’s father, José Luís, is a good man but he is not invested with the
noble status of the Portuguese colonist archetype (unlike D. Antonio Mariz from O
Guarany). Jupyra’s mother, Jurema, does not come from a noble and valorous Indian
tribe (unlike Pery from O Guarany) and lacks the high status within her tribe (attributed
to the chief’s daughter Paraguaçu from Durão’s Caramuru or Iracema from Alencar’s
“remnants of savage tribes from Goiás and Mato Grosso, fairly familiarized with the
white civilization but maintaining their own savage habits and independent nomadic
life.”124 Guimarães’s novel destroys the myth of the noble savage by describing
Jupyra’s Indian community as weak, vulnerable and unable to protect itself even from
other Indian communities. Therefore, Jupyra is a low-born mestiça from both sides
do Tiradentes and A Filha do Fazendeiro. (Alphonsus Guimarães Filho in Guimarães 1976: xxvi-
xxvii)
122 “El indigenismo de Guimarães remata en forma literária el tratamiento social del tema de la
integración comenzado por Alencar; es decir, es la continuación de la integración del indio e del
mameluco al sistema socio-político y económico del Brasil llevado al siglo XIX.” (Magrans 1995: 59-
60)
123 The idea of Guimarães’ inversion of Alencar’s values was proposed by Magrans (1995). While
Magrans discusses inversion in relationship to the integration of the Indian into Brazilian society, I
also focus on its relationship to the myth of national foundation.
124 “restos de tribos selvagens vindas de Goiás e Mato Grosso, já algum tanto familiarizadas com a
sociedade dos brancos, mas conservando ainda os hábitos selváticos e a independência da vida errante.”
(Chapter 2 from Bernardo Guimarães’ Jupyra 1976: 144)
207
(father and mother), and does not represent the mythical fusion that gave origins to the
Brazilian nation (represented by Moacir from Alencar’s novel Iracema) but rather
Jupyra fits neither in the white nor in the Indian world. As a mestizo woman
who lived partly with the Indians and partly with the white, she cannot reconcile the
duality of her social, cultural and ethnic identity. The exotic beauty of Jupyra attracts
Indian and white men, but she is not attracted by either of them. Jupyra’s duality and
Doria, 126 which was then put in Italian verses by the librettist A. Menotti Buja.127 The
opera surely oversimplifies the novel by omitting all the episodes in Jupyra’s early and
later life that contextualize her present actions, transforming the narrative of her social
displacement into Romantic conventional chain of love, betrayal, vengeance, remorse and
view of miscegenation with the undoing of the myth of national foundation and the
in two consequences: first, it does not contextualize the protagonist socially; and,
secondly, it omits the novel’s undoing of the noble origins of the Brazilian nation. The
opera maintains the Indianismo convention of identifying the Indian with nature using
the same expression “the daughter of the forest” found in other Indianist works.
Compare, for instance, Jupyra singing about herself in scene 4 with Bernardo
Guimarães’ O ermo:
[You do not want to awake humble Indian maiden, the daughter of the forest,
from her celestial dream./ A jovem e humilde indígena, filha da floresta, você não
quer despertar de um sonho celestial]
[Yes, O delightful virgin of the tropics, naked and innocent daughter of the
forest.]
b
Quasi Adagio
œ.
Jupyra molto espressivo
œœ œ nœ œ nœ. nœ œ
& b b b 43 ∑ J RJ J J J J R Œ
L'u - mi-le an - cella in - di - ge-na,
√˙ . √˙ . ˙.
b ˙˙ .. √œ √œ √œ ˙˙ .. √œ √œ √œ ˙˙ .. √œ √œ √œ
& b b b 43 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
®
b 3 ˙. œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙˙ .. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙˙ .. œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
& b b b 4 ˙˙ .. œ œ œ
œ
œ œ
œ
œ
˙.œ
œ œ
œ
œ œ
œ
œ
˙.œ
œ œ
œ
œ œ
œ
œ
π
b j
& b bb b œ
œ œ nœ œ nœ ˙
J J J
Fi - - - glia de - le fo - re - - - ste,
√œ √œ œ œ œ
b œ
& b bb œ œ œ œnœbœ œ œ nn ˙œ .
œ œ ˙ œ œ œ œ
®œ
≈ ≈
b b bœ œ œ
œ œ
œ
œ ? ˙˙ .. n œ œ œ œ œ œ ?
& b b ˙˙ œ n œœ
œ
œ ˙ .& œ
œ
œ œ
œ
œ œ
b j n œ œ œJ ˙ œ œ
& b bb ‰
j œ J J
œ œ J R R
Dal so - gno - suo ce - le - - - - - ste T'af -
œ œ b ˙˙ .. œ œœ œ
n ˙˙˙ .. œ j œ œ œœ
bb b b ˙ .. œ nœ œ œ ˙. œ œ œœœ œœ œ
œ œ œ
& œ œœ œœœœ ‰ œ œœ œœ
œœ œœ
nœ œ œ œœ œ
? b b œ nœ œœ œ œ
œ œ
b b ˙. ˙.
b œ. j
& b bb œ œ bœ n˙ Œ
J J
fan - - - - - na ri - de - star!
√.
b˙ b œ œ œ n ˙˙˙ ... œ nœ œ
b b b b ˙˙˙ ... bœ œ œ œœ
œ œ n˙. nœ nœ œ
& b bœ œ œ œ œœ nœ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ
œ n ˙˙ nœ
? bb b œ œœ ˙˙ n œ œ œ œ œ œ
b ˙ œ œ œ œ œ
. ®
210
The novel promotes a full characterization of Jupyra by describing her
adventures in the wild (for instance, the bird hunting in chapter 3) and her resistance to
the European mode of behavior in which her father was trying to raise her:
The girl grew up beautiful, funny, and brisk like an ariranha otter. She was very
vivacious and discerning, but savage instinct predominated over her, and it was
only with much difficulty that her father, after seven years, obtained some results
in her education into civilization’s habits, so that she would put clothes on, sew,
read and write some. But many times they would bring her back from the wild,
nearly naked climbing in the tallest trees like a monkey, or swimming in the
deepest waters of the Verde river at the risk of been eaten by some jaú catfish or
sucuri anaconda.
A menina crescia linda, engraçada, e travessa como uma ariranha. Tinha muita
vivacidade e penetração, mas os instintos selváticos prevaleciam nela, e foi com
muita dificuldade que seu pai no fim de sete anos conseguiu que ela adquirisse
alguns costumes de civilização, andasse vestida, cosesse, lesse e escrevesse
alguma coisa. Muitas vezes a iam agarrar pelos matos quase nua, trepada como
macaco nas mais altas árvores, ou nadando nos profundos remansos do Rio
Verde em risco de ser devorada por algum jaú ou sucuri.131
flower” that opens the novel’s narrative, a metaphor of the feminine that also reinforces
the association between the untamed state of the Indian and Brazilian nature.
Jupira era também uma flor nova das selvas, que apenas abria o cálix às
vibrações do deserto.132
[Jupyra was also a young flower of the jungles/ wilderness, who just opened the
calyx to desert’s vibrations.]
Ed li silvano fiore
Fai lento ripiegar!133
[And you made the wild flower die slowly./ E a flor silvestre você faz murchar
lentamente.]
Unlike Pery from O Guarany, Jupyra’s communion with nature made her
unsuitable to live within the white world. Her wilderness was intriguing but also
211
appalling, and ultimately lead her to kill the man who betrayed the consummation of her
The operatic adaptation selects some characters and situations from the novel
emphasizing the love plot rather then the outcast’s life story standing for Brazilian
historical destiny. The simplification of the plot decontextualizes Jupyra and her actions
turning her into a mono-dimensional character. By omitting some characters and sub-
plots that balanced and contextualized the main plot, the opera withdraws much of
The opera suppresses the character of Baguari, the young Indian chief from a
brave tribe who expressed his strong attraction for Jupyra harassing her and threatening
her feeble tribe. The suppression of this character in the opera affects Jupyra’s
characterization, since Baguari triggered the earliest event in Jupyra’s life that made her
capable of murder. The novel then shows a sequence of situations in which the
sensuality of Jupyra arouses desire among the men in the white community, but she is
never approached since they all knew of her legendary murder of the impudent Indian
Baguari. The novel gradually constructs Jupyra as a social being who has to protect her
sexual self by reinforcing her latent power to kill. When Jupyra promotes the killing of
Carlito later in the novel, her action is contextualized into a string of events that shape
her behavior. Her mestizo condition and social displacement are the roots of her
behavior. By cutting the first two-thirds of the novel that promote a cumulative effect in
212
The opera recounts only the later part of Guimarães’ novel (from chapter 7 to
10), which focuses on the love triangle among Jupyra, Carlito and Rosália, with the
fourth agency of Quirino. Jupyra and Carlito are lovers. Carlito betrays Jupyra by
searching for the love of Rosália. Quirino loves Jupyra and promises to kill Carlito in
exchange for her love. Contemporary newspaper publicized the opera with the following
synopsis:
The scene depicts a corner in the forest where a snakelike river flows; there is a
rustic cottage on the side. The night falls. Jupyra comes from the forest
melancholic contemplating the moon; Quirino comes towards her to confess his
passionate love, but Jupyra repels him assuring her love for Carlito. Quirino
wants to drag her into the forest, but flees upon Carlito’s arrival. However, it was
not love that had brought Carlito to Jupyra, so she sends him away. Jupyra was
jealous and suspecting, so she pretends going away but she hides behind the
bushes and overhears her beloved repeating to Rosália the same vows he had
made to her once, and, worse than that, despising Jupyra with injurious words.
Carlito and Rosália part. Jupyra stays alone, falls in despair and promises to take
revenge. Quirino shows up again, and Jupyra promises to be his if he revenges
her. Jupyra gives Quirino a knife demanding that he bring it back smudged with
the blood of the vile man who insulted her. They hear Carlito’s voice. Jupyra
and Quirino hide themselves. Full of presentiments, Rosália walks out of the
cottage towards Carlito pleading that he go back home and not risk himself in
the forest. Carlito smiles at her vain afflictions, calms her down, and departs,
disappearing into the forest. Carlito is surreptitiously followed by Quirino.
Jupyra advances towards Rosália threatening with ferocious expression and
letting her know about the revenge that will kill Carlito. Rosália falls into despair,
repels Jupyra with horror, condemns her for such an infamous act, predicting the
remorse that will follow the crime. Jupyra is disturbed by Rosália’s admonition,
and suddenly falls repentant. Jupyra wants to run to save Carlito but in this very
instant Quirino walks out of the forest showing the blooded knife and Carlito’s
cadaver floating on the river waters. Jupyra, driven by the deepest sorrow and
despair, jumps into the water screaming her last cry: Here, Carlito, I follow
you!134
134 “A cena representa um trecho de floresta onde serpeia um rio; ao lado uma casa rústica. Anoitece.
Jupyra vem da floresta contemplando melancolicamente a lua; sai-lhe ao encontro Quirino para
confessar-lhe a louca paixão que sente por ela, mas Jupyra repele-o, deixando advinhar o seu amor por
Carlito. Quirino quer arrastá-la consigo para a floresta, mas foge diante de Carlito que chega nesse
momento e salva-a. Não fora, porém o amor de Jupyra que ali trouxera Carlito e por isso ela procura
afastá-la [sic] [it must be afastá-lo or afastar-se]. Jupyra, ciumenta, desconfiada, finge retirar-se e
espreita escondida, para ver, coitada, o seu adorado Carlito repetindo a Rosália os juramentos que antes
lhe fizera, e ouvir as referências injuriosas com que agora a maltratava. Despedem-se Carlito e Rosália;
Jupyra, ficando só, desespera-se e jura vingar-se. Aparece de novo Quirino e Jupyra promete pertencer-
213
The love triangle between the Portuguese man, the Portuguese woman
(representing the legitimate love), and the dark skinned woman (representing the
illegitimate love) had a particular role in mythical narratives of national foundation such
as Durão’s Caramuru and Alencar’s O Guarany. The death of Moema and Isabel were
necessary to the mythical narrative since their immolation cleared the way to the rite of
passage of the mythical couple that would engender the Brazilian nation. Conversely, the
death of Jupyra was the outcome of her social displacement shedding a pessimistic light
None of the combinations that could be paired out the four characters (Jupyra,
Carlito, Quirino, and Rosália) equated with the original couple of the myth of national
foundation. The novel and the opera maintain the binary opposition between the chastity
of the white woman and the sensuality of the mestizo woman, but none of these women
were ideal breeds of the new nation: the white woman character is not constructed as
feminine perfection, and the mestizo woman is the one who kills instead of the one who
procreates. The two white male characters are far from being the masculine ideal
Quirino is impressionable. The four characters are symbols of the decayed white and
lhe, com tanto que a vingue. Dá-lhe uma faca e pede-lhe que a traga tinta do sangue do homem vil que a
insultou. Ouve-se a voz de Carlito. Jupyra e Quirino escondem-se. Rosália sai de casa e em ao encontro
do amante, tomada de pressentimentos, pedindo-lhe que voltasse para casa e não se arriscasse na floresta.
Carlito sorri-se desses temores vãos, tranquiliza-a e parte, desaparecendo na mata seguido
traiçoeiramente por Quirino. Jupyra dirige-se então para Rosália, ameaçadora, e com expressão feroz dá-
lhe a perceber a sua vingança e o assassínio de Carlito. Rosália desespera-se, repele-a horrorizada, lança-
lhe em rosto o procedimento infame e prediz-lhe o s remorsos do crime. Jupyra perturba-se, vem-lhe de
súbito o arrependimento, quer correr em socorro de Carlito, mas Quirino nesse instante sai da floresta,
lança-lhe aos pés a faca ensanguentada e mostra-lhe o cadáver de Carlito que rodava nas águas do rio.
Jupyra, no auge da dor e do desespero, precipita-se também nas águas, ouvindo-se-lhe este último grito:
Eis-me, Carlito, eu te sigo!” (JC, 8 Oct. 1900, p. 2)
214
Although the opera omits the novel’s full contextualization of the characters’
social statuses, their actions are enough to rule out any positive view of national
foundation. The white man Carlito is clearly a frivolous white man who, after
consummating his carnal love for the mestizo woman Jupyra, turns to the feminine
chastity represented by the white woman Rosália, and does not hesitate to scorn his
V # 98 œ œJ #œ œ œ œ œ œ # œJ
2 2
∑ Œ ‰ ‰ J J
Per pas - sa - tem - po
un gior - no Pur io
# -
espr.
-
& # 98 ‰ œ œ œ
2
œ œ œ
œ. œ œ œ
œœ # œ # œ˙ .. œ. œœ . # œ N œœ . œ œ œ œ œ # œ . œ œ
π
? ## 9 ˙ . œ ˙. œ. œ. œ. œ.
8 ˙. œ #œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ
œ. œ. œ œœ .
.
œœ .
. œœ ..
2 5
# œ œ œ œ
V # # œJ J J J R œR œ . ‰ ‰ ‰ nœ œ. j œ
œ J œJ # œ œœ œ ‰ Œ ‰
J RR
vol - li co - no - scere L'a - mo - re d'una in - di - ge- na
2
‰ œ œ
nœ œ œ œ œ œ #œ.
4
## œ œ. œ œ
& #œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ. ˙. n˙. n ˙.
˙. œ œ œ
5 p
‰ œ œ œ
? ## œ . œ œ #œ œ œ œ nœ ˙. n œ nœ
˙. œ œ. ˙. ˙. Œ ‰
Carlito’s statement quoted above not only reflects racial prejudice but also
parallel in the novel, and was an addition to the opera. In the novel Carlito never
expresses or implies any prejudice against Jupyra’s mixed race. On that account, the
The opening offstage chorus anticipates the tragic outcome of the opera singing
the volatility of human passions. This offstage chorus recurs in scene 5, when Jupyra
[Love changes as the moon changes. Love is as fleeting as the winds that we
breath.]
216
Musical example No. 8: Braga’s Jupyra, scene 5, Chorus “Varia l’amor come la luna
varia”
(Canti lontani)
Moderato assai
j3 j j j j œj. r r r r
Sop I
bb c j œœ œœ œœœ ... œœ # œœ œœ œ . b œœ ˙˙ œœ
j
Œ ‰ b n œœœ œœ œœ œœ b œr œ
Sop II, III & œœ œ œ œ b œ œ œ. œ ˙ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ
J J J J J J J R J R R R R
Va - ria l'a - mor co - me la lu - na va - ria... Mu - te - vo - leè l'a - mor
j j j j j j j r j r r r
Tenor œ œœ œœ œœ .. œœ œœ œœ œœœ ... œœ ˙˙ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œr œœ
Bass ? b c œ J J J J J J R Œ ‰ J R R R R
b œ
J 3
œœ œœ
œ œœ
b b c œ
& J ‰ Ó
(Orch.)
? b c
b j‰ Ó
œ œ
j j 3j j j j r
bb ‰ œj œj œœ œœ œ œ œ œ œ
b œ œ # œ œn œ œ j œ . œ œ
.
4
& œ nœ œ bœ œ n œ œ b œ œ n œœ b œœ .. œœ œ œ œ
J J J J J J J J J R
come in - co - stan - ti Sono i ven - ti che spi - ra - no!
j j j j j j j j j r
œœ œœ b œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ . . œœ œœ
? b ‰ J
b J J J J J J J J R
3
The emphasis upon a single cause out of the larger context that can be inferred
from the novel has ideological implications. The tragic destiny of the inter-ethnic contact
accounted in the novel as a historical process is attributed in the opera solely to human
weaknesses. The interaction between historical destiny and human nature is reduced to
the latter, so the large context of Brazilian historicity is replaced by the flaw of human
Rosália is not the white feminine archetype of the myth of national origins (like
Cecília from Alencar’s O Guarany). The novel informs that Rosália is of humble
origins, and the opera shows her conceding to Carlito’s fondling, which does not make
her the chaste feminine ideal. Furthermore, the opera does not engage Rosália in any
major action that could support her as the feminine perfection prototype. On the
contrary, her prejudiced statement “repugnant race, vile race!”137 against Jupyra would
rather prove the opposite. Rosália did not have any line in the novel, so statements such
as “You, savage, put the knife in the rival’s hand with ferocious joy, evil-bewitching
the Indian that did not quite match with the novels’ Naturalist approach to the wild
outpouring of Jupyra. Jupyra and Rosália never had a hostile confrontation in the novel.
The insertion of the scene in which Jupyra declares to Rosália that she would take
revenge upon Carlito’s betrayal followed by Rosália’s cursing and despising of Jupyra
136 “Esse coro admiravelmente harmonizado em uma sucessão de acordes que dão um efeito de esquisito
sabor, traduz bem o sentido daqueles versos em que se fala da inconstância do amor – inconstância que
forma o eixo do drama, pela volubilidade de Carlito esquecendo o amor que jurara a Jupyra, quando o
inflamam os olhares de Rosália. Esse coro é como que a ementa ou a epígrafe da partitura pois que dele
se deriva o espírito da composição, o nervo da ação dramática. (…) Ouve-se, então, novamente esse
coro que pressiona também nos primeiros compassos do spartito. É dobrado o prazer que agora se
experimenta ao ouvir-se ela segunda vez esse pequenino trecho, adorável de frescura, encantador pela sua
delicadeza, pelo seu perfume e principalmente por aquele sentimento nostálgico que traduz a dúvida, a
descrença e a desilusão, sentimento que tão bem exprime um felicíssimo acorde de nona.” (JC, 10 Oct.
1900, p. 3)
137 “Razza abbieta, razza vile!” (Francisco Braga’s Jupyra, scene 9)
138 “Tu selvagia, un freddo stile/ Nella mano del rival/ Con feroce gioia hai mess,/ Tentatrice iddia del
mal!” (Francisco Braga’s Jupyra, scene 9)
218
dynamic plot development. The opera added the sole distinguishing mark in Rosália’s
characterization by making her the carrier of the presage,139 which was nothing more
Neither can Quirino be equated with the white man archetype of the myth of
national origins since he betrays his self-integrity by conspiring with Jupyra in killing
Carlito in exchange for her love. The opera depicts the Indian woman as an evil force
influencing the loving white man: “The devil of vengeance stirs my heart, arms my
the unfolding of the myth of national foundation. If she is to be considered the symbolic
descendant of the Brazilian nation’s original couple, her character has weaknesses that
do not match the archetypal magnitude of her mythical progenitors. Jupyra is driven by
passion, a feature that could not frame any mythical view of national foundation.
Jupyra acts upon her feelings of vengeance in plotting with Quirino to kill
Carlito. Not until too late does Jupyra fall in remorse and attempt to avoid the
consummation of his murder. The novel leaves unexplained why Jupyra does not kill
Carlito with her own hands, since she had legendarily been capable of murdering the
139 Rosália dreams with open eyes that Carlito is in life risk: “Un orrendo Presentimento turbami./
Ritorna, ritorna alla tua casa./ Scongiura, mio Carlito, una sventura!/ Non so! M’ascolta/ La stanca
palpebra lenta calavo, Senza dormire purti sognavo…/ Il lume un’ultimo guizzo mandò,/ La fitta
tenebra mi circondò./ Sorsi! la tacita, fredda stanzetta/ Mi parve un’umile tomba negletta…/ E la tua
voce mi scese in cor, come presagio di gra dolor! Ahi! non aventurarti, Carlito mio! Non aventurarti
laggiù!” [Houve um clarão e tudo escurecei ao meu redor. O silencioso e frio quarto pareceia-me um
túmul abandonado... A sua voz ressoava no meu coração como um presságio de grande dor! Não se
arrisque, meu Carlito! Não vá para lá!] (Francisco Braga’s Jupyra, scene 8)
140 “Della vendetta il demone nel core mio s’annida, M’arma la mano intrepida, ed io mi fo omicida.”
[O demônio da vingança anima-se em meu coração. Ele arma a minha mão intrépida e faz-me
homicida.] (Francisco Braga’s Jupyra, scene 7)
219
brave Indian Baguari. Through the mouth of Rosália,141 the opera offers a version that
Jupyra’s love for Carlito was not true and deep enough to turn into hatred and make
Jupyra revengefully kill her ungrateful beloved with her own hands.
The novel does not justify Jupyra’s passionate love, revenge and murder solely
on the basis of European love conventions but also through the biological determinism
of Naturalism: the flaws of the inferior race eventually become manifest under the
the need of conversion. The theme of conversion, which fulfills the necessary rite-of-
to her race and is outside the context of religion, but instead in the context of romantic
love and the contact between the civilized and the primitive, the superior and the inferior
and suicide in the new context of Indian-Portuguese encounter is not simply exoticism,
but responds to the new ideology of biological determinism upon which Naturalism was
based. Jupyra’s frenzied actions are the result of both the primitiveness of her racial
In no moment does the libretto legitimize the Portuguese and Indian love
through any rite of passage. On the contrary, the rite of passage that both of them go
through (death) is in fact their punishment. While foundational narratives sanction inter-
141Rosália says: “Mi fai orrore!/ ti scotsta!/ Era mensogna,/ Era calcolo abbietto l’amor tuo!/ Non
arma l’altrui manchi d’un deriso/ Amor vuol vendicarsi!/ affronta e uccide!” [You horrify me!/ Go away
from me!/ It was a lie!/ Your love was a abject trickery! Love that seeks vengeance does not put the
arms in someone ele’se hand/ but faces it and kill!] (Francisco Braga’s Jupyra, scene 9)
220
Guimarães’ Jupyra expresses a pessimistic view of the outcome of this historical inter-
ethnic contact, and Carvalho’s opera goes even further to denigrate miscegenation.
The opera gives a different spin to the novel’s pessimistic view of inter-ethnic
contact by further implicating the moral corruption of the white world by the mestizo
woman. The above mentioned racially prejudiced expressions stated by Carlito and
Rosália in the opera depreciate Jupyra’s moral qualities. While in the novel Carlito is a
curious man attracted to love affairs of all sorts and all colors, in the opera, Carlito is
seduced by the illicit love of the mestizo woman. While in the novel Quirino is driven to
Carlito and Rosália in the opera also imply that the love between Carlito and Rosália is
more legitimate than the love between Carlito and Jupyra, and, therefore, Jupyra’s
revenge is depicted as the factor leading to the destruction of the promising, legitimate
love of the white couple. Also, Jupyra’s revenge drives the fair Rosália into madness.
For all that it entails, the opera’s message is that the Indian corrupts the Portuguese
world.
The death of Jupyra is also symbolic of her social displacement. The way
Jupyra dies in the novel represents how she comes to terms with the duality of her
identity: Jupyra disappears and finds death outside the eyes of the white and the Indian
the forest, from which it is presumed that Jupyra committed suicide. The suggested
image of Jupyra wandering in the depths of the forest until she finds death is extremely
symbolic of her social displacement. The tormented wandering of her last moments is
the climax of her tormented life in continuous search for identity. The opera condenses
221
this image by depicting Jupyra’s death with a brief action of her jumping into the depths
of the water, before Rosália and Quirino’s eyes, as she sees the dead body of her
beloved Carlito floating in the river.142 The death of Jupyra is witnessed by society in
the operatic version, implying a value judgement not present in the novel. On that single
event, Jupyra was condemned and punished not only by herself but also by society.
Despite those differences, the novel and the opera depict Jupyra as an outcast,
and in both versions Jupyra resolves her social displacement through self-punishment
committing suicide. Ultimately, Jupyra’s death was the necessary outcome of her social
displacement. Jupyra embodies the failure of the historical contact between the
Portuguese and the Indian, constructing a view of Brazil as the land of outcasts.
The figure of the outcast was embodied by two characters in Brazilian literature:
Jupyra and Marabá. Each of them gave a different turn to the issue of social
displacement resulting from miscegenation. While Jupyra did not feel she belonged
either to the white or the Indian world consistently rejecting them, Marabá was
stigmatized and rejected by both worlds. Also, while the novel Jupyra and its operatic
version constructed a historicist view of national identity through the unfolding of their
fictional and dramatic narrative, the lyric poem Marabá encapsulated the essence of
Brazilian identity through images and metaphors of miscegenation and the fatality of
social displacement. Braga’s symphonic poem Marabá translated this essentialist view
into music largely by selecting a genre that does not rely on plot development but on the
poetic grasp of its subject. Marabá constituted the first musical work expressing an
142The opera promotes some further changes in the unhappy end of the novel. While Carlito, Jupyra
and Quirino die in the novel, the opera adopts the literary convention of killing only the protagonist
couple. While Rosália is the only one who stays alive in the novel, the opera keeps the two secondary
characters, Quirino and Rosália, alive. Quirino is killed by Jupyra in the novel, but only cursed by
Rosália in the opera. Rosália, who has an unnoticed end in the novel, is driven into madness in the
opera.
222
essentialist view of Brazilian identity, and it was not by chance that this essentialist view
was expressed through the symphonic poem. Braga’s Marabá shows an essentialist
view of national identity in its own genre: as a symphonic poem, it reveals “ ‘a poetic
grasp’ of its subject rather than spinning a ‘coarse historical fabric’ (…) suggesting a
characterization rather than telling a story.”143 In the symphonic poem “characters can
literary poem and the symphonic poem Marabá constructed an essentialist view of
national identity that transcended the historicist view offered by the novelistic and the
operatic genre. Marabá was not only a “historical race” but embodied the essence of
the Brazilian miscegenated soul. The literary and pictorial tradition of Marabá made her
the major icon of the social castaway. However, because of its close association with
Moema represented the historicist view of national identity since she was the
Indian female to be immolated: her love-death and self-sacrifice fulfilled the mythical
Marabá’s exile from the Indian and the white world encapsulated not only social
Brazilian literary tradition gave a tragic end to the sensually exotic Indian female.
Moema and Jupyra had a physical death, and Marabá suffered a social death. The
operas constructed all the Indian and Indian-mixed women that had undergone physical
or social death as outcasts. Even Moema, who was originally the Indian maiden who
narrative of national foundation, was turned into an outcast by the operatic version.
Brazilian music had then two icons of sensually exotic love-death in Moema and Jupyra,
and the paramount icon of social abandonment in Marabá. All these sensually exotic
women fell into social displacement as a result of crossing over form the Indian to the
white world. Social displacement was their historical destiny. They all conveyed a
pessimistic view of miscegenation endorsing the view of Brazil as the land of outcasts.
224
CHAPTER 5: LANDSCAPE
Brazilian nature has been a literary and pictorial subject since Colonial times.
The different emphasis on its associated meanings has implied changing perceptions
and ideologies. The attitudes towards nature that have characterized Brazilian literature
can be divided into five categories: (1) the Edenic vision, which prevailed during
Colonial times, was partially retained during the nineteenth century, and returned in the
early twentieth century; (2) nature as poetic emotion associated with inner life, and (3)
nature as historic locale, both of which were predominant during the nineteenth century;
(4) nature as local color pervaded to a higher or lesser extent since the first writings of
the age of discovery and colonization until the twentieth-century; and (5) ufanismo
(boastfulness), an exacerbation of Edenic vision with highly nationalist tenets that had
its peak in the first half of the twentieth century. These attitudes towards nature in
Brazilian literature are reflections of a larger cultural set, and can be considered a chart
for Brazilian cultural history. Brazilian music since the 1870s has reflected the different
attitudes towards nature that have made up Brazilian cultural history, although not
painting, and, as I argue in this study, in music as well. As we shall see in this chapter,
Soares (1857), followed by painting with the reactions to the Imperial Academy of Fine
Arts’ propositions on national painting (1879), the Grimm group, the work of the
landscape painter Antônio Parreiras, the issues voice by the art critic and historian
225
Gonzaga-Duque (1888, 1899), the iconographic representation of Brazil at the
Columbian World Exposition in Chicago (1893), and finally reaching music with
Antonio Carlos Gomes (1870, 1889), Francisco Braga (1892; 1894, 1897-8), Alberto
Nepomuceno (1896), Silvio Deolindo Fróes (1903-5), and Heitor Villa-Lobos (from
1917). The substantial number of works with evocative titles reveals the importance of
focused on nature” that shaped Brazilian literature and visual arts.1 Brazilian music of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth century reflects the many attitudes towards nature
and landscape that have characterized Brazilian literature and visual arts. Brazilian
composers’ interest in orchestral music, specially the symphonic poem, allowed the
production of descriptive music associated with landscape topos. Sunrise, bird calls and
landscape of the late nineteenth and first half of the twentieth century. Along with pieces
using folk and popular tunes and rhythms, landscape was an important element of
This chapter propounds that landscape was a major topos in Brazilian art music
since the Brazilian Romantic period and was continued by Villa-Lobos in the twentieth
century. The nationalist import of this topos was established in music by Carlos Gomes
with the intermezzo “Alvorada” (Prelude to Act IV) of his opera Lo Schiavo (1889).
preeminence in Brazilian art criticism since the 1880s. Informed by the national-identity
draw from a stock of descriptive musical formulae available in European music (such as
arpeggios representing forest murmurs, seawave and river waters, and the 6/8 rhythm for
pastoral themes). This chapter discusses the ways in which Brazilian composers from
Gomes until Villa-Lobos dealt with landscape and the kind of meanings the musical
works associated with this topos might have conveyed at the time of their early
reception.
The increasing importance of landscape not only as a topos but also as a genre
brought literature, painting and music together. From a minor genre, landscape gradually
rose to a major genre that became key to the development of all arts since it allowed not
only the emancipation from old models but also the nationalization of literature, painting
and music. In literature, landscape poetry replaced epic poetry, and landscape
description was mandatory to the characterization of local setting in the historical novel.
In the fine arts, landscape emerged from the background of painting to become the
central subject of artistic creation and a genre on its own, earning a rank previously held
only by historical and religious painting. Music was no exception, and raised the
express musically the emotional reality of landscape more than to paint it in its realistic
employing it, such as the Lied, the character piece, opera, and symphonic music. The
2 The distinction between “descriptive” and “poetic” music is based on Dahlhaus 1989: 142-152.
227
three arts (literature, painting and music) made landscape an integral part of major
genres, and ultimately emancipated it as a subject on its own right. In his insightful
article “Landscape and music,” Rosen has stressed that “more than a parallel,” the
achievements towards landscape in the many arts supported each other, and were all part
of a “cohesive development.”3
This mutual relation of music, literature and painting allows the identification of
audiences. Cultural categories associated with landscape were made largely explicit in
the critical writings on literature and painting. This body of coeval writings and recent
music criticism of the works discussed in this chapter. Those cultural categories are
categories constructed verbally and pictorially in the other arts. Brazilian composers
borrowed musical formulae from European music and ultimately transformed them so
Gomes established two attitudes towards landscape that became key to the following
inner life in Al chiaro di luna: meditazione, and landscape as a nationalist topos in the
intermezzo “Alvorada.”
feelings.”4 Lyric poetry of landscape had its parallel in Brazilian music with works
such as Carlos Gomes’ Al chiaro di luna: meditazione for violin and piano in G (n.d.) ;
Alexandre Levy’s Scene à la mer for cello and piano (n.d.; in co-authorship with
Sol poente (n.d.), and Anoitecendo (c. 1907); and Henrique Oswald’s Il Neige! (1902),
Paysage d’automne (1898; Étude for piano No. 10, orchestrated in 1910 with this
tranquillo in 6/8 establishes its pastoral character. The G major key, which has a fairly
long tradition associated with pastoral, dissociates the piece from the usual F major
convention for horn calls and hunting scenes, and helps to establish a nightly
melody that, instead of adopting the pastoral pattern of “lilting melodies in conjunct
4 Candido 1981, 1: 210; Coutinho 1968: 64; and Mattos 1999: 101.
229
motion,”5 uses long notes in wide leaps up and down imputing the meditative tone of
affective kind in a contemplative moment upon the impact of nature. Also, the melody is
not played by a wind instrument, which the pastoral convention would associate it with
nature, but by the violin associating it with the human voice, soul, and feelings.
over sustained pedals of instrumental nocturne convention; the long pedal points on the
tonic recall drone basses of pastoral convention. Melodic association with inner life over
Musical example No. 9: Gomes’s Al chiaro di luna: meditazione for violin and piano
œ œ.
# 6
Andante tranquillo
œ. œ. œ œ œ œ œ ˙.œ.
& 8 œœ œœ œ œœœœ œ
œ œ œ œ
œ
π
?# 6 œœ œœ œœ ˙˙ .. ˙˙ .
8 œ. œ. ˙. ˙. ˙ ..
° sim. *
# Cantabile
œ. œœœ j œ. œ #œ œ
∑ œ. œœ
& œ. œ. œ. œ bœ œ. œ œ œ œ
œ. œ
œ. œ
# J ‰ ‰ Œ ‰ .
& œ Œ ‰ œ. Œ ‰ œ. Œ ‰ œ. Œ ‰ Œ ‰ œ.
œ.
p cresc.
œ œ œ œ
?# ∑ œ Œ ‰ œ Œ ‰ œ Œ ‰ œ Œ ‰ œœ Œ ‰ nœ œ Œ ‰
œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. #œ.
nightly atmosphere, moonlight, twilight, sunrise, autumn-, winter-, and spring-time, was a
common phenomenon among the arts, and was expressed in music through genres such
as the nocturne and serenade, and evocative titles such as “al chiaro di luna.” Likewise,
forth usually searched for the representation of a specific recognizable site. The
“portrait” landscape as a genre that opened the path to two attitudes that became key to
well; namely, the expression of feelings and ideas evoked by a given scenery, and the
“conveyed feelings and ideas like music, without reference to history or myth, merely
Paysage d’automne and Sur la plage. As these descriptive titles suggest, the composer
remained associated with Europe, the continent he spent most of his life, and his works
evoke typical European seasons such as the Fall with Paysage d’automne and snowfall
of the European winter with Il Neige!; and the French riviera with Sur la plage.
6 Some poets predating the Romantic movement in Brazil express a tangible sense of nature as
landscape. The “subjetivismo naturista” [naturist subjectivism] replaces nature as principle (a
supposedly “universal” aesthetic category) by nature as locale (garden, creek) and moment (dawn,
sunset, spring). Poems such as Francisco Vilela Barbosa’s “Primavera” (1819); José Bonifácio’s “O
Inverno (epístola sobre a primavera),” and “Uma tarde (meditação sobre o crepúsculo),” and Borges de
Barros’ “A Noite – no mar” opened the path to Romantic sentimental interiorization of nature framed as
a localized and temporalized landscape. (Candido 1981, 1: 210)
7 Rosen 1995: 131.
231
Contemporary criticism usually translated poetically the power of music to
express the lyricism triggered by a particular landscape. The early reception of Il Neige!
earned recognition in France with the Paris Figaro Award in 1902, Il Neige! was
accounted for by René Lara as the following: “some winter landscape, the slow,
monotonous fall of the white flakes on the mysterious silence of lonely fields.”8 The
French critic’s perception is a typical case of Romantic attitude towards landscape that
survived in the early-twentieth century. “For the Romantics, nature is a place of refuge,
dream, and meditation. The Romantic identifies him with nature in search for a
the reception of musical works evoking landscape. From a poetic emotion associated
with inner life, “the feeling of nature becomes a physical need, and nature imposes itself
perception – the blending of visual, aural, and olfactory senses – that connects
Brazilian vogue of which corresponding exactly to the period in which the critic wrote
Francisco Braga describes his inspirations with rare eloquence. One feels
landscape as the composer paints it with sounds: the rustic simplicity, the
effulgent brilliance of his profoundly blue sky, the openness of a wide horizon
that looses itself far away, the resplendence of an immense nature that exhales a
8 Le Figaro, 8 Nov. 1902 (the day after the award), quoted in Martins 1995: 71.
9 Coutinho 1968: 164.
10 Coutinho 1968: 64.
232
delicious, inebriating perfume... One feels and enjoys all that when listening to
this enchanting music.11
Landscape constructed a close bound between poetic experience and the senses.
Sensorial and poetic experience associated with Braga’s Paysage by its early reception
may be ascribed to some of its musical features. Firstly, Braga’s Paysage explores
further the combination of pastoral conventions with Romantic codes of subjectivity that
has been noted in Gomes’ Al chiaro di luna. Paysage presents pastoral conventions
such as the trochaic rhythm within the 12/8 time signature in theme group A (musical
example No. 10) and the parallel thirds played by the flutes in theme group B (musical
Calmo e sostenuto
# 12 j j
& # 8 œ œ œ. œ œ œ œ œ œ œj œ j œ . j
œ œ œ.
œ
p
? # # 12 œ œ œ . œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
8 J J J œ œ. œ œ œ.
J J
. .
œœ. œœ. œœ œœ. œœ.
# # œœ. œœ. œœ œœ. œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ œ
œœ œœ œœ œ œœ œœ œœ. . œœ^ ..
œ œœ
&
p
11 “Francisco Braga foi de uma eloquência rara na maneira de descrever-nos as suas inspirações./ Aquela
paisagem sente-se assim como ele no-la pinta em sons: a simplicidade rústica, o brilho fulgurante de
um céu profundamente azul, o vago de um horizonte vasto que se perde lá ao longe, a resplandecência de
uma natureza imensa que exala um delicioso perfume inebriante.../ Tudo isso sente-se e goza-se
escutando essa música encantadora.” (JC, 23 Jan. 1901, p. 4, T&M)
233
Secondly, the minimizing of word-painting or onomatopoeic sounds allows
musical expression towards abstraction. For not falling into realistic detail, Braga’s
which “the self contemplates itself projected into nature rather than look outwards.”12
features of Braga’s Paysage. These features can be considered among the poeticizing
Paysage’s thematic treatment indicates that this symphonic prelude falls into the
realm of “poetry in music” since the pervading rhythmic and melodic design of theme
group A establishes its mood and imparts unity into the piece.14 The work evolves from
theme group A rhythmic and melodic design, contrasted with theme group B. The lack
The program notes did not include an explanatory text for Paysage. The work is
less a Lisztian symphonic composition than the product of the impression
12 I apply to music here Moisés’s (1989: 100) idea in commenting upon literature.
13 “Que concepções felizes; que riqueza polifônica; que harmonização elegante sem ser bizarra, comedida
sem ser monótona; que trabalho temático sempre novo, interessante e cheio; com distinção está tratada
a orquestração; que finíssimo colorido; que sonoridade possante sem nunca ultrapassar os limites do
admissível; quanta sinceridade na escolha dos meios de expressão; quanta exuberância, esplendor e
brilho!” (JC, 23 Jan. 1901, p. 4, T&M: article by an unidentified critic who was JC’s special
correspondent from São Paulo)
14 This particular notion of “poetry in music” is exposed by Dahlhaus (1989: 144-5).
234
triggered by landscape, and its grace and flow impressed as much as its skillful
instrumentation.15
Braga’s orchestration of Paysage with strings and woodwinds also caught the
yet graceful. That kind of orchestral sound suggests contemporary perception of the
work’s association with nature as poetic experience (such as stated in the above
Romanticism was perceived by coeval reception as “elegant but not bizarre,” and
“sober but not monotonous” (as it is stated in the São Paulo correspondent’s article).
Braga’s Paysage reflects the influence of French culture in Brazil that lead Francisco
Braga to the Paris Conservatory. This work is “among the first ambitious works by the
young composer,”16 and was composed in Versailles in the Fall of 1892,17 during the
period of his studies with Massenet, when he also composed Chant d’automne, another
d’automne, and Braga’s Paysage, Chant d’automne, Sol poente, and Anoitecendo are
15 “A Paysage não trazia texto explicativo no programa. É menos uma composição sinfônica no estilo
de Liszt do que o produto da impressão de uma paisagem, cuja graça e fluência impressionaram tanto
quanto a sua hábil instrumentação.” (Article about the concert at the Gewerbehause published in the
Dresden Anzeiger, 6 March 1897, and transcribed in JC, 4 April 1897)
16 Almeida 1942: 440.
17 Braga’s Paysage is available in the following sources: (1) Manuscript authograph for orchestra,
partt. 20 pp. The title page reads: “Orchestra/ Paysage/ Preludio Symphonico/ por/ Francisco Braga/
Versailles, 16 d’agosto de 1892.” The signature page reads: “Versailles, 16 d’out 1892/ Francisco
Braga.” The last page reads: “Executado pela vez no Rio de Janeiro/ sob a direcção de Maestro
Vincenzo Cernichiaro.” This authograph is hold by ENM-UFRJ; and (2) Printed score, piano
transcription for four hands (Paris, E. Delobisse, Grav.; Paris, Imp. A. Chaimbaud & Cie., ch. nº C.L.
65 [The Castro Lima publishing house probably got this score printed in Paris, as it was usual in
Brazil during that period], partt. prima e seconda partes, 13 pp. The frontpage reads: “à Monsieur
Rodrigues Barbosa [the music critic of Rio de Janeiro’s daily newspaper JC]/ Paysage/ Prélude
Symphonique/ pour Orchestre/ par Francisco Braga/ Transcrit pour le Piano à 4 mains/ par Emile
Lamberg.” The printed piano score is hold by BNRJ.
235
the musical counterpart to the poeticization of landscape in literature and painting. The
poetic approach to landscape allowed a subjective experience that was expressed in all
Romantic arts. The Romantic search for a correspondence between one’s feelings and
landscape was expressed through literary, pictorial and musical genres, in which
painting, and, as I propose in this chapter, in music as well. “The search for
representing national feelings through landscape and local color has its roots in the
landscape and individual sensibility was the basis of a major manifestation of Brazilian
nationalism.19
Likewise, music reflected a nationalization process of landscape that was of
major importance to Brazilian composers since Carlos Gomes and became key to Villa-
Lobos’s Modernism. The European landscape lexicon evoking pastoral, snow fall,
sunset, nocturnal and autumn scenes went through a process of nationalization. Pastoral
scenes were nationalized with Alexandre Levy’s “À beira do regato” [At the creek
bank], the third movement from the Suite brésilienne (1890), and Braga’s Tarde de
Impressions] in F for woodwind quintet (1905) with the movements “De manhã” [In
the Morning], “Idílio pastoril” [Pastoral idyll], and “Cena campestre” [Countryside
scene]. Nocturnal scenes became “serestas” with Braga’s Diálogo sonoro ao luar:
Seresta [Sonorous dialogue in the moonlight: serenade] for alto saxophone and
“Alvorada na serra” [Dawn in the highhills], the first movement from the Série
Brasileira (1896), Silvio Deolindo Fróes’ “Vozes D’Alva” [Voices of the Dawn] from
European birds such as the nightingale and the cuckoo were replaced by Brazilian birds
na serra;” the siriema (crested cariama) in Manuel Joaquim de Macedo’s storm in the
second act of the opera Tiradentes (1897); and the uirapuru in Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru
(1917). In addition to the previously mentioned works, one may call attention to Adolfo
de Melo’s (1861-1926) Nas Selvas [In the jungles] (n.d.), with “melody and harmonies
imitating birdcalls”21; and Meneleu Campos’s Suite brésilienne with the movements
works shows that after 1889 Brazilian composers substantially used landscape topos
20 Silvio Deolindo Fróes’ Paisagens Tropicais - Paysages tropicaux (Op. 17, 18 e 19, ca. 1903-5) is
among the first works by a Brazilian composer reflecting Debussyan influence.
21 Almeida 1942: 414.
22 Meneleu Campos’ “Alvorecendo” premiered at the concert of the Fourth Latin-American Congress of
Medicine in 1909, conducted by Nepomuceno. (Corrêa 1985: 36)
237
The landscape boom in the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Brazilian
music echoed the nationalizing process that had long occurred in Brazilian literature and
was in full force in Brazilian painting. The nationalization of Brazilian literature had
started in the first half of the nineteenth century with Indianismo. Since the second half
element in Brazilian artists’ and critics’ agenda and focused mainly on landscape, at this
point not restricted to Indianismo aesthetics, but encompassing several approaches to the
observable local scenery, including wild, rural and urban landscapes. Differently from
the Romantic movement in Brazilian literature, Brazilian musical Romanticism was not
born as a nationalist project. While nationalism was the driving force of Brazilian
Romantic literary movement since its beginnings, only gradually was it projected into
Brazilian musical concerns. Although the nationalization of Brazilian music had not
started with landscape,23 this topos came to be important especially after 1889 (Gomes’
“Alvorada”), and its meanings were associated to a large extent with the literary and
pictorial imagination.
towards the nationalization of Brazilian literature since the first decades of the nineteenth
defined Brazil as “a young nation whose ‘national genius’ can be identified with
nature,” among other elements, including the Indian. For Denis, “American” nature
23The earliest nationalist works by Brazilian composers make use of Black rhythm - Gomes’ A
Cayumba, Dança de Negros (1856) - and popular music’s tune, rhythms, and harmonic progressions -
Brasílio Itiberê da Cunha’s A Sertaneja (publ. 1869). (Béhague 1966: 167-177; Magaldi 1994: 284-
293)
238
must sustain “the art works of this first enthusiastic moment that attests the young age
of a people.”24
The first group of Brazilian writers with an explicit nationalist program (the
“grupo da Niterói”) followed Denis’s ideas about the role of Brazilian landscape in the
Denis’s emphasis on local nature as an active principle for the construction of Brazilian
Magalhães’ nationalist ideas echoed outside the literary realm. Its impact in music
referred not only to the valorization of the Indian but also to the importance given to
Brazilian nature.
judgement since the 1830s.26 Pereira da Silva’s critical study “Estudos sobre a
poets for evoking Greek mythology instead of “singing the beauty of the palm trees, the
pleasing riverbanks of the Amazon and Prata rivers, the virgin forests, the superstitions
and thoughts of our fellow people, their uses, costumes and religion.”27
(1853) agrees with Gonçalves de Magalhães and Pereira da Silva in respect to the
“nativist principle implied in Romantic valorization of local color, native land symbols,
nature and landscape considered as homeland, in order to identify the national character
promoted the revival of the literature of the first centuries of discovery and colonization,
which consisted mainly of the writings of missionaries and explorers, histories, poetry
these texts as the first manifestations of the “nativista” feeling, which inspired many
especial place to nature description and to the Indian. “Seventeenth- and eighteenth-
century works were incorporated into the Romantic canon under construction for their
element of nationality in literature, where can one find it with more life, beauty and
epigraph to his novel O Filho do Pescador [The fisherman’s son] (1859), labeled by
the author “Brazilian novel”: “Nature description is the writer’s blueprint. Any
28 Nunes 1998: 221.
29 According to Leite (1983: 157) “nearly all works from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries
(Pero de Magalhães Gandavo, Tratado da Terra do Brasil (c. 1570); Gabriel Soares de Souza, Tratado
descritivo do Brasil (1587), Padre Fernão Cardim, Tratados da Terra e Gente do Brasil (c.1590);
Ambrósio Fernandes Brandão, Diálogos das Grandezas do Brasil (1618)) remained unplished, and were
recovered and valued only in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, by Brazilian scholars.” For a
systematic study on these works and their literary valorization, see José Aderaldo Castelo, A Literatura
Brasileira; Wilson Martins, “A Literatura e o Conhecimento da Terra” In Coutinho (1955, 1: 175-
188); Candido (1959, 1: 17-22); Candido (1988: 29); and also the comentators of modern editions of
the already mentioned works, such as E. Pereira Filho (1965).
30 Nunes 1998: 221.
31 Quoted in Candido 1981, 2: 10.
240
mediocre talent can describe those sceneries; but depict them with the true, accurate
landscaper. Alencar’s popularity among his contemporaries was due to a large extent to
the long passages describing the local scenery in most of his novels.
Essentially visual, essentially poet, Alencar described extensively the native [or
local] color, where one can find plenty of “mango’s and caju’s acridness,” and
landscapes embedded in intense tropicalism (…) Alencar’s pages of landscape
description earned him public fondness, and were even learned by heart during
that age in which Brazilians were learning the first letters and Alencar was a
mandatory reading.33
Still in the last decades of the nineteenth century, many members of the Brazilian
literature, Assis makes a distinction between the “local color” found in Colonial writers
such as Basílio e Durão, and the literary independence accomplished during the
limited role of local color in the process of nationalization of Brazilian literature, and of
Antonio Carlos Gomes was the first composer to respond to the nationalist
significance of landscape. His response, however, came really tangible with Lo Schiavo
(1889) and not fully with his Indianist opera Il Guarany (1870). Il Guarany has a short
passage of descriptive music in the opening of Act II in Pery’s Scena ed Aria “Son
giunto in tempo!” – “Vanto io pur superba cuna” that reveals Gomes’ musical
approach to Indianismo.
The identification of the Indian with nature was constructed through literary
conventions. Indianismo “was intrinsically linked to the appeal that Brazilian nature and
landscape had on Romantic literary spirit,” and the “bringing in literature of the most
peculiar element of American civilization, the Indian, was a way of embodying the
feeling of nature, since the Indian was part of local landscape and the true carrier of
Although Gomes was not the first composer to write an Indianist opera, he was
the first to search for musical expression of Indianismo nationalist precepts. In addition
to the exoticist approach to Indian dances and rhythms mentioned in the previous
chapter, Gomes searched for musical formulae that could embody Indianismo’s
emphasis on landscape, and the identification of the Indian with nature as a convention.
Dramatic context establishes the association between the Indian and his surrounding
nature through music by presenting that particular descriptive musical formulae (forest
murmurs) for the first time in the opera only when Pery is alone in the jungle. The
scenery shows a cave in the dense woods, and Pery sings “I arrived … like a hidden
snake, sliding between the thickets and thornbushes.” Gomes constructed a musical
musical example No. 12) with an appropriate dramatic context, and it is in that sense that
Yet, Pery’s scene indicates that Gomes had not achieved a substantial degree of
243
Musical example No. 12: Gomes’s Il Guarany, the opening of Act II in Pery’s Scena
ed Aria “Son giunto in tempo!” – “Vanto io pur superba cuna”
Allegro Vivacissimo
6
& 8 bœ. œ œ bœ j ‰ ‰ bœ. œ œ bœ
˙. b œœ œ b œ œ œ n œ b œ n œ œ b œ œ b œ b œ œ b œ œ ˙.
∏ J cresc. dim.
? 86 b œ œ œ œ œ œ b ˙œ . œ œ œ œ œ b ˙œ . œ œ œ œ œ b œ˙ . œ œ œ œ œ b b œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ
b˙.
& j ‰ ‰ bœ.
b œœ œ b œ œ œ n œ b œ n œ œ b œ œ b œ b œ œ b œ œ ˙. œ œ b œ b œœ œ b œ œ œ n œ
J cresc. dim. J
? b œœ œ œ œ œ œ b œœ œ œ œ œ œ b œœ œ œ œ œ œ b œœ œ
b œ œ b œ œ b œ œ b œœ œ œœ œ b b œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ
& ∑
b œ˙ .n œ œ b œ œ b œ b œœ œ b œ œ b œ œ b œ
J œ œ #œ œ œ #œ nœ œ
? b b œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ b b œ œ œ œ œ b œ œ œ ˙.
œ b œ b œœ œ b œœ ˙ .
œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ #œ œ œ
œ
3
3
Œ ‰ ‰ ‰ œœœ
& ∑ Œ ‰ 3
j j‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ œ œ œ bœ œ œ J‰‰
>.
. j
? ˙.
Œ ‰ b œ .. b ˙ .. œœ œ‰ ‰ Œœ ‰
œ œ
œ œ ˙ œ œ œ
# œ̇ œ # œ œ # œ œ b œ œ œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœœ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ b œ. œ. œ. .
œ > œ b œ. œ.
J j j‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ ‰
& ‰ ‰b œœ ..
3
244
. . œ œ # œ œJ Œ >
& œ œ b œ. œ. œ j ‰
bœ.
∑
œ œ b œ b œœ œ b œ œ œ n œ
. œ. œ 3 ˙.
∏ p J
? œ œ œ bb ˙œ œ œ œ œ œ
b œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ bb œ˙ . œ œ .
œ œ œ œ
>
& œ b œ œ b œ j ‰ ‰ nœ. œ # œ n œ b n œœ b œ œ œ
bœ nœ bœ œ bœ œ b ˙.
J #œ œ #œ œ œ #œ œ nœ
? bb ˙œ œ œ œ œ œ bb œ˙ œ œ œ œ œ n n œ˙ œ œ œ œ œ n n ˙œ œ œ œ œ œ nn ˙œ œ œ œ œ œ
. . . . .
& j ‰ ‰ bœ. œ œ bœ .
œ bœ œ #œ > œ b œ n œ œ # œ œ b >œ œ œ bœ œ bœ nœ œ #œ œ
cresc. sempre
?nn ˙œ œ œ œ œ œ b ˙œ .# œ œ œ œ œ b ˙œ . # œ œ œ œ œ b ˙œ .# œ œ œ œ œ b œ˙ . # œ œ œ œ œ
.
& bœ bœ œ bœ œ #œ œ bœ œ #œ œ œ œ #œ œ #œ œ œ #œ
> œ b œ >œ # œ œ > >
? b œœ # œ œœ œ œœ œ b œœ # œ œœ œ œœ œ b # œœœœ ‰ ‰ œœœ ... # œœœ ‰ ‰ œœœœ ....
J J
? œœ ‰ ‰ Œ ‰ ∑ ∑
œ
bœ nœ œ #œ œ œ b œ. œ. œ. .
# # # œœœ # œœœ b n œœ n # œœ n œœ # # œœ # œ b œ. œ.
œ. # œ. b œ. Œ
& ‰ ∑
ƒ œ. œ. œ. .
bœ œ œ œ œ # bœ
? ∑ # œœœ œœ œœ # œœœ ‰ ‰ J Œ Œ ‰
J
Although this passage does not convey local color and nationalist descriptive
formulae, it became a paradigm for Brazilian composers in the following generations for
245
Therefore, it is not a matter of direct musical influence through particular descriptive
formulae but of conception, i.e., how to absorb literary experiences into music. By
selecting the identification of the Indian with nature among the many Indianismo
nationalizing element in Brazilian music. With Pery’s scene, Gomes opened the path to
which will eventually enter in the Brazilian nationalist musical lexicon influencing
composers such as Francisco Braga (Marabá and Jupyra) and Villa-Lobos (Uirapuru).
It is difficult to say whether Gomes had or not the intention of expressing the
particularities of the Brazilian landscape in his 1870 opera, but it seems clear that by the
late 1880s Gomes was better conscious of landscape as a nationalist topos, since in
“Alvorada” he looked for a more personal way of writing descriptive music and created
informed not only by the nationalist status that landscape had in Brazilian literature, but
also by current issues in the visual arts. The decade before Gomes’ opera Lo Schiavo
was marked by the discussion of the nationalization of Brazilian painting. The first
debates about the identity of Brazilian art gave special importance to landscape. The
Academia Imperial de Belas Artes [Imperial Academy of Fine Arts] took a public stand
on the problem of the construction of Brazilian art in 1879, and promoted the Exposição
Geral [General Exhibition] with the especial section “Coleção de quadros nacionais
Brazilian School]. Brazilian intellectuals and artists reacted to the official positioning of
the Imperial Academy giving rise to a wide discussion that reveals a number of different
246
views of what constitutes Brazilian art. The most systematic criticism came from the
periodical Revista Illustrada, which criticized the Imperial Academy’s teaching and
production, and emphasized the importance of landscape painters. Felix Ferreira’s book
Belas Artes: Estudos e Apreciações [Fine arts, studies and appreciation] (1885)
considered that only landscape and genre painting were propitious alternatives to the
Brazilian landscape has been interpreted in the same way [European, particularly
the French] masters have interpreted landscape from other regions. It is difficult
to know which nature painters of those genres intend to represent. Even when
they imitate accurately the general aspects of nature, they irreverently falsify
local color.37
Therefore, the issue involved not only the claim that landscape should be the
major nationalizing element of Brazilian painting but also how to accomplish it.
A tangible evidence that Gomes was in one way or another sensitive to landscape
issue in Brazilian painting is that his attempt to evoke Brazilian nature came only after
the polemics aroused by the 1879 Imperial Academy Exhibition, with his opera Lo
Schiavo (1889). Only after landscape had become a critical issue in the nationalization
of Brazilian painting did Gomes concern himself with evoking Brazilian birds, forest,
sunrise, hills, and so forth. Also, it seems that Gomes’ purpose of describing the local
scenery lead him to a more personal way of writing musical landscape in his Prelude
“Alvorada.”
creating a tropical landscape with native birds singing at the sunrise in a local setting.
Brazilian poetry that precedes the nationalism of Romantic writers. The first poetic use
of Brazilian birdcalls dates back to the eighteenth century with Nuno Marques Pereira’s
“tribute to national ornithology… alluding in each quatrain to one or more birds: sabiá
Lá cantava o Sabiá
Um recitado de amor
Em doce metro sonoro
Que as mais aves despertou
[The sabiá bird sung over there a love recital in sweet sonorous meter waking up
the other birds.]
Saudades [Poetic Sighs and Longings] (1836), a collection of poetry considered to have
nationalist element in opposition to the nightingale. With Magalhães, the sabiá becomes
poetry Poesias (1832), contemporary criticism recognized the poetic use of the sabiá as
a nationalizing element:
The paradigmatic use of sabiá bird in Brazilian literature was established by the
Romantic poet Gonçalves Dias in his famous poem “Canção do Exílio”41 [Song of
[My country has palm-trees/ where the sabiá sings;/ The birds warbling here/ do
not warble like those over there.]42
two of which with the same title (1856 and 1857), and another quoting the first two
verses of Dias’ poem (“Minha Terra,” 1856). All of these poems mention the sabiá
[If I am to die young, my God, do not let it be now yet; I want to listen to the
sabiá singing on the orange tree in the afternoon]
The sabiá became the favorite bird of Brazilian Romantic poets, and was often
40 “Entre as qualidades que recomendam o Sr. Magalhães, não deve ser esquecido o seu amor ao Brasil.
Graças a ele, lá a majestosa mangueira substituiu os choupos e os carvalhos, já o Sabiá Brasiliense
desentronou o rouxinol da Europa.” (Rocha 1833: 56)
41 The Spanish José Amat, opera impresario, composer and singer settled in Rio de Janeiro between
1848 and 1865, set music to Dias’ “Canção do Exílio,” which was published as the first piece of
Mélodies Brésiliennes (1852). (Marcondes 1998: 30; see musical analysis in Magaldi 1994: 300-1)
42 Translation based on Haberly (1983: 28) and Brookshaw (1988: 44)
43 Abreu 1926: 21.
44 Carvalho 1925: 155; Coutinho 1969, 2: 171.
249
O sabiá namorado,
Na laranjeira pousado
Soltava ternos gorjeios.
[The poet of the jungle, the loving sabiá, warbled sweetly standing on the orange
tree]
in the making of musical landscape. The nationalist statement implied in the use of the
it is indeed shown by the already mentioned article reprinted in JC, 22 November 1900
p. 4 (see transcription in Chapter 3). The sabiá birdsong is used for the first time in
music in Gomes’ “Alvorada” (see musical example No. 12) in the making of a tropical
sunrise landscape.
250
Musical example No. 13: Gomes’ Lo Schiavo, Prelude “Alvorada,” sabiá bird call
Andantino ^Giusto^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
≈ # œj œ œj œ ≈ œ
# # Fl.c ‰ œR ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ # œ
j j j j j j j j j j
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
& ≈ ≈
f p f p f p f p
vibrata l'appaggiatura
œ ˙œ œ
? # # c ˙ww œ . œ ˙˙ œ œ ˙ ˙
˙
w w
^j ^j ^j ^j ^j ^j ^j
^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ ^
^j ^j #œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ≈œ œ ≈œ œ ≈œ œ
# # # œ ≈ œ œ ≈ œ œ ≈œ œ œ œ ≈ œ # œ # œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ ≈ œ # œ ≈ ≈ ≈
j j ^j j j j j j j j j
#œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ
& ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈ ≈
? ## ˙ ˙ #w ww
& # www # ww
Gomes’ skillful writing for the wind instruments, especially woodwinds, reveals
the background Gomes had acquired in band music during his young years with his
father Manuel José Gomes, the “Maneco Músico.” Carlos Gomes’ inventiveness is
also apparent in the long sequence of birdcalls distinguished by different trills and
figurations depicting the wide variety of Brazilian fauna. This sequence of unidentified
birdcalls can be associated with Brazilian birds not only for their lack of reference to
European birds but also because their amazing diversity evokes the literary convention
251
Musical example No. 14: Gomes’ Lo Schiavo, Prelude “Alvorada,” long sequence of
varied Brazilian bird calls
Lentamente
œ. œ. œ. œ. œ œ œ œ.
Allegretto animato
œ. œ. œ. œ.
# ‰ j ‰ j
(Fl. I & II)
‰ j ‰
& # c œ. œ œ
j
œ œ
. œ œ œ
. œ œ œ
. œ
Œ
. . . . 3
π (Vln. I divisi)
œ. œ.
## œ.
3 3 3 3
& c ‰ œ œœ ‰ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ œ Ó ‰ Œ
3
œ œ œ œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ.
## œ œ.
j(Fl. I & II)
œ
j
œ. œ
j
œ. œ
j
œ.
& 3
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ. ‰ œ. ‰ œ. ‰ œ. ‰
œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. ∏ 3
## œ. œ. œ. œ.
3 3 3
‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ ‰ œœ ‰ œœ ‰ œ
&
3
œœ œ œ œœ
3 3 3
œ. œ. œ. œ.
œ. œ. œ. œ.
(Fl. I & II)
## œ. ‰ œ. ‰ œ. ‰ œ. ‰
j j j j
œ œ œ œ
& ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
œ. œ. œ. œ.
(Vln. I divisi) œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ. œ.
# œ. œ. œ. œ. œ ‰ œ ‰ œ ‰ œ
& # ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰ ‰
œœ œœ œœ œœ
3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3
Although Gomes had populated his musical dawn with a large variety of
birdcalls that could in one way or another be associated with national landscape, later
reception did not spare him for inappropriately inserting a cuckoo call (probably
by the critic of the article reprinted in JC, 22 November 1900 (see transcription in
Chapter 3).
252
Musical example No. 15: Beethoven’s Sixth Symphony, cuckoo call
b b Flute
& 8 J‰Ó
œ. œ œ
Quail
œ. œ œ œ. œ œ œ. œ œ
b 12
Oboe
Ó. Œ. J‰‰Œ J‰‰Œ J‰ J ‰ ‰ Ó.
&b 8 ∑ Œ
b Clarinet
12 œCuckoo
œ ‰ Œ. œ œ ‰ Œ. œœ‰ œ œ ‰ Ó.
&b 8 ∑ ∑
Musical example No. 16: Gomes’ Lo Schiavo, Prelude “Alvorada,” cuckoo call
œ. œ. œ. œ.
œ R ≈ U‰ œ R ≈ ‰ UÓ œ R ≈ ‰ UÓ
Oboe
# j j
œR ≈ ‰ j j
& # ‰ .. ‰ .. ‰. ‰.
œ œ œ œ
RÔ RÔ R R
fp fp f p fp
An analysis of the dramatic and tonal context in which the cuckoo call occurs
indicates that the critic misunderstood the use of the European bird call by the Brazilian
composer. Gomes did not intend the cuckoo call to be part of the Brazilian landscape
but a contrasting element evoking Europe. That intention is suggested by the modal
context resulting from the pitches of the cuckoo call and its harmonic background
interpreted in the light of the extra-musical meanings of the annotations in the piano
reduction score (plate number 52989) evoking the distance and oldness of European
253
(sabiá birdsong; see musical example No. 30, and musical analysis in Béhague 1967:
242-6), Manuel Joaquim de Macedo’s storm in the second act of his opera Tiradentes
(canário and siriema birdsongs), and substantial number of works by Villa-Lobos such
as Uirapuru (uirapuru birdsong; see example No. 33 and 34), Choros no. 10 (1926;
azulão da mata birdsong, in addition to a large variety of native birdcalls; for azulão da
mata birdsong, see example No. 28 in Béhague 1994: 91), and Alvorada na Floresta
The Indian warrior horncall (“inubia guerreira”) and the sound of the sea waves
contribute to the localization of landscape into Brazilian setting rendering its local color.
Both of these elements are depicted with conventional word-painting formulae found in
seventh with major ninth chord (G#7 9+) (musical example No. 17; mm. 26-8, 32-3,
34-5), and the ocean waves (musical example No. 18; m. 31) are depicted by the
Musical example No. 17: Gomes’ Lo Schiavo, Prelude “Alvorada,” Tamoio’s warrior
horn call
# r r
& # c Œ
Horns
b˙ œ ≈ ‰ Œ b˙ œ ≈ ‰
b n ˙˙ œœ b n ˙˙ œœ
S S
? ## c Tuba
r ≈ ‰ Œ r ≈ ‰ Œ
b˙ œ b˙ œ
S> S>
254
Musical example No. 18: Gomes’ Lo Schiavo, Prelude “Alvorada,” ocean waves
bœ bœ
bœ nœ bœ bœ
# bœ nœ
& # bœ bœ
bœ nœ
Harp ƒ bœ bœ
## bœ nœ bœ bœ œ œ
& bœ bœ ? bœ nœ œ œ bœ
bœ nœ bœ bœ
nœ
Gomes’ “Alvorada” set a paradigm for Brazilian music regarding not only a
dimension is fixed in a particular place, the seashore around the Serra dos Órgãos
[Organs Hills] (according to printed score red. for piano, p. 340) in Rio de Janeiro, and
musically constructed by evocation of native birdcalls, Indian horns, and ocean waves.
Serra dos Órgãos is the opening setting of José de Alencar’s novel O Guarany, the
literary source of Gomes’ first Indianist opera. Landscape’s temporal dimension (the
sunrise) provokes changes in the landscape over time, and music is meant to represent it.
The dawning effect is embodied by the piece’s overall effect in a big crescendo.
The gradual and outspread crescendo is accomplished not simply through dynamics
effects and accumulative instrumentation but also through harmonic design. The big
crescendo is articulated by a harmonic syntax that is static at the local level and stretched
at the general level. Namely, static harmonic syntax at the local level is constructed by
non-modulatory chord progressions; and stretched harmonic syntax at the general level
is constructed by holding the first two thirds of the piece’s duration (piano score, mm.
255
1-57) upon non-goal-directed harmony; and giving way to goal-directed harmony only
in the last third of the piece’s duration (piano score, mm. 58-98).45
Musical example No. 19: Gomes’ Lo Schiavo, Prelude “Alvorada,” opening chords
˙
Molto Largo
˙˙ # ˙˙˙ n ˙˙ # # ˙˙˙ # ‹ # ˙˙˙ # ˙˙˙ n n www
Calmo
# lunga
˙ ˙˙ # ˙˙˙ # www
& # c ˙
? w
w
u
Strings ∏ S ∏ S ∏
? ## c U cupo e legato
Œ Ó
œ ˙ ˙ œ# œ# œ œ n ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ # œ # œ‹ œ# œ # ˙ ˙ w w œ #œ#œ
œ
œ w w
sfumato
? # # n www
La scena si rischiara gradatamente
ww w n b www b ww www www www www œœœ ‰ Œ
w # www w w w w w œ Ó
cupo
J
dim. ∏ dim. sempre
? ## n w
poco cresc.
w nw j ‰Œ j ‰Œ j ‰ Œ Ó j ‰ Œ Ó
nw w w w ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ
w nw w ˙ ˙ œ œ œ œ
w w
structures the piece as a whole. Period 1 (mm. 1-17), depicting “the murmur of the
sea,” establishes the key of D major; it is based on non goal-directed harmony and
(mm. 18-25), depicting “the crack of the Brazilian dawn,” moves from D major to F#
major. (The expressions “o mormorio del mare” and “lo spuntare della aurora
brasiliana” are according to the piano score). Therefore, the D-F# chord progression
structures Period 1 as a unity, and also structures the harmonic design that evolves from
Period 1 to Period 2.
45The measure numbers mentioned in the following analysis are based on the piano score (Plate
number 52989).
256
Table No. 1: Gomes’ “Alvorada”
Period 4 mm.38-43 D - F# - D
mm.38-51 mm.44-5 D
mm.46-51 D
Period 6 D – B7 9 – A7
mm.68-73
Period 7 mm.74-77 D – Em – D – G – A7 – D
mm. 74-86
257
Period 3 (mm. 26-37) is an expansion of the third-relation chord progression F#
describes the native landscape starting with birdcalls evoking Edenic nature
simultaneously with the Tamoio’s warrior horn call in G#7 9+ chord (mm. 26-8 in p;
32-3 in ff; 34-5 in p); then, birdcalls (mm. 26-30) are followed by descending arpeggios
in ff (m. 31) evoking the ocean waves. The Indian warrior horn call in G#7 9+ chord
blends with the strings which moves from G#7 9+ chord (p) to A7 (ppp) resolving in D
alvorada). The tritone relation between the Tamoio’s warrior horn call and the
symbolizes the conflict between the European and the Indian. The short insertion of
(mm. 44-5) many birds flying and singing at the dawn (“stormi di piccoli uccelli,
svolazzando in ogni direzione, rallengrano con i loro svariati canti, la novella aurora”) in
D major foreshadows the build up of birdcalls that will follow in Period 5. Period 4
closes with the European trumpet call in D major (toque da alvorada) (mm. 46-51).
Period 5 (mm. 52-67) continues the birdcalls build up with the opposition
between the cuckoo and the sabiá bird calls. The cuckoo call built upon D7 - B - C7 -
A7 chord progression (mm. 52-7) symbolizes the European nature “da lontano” (far
away, from Europe). The combination of the pitches of the cuckoo call f# - e with the C7
chord (m. 55-6) results in the Lydian-Mixolydian scale. This is the only modal scale
258
used throughout Gomes’ intermezzo. Considering that the Lydian-Mixolydian is used
in the context of the European referential (cuckoo call), that modalism can be considered
a metaphor of the archaic, and the singing of the cuckoo a monotonous lament (“il
oldness and decay; the cuckoo singing can also be interpreted as the last call of the
European civilization in the tropics. The sabiá bird call (mm. 58-63) over the chord
(mm. 64-67) upon C#7 9+ - B - C#7 9+ chord progression symbolize the Brazilian
nature. The opposition between Indian culture and European culture symbolized by the
opposition of warrior inubia calls and the trumpet calls in Periods 3 and 4, is transposed
Period 6 (mm. 68-73) superposes the native bird calls, the European warrior
horn call, and arpeggios assuring D major with goal-directed harmony with the chord
progression D – B79 – A7. The final crescendo, comprising Period 7 (mm. 74-86) and
Period 8 (mm. 86-98), reassures D major with goal-directed harmony with progressions
such as IV-V-I and V/V-V-I, and closes with the descending third-relation chord
patriotic anthem (mm. 86-91). Interpreted in the light of the score indications evoking
the majestic landscape (according to piano score, “ai primi raggi del sole l’immenso
panorama si manifesta in tutto il suo spledore” [the immense panorama revealing itself
in the full of its splendor upon the first sun ray], and “ai di là del vastissimo golfo si
vede l’imponente catena di montagne degli Organi” [the imposing mountain range seen
from the vast gulf]), it can be considered a nationalist statement celebrating the triumph
of Brazilian identity.
259
Gomes’ dawning landscape was informed by Brazilian Romantic literary canon
as it is well represented by the “Third Canto” of the epic poem Os Timbiras (1857), by
Gonçalves Dias, which starts with the sunrise in the forest. Dias opens the poem with
the convention of identifying the Indian with nature through the Indianismo cliché “the
son of the forest” and follows with the pictorial description of colored lightly effects of
the dawn.
[The son of the forest loves contemplating you, smiling dawn, loves awakening
with you, loves looking into the sky for the growing light, now rosy, now white,
now carmine, now fire, now timid glares, now torrents of light hitting obliquely
the high crests.]
abolitionist poetry. Castro Alves’ collection of poems Os Escravos [The Slaves] (1883)
empowered the image of the sunrise with the freedom’s call and the hopes of the future.
The final call of the poem “América” encapsulates the association between the sunrise
[Oh homeland, wake up!…(…) Don’t you see in the vast horizon dawning
lights of better days?]
“Ao Romper D’Alva” [The crack of dawn] elaborates on the sound and visual
effects of poetic language by contrasting the sounds of Brazilian Edenic forest with
between nature and slaves’ suffering. The poem closes casting the hopes for freedom in
tomorrow’s dawn.
[O God! Don’t you hear amid this immense orchestra joyfully sounded by the
virgin, mighty and superb nature, an afflicted and sobbing cry, the clang of the
captive irons, a vile and harsh chord? God, do not let the canvas in which you
draw the most beautiful creation of your inspiration be tarnished. The sun of
your glory was concealed. Your poem of America was tarnished by slavery. (…)
And the palm trees contort in torture when they hear the afflicted cry coming
from the mountains. O! I cannot see this damned blot! When will I hear the
shout of the freed people? Yes.. perhaps tomorrow. (…) Hurray! Cheer up with
the morning warm breeze!]
expressions such as “o sol do porvir” [the sun of the future] and “a aurora da
stage, it further indicates its intertextuality with Alves’ Os Escravos in the “Hymn to
and liberty, which foreshadows the symbolic dimension of the Prelude “Alvorada” in
Inno
Un astro splendido
Nel ciel appar,
Ravviva, illumina
Foresta e mar!…
E da quell’astro
S’innalza un grido,
che in ogni lide
Echeggerà!
È l’inno eterno
Che non morrà,
Il grido unanime
Di libertà.
[A splendid star rises in the sky awakening and illuminating forests and seas!
From that star sounds a cry that will echo in every beach! It is the eternal
anthem, the unison clamor for freedom that will not die.]
representing the sunrise as a national symbol. Sunrise in the tropics is the temporalized
Macedo’s storm in the second act of the opera Tiradentes, Silvio Deolindo Fróes’
49For insightful discussions on Castro Alves’ social poetry, see Moisés (1989: 220-236), Haberly
(1983: 51-69), Brookshaw (1986), and Bosi (1992: 246-272).
262
Gomes’ paradigm resides in the idea of representing a changing landscape, but not in
the way this is realized in music, since each composer did it in his own way. Also, the
sunrise stands as the symbol of the nation to be free from slavery only in Gomes’ work.
With the Abolition of Slavery and the new Republican context, the symbolic use of the
sunrise gradually lost its abolitionist implications, but kept another layer of meaning of
the sunrise as the symbol of the young nation awakening to its future. Upon different
and reworked on the Edenic and ufanista views of the American nature.
The use of musical landscape in Gomes’ operas bears another parallel with
nineteenth-century literature and painting, namely, the view of nature as historical locale.
Guarany and Lo Schiavo transcended the mere description of the setting in which plot
unfolds and the function of local color, and became a major factor in the process of
nationalization.
Within the concept of nature as historical locale, landscape is integrated into the
narrative structure by associating clearly the site with the historical event represented by
the work. The typical elements of Brazilian landscape (such as the vegetation, the
cottage, the native people) become essential to the interpretation of the historical event as
an event intrinsically identified with the land and its destiny as a nation. Therefore, there
nationalist convention of Romantic literature and art to which Gomes was the first
music in the opening of Act II in Pery’s Scena ed Aria “Son giunto in tempo!” –
“Vanto io pur superba cuna” (musical example No. 18), musical landscape will earn a
self-contained structure with the Prelude to Act IV “Alvorada.” The opening descriptive
music of Pery’s scene sets the tone of dramatic situation with its unresting figurations
foreshadowing the confrontation between Pery and Gonzales. The identification of the
Indian with nature overlaps with the dramatic tone of the confrontation between
the nineteenth century, paralleling in music what had been expressed in literature:
“American nature is no longer the idyllic shelter of the noble savage but the scenery of
contextualization of landscape that parallels the poetic framework of Castro Alves’ “Ao
romper d’alva,” “América” and “A cachoeira de Paulo Afonso” [The Paulo Afonso
264
(“retinir dos ferros”) is a “vile and harsh chord” in dissonance with the
“immense orchestra” (“orquestra imensa”).51
society, which was first musically constructed by Gomes in Il Guarany and Lo Schiavo,
will echo in Braga’s Jupyra and Marabá (although that symphonic poem is not
Thus, Gomes opened the path to the nationalization of Brazilian music through
situate musical landscape into a particular place and moment. With Pery’s scene (Act II)
from Il Guarany and the Prelude “Alvorada” (Act IV) from Lo Schiavo Gomes
established the major elements for the construction of nationalist musical conventions
expression of national feelings. Among the literary and pictorial conventions translated
into music are: (1) the association of the Indian with nature; (2) forest murmurs; (3) the
use of sabiá birdcall as a nationalist statement and the use of native birdcalls in general
as a way of localizing landscape into national boundaries; (4) the use of sunrise as a
metaphor of Brazil as a young nation; (5) nature as Edenic locale perceived either from
the sentimental or the monumental (ufanista) perspective; and (6) landscape as historical
locale.
51 Bosi 1992: 246-7. Quotation marks refer to distinctive expressions from Alves’ poetry.
265
L ANDSCAPE AND THE EXPRESSION OF NATIONAL FEELINGS: M ARABÁ AND
“A LVORADA NA S ERRA ”
status in Brazilian painting. Considered a minor genre by the neo-classical dogmas and
the academics, landscape painting reached the same status as historical and religious
painting after the 1880s. Since then, landscape has been among the most expressive
genres of Brazilian painting, earning recognition in academia and among the critics.52
The status of landscape as an independent genre had its paralel in music with
Braga’s Paysage, Chant d’automne, and Marabá; and Oswald’s Il Neige. Genres such
as the symphonic prelude and the symphonic poem allowed the legitimation of musical
Brazilian Section at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893, where the
paintings. The other thirty-six paintings were divided into six categories: historical
painting, caipira genre painting (rustic customs in rural setting), seascape, fruits,
Indianismo, and religious painting (Catholic themes). Along with fifty-seven landscape
paintings, the prize award of Braga’s symphonic prelude Paysage corroborate the
prestige of landscape in representing Brazil’s national image abroad, despite the fact that
the Brazilian reception of Braga’s Paysage did not perceive any specifically Brazilian
52 Xexéo 1977: n.p.; and Costa 1944: 25. Landscape painters of this period include Jorge Grimm, João
Batista da Costa, Antonio Parreiras, Eliseu Visconti, Hipólito B. Caron, Garcia Vasquez, Arsênio
Silva, Aurélio de Figueiredo, Pagani, Weingartner, Teles Júnior, and Pinto Bandeira, among others.
Even the academic painter Vítor Meireles dedicated himself to landscape. (Costa 1944: 22-33).
53 T. Pacheco (RJ) exhibited 23 Landscapes at World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago 1893; T.
Pacheco (RJ) exhibited 9 Landscapes; Eliseu Vistonti (RJ) exhibited 8 Landscapes; J. Fiuza Guimarães
(RJ) exhibited 8 Landscapes; M. Brocos (RJ) exhibited 3 Landscapes; Henrique Bernardelli (RJ)
exhibited 1 Landscape and 1 Indian; João Batista da Costa (RJ) exhibited 1 Landscape; Hipólito B.
Caron (SP) exhibited 1 Landscape; and Antonio Parreiras exhibited 1 Landscape. (Catalogue of the
Brazilian Section at the World’s Columbian Exposition 1893: 104-9).
266
element in it (see, for instance, the article by São Paulo special correspondent to JC, 23
explicitly that the nature “painted” through music is the Brazilian nature, nor does it
mention anything that can be exclusively associated with Brazilian or tropical landscape.
As shown in the earlier analysis, Paysage does not present any musical element that can
contemporary critic Rodrigues Barbosa (JC, 26 Nov. 1900 p. 2, T&M). Paysage also
had some exposure abroad, with performances in Chicago (1893), Paris (1895 and
1896), and Dresden (1897). The second Parisian performance went poorly, and,
consequently, the work had a bad reception.55 The performances in the other foreign
theaters had a better result. The work was awarded a prize at the World’s Columbian
54 Braga’s Paysage premiered in Rio de Janeiro at the Teatro São Pedro de Alcântara, conducted by
Vincenzo Cernicchiaro, in the same year it was composed in Paris (1892). Subsequent performances
included: 1893 at the World’s Columbian Exhibition in Chicago; ca. 14 September 1894 in Rio de
Janeiro at the Salão do Club Sinfônico, Mancinelli Company’s orchestra conducted by Vincenzo
Cernicchiaro (JC, 14 September 1894, concert news (Exposição [1968]: 28); concerts of Brazilian
music conducted by the composer in Paris in 1895 at the Salle d’Harcourt and on 4 February 1896 at
Galerie des Champs Elysées (Exposição [1968]: 13); before 8 March 1897 in Dresden at the
Gewerbehaus, conducted by Trebkler (Exposição [1968]: 32); 23 May 1897 in Rio de Janeiro at the
Teatro Lírico, benefit concert to the Caixa Beneficiente Teatral, organized by Corporação Orquestral,
conducted by Attilio Capitani or Agostino Gouvea (Concert note BNRJ); 25 November 1900 in Rio de
Janeiro at the Teatro Lírico, “second and last symphonic concert by the maestro Francisco Braga” (JC,
26 Nov. 1900 p. 2); 17 January 1901 in São Paulo at the Teatro Santana, the first symphonic concert
by Francisco Braga in São Paulo capital, conducted by the composer; 24 April 1910, in Rio de Janeiro
at the Teatro Municipal, concert promoted by the Centro Sinfônico Leopoldo Miguez, conducted by
Francisco Nunes (Chaves Jr. 1971: 426); and 14 May 1921 at the TMRJ, 63th concert of the Sociedade
de Concertos Sinfônicos conducted by the composer (Chaves Jr. 1971: 442).
55 In the letter of 18 February 1896 from Carlos Gomes to Braga, the older composer laments the
unsuccessful performance of the younger composer’s works at the Galerie des Champs Elysées on 4
February 1896.
267
Exposition in Chicago56 and had a good reception in Dresden.57 Also, Paysage was
among the works that gave greater visibility to Braga’s orchestral concert in São Paulo
(unidentified critic) from São Paulo, Paysage, Cauchemar, Minuetto and Marionettes
(gavotte) were “the great attraction of the evening;” “the two symphonic poems are
precious” and “as pieces quite different from each other, they impose themselves to the
admiration of the musician and the dilettante from their first measures” (JC, 23 January
1901, p. 4, T&M).
It is, however, with Marabá that Braga was perceived by his contemporaries to
quoted below). Also, this Indianist symphonic poem by Braga is the work that best
illustrates the Brazilian case corroborating Rosen’s idea that “it is above all through
landscape that music joins Romantic art and literature,”58 firstly, because of the
dissemination of its subject among all the arts; secondly, for being a literary and
pictorial theme that functioned as a motivation for Braga’s composition; thirdly, for the
thematic interconnection among the arts that placed the musical work within a web of
meanings that informed its reception; fourthly, for musically embodying Indianismo’s
literary precept of blending the feeling of nature with the Indian theme more thoroughly
than the poem that has constructed its tradition; and finally, for musically embodying
landscape through conventions and new formulae that were recognized in their pictorial
56 Francisco Braga received the World’s Columbian Exhibition medal for his symphonic prelude
Paysage by the way of his childhood-long friend, José de Souza Rocha. (Exposição [1968]: 14)
57 Braga’s letter dated of Dresden, 8 March 1897 to his friend [Corbiniano] Vilaça states: “My works
have always been performed here in Dresden [at the Gewerbehaus, according to letter from 9 March
1897]. Cauchemar and Paysage earned the applause of the German public. The performances of my
productions by the skillful kapellmeister Trebkler were excellent, and I was flattered by Trebkler’s
appreciation of my works.” (Quoted in Hora 1953: 39)
58 Rosen 1995: 125.
268
and poetic dimensions, which ultimately constructed the work’s nationalization of
musical landscape.
in the nineteenth-century canon with Gonçalves Dias, the founder of Indianismo, the
his História da Literatura Brasileira (1888) refers many times to Gonçalves Dias as
“the author of Marabá,”60 which shows the popularity and prestige of this poem.
Marabá’s literary convention reached out to the visual arts, and was the theme of a very
successful painting by Rodolfo Amoedo, Marabá, done in Paris in 1882. This painting
brought great prominence to Amoedo on the occasion of its exhibition at the Salon de
Paris in 1883 and was again a success at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago
in 189361 – the same fair where Braga had his symphonic prelude Paysage performed
and received a prize. It is very possible that the success of Amoedo’s painting at those
international exhibitions motivated Braga to take up this subject for his symphonic
Braga’s Marabá shows that music enriched late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
Francisco Braga at the Teatro Lírico, Rio de Janeiro on 18 and 25 November (JC, 26 Nov.1900 p. 2).
Then, Braga promoted another symphonic concert series in São Paulo, and conducted Marabá in the
third symphonic concert held between 24 and 26 January 1901, at the Teatro Santana (JC, 23 Jan. 1901
p. 4).. The works that closed the concert (Braga’s Marabá, the aria for soprano “Migrante, morente...”
from Jupyra, and the triumphal march Pro Patria) were new to São Paulo’s public (JC, 31 Jan. 1901
p. 3). In the following year, Braga’s birthday was celebrated with a matinée-concert offered by the
269
The literary tradition of Marabá indicates that Braga’s work with the same title
meaning referring to “children whose parents were of different tribes,” through later
use to designate Indian-white mestizos, the Tupi term ‘marabá’ became “a literary
Portuguese despised by her Indian community and by the white world.”64 Marabá
entered in Brazilian literary canon with Gonçalves Dias’ twelfth poem of Poesias
Marabá
(…)
Instituto Profissional on 15 April (JC,15 April 1901, p. 2). Marabá was also performed by a 52-
musicians orchestra at Braga’s third symphonic concert, on 9 June 1901 at the Teatro S. Pedro de
Alcântara, Rio de Janeiro, which was “honored with the presence of Mr. President of the Republic, M.
F. de Campos Salles” (JC, 7 June 1901, p. 3); and repeated at the fourth symphonic concert on 16 June
1901 (JC, 11 June 1901, p. 3). Marabá’s performances at official events include the symphonic
concert consisting entirely of Brazilian music offered by the City of Rio de Janeiro, D.C. (Prefeitura do
Distrito Federal) and dedicated to the members of the Third Pan-American Congress. This concert, on
15 August 1906 at the Teatro Lírico, was organized by Francisco Braga and Elpidio Pereira, and had the
participation of Alberto Nepomuceno, Zilda Chiaboto, Francisco Chiaffitelli and José De Larrigue De
Faro. The Sociedade de Concertos Sinfônicos celebrated its first anniversary with a Festival of
Francisco Braga’s works. The ninth concert of the series, on 11 October 1913 at the Teatro Municipal
of Rio de Janeiro, performed Cauchemar, Visões, Variações sobre um Tema Brasileiro, the aria and
scene for soprano [“Migrante, morente…”] from Jupyra, Marabá and Pró Pátria (Chaves Jr. 1971:
431). Braga’ Marabá was conducted by Richard Strauss on 3 October 1920 at the Teatro Municipal
during his visit to Rio de Janeiro (Exposição [1968]: 14; Azevedo 1956: 179; Chaves Jr. 1971: 441).
63 Term used by Candido 1981, 1: 211.
64 Driver 1942: 50, 56.
270
_ O oiro mais puro não tem seu fulgor;
_ As brisas nos bosques de os ver se enamoram,
_ De os ver tão formosos como um beija-flor! _
(…)
271
And never a warrior shall gently uncover
My body’s frail bloom;
I live in my loneliness, sobbing self-pity –
The Marabá’s doom!
The literary program by the Brazilian writer Escragnolle Doria was the source of
newspaper articles and concert notes, places the archetypal figure of the outcast in the
American environment.
[Vast and deep jungle, the ruby sunset panel faded through the green curtain as
the afternoon agonized in the virgin grove with high seas’ murmuring in the
tacuarussus, in the gigantic lianas tangled up to the tree cups, and in the gentle
arroyo slightly curled by the wind, with the lively flames of the sun glaring all
over the sky in the falling flux. The caravan of immortal diamond stars
scintillates up in the Orient. The arroyo whispers, the whining of the wind
passes through the tacuarussus, the crepuscule dies, one more dimming light
dies, and a star is born in the cradle of shades. In the grove border comes
Marabá, smoothly and bashful like a frightened juriti, with a jar upon her gentle
head. Marabá, the unwanted Indian, the sad virgin whose face will never be
touched by the acacia garland. She walks down to the water stepping softly on
65 JC, 19 Nov. 1900, p. 2-3, T&M, quoted in musical criticism about the first Symphonic Concert by
Francisco Braga after his return from Europe (the day before at the Teatro Lírico); and Concert note of
the Third Pan-American Congress, Symphonic Concert of 15 August 1906.
272
the cracking dried leaves under the graceful flowers. She fills the jar up carefully
and slowly, and falls melancholic, orphan bosom of love, painful soul with no
comfort, with no nest. The acacia garland will never touch her face. Men shy
away from her and no desire drives towards her despite her beauty. She will
never be wanted. She only brings evil. She lives alone, and alone she stays day
and night. She has never had the fortunate day. Alone she has to sleep in the
eternal night of oblivion with heart locked to the dawning desire. Marabá cries
with sobbing virgin lips and sobbing virgin bosom. The arroyo has voices in the
tacuarussus. The star caravan dissipates up in the sky, in the snow path of the
Milky Way. Brightness glows far away. It is the moonlight coming chaste and
immense.]
nature with the Indian theme.”66 As a single piece of poetic prose, Doria’s Marabá
fulfils Gonçalves Dias’s conception of American poetry more thoroughly than Dias’
“Marabá” must be considered into the larger context of Poesias Americanas in order
to reflect its author’s conception of American poetry. Braga’s Marabá also reflects
Dias’ conception of American poetry in its musical fabric. The symphonic poem
interweave four themes, the first of which is associated with nature, the second and the
third embodying the mestizo Indian, and the fourth epitomizing the fate of the
protagonist.
The opening theme can be considered the Nature theme, since its relation to the
with the musical material that contemporary reception identified with Brazilian forest
forest’s leaves.”67
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ‰ ‰ œj œ
Corni in Fa
6 ‰ œ
b
& 4 œ œ œ J
Ó Œ
p
consisting of the already mentioned forest murmurs followed by Marabá themes. After
commenting on the forest leaves and water sounds, the critic states that “it was in this
perfectly defined place and time” that the composer “placed the blond and fair Marabá
weeping her sorrows, and crying her sweet and bitter loves.”68
The following two themes can be associated with Marabá. As quotations of two
(unidentified) popular themes (according to the front page of printed orchestral score),69
they represent the human subject through culture symbolizing Marabá’s ethnic identity
and expressing her feelings. Contemporary reception defined the feelings associated
67 Alfredo Camarate, quoted in article by unidentified critic, special correspondent from São Paulo,
referring to the concert ca. 24 and 26 January 1901 at the Teatro Sant’Anna, São Paulo (JC, 31 Jan.
1901, p. 3, T&M)
68 Alfredo Camarate, quoted in article by unidentified critic, special correspondent from São Paulo,
referring to the concert of January ca. 24 and 26, 1901 at the Teatro Sant’Anna, São Paulo. (JC, 31
Jan. 1901, p. 3, T&M)
69 “Francisco Braga/ Marabá/ Poema Sinfônico/ (Temas Brasileiros)/ 9068/ Casa Bevilacqua/ Grande
estabelecimento de Pianos e Músicas/ Viuva Bevilacqua/ Rio de Janeiro, Rua do Ouvidor, 155/
Propriedade reservada” Rio de Janeiro: Casa Bevilacqua, plate number 9068, s.d.
70 JC, 31 Jan. 1901, p. 3, T&M, article by unidentified critic, special correspondent from São Paulo,
referring to the concert ca. 24 and 26 January 1901 at the Teatro Sant’Anna, São Paulo.
274
Musical example No. 21: Braga’s Marabá, Marabá’s tenderness theme
Violoncellos
? b c Ó Œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙.
sostenuto
- - - -
œ œ œ œ œ ˙. œ œ œ œ œ
b - - - - w w w
π
œ œ œ œ œ bw.
(Flute) espressivo
bb 6 œ nœ
& 4
p
The association of the first theme with nature, and the second and third themes
Castro’s analysis (1937) distinguishes three themes or motives, each one of which can
be associated with literary motives: the first theme (Dominant chord) is a pastoral theme
representing the “quietness of the trees of the forest in the moment when the afternoon
shades inspire respect and religiosity” (“quietude das árvores do bosque no momento
second motive (Tonic over dominant pedal) depicts Marabá approaching: “this theme
has a cadence of slow steps with bitter hints” (“há nele uma cadência de passos lentos,
com uns laivos de amargura”); the third motive “represents particularly the Indian
maiden, or, better, her deep sorrow so well expressed in the anguish tone of the lowered
final note.” (representa particularmente a índia, ou antes, a sua mágoa profunda, tão bem
distinguishes the themes of the poem along with the same lines:
275
of the Amazonian forest and Marabá’s sorrow are effected in a fine harmonic
realization.71
A fourth theme emerges in the development section. The Fate theme can be
Marabá theme 2 (letter J of orchestral score, mm. 116-135) and integrating the
ascending-descending shape of Nature theme. On that account, the Fate theme embodies
the closest identification between nature and the mestizo Indian’s feelings.
Violins
b misterioso
&b c œ ˙ œœ bœ b˙ œ bœ
bœ œ #œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ œ bœ.
œ ˙ œœ
œ œ #œ ˙ #œ
w
œ œ œ bœ œ œ œ œ
œ
π dim. π
The musical fabric created by the Nature theme framing Marabá’s tenderness
and sorrow themes, and the Fate theme, embodies Indianismo’s precept of blending the
feeling of nature with the Indian subject, and can be considered a metaphor of the
The Nature theme provides formal unity since it is present throughout the piece
either as a foreground or as a background for the other themes. The Nature theme alone
builds Part A (mm. 1-30) creating the natural environment in which the renegade
character Marabá will be integrated in Part B (mm. 30- 55) and Part C (mm. 56-70).
The Nature theme sets the foreground for Marabá’s tenderness theme in Part B by
successive recollection. Then, the Nature theme is combined with Marabá’s sorrow
theme in Part C (musical example No. 24), and with the Fate theme in Part F (musical
example No. 25), Part H, and Part J (musical example No. 26).
œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ b˙.
espressivo
˙ œ œ- œ- œ- œ- - œ-
b 6 nœ
(Flute)
&b 4
p
b 6 bœ œ bœ œ
‰ bœ bœ œ & œ bœ bœ
(Harp)
? ?
&b 4 ∑ ∑
œ bœ
œ Œ Ó
N œœ
Ó
œ
bw. w. w.
b
&b
dim.
bœ œ
? b ‰ b œ œ bœ b œ bœ œ ? ∑ ‰ œœ & œœ‰ Œ
b œ bœ &
bœ œ œ œ œ
277
Musical example No. 25: Braga’s Marabá, Nature theme (modified) and Fate theme
bœ œ œ
2nd Vlns
bb c œ œ œ ’
& nœ œ ’ ’ œ œ ’ ’ ’
œ œ
b bœ b˙ œ bœ
œ bœ
&b œ œ bœ b˙ œ bœ bœ
œ
œ œ œ œ
6 6 6
b œœœ bœ œ œ œ bœ œ
&b œ’ ’ ’ œ œ ’ bœ œ ’
œ nœ bœ œ
œ œ œ
b #œ nœ
+ Fl 8va
œ œ.
& b #œ œ œ nœ œ œ œ œ
œ.
œ
œ œ œ œ œ
6 6 6 6
œ
bb #œ œ œ ’ nœ œ œ ’ œœœ
& n œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œœ’ ’
œ œ œ œ
˙ œ œ #œ ˙ #œ ˙
b œ
&b ˙ œ œ œ
œ #œ ˙ #œ ˙
œ
6 6 6
œ
&b
b œ œ ’ ’ ’ œœœ ’ ’ ’ œœœ ’
œ œ
œ
œ œ œ nœ œ
œ
278
Musical example No. 26: Braga’s Marabá, Nature theme and Fate theme
b 12 œ.
& b 8 œ. œ. œ.
π subito
œ œ
B b b 12 œ œ œ ≈ œ œ nœ œ ≈ œ œ œ œ ≈ œ œ œ
8 ≈œ œ œ b œ
The Nature theme permeates the entire piece also by linking one theme or
section to another (for instance, orchestral score p. 6-7, mm. 37-46: The Nature theme
linking Marabá’s tenderness theme to Marabá’s sorrow theme), and finally closing the
was taken as so “accurate” and based on “just criterion,” that it was quoted in an
The descriptive intensity of Marabá does not derive from material formulae of
onomatopoeia, but from a vague and undefined suggestion that Francisco Braga
exerts over the audience; one feels the crystal lymph’s murmurs down the river,
the murmurs of a great forest’s leaves, all the minute stages of sunrise, from the
gray penumbra of the night until the sun emerging from behind the mountains’
crest blasts a fanfare with vibrant, incandescent, multicolor light; a kiss that the
king star offers to Earth in its kind and royal stretching.72
72 “A intensidade descritiva que possui a Marabá não deriva das fórmulas materiais da onomatopéia,
mas sim de uma sugestão vaga e indefinida que Francisco Braga exerce sobre o auditório; sente-se o
murmurar da linfa cristalina pelos rios abaixo, o rumorejar das folhas de uma grande floresta, todos os
minuciosos estádios do alvorecer, desde a acinzentada penumbra da madrugada até que o sol, emergindo
por detrás da crista das montanhas, entôa uma fanfarra de luz multicor, vibrante, incandescente; um
ósculo, enfim, que o astro rei dá à terra, no seu bondoso e real espreguiçar./ Não como Escragnolle
Doria o quiz, mas como Francisco Braga o entendeu, o lugar, a hora ficam perfeitamente definidos com
este prólogo rutilante, e nele Francisco Braga coloca a loura e branca Marabá, carpindo as suas dores,
chorando os seus doces e amargos amores.” (Alfredo Camarate, quoted in article by unidentified critic,
special correspondent from São Paulo, referring to the concert ca. 24 and 26 January 1901 at the Teatro
Sant’Anna, São Paulo; JC, 31 Jan. 1901, p. 3, T&M)
279
Although Braga’s Marabá does not make use of onomatopoeic effects, the
same critics perceived this work as expressing a localized landscape in its particularities
of Brazilian nature.
But what makes this symphonic poem an art work is the native perfume that
emanates incessantly from its music: the creeks that murmur are our creeks; the
tree trunk that moan impelled by the wind are the majestic and gigantic trunks of
our trees; the sun that shines in the orchestra a sonorous flame of light is our
sun, the sun that warms us up, the sun that enlivens us, the sun that burns and
tans our skin, but the sun that we love, because it is ours, completely ours! The
audience championed the composer making him repeat the [symphonic] poem.73
One may infer from another article that the making of an ambience that does not
forwarding motion of a trochaic rhythm, which would associate this work with European
music, Braga uses the 6/4 signature with a rhythmic pattern lacking the down beat
That undulating rhythm, that movement that does not beat precisely but bounces
gently like the malleable cane bounces with the wind, is a peril to all songs
moving within it. Everything seems to oscillate daintily, indecisively like the soft
garland, the delicate flower with the wind.74
73 “Mas o que torna este poema sinfônico uma incontestável obra prima da arte brasileira é o perfume
nativo que dele a todo o momento se desprende: os regatos que murmurão são os nossos regatos; os
troncos que gemem, impelidos pelo sopro do vento, são os magestosos e gigantescos troncos das
nossas árvores; o sol que, na orquestra, rutila uma chama sonora de luz é o nosso sol, o sol, que nos
aquece, o sol que nos aviventa, o sol que nos queima e bronzeia a tez, mas o sol que amamos, porque é
só nosso, inteiramente nosso!”/ O auditório vitoriou o autor, forçando-o a repetir o poema.” (Alfredo
Camarate, quoted in article by unidentified critic, special correspondent from São Paulo, referring to the
concert ca. 24 and 26 January 1901 at the Teatro Sant’Anna, São Paulo (JC, 31 Jan. 1901, p. 3,
T&M)
74 “Aquele ritmo ondulante, aquele movimento que não marca tempos precisos e balouça-se levemente
como ao vento o junco maleável, é um perigo para todos os cantos que dentro deles se movem. Tudo
ali parece oscilar vagamente, indecisamente como a ramagem tenra a fina flor dos ventos.” .” (Article
[by Rodrigues Barbosa] refering to the concert in Rio de Janeiro on 9 June 1901 in JC, 10 June 1901,
p. 2, T&M)
280
Although reception did not make any explicit reference to the popular themes
(unless one interprets the statement “with all the songs one can hear when the sun faints
in the horizon and lightly eyes/ pupils of light open up in the firmament,” from
themes), one may hypothesize that the use of popular themes within an ambience that
does not recall “universal” pastoral music rhythmic conventions allowed Brazilian
Braga’s works show that the composer moved from an European Romantic
style to a more nationalist approach to descriptive music. From Paysage to Marabá, one
can see in music the process in literature described by Candido, from landscape as
sensibility within a nationalist expression.75 In the first case, the poet abstracts nature’s
Rosen’s terminology for music).76 The use of 12/8 trochaic rhythm and the pastoral
flutes in parallel thirds shows the search for “universal” expression through landscape
in Paysage. In the second case, the poet’s sensibility of nature is a localized reality;
nature as subjectivity and local color. The use of popular themes in Marabá can be
considered the “local color” element indicating the composer’s intention of expressing
a localized landscape. Therefore, the use of folk or popular themes in Marabá evokes
nationality.77
Marabá situates landscape as place and moment by depicting the Brazilian forest in a
changing landscape from sunset to nightly stars to moonlight. Thus, the melancholy of
the renegade is temporalized in the tropical sunset. However, early reception perceived
Braga’s music in different ways. Rodrigues Barbosa saw a correspondence between the
literary text and its musical realization by considering the large syntax of this
That music seems a sonorous and harmonic murmur of our forests with all the
songs one can hear when the sun faints in the horizon and lightly eyes/ pupils of
light open up in the firmament. 79
On the other hand, Alfredo Camarate and Jornal do Comércio’s São Paulo
text:
One feels … every single moment of the sunrise, from the gray penumbra of the
night until the sun emerging from behind the mountains. (…) The place and the
hour are perfectly defined in this dazzling prologue, not as Escragnolle Doria
wanted it but as Francisco Braga understood it.80
e amor” (1857):81
[The orphan cries, and the flower blushes at the rays of the dawn, at the morning
light.]
Marabá was recognized not only for its skillful integration of musical form and
poetic content,83 but also for its “tropical eloquence” musically expressing “Brazilian
effect.”85
81 Abreu 1926: 42.
82 “Em Marabá, [Francisco Braga] é um paisagista de mérito, dando-nos a impressão das nossas matas
espessas e intermináveis, na alegria do amanhecer, quando tudo se faz oiro, num radioso
deslumbramento de luz. O canto triste de Marabá se ouve nesse ambiente e todas as vozes se unem no
mesmo lirismo, como se a natureza ardente precisasse se humanizar naquela mágoa indefinível.”
(Almeida 1926: 129)
83 “O entusiasmo do público, porém, atingiu o auge depois da execução do «Marabá». / E com razão. É
nessa obra prima de Francisco Braga que o artista alia com admirável engenho a inspiração à fatura.”
(JC, 31 Jan. 1901, p. 3, T&M, article by unidentified critic, special correspondent from São Paulo,
referring to the concert ca. 24 and 26 January 1901 at the Teatro Sant’Anna, São Paulo). “Conhecendo
hoje melhor o poema Marabá, pelo maior número de audições, julgamo-nos mais habilitados a dizer
algo dessa composição. É um trabalho admirável como idéia e como forma, e também um trecho
dificílimo para uma realização perfeita. Só uma orquestra educadíssima com professores solistas em cada
um dos naipes, poderá executar bem… (Article [by Rodrigues Barbosa] referring to the concert in Rio
de Janeiro on 9 June 1901, in JC, 10 June 1901, p. 2, T&M)
84 “Encontrou Francisco Braga no poema sinfônico que inventara Liszt, como ‘síntese do lirismo
poético e do lirismo musical’, na definição de Camille Mauclair, a forma predileta para a sua obra de
283
The placement of Marabá, the archetypal outcast, in local nature confers another
clearly the site with the historical event represented by the work. The typical elements of
Brazilian landscape (the vegetation, the cottage, the native people) become essential to
the interpretation of the historical event as an event intrinsically identified with the land
and its destiny as a nation. Therefore, there is a close connection between landscape and
history.86
Gomes, embodying musically the same two Indianismo’s precepts, namely, the
identification of the Indian with nature (forest murmurs) and landscape as historical
locale. Jupyra’s scene shows strong influence of Pery’s scene (Act II) from Gomes’ Il
sinfonista, na qual poderia dar largas ao seu entusiasmo e à sua exaltação, que fluem numa eloquência
bem tropical. (…) O poema Marabá, em que engenhosamento aproveitou o processo da música de
programa, merece particular referência, porque nele Francisco Braga sentiu a sua música dentro da
emoção brasileira. Revelou-se um paisagista de mérito, procurando dar-nos a impressão das nossas
matas espessas e intermináveis, onde se encontra Marabá, a mameluca que os índios da sua tribo
desprezaram por não ser filha de pai da mesma raça. Assim triste e abandonada, ela chora a sua desdita e
o luar macio cobra a sua mágoa indefinível. Dentro desse motivo lírico, inspirado num trecho de
Escragnole Dória, realizou Francisco Braga seu poema, que é uma página de poesia e ternura.” (Almeida
1942: 440)
85 “É um poema de efeito e de intenções brasileiras.”( Almeida 1942: 440)
86 Mattos 1999: 88, 92, 101, 103.
284
Both scenes transposed to the operatic narrative the convention of the historical
novel of associating “the description of local landscape and the feeling of nature with
I love you so much at this moment, my dear land! At this moment of nocturnal
and mysterious forest murmuring, insects buzzing, and light scintillating and
expelling the darkness! In this rosy hour in which the sun awakes greeted by
cheerful birds singing to the dawn the anthem of joy! My soul kneels to the
Lord and thanks the greatness of this homeland that is mine!
Gomes’ paradigm, i.e., by using the sabiá birdcall in the context of the sun rising from
œ œ j
œ œ œ œ œj œ œ œ
Flute
3 œ
œœ œ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ
&4 Ó Œ
F (Sabiá)
œ
j
œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ œ œœ œ Œ œ œœ œ Œ œ œœ œ œ œj œ Œ
& Œ Œ Œ
of folk tune as a way of localizing landscape and evoking national feelings, an approach
Musical example No. 28: Nepomuceno’s “Alvorada na serra,” folk tune “sapo
jururu”
œ. œ œ œ w
Lentamente Flute
j
Oboe
œ . œ œ œ œ œ œj ˙
Oboe
& C œ. œ œ œ w J
J J œ œ œ œ w
π ritard.
music of forest murmurs used earlier by Gomes in Pery’s scene, and by Braga in
Marabá.
286
Musical example No. 29a: Nepomuceno’s “Alvorada na serra,” forest murmurs
œ #œ
œœœ œ #œ √
#œœ œ œœ #œ œ œœ #œ œ œ
œœ œ
&c œ œœ#œ œ#œ œœ œœ œœ
œœ œœ œœ
ƒ
Harps
œ#œ œ œ #œ œœ
?c ∑ œœœœœ #œœ œ œ œ#œ œœ ?
&
œ#œ #œœ
(loco)
√
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
& œ
Calmo
œ œ œ œ œ œ
? Violoncellos
œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ
œœœœœœœœ œœœœœœœœ
∏ 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3
?
w w w
˙ #˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ #˙ ˙ ˙ w w w
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
? œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œœ b œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ b œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œ b œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
? Œ Ó œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
w w wœ œ œ œ œ œ w œ œ œ œ œ œ wœ œ œ œ œ œ
w œ
œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
? b œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ b œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ b œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ œœ b œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ œœ œ
3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3
cresc.
? Œ Ó
w ˙ ˙ w w
œ ˙ w
287
Nepomuceno’s approach to landscape in “Alvorada na serra” can be
embodying folk costumes and national feeling of melancholy, namely, the Sapo Jururu
tune, functions as the foreground of a landscape musically painted with native birdcalls
The expression of national feelings through landscape was the ideological basis
“Alvorada na serra.” The last two composers adopted the use of folk tunes as a means
From the previous description, one may consider that the generation after
emotion found in Gomes’ “Al chiaro di luna” was refined by Braga in Paysage and
Pery’s scene (Act II) from Il Guarany and the Prelude “Alvorada” (Act IV) from Lo
Schiavo echoed in the work of the following composers: the identification of the Indian
with nature in Braga’s Jupyra and Marabá; the use of sabiá birdcall as a nationalist
statement and the use of native birdcalls in general as a way of localizing landscape into
the use of sunrise as a metaphor of Brazil as a young nation in “Alvorada na serra,” the
storm scene in Tiradentes, Fróes’ “Vozes D’Alva,” and Villa-Lobos’ Amazonas and
Jupyra; landscape as historical locale in Jupyra and Marabá, and Tiradentes; finally,
288
nature as Edenic locale perceived either from the sentimental or the monumental
Braga and Nepomuceno added the use of folk and popular tunes as the element
embodying folk costumes and national feelings, and searched for a more distinctive
descriptive musical formula for forest murmurs. The nationalist ideology of landscape
in Brazilian Romantic music was the expression of national feelings through landscape.
by the two preceding generations. Some elements were reframed while others were
totally abandoned. The identification of the Indian with nature was maintained although
reshaped upon Indian-based legends. The use of sabiá birdcall as a nationalist statement
was discarded for its close association with Romanticism, but the use of native birdcalls
in general as a way of localizing landscape into national boundaries was maintained. The
murmurs was enlarged to a wide variety of forest sounds. In the vision of nature as
Edenic locale predominated the mythical and the monumental (ufanista) perspective
landscape as historical locale was replaced by mythical time that was essentially
atemporal. (This is valid to Uirapuru e Amazonas, but obviously does not apply to later
feelings, Villa-Lobos turned landscape into the embodiment of national essence. Villa-
Lobos gave a major turn to “sentimental nationalism” by relying on the Edenic vision
expanding the sounds evoking nature including a wider range of forest sounds, animals,
monsters, natural and supernatural beings, and by using Indian-like legends that
reframed the identification of the Indian with nature and installed an atemporal mythical
time.
musical description of forest murmurs to a wide variety of forest sounds that was
Amazonas, in the year after its first performance,89 reflects the perception of Villa-
These elements, these sonorous forces are profoundly “nature.” (…) They
appear as voices, sounds, noises, thuds, whirring sounds, symbols coming out of
meteorological phenomena, of geological accidents and irrational beings. It is the
rowdy impudence of the virgin land (…) It is music learned from the birds and
feral animals, the savage people and typhoons, the water and primeval religions.
Music of nature, comparing to which the Sixth Symphony and Siegfried are
nothing more than well-behaved samples of nature (in terms of cosmic meaning,
not aesthetic beauty) exhibiting in the vitrines commercialized nature, cleaned off
and dressed by Christian civilization (…) I know nothing in music, not even the
barbarous Rite of Spring of Stravinsky …, that is so, I don’t say “primal,” but
so expressive of the green and the earth-colored laws of nature as the music, or
at least certain pieces of music, of Villa-Lobos.91
89 Amazonas was composed in 1917 but premiered only twelve years later (30 May 1929) at the Salle
Gaveau in Paris, performed by the Orchestre des Concerts Poulet.
90 Maia 2000: 20
91 “Esses elementos, essas forças sonoras são profundamente “natureza” (…) Parecem vozes, sons,
ruídos, baques, estalos, tatalares, símbolos saídos dos fenômenos metereorológicos e dos seres
290
Although “no specific timbre effects seem to imitate the exotic native sounds of
the jungle,” as Béhague has pointed out, Villa-Lobos was able to create a musical
landscape musical experiences from preceding generations opened the path to Villa-
Brazilian culture of his time, in which geographic and anthropological knowledge were
reinterpreted through the Edenic vision of Brazilian nature. That Edenic vision oscillated
between a mythical view of Brazilian frontier and its native inhabitants, and a
nature was informed by the continuing revival of Colonial writings, the publication of
collections of folk tales and Indian legends, fiction literature, the mapping of the
The Edenic vision of the new land has been constructed since the age of the
conception of “heaven on earth,” the Iberian conquerors hoped to find in the New
irracionais. É o despudor bulhento da terra virgem que Villa-Lobos representa, melhor nesta obra que
em nenhuma outra (…) música aprendida com os passarinhos e as feras, com os selvagens e os tufões,
com as águas e as religiões primárias. Música da natureza, junto da qual a Sexta sinfonia ou o Siegfried
(não como beleza, mas como significação cósmica) não passam de amostras bem educadinhas de
natureza, pra expor, nas vitrines, natureza já comercializada, limpinha e vestida na civilização cristã (…)
Nada conheço em música, nem mesmo a bárbara Sagração da Primavera de Stravinski (aliás, de outra
e genialmente realizada estética) que seja tão, não digo “primário”, mas tão expressivo das leis verdes e
terrosas da natureza sem trabalho, como a música, ou pelo menos, certas músicas de Villa-Lobos.”
(Translation based on Béhague 1994: 57-8)
92 Béhague 1992: 52, 56.
93 For a discussion of Edenic and eldorado myth see Hollanda 1959; and Coutinho 1972: 35, 49.
291
World “a paradise made of earthly riches and heavenly beatitude, which would be
offered to them without demanding major work, but as a free gift.” Among the literary
conventions (or topoi) of Edenic myths of Iberian conquest is the description of the
magic scenario plenty with exotic birds and fruits, and with “thick forests” populated
descriptions of the natural environment, among the purposes of which were to assert
veracity to the traveler’s journey and to encourage new settlers by seducing them to the
The Edenic vision of Colonial writings implied in the utilitarian and mythic
production and reception. The mythic view was nourished by Colonial writings’
reached the twentieth century with ufanismo, the patriotic feeling that exalted the young
nation’s natural resources and wonders, and territory with continental dimensions.
and identity. The continuing mapping of Brazilian territory was of strategic importance.
transl. and notes by B. F. Ramiz Galvão); “Expansão Geográfica do Brasil até fins do
século XVII” by the historian Basílio de Magalhães (presented during the First Meeting
of National History in Rio de Janeiro, 1914, and awarded the Dom Pedro II Gold Medal
books on the nation’s resources with an eye on foreign affairs. Brazilian image abroad
commissioned for international exhibitions during the Imperial Period. Likewise, each
president during the First Republic used to honor his administrative term with a
monumental volume on the subject. For instance, Campos Sales commissioned Marie
Robinson Wright’s The New Brazil - Its resources and attractions (printed in
Philadelphia, 1907); and Rodrigues Alves commissioned Artur Dias’s The Brazil of
domestic and international attention with works such as The River Amazon, by Paul
Fountain; The Lower Amazon, by Algot Lange; The Upper Reaches of the Amazon, by
Joseph Woodroffe, all of them published in 1914. The utilitarian view of nature
motivated the writing of works such as Mário Guedes’s Os Seringais (1914) and
97 Luís Veríssimo’s book review on Reclus published in the first page of JC, 1 May 1900 illustrates
the popularization of such a kind of knowledge. See also Luca 1999: 97, 112
293
Charles E. Akers’ The Rubber Industry in Brazil and the Orient (1914), and some of
them, such as Joseph H. Kerby’s The Land of Tomorrow: the Amazon (1906), were
Brasil, a monthly review that circulated from 1916 to 1925, kept the issue of Brazil’s
publishing articles ranging from the wonderment of the land’s abundance to the need of
The monumental view engendered national pride and ufanismo. Ufanismo can
and varied natural resources, unique plants, animals, and landscapes, revealing national
pride and self-aggrandizing. The exaltation of Brazilian nature in comparison with the
European was first expressed by Colonial nativista literature,100 and came to be one of
century with Gonçalves Dias’ “Canção do Exílio,”101 and culminating in the twentieth
century with ufanismo summed up by Afonso Celso (1860-1938) in Por que me ufano
published on the occasion of the Fourth Centennial of Discovery of Brazil, “that fixed
294
ufanismo as a naive national consciousness pattern.”102 Celso’s book, defined by the
author as “a light work of dissemination,” had twelve editions until 1942 and was
widely read by children and the adult public. In this nationalist doctrine, Celso replied to
the predominantly pessimistic view of Brazil at the time and its inferiority complex, by
exulting Brazilian natural resources and listing eleven reasons of Brazilian superiority in
comparison with other nations: territorial size, beauty, country’s richness, variety and
amenity of its climate; lack of natural disasters or calamities, the excellence of the ethnic
elements forming the national type, noble qualities of national character, etc.”103
Nature here flaunts the most varied fertilities. Here we have luxuriant virgin
jungles, fields of oceanic vastness, world’s most overflowing rivers, the most
portentous waterfalls, the healthiest regions (…) and the most enjoyable beaches
(…) Nature endowed Brazil with all the opulence and fascination of its
inexhaustible treasures.104
the expectations of Brazilian society at large,” since it fulfilled the idea of “new nation”
style” reside in “the necessity of representing the image of Brazilian nature abounding
“grandiose and eloquent view of Brazil” was embodied by the sound masses created
by Villa-Lobos, in which “the indulgence of sound effects motivates and engages the
internal language of his music, its dissonant harmonies, multiform rhythms, varied
timbres, and expansive melodies. The fortissimos do not convey tension but overflowing
This ufanista view of Brazil was primarily associated with nature and mostly
expressed through musical landscape. Within this “ideology of a nation that imagined
the aspirations of a gigantic, savage and floral Brazil.”106 Musical criticism has
Beaufils, for instance, in commenting upon Amazonas, Uirapuru and Erosão, describes
the composer’s orchestral approach “as profuse as the sertão or the Amazonian
forest.”107
image of the Amazon created out of the expectations engendered by previous images
illustrations disseminated in contemporary culture.108 The gap between reality and the
Since the early times all of us gaze at an idealized Amazon, due to the singularly
lyric passages of the inumerable reports by trabellers that since Humboldt until
today have contemplated the prodigious Hyloe with religious awe. Therefore, it
results a phenomenon very common in psychology: when we face the real
The monumental view of Brazilian nature and the mythification of the Amazon
was also fostered by travellers’ chronicles and fiction literature with works such as Julio
Verne’s A jangada [The raft] (1882); José Veríssimo de Matos’ Cenas da Vida
Selvagem [Savage Fatherland] (1900); and Alberto Rangel’s Inferno Verde [The Green
legends through the publication of studies and collections such as Couto de Magalhães’
[Red Slaves, Amazonian Myths] (1899); poetic settings of Indian legends published in
periodicals such as Bel. Campos Porto’s Uiara, Prá Yauara (In O Paiz, RJ), Melo
Moraes Filho’s Yacy uaruá (in Revista anthropologica); and verse and prose fiction
such as José Veríssimo’s Cenas da Vida Amazônica [Scenes of Amazonian Life, short
stories with a study on the indigenous and miscegenated population of the Amazon]
(1886; reprint 1899), and José Coutinho de Oliveira’s Lendas Amazônicas (1916).
109 Euclides da Cunha, À Margem da História (1909), quoted in Süssekind 2000: 32.
297
sometimes showed its loathing against the daughters of Atlantis, but in honor to
their beauty, he sometimes also calmed down the tides of its river waters. The
savage maiden enjoyed herself invoking the sun with ritual gestures, displaying
her divine body in graceful movements so her body could be contemplated by
the sunrays of the king star or mirrored in the undulating surface of the river.
The more the Indian maiden sees her shadow drawing her beauty in the cold and
indolent screen, as no one have never idealized, the more she feels proud of
herself in such a brutal sensuality. While the virgin goes astray, the god of the
tropical winds blows a perfume with tenderness and love, but the maiden ignores
his supplication of love, and dances letting herself to crazily enjoy her pleasures
as a naïve child. The jealousy god of the winds gets offended by such a disdain,
and takes the chaste perfume of the daughter of the Marajós to the profane
regions of the monsters. One of the monsters detects the maiden, and search for
her with such an anxiety that he destroys everything on his way. He approaches
her. Impelled by the instinctive power that nature endowed the living beings, the
monster goes to realize the unruly caprice of the invisible imam. To a short
distance from the maiden, the monster stops walking and starts crawling. Then
he contemplates the maiden very closely in extasis. He desires her. But the
Indian maiden, looking at her own transformed image, full of terror and with no
destiny, the consecrated virgin dives into the abysm of her own desire, followed
by the monster.
Uma linda virgem e moça, consagrada pelos deuses das florestas Amazônicas,
costumava saudar a aurora, banhando-se nas águas do Amazonas, o rio
Marajoara, o qual às vezes, ainda mostrava os efeitos de sua cólera contra as
filhas da Atlântida, mas que, em homenagem à beleza delas, de vez em quando,
também, acalmava as ondas de sua própria corrente eterna. A moça selvagem
diverte-se alegremente, ora invocando o sol com gestos rituais, ora contornando
o corpo divino em gestos graciosos, para que seu corpo possa inteiramente ser
contemplado pela luz do astro-rei ou se refletir na ondulante superfície do rio. E
quando mais vê sua sombra desenhar na tela dolente e fria os traços de sua
beleza, tal como ninguém a idealizara, mais ela se orgulha de si mesma, numa
sensualidade brutal. Enquanto a virgem cisma, o deus dos ventos tropicais a
perfuma com seu sopro caricioso e amoroso, mas a moça, desprezando essas
implorações de amor, dança entregando-se loucamente aos seus prazeres como
uma criança ingênua. Indignado de tanto desprezo, o ciumento deus dos ventos
leva o perfume casto da filha dos Marajós até as regiões profanas dos monstros.
Um destes monstros sente a moça e, na ansiedade de possuí-la, tudo destruindo
ao passar, avança e, sem ser percebido, aproxima-se da índia. Impulsionado pela
força dos instintos que a natureza depositou nos seres vivos, ele vai realizar o
capricho incontrastável do ímã invisível. À pequena distância da virgem, o
monstro pára de caminhar e principia rastejando. Já perto, ele contempla a moça
extasiado e a deseja. Sem ser percebido por ela, o monstro procura-se esconder-
se, porém sua imagem é refletida pela luz do sol sobre a mancha cinzenta da
sombra da índia. É, então, que vendo sua própria imagem transformada, cheia de
terror e sem destino, a virgem consagrada, seguida pelo monstro, precipita-se no
abismo do seu próprio desejo.110
versions of Indian legends associated with the Indian female, such as Melo Moraes
Filho’s poetic version of the sirens legend from Rio Negro, which was used by Alberto
Nepomuceno in Uiaras (1897) for soprano solo and women choir with orchestral
Indian legends in Brazilian art music.111 According to Cascudo, this poetic version of a
supposedly Indian legend contains many European elements: the image of the siren
living in a palace in the depths of the river, her beauty (a woman with white skin, blue
eyes and blond hair) and seduction methods (charming singing) do not belong to
indigenous culture, but show how European mythic motives disseminated among the
hinterland population since the Colonial period.112 Also, Melo Moraes Filho’s poetry
111 “Travesso menino/ Do fundo das águas/ Que em flocos se ameigam dos juncos ao pé,/ Um canto
macio,/ De quem não se vê.// O canto se estende; mais doce que as moitas/ Que dormem silentes às
luzes do céu./ Se acaso o barqueiro, que vai na jangada,/ Lhe escuta a toada,/ Meu Deus, se perdeu!/
Travesso menino,/ Não sabes ainda?/ Ali as Uiaras se ocultam revéis;/ São elas as moças que vivem
cantando,/ Crianças roubando./ São moças cruéis!// São alvas, mais alvas que os dentes das antas,/ Mais
louras que a pele das onças… são belas! Se alguém as descobre na mole corrente,/ Lá some-se a gente,/
Sumiu-se com elas!// Em noites de lua resvalam fugaces,/ Quais névoas douradas, nas águas azuis!/ E
ao colo suspenso nas ondas bem mansas/ Enroscam-se as tranças/ Quais serpes de luz.// E elas entoam
cantigas tão meigas/ Que o eco dos vales acorda veloz…/ Mas foge, menino, de ouvires das fadas/
Gentis, encantadas,/ Um hino, uma voz!// _”Eu tenho aqui mil palácios/ Todos feitos de corais,/ Seus
tetos são mais formosos/ Que a coma dos palmeirais./ Infante que vais no monte,/ Deixa o teu pouso
d’além;/ Eu sei histórias bonitas…/ Vem!// Quando nas cestas d’espuma/ Sigo à toa até o mar,/ As
princesas que morreram/ Descem na luz do luar./ Jangadeiro que murmuras,/ Eu sou princesa também;/
O rio está na vasante…/ Vem!// Minhas escravas são virgens/ Loucas, esbeltas, morenas;/ Têm mais
ternura nos olhos/ Que orvalho nas açucenas./ Jangadeiro, a noite é fria,/ Tem mal-assombro o sertão;/
Minhas escravas são lindas…/ São!// Tenho colares de per’las,/ Harpas d’ouro em que descanto;/
Governo a luz das estrelas,/ Pára o luar ao meu canto./ Infante, a choça é deserta./ Ninguém te espera lá,
não;/ Minhas histórias são belas… São!”// E assim elas levam às grutas sombrias,/ Às grutas
medonhas dos rios, do mar/ Aqueles que ouviram seus cantos à noite,/ Distantes do fogo querido do
lar.// Ouviste, menino? – Não corras do rancho, Que ali as Uiaras se ocultam revéis; São elas as moças
que vivem cantando,/ Crianças roubando…/ São moças cruéis!” (Concert note EM-UFRJ of the concert
held on 1 August 1897 at the Salão do Instituto Nacional de Música)
112 Cascudo 1983: 131, 139.
299
reveals some nuances in the representation of the Iara legend that certainly come from
contributed to the flourishing primitivism associated with the mythic vision of Brazilian
nature and native inhabitants. Its approach to the subject kept some Romantic
idealization contrasted with brutal realism reflecting the influence of scientificism in the
literature of his time. Although Melo Moraes “was the first consistently to use Indian
legends, superstitions and traditions as literary themes in expressions that do not seek to
glorify the Indian himself” (Cantos do Equador (1880), and Mitos e Poemas (1884)),
his approach further mythified the savagery of the Indian. For instance, Pátria Selvagem
contains nature description (“Na Mata Virgem”) [In the virgin jungle], crudeness and
cannibal scenes helped to construct the imagery that engendered the Anthropophagic
movement.113
The Indian issue had wide repercussion during the first two decades of the
twentieth century. The idealized view of the Indian constructed by Indianismo was
sertanistas and ethnographers. “The Indian became the subject of science. However,
this new ethnographic view also conveyed a kind of unrealistic and nostalgic
primitivism.”114
sertanistas’ field reports disseminated through newspapers, letters, art & science
magazines, books, museums, and conferences illustrated with pictures and films. The
frontier work of Candido Mariano da Silva Rondon (1865-1958) was reported since its
beginnings in 1892, and had a high point of popularization with the conference series at
the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro on 5, 7 and 9 October 1915, and his illustrated
(especially the Guarani in the region of Bauru, São Paulo state) with an approach that
study on the indigenous population, “Die Sagen von der Erschaffung und Vernichtung
der Welt als Grundlagen der Religion der Apapocuva-Guarani,” in Zeitschrift für
Ethonologie (Berlim), vol. XLVI, which discussed the religion and mythology of Indian
In 1910, the creation of the Serviço de Proteção aos Índios gave a major turn to
the official policy towards the Indian that made it deliberately laic and as much scientific
as possible so that the contact between the Indian and the European was no longer
Museum in Rio de Janeiro since 1910. Two years later he opened the path to Brazilian
documentary movies by bringing from Rondonia the first ethnographic films about the
Nambikuara Indians, which were exhibited in 1913 at the conference room of the
series about the current knowledge on the Indians in Brazil promoted by the National
Library in Rio de Janeiro. Among the issues discussed by Roquete-Pinto was a critical
Fernão Cardim, Gabriel Soares, and Martius during the Colonial period. In the same
theogony, appeared.117
The increasing interest on the Indian also raised issues of human and civil rights,
which were discussed by Roquete Pinto’s conference “Sur la situation sociale des
Indiens du Brésil” [On the social situation of the Indians in Brazil] presented at the
Universal Meeting of Races, London in July of 1911; and by João Mendes Jr. (1856-
periodicals such as the Revista da Semana, which published a picture of the Carajá
Indian in the issue of 6 October 1901, and Cidade do Rio, which published an article
about the Amazonian Indians in the issue of 14 November 1901; books such as Vicente
Amazon, especially the Marajó Island” (1905) and the many editions of Couto de
Magalhães’ O Selvagem; the live exhibition of Indian culture such as the Bororo Indian
ritual during the Exposição Nacional (1908) by the Instituto Histórico e Geográfico
reported in daily newspapers, magazines, conferences, books and motion pictures, and
through Edenic myth glasses. Even magazines with scientific proclivity such as Revista
existence of large areas of unexplored land in Northern and Western Brazil, stirring the
imagination of the elite, which laid dreams of richness, abundance and exoticism in
places such as the Amazon.”121 Places such as the Amazon were an overwhelming
challenge to science not only for its topography and geology but also for its fauna and
flora. “It was as if the language of science lost its efficacy when dealing with such
119 RS, 11 Oct. 1908, no. 439, p. 948, Ribaltas. See chapter 2.
120 The major published works by Euclides da Cunha are Os Sertões (1902), Contrastes e Confrontos
(1907), and À margem da história (1909). For Cunha’s contribution, see Gilberto Freyre (1966)
“Euclides da Cunha, revelador da realidade brasileira,” in Euclides da Cunha, Obra Completa (A.
Coutinho, ed.); and Luis Costa Lima (1997). Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon (1865-1958), Brazilian
sertanista (frontiersman) and geographer, established a pacific policy for the encounter with Indian
populations of Brazilian unknown territory, whose maxim was “To dye, if necessary. To kill, never.”
Rondon always incorporated scientists into his expeditions, which allowed the study and research of
Brazilian geography, bothany, zoology, ethnography, and anthropology. For Rondon’s contribution,
see Darcy Ribeiro, O indigenista Rondon (1958); and Luca 1999, 119- 123. Roquete-Pinto’s major
published works are “O Brasil e a Antropogeografia” (Revista do Brasil, Dec. 1916, vol. 4 no. 12), and
Rondônia (1917). For Roquete-Pinto’s contribution, see Luca 1999: 116-7, 121.
121 Luca 1999, 113.
122 Luca 1999: 114.
303
Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru can be inscribed within this Edenic imaginary created
forest with “exotic birds” and “gentle and uncorrupted people.” Villa-Lobos
discarded the Romantic bird, the sabiá, and adopted another native bird associated with
the Amazonian imaginary of “marvelous nature” and folk belief. Villa-Lobos chose a
native bird plenty of allure, from its fascinating singing, the difficulty in getting a sight
of it, its amulet properties, to the controversy about its actual species.123
The mythology around the uirapuru bird was subject of Ermano de Stradelli’s
(1876; Part 2) and its contentious response by Silvio Romero (1888),125 Gustavo
Barroso’s Mythes, Contes et Légendes des Indiens, Folklore Brésilien (1930), Gastão
123 Some ornithologists, folklorists and native people maintain that there is the “true” species of
uirapuru, while others sustain that there are many species. See, for instance, Orico (1975: 279-281),
Goeldi (1981), Johan Dalgas Frisch (1982). It seems that the bird whose song is similar to the one
transcribed by Spruce and used by Villa-Lobos is the Leucolepia musica. Dicionário Aurélio:
Uirapuru, [Do tupi wirapu'ru] S. m. Bras. 1. Designação comum a várias espécies de aves
passeriformes, da família dos piprídeos, especialmente as mais coloridas dos gêneros Pipra L.,
Chiroxiphia Cab., Teleonema Reich. Seu canto, que só se ouve uns 5 dias por ano (quando constrói o
ninho) e, ademais, apenas durante cinco a 10 minutos, ao amanhecer, é tido como particularmente
melodioso, musical, e diverso do que o de outra ave qualquer, a ponto de, segundo a lenda, os outros
pássaros todos se calarem para escutá-lo. Var. e sin. (em regiões diversas do Brasil): irapuru, guirapuru,
araparu, irapurá, tangará, rendeira, pássaro-de-fandango, realejo. Next entries: Uirapuru-de-cabeça-branca;
Uirapuru-de-cabeça-encarnada; Uirapuru-de-costa-azul; and Uirapuru-verdadeiro. All these varieties of
uirapuru bird are aves passeriformes and distinguish from each other by family and color.
124 Cascudo (1988, entry “Uirapuru”).
125 Silvio Romero, in his História da Literatura Brasileira (1888), criticized Couto de Magalhães’s
view of Indian religion by remarking that “the Indians were not polytheist as Magalhães’ work has
implied when he defined Indian mythology as comprising [the entities of] Anhangá, Curupira, Jeropari,
Caapora, Saci-Pererê, Boitatá, Urutau, Rudá, Uirapuru, Boiaçu, etc., under Tupã’s supremacy.”
(Romero 1980, 1: 115) The popularity of Couto de Magalhães’ O Selvagem is attested by its third
(revised) edition in 1913 (Martins 1977-8, 5: 524); therefore, four years before Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru.
304
(1944); of poetic renditions of Indian legends such as Humberto Campos’ sonnet
“Irapurú” (a poem from Poeira, 1911-1915); and of literary works such as Gastão
Cruls’ novel Amazônia Misteriosa (1925, reached its fourth edition in 1935), Raimundo
Academy of Letters in 1926, reached its fourth edition in 1936), and Cassiano Ricardo’s
folk knowledge, the uirapuru has charming power over the other birds and beasts of the
forest, and when it sings, all the other birds gather around him to listen to his enchanting
song. Uirapuru myth went beyond the Amazonian Indian culture spreading among rural
and urban population of Northern Brazil, including “tavern keepers, greengrocers, small
prepared by the pajé (Indian shaman), is the most powerful amulet for business, game,
love and happiness, and people use to bury it beneath front doorways, keep it in coffers
or drawers, or carry it in their pockets. The uirapuru talisman generated a small, local
Uirapuru birdcall was first transcribed by the British botanist Richard Spruce,
who stayed in the Brazilian Amazon from 1849 to 1864, and figures in his book Notes
of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes (1908; edited by Alfred Russel Wallace).128 It
is very likely that Villa-Lobos knew the following report by Spruce given the similarity
between Spruce’s transcription of the uirapuru birdcall and the uirapuru theme used by
126 Driver (1942: 170-1), Orico (1975: 51, 53 and 279), and Martins (1977-8, 6: 373-5).
127 Stradelli (18--) quoted in Orico (1975: 52) and Cascudo (1988, entry “Uirapuru”); Couto de
Magalhães quoted in Orico (1975: 53); Raimundo de Moraes quoted in Orico (1975: 50-1); Cascudo
(n.d.: 118-119); and Orico (1975: 279).
128 Cascudo n.d.: 118-119.
305
There was a little bird which interested me exceedingly by its song, although I
did not get a sight of it. It is called Uirá-purú (which means merely Spotted
bird), and is said to be about the size of a sparrow. As Senhor Bentes had told
me I should certainly hear it at the caxoeiras [water falls], adding that “it played
tunes for all the world like a musical snuff-box,” I was constantly listening for
it; and at length one day, just after noon – the hour when birds and beasts are
mostly silent – I had the pleasure of hearing it strike up close at hand. There was
no mistaking its clear bell-like tones, as accurately modulated as those of a
musical instrument. Its “phrases” were short, but each included all the notes of
the diapason; and after repeating one phrase perhaps twenty times, it would
suddenly pass to another – sometimes with a change of key to the major fifth –
and continue it for an equal space. Usually, however, there was a brief pause
before a change of theme. I had listened for some time before I bethought me of
writing down its song. The following phrase is the one that oftenest recurred:
Musical example No. 30: Spruce’s musical transcription of uirapuru bird call
œ œœœœ œ‰ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ
& J œ J œ etc.
Simple as this music was, its coming from an unseen musician in the depths of
that wild wood gave it a weir-like character, and it held me spellbound for near
an hour, when it suddenly broke off, to be taken up again at so great a distance
that it reached my ear as no more than a faint tinkling.129
folklore studies. Villa-Lobos was the first composer to make up a legend that contains
Uirapuru (“Le petit oiseau enchanté”) (Legend of the Magic Bird) (Brazilian
Ballet) An Indian legend tells that the nightly song of the Uirapuru bird was so
enchanting that the Indian maidens gathered in the evenings to search for the
magic troubadour of the Brazilian forests, because the sorcerers told them that
the Uirapuru was the most handsome Indian chief that there has ever been on
heart, and that he was the king of love). Tropical moonlight night. An ugly
Indian appears in the calm and quiet forest, playing the nose flute made of bones
in a challenge to the magic bird which attracted the Indian maidens with its
singing. The most beautiful Indian maidens come after the sound of the flute,
but get disappointed as they see the ugly Indian. The Indian maidens decide to
129Spruce (1908: 101-102) in vol. I, chap. III. “An excursion to Obidos and the river Trombetas
(November 19, 1849 to January 6, 1850)”
306
banish him with brutality, battering him, pushing him, and kicking him. The
Indian maidens search anxiously for the Uirapuru through the tree leaves,
hoping to find the handsome young Indian. The fireflies, the crickets, the owls,
the [illegible], the frogs, [illegible], the bats, and all the nightly fauna witness the
eagerness of the Indian maidens. Once in a while one can hear some soft trills
announcing the Uirapuru and filling that environment with joy. I beautiful and
strong Indian maiden with an arrow in her hands rises like a skillful hunter of
nightly birds. As she sees the magic bird, she targets the birds with the arrow.
The magic bird falls on the ground. The Indian maiden is surprised as she sees
the bird transformed into an handsome Indian. He is disputed by the other
Indian maidens, who have also chased him eagerly, but the Indian maiden who
had wounded him wins. At the dispute climax, the dooming nasal sound of the
ugly Indian’s bone-flute. The Indian maidens try to hide the handsome Indian
since they are afraid of the revenge of the ugly and evil Indian. However, the
handsome Indian is caught by the terrifying Indian, who throws an arrow with
fury and revenge, deadly wounding the handsome Indian. The Indian maidens
carry the handsome Indian to the border of a pond, where he sudenly transforms
himself into an invisible bird, leaving the sad and loving Indian maidens, who
can only hear his marvelous singing fading in the depth of the quiet forest.
307
apaixonadas, ouvindo apenas o seu canto maravilhoso, que se vai sumindo no
silêncio da floresta.130
Indian with nature by inserting the marvelous component and inscribing it within an
writings constructed the image of American “nature impregnated with mysteries and
encrypted meanings” through the numerous reports of travelers who have supposedly
witnessed the transformation of one animal into another, such as, for instance, the
Terra e Gente do Brasil, and Guilherme Piso in História Natural e Médica da Índia
Transformations within the natural world, and between the human and the natural world,
narratives.133
The transformational motif has a parallel with the Uirapuru program written by
Villa-Lobos for his ballet/ symphonic poem. Since transformations are “imaginal
device (…) express[ing] meanings through concrete and graphic imagic diction.
130 Typed page attached to the autograph P. 39.1.2 (full score) held by MVL-RJ.
131 Hollanda 1969: 217, 211-212.
132 Hollanda 1969: 213.
133 See Cascudo: n.d.
308
Attention to the actual types of graphic imagery employed in myths - for instance ...
The transmutation of the Uirapuru Bird into the Handsome Indian and back to
the Uirapuru Bird constructs the ballet’s natural imagery revealing “aspects of natural
and cultural orders.”135 Through that transmutation, the Indian is identified with nature.
Uirapuru’s graphic imagery translates the physicality of this merging identity. Also, the
Uirapuru bird/ Indian transmutation connection constructs the Edenic vision of nature
tinge of landscape, since it reflects the dialectics between the updating of musical
techniques concomitantly with the representation of the savage and magic world. “The
driving forces of Brazilian Modernism lay in the tension between Futurism and
representation of the savage and magic world.”136 The following analysis aims to show
how Villa-Lobos translated the symbolism of Uirapuru’s literary program into music.
transformational motive representing the Indian magic and primeval world and Brazilian
“marvelous nature” with two Indianismo conventions, namely, the identification of the
Indian with nature, and the opposition between the noble savage and the primitive
Indian. Those conventions and motif are musically translated by characterizing the main
agents of the ballet through specific scale-types and pitch centers, in addition to timbral,
textural, and rhythmic patterns, and also through their dramatic interaction.
scale-type and pitch center of their first appearance or intervention in the major events of
the ballet, which does not necessarily coincide with the first presentation of their themes.
Those major events are the sole display of the Uirapuru Bird, the arrival of the Indian
Maidens, the coming out of the Handsome Indian, and the appearance of the Ugly
Indian (See Table No. 2. All references to scale types are based on Antokoletz (1992;
1993) and Kostka (1989), and should be considered regardless of enharmonic spelling,
and in the case of non-diatonic scales, also regardless of ordering. The pitches in
brackets are omitted in the specific passage under discussion. Please, refer to orchestral
The sole display of the Uirapuru Bird (mm. 134-184 in Block 4) establishes its
Handsome Indian (mm. 197-215 in Block 5) establishes his symbolic area in F-Locrian
appearance of the Ugly Indian (mm. 361-3 in Block 7; musical example No. 32b) in the
symbolic area in the non-diatonic realm. The Indian Maidens (mm. 185-196 in Block 5;
musical example No. 33) are characterized by chord progression based on C#-
The two Indianismo conventions are presented in Part A (mm. 1- 134). Block 1
establishes the identification of the Indian with nature by presenting the Uirapuru Bird
and the Handsome Indian simultaneously and both in the same scale (F-Locrian;
310
musical example No. 31). Block 2 presents the Ugly Indian in non-diatonic scale. The
dramatic interaction between Block 2 and 3 establishes the polarity noble savage versus
of the Handsome Indian, but keeps their primeval kinship by placing them in the non-
diatonic realm at this point of the ballet. In retrospect, the opening section of the ballet
(mm. 1-67) can be considered the exposition of the main characters of the plot and their
significance, and its repetition (mm. 68-134) serves to reiterate its premises.
theme with the Handsome Indian theme (mm. 2-18 in Block 1; musical example No.
31) in the same F-Locrian mode embodies musically the identification of the Indian with
nature. In this instance, uirapuru blends with the Indian by singing in his mode and
tonal center. The identification of the Handsome Indian with the Uirapuru Bird is
further represented throughout the unfolding of the piece. After the Uirapuru display
(mm. 134-184) in E-Phrygian, the bird is wounded by the Indian Huntress’ arrow and
transforms itself into the Handsome Indian in F-Locrian. Later in the piece, when the
in the Uirapuru bird mode and tonal center (E-Phrygian), symbolically corroborating
their mutual identity, or the identification between the Indian and nature. Then, the
Handsome Indian transforms himself into the Uirapuru bird from E-Phrygian to E-
311
transition in Octatonic-2 corroborates its identification with the Handsome Indian since
the latter’s theme shows Octatonic potential (m. 5) and appears in two later instances
under octatonic guise (mm. 31-57 in Octatonic-0 with some diatonic insertion; and mm.
G-A-Bb-C). After briefly taking up the octatonicism implied in the Handsome Indian
theme, the Uirapuru bird sings its farewell song in E-Locrian consummating Indian-
nature sameness; uirapuru lastly sings in its tonal center (E) in the Handsome Indian
312
Musical example No. 31: Villa-Lobos’s Uirapuru, Uirapuru theme and Handsome
Indian theme
b >œ . œ ˙ œ bœ bœ b˙. œ
1st Violins bœ. œ ˙ œ bœ bœ bœ b˙. œ ‰
&c ∑ J Œ ‰ bœ J
ß 3 3
3
?c Ó
Violoncellos, Basses
bœ. j . bœ bœ bœ j
F œ b˙ bœ œ œ bœ œ bœ œ
>>
œ bœ bœ ˙ œ œ bœ bœ œ bœ bœ b˙ ˙. œ
œ bœ bœ ˙ œ œ bœ bœ œ bœ bœ bœ b˙ ˙. œ
&‰ J Œ ‰ J J b œ ‰
3 3 3 3 3 3
? > j
b˙ œ b˙ œ ‰ b˙
œ ˙. bœ bœ
> œ bœ
bœ bœ ˙. œ œ bœ bœ œ œ œ bœ bœ bœ bœ w
bœ bœ ˙. œ œ bœ bœ œ œ œ bœ bœ bœ
& J ‰ J ‰ J bœ bœ bœ bœ bœ w
3 3 3
5
? bœ bœ bœ bœ b˙ j
˙ b˙ b˙ œ. bœ ˙
ß > >
˙ b˙ w
&˙ b˙ w ∑ ∑
?
œ ˙ œ nœ ˙. bœ ˙. œ œ w
> > > > ƒ
The Ugly Indian theme (mm. 19-24; musical example No. 32a) in Seven-Note
Scale System 2, confirmed by his later appearance in Seven-Note Scale System 1 (mm.
361-3; musical example No. 32b), further defines his character in the non-diatonic
sphere. The polarity between the modal diatonicism of the Handsome Indian and non-
literary convention of the noble savage as opposed to the primitive Indian. Likewise, the
313
convergence of the Handsome Indian and the Uirapuru Bird in the modal-diatonic
U
Uœ . U bœ.
U œ . # œ œ nUœ .
Flute solo
#œ œ œ U œ bœ. œ œ #Uœ . œ œœ # œ œ œ œ nœ
&c œ
œ œ
œ .. œ nœ #œ
ƒ
Repeat a few times, ad libitum
bœ. bœ œ œ œ. œ œ œ bœ. bœ œ œ œ. œœœ
& .. ..
stringendo
b œ . b œ œ œ œ . œ œ œ Uœ œ . œ œ œ #Uœ . œ n œ # œ œ œ œ œ Uœ . œ œ œ œ œUœ . œ œ U
b œœ œœœ œ œ œ b œ n œ œ b œ .. # œ 5
& œ .. œ .. 4
F rall. ƒ rapido π F rall.
5 j œ
Rit.
& 4 #œ. œ #˙
œ U̇ œ. #œ œ Uœ œ Allegretto deciso
Violinophone
œœ œ #œ œ œœ 5
3
U
3
&4 c œ 4 #œ œ œ œ #œ œ #œ œ nœ
˙
ƒ 3 3
314
Musical example No. 33: Villa-Lobos’s Uirapuru, Indian Maidens theme
Clarinet 1&2
j j j j j j j
& C ‰ # œœ .. œœ œœ .. # œœ œœ .. œœ œœ .. # œœ œœ .. œœ œœ .. # œœ œœ .. œœ œœ ..
>F > > > > > > >
> >
œœ œ ..
# œ œœ # >œœ .. œ # >œ . œœ # >œœ .. œœ œ>œ .. œœ # >œœ .. œœ >œœ ..
#
? C ‰ # œœ .. œ œ.
J J J J J J J
Bassoon 1&2
Celeste ( f )
> > > > > > > >
&C ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
˙
˙
˙
˙
˙
˙
˙
> > > >
Cello w/harm.
Harp (F ) Piano(p)
> > > >
?C ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ Piano tacet
˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙ ˙
#w w > > > >
Basses
Violinophone
œo œo œo o œo Œ œo œo œo o œ o œo U
‰ œ
&Ó ‰ J œ ‰ J œ o œ b œo ≈ Œ
o
Ó
F 3
3
The common modal-diatonic realm of the Uirapuru Bird, the Handsome Indian
and the Indian Maidens points to their potential kinship. This issue is settled by their
further implications in the tonal fabric. Octatonic implications place the Handsome
Indian and the Indian maidens in the same realm. The first three notes of the Handsome
Indian theme (mm. 3-4) have Octatonic-2 potential as much as the Indian Maidens
chords plus the pitch G in the violins (mm. 185-6) and the previously mentioned
octatonic insertions of the pitches D, A, and E (mm. 186-7) have Octatonic-0 and
Handsome Indian and the Indian Maidens placing them in the same realm of mythic
315
primeval virtue. However, the Uirapuru Bird and the Indian Maidens do not manifest
further affinity concerning their implied scale-types. The pentatonic segment of the
Uirapuru Bird theme (m. 5-6, for instance) does not echo in the Indian Maidens chords,
which dissociates them from any kin relation. Their lack of musical kinship beyond
Mythical time is created by the work’s two-part cumulative form and non-
functional harmonic language. Although the piece can be divided into two parts (Part A
mm. 1-134, and Part B mm. 134-382), the speculum relation among the recurring
themes (abcba; adbbeda where e is an insertion to adbbda; and dabcad) creates another
level of cohesion that blurs the work’s overall binary form (see Table No. 2 below). The
thematic speculum abcba (comprising Part A and the first block of Part B) blurs the
bipartite sectioning of the work. The overlaping of the speculum-like adbbeda with
dabcad sustains Part B as an unity. While the recurrence of a, b and c by the end of the
piece suggests a rounded-like binary form, the final recurrence of a and d suggests a
throughout the piece confers a cumulative meaning to those themes, and their placement
within block juxtapositions results in mosaic forms. The last block summarizes the
316
Table No. 2: Villa-Lobos’s Uirapuru
A (m. 68-134)
B approach
functional harmony creates a new kind of discourse that concurs to the installment of
diatonic pitch sets structuring block juxtapositions that result in mosaic and cumulative
forms.
In Amazonas, Villa-Lobos added the use of Indian and Indian-like melodies and
rhythms in the making of musical landscape that fostered the Edenic vision of nature by
evoking the mythical world associated with the Indian. Amerindian tunes were available
through such works as Jean de Léry’s Histoire d’un voyage en la terre du Brésil,
autrement dite Amérique (1578), Spix and Martius’ Reise in Brasilien (1823), Barbosa
Rodrigues’ Pacificação dos Crichanás and Poranduba Amazonense (1890), Karl von
Badariotti’s Exploração no Norte de Mato Grosso (1898),137 and also Santana Neri’s
explorers,138 Villa-Lobos added the use of “primitivistic melodic ideas (from all
“imagined Amazon.” These symphonic poems/ ballets conveyed the Edenic view of
embodying Brazilian landscape’s uniqueness and nature in its unspoiled, original state.
Musical landscape of these works reflects an essensialist view of Brazilian identity since
Brazil.”140
319
CONCLUSION: COSMOPOLITANISM AND NATIONAL
IDENTITY
The elite musical culture of the Brazilian First Republic showed a paradoxical
interaction between cosmopolitan ideals and the search for national identity. On the one
hand, it was a period of significant renovation in Rio de Janeiro’s musical life. During
these decades, the Brazilian elite audience was exposed to a larger number of genres and
styles, from historical to contemporary music, and composers updated their technique
showing a wider variety of influences. The broadening of Brazilian elite musical culture
beyond the realm of Italian opera reflected the ideology of “progress” and
the Brazilian economy with the abolition of slavery, and of the Brazilian political system
with the end of monarchy and the establishment of the republican regime. The Federal
Capital was the main stage for the vindication and ostentation of all those changes. The
utilitarian and symbolic level. The ideal of “civilization” and “progress” epitomized by
Rio de Janeiro architectural Haussmanization had its parallel in music with the vogue of
French orchestral and operatic music, the championing of “the music of the future” and
through the increasing importance of symphonic music, and the broadening from the
Italian to the French and Wagnerian operatic influences. The renovation of Rio de
320
On the other hand, the cultural order supporting the Republican regime did not
by official culture since the times of the Empire still resonated in the culture of the First
topoi in literature and the visual arts since the beginning of the nineteenth century,
reached Brazilian art music with Carlos Gomes and remained in full force until Villa-
As the Carlos Gomes paradigm was crucial to the endurance of Indianismo and
cultural framework rendered these topoi meaningful. The association of Indianismo and
Landscape with literature and the visual arts charged these topoi with meanings
reflecting shifting ideologies of Brazil as a nation. The fact that Indianismo was
acclaimed in music only at the time in which it was being replaced by other national
withdraw its cultural significance, since its musical embodiment reflected the
This study has argued that the contribution of Indianismo in the nationalization
process of Brazilian music needs not to be denied but reframed, since it did not reside
“simply in its literary aspect” (as it is usually claimed) but carried major ideological
Delgado de Carvalho’s Moema reflected the increasing skeptical view of the historical
inter-ethnic contact between the Portuguese and the Indian, and its inversion from the
321
male to the female protagonist ends up undoing the myth of national foundation
conveyed by Durão’s epic poem Caramuru. Francisco Braga’s Marabá and Jupyra
reflect the negative view of miscegenation current in Brazil during the last decades of the
nineteenth century. Both of these musical works express the social displacement implied
in the duality of ethnic and cultural identities, and reproduce the representation of Brazil
as the land of outcasts as constructed by Gonçalves Dias’ and Doria’s poems and
Indianismo during the Romantic period consisted mostly in its ideological implications.
The dealing with literary subjects associated with the Indian, whether the idealized noble
savage, the mythified primitive Indian, or the Indian of mixed descent, did not imply the
use of authentic Indian music, but the participation of Indian characters as archetypal
The single but not the least contribution of Indianismo directly related to music
consisted in the musical translation of the literary convention of identifying the Indian
with surrounding nature. This literary convention of Indianismo is among the major
principles that opened the path to musical description of landscape. From the
background musical painting of forest murmurs in Pery’ scene (Il Guarany) up to the
self-contained work with the Prelude “Alvorada” (Lo Schiavo), Gomes made
Landscape a genre on its own right. Above all, Gomes made Landscape a major element
Another principle that lead to the nationalization of landscape was the approach
poetic emotion with works using European conventions such as Gomes’ Al chiaro di
322
luna, Braga’s Paysage, and Oswald’s Il Neige, opened the path to a kind of subjectivity
that was soon associated with the expression of “national feelings,” making landscape
a local reality and with local color with works such as Gomes’ “Alvorada,” Braga’s
Marabá, and Nepomuceno’s “Alvorada na serra.” These works show the increasing
distinctive descriptive musical formula that could situate musical landscape into a
Gomes established the major elements for the construction of nationalist musical
the expression of national feelings. The literary and pictorial conventions translated into
music were: the association of the Indian with nature; the onomatopoeic description of
forest murmurs; the use of the sabiá birdcall as a nationalist statement and the use of
native birdcalls in general as a way of localizing landscape into national boundaries; the
Edenic locale perceived either from the sentimental or the boastfully monumental
perspective; and landscape as historical locale. Braga and Nepomuceno added the use of
folk melodies as a means of expressing national feelings. This study has argued that
Brazilian musical nationalism must be recognized not only in the use of “folk,”
“popular” and “Indian” elements but also in landscape. Chapter 5 has shown that the
not the use of folk, popular or Indian material but sounds associated with nature and
landscape. The sounding example is Braga’s Marabá, which despite using two popular
323
Villa-Lobos reshaped nationalist conventions of musical landscape established
by Brazilian Romantic composers. The identification of the Indian with nature was
historical locale was discarded in favor of the vision of nature as Edenic locale that
oscillated between the mythical and the boastfully monumental representation. The
musical description of forest murmurs was enlarged to a wide variety of forest sounds,
birds, animals, and monsters. The use of the sabiá birdcall as a nationalist statement was
abandoned, but the use of native birdcalls in general as a way of localizing landscape
into national boundaries was maintained. The use of sunrise as a metaphor of Brazil as a
young nation lost its abolitionist implications but still represented Brazil as a nation with
hopes in its future. The sunrise and the overflowing sounds evoking Brazilian natural
national identity, and Villa-Lobos’ Uirapuru and Amazonas fulfilled its dreams of
elements for the construction of national landscape affected its ideology. From the
with the expression of national feelings, Villa-Lobos turned landscape into the
Landscape and their adjustment to new stylistic tendencies empowered these topoi
ideals and the search for national identity. The historicizing representation of Brazilian
324
identity with the Indianist operas Il Guarany in Italian grand opera, Moema and Jupyra
influenced by French Romantic opera and the vogue of one-act operas, and Jupyra with
some Wagnerian inflections, gradually gave place to the essentializing landscape of the
operatic intermezzo “Alvorada,” the symphonic poem Marabá and finally epitomized
with the modernism of the symphonic poems/ ballets Uirapuru and Amazonas.
Therefore, continuing updating of those nationalist topoi with European musical styles
national identity. This group of operatic and symphonic works makes the continuum
325
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Vita
Maria Alice Volpe was born in Araras, state of São Paulo, Brazil on April 14,
1966, the daughter of Alice Krepischi Volpe and Narciso Volpe. After completing high
school at the E.E.P.S.G. “Dr. Cesário Coimbra,” Araras, S.P., and her piano major at
the Conservatório Musical Rio Claro, Rio Claro, S.P., in 1983, she entered the
where she studied with the pianist Beatriz Balzi, receiving the degree of Bachelor of
requirements of her graduate studies at the University of São Paulo (USP) from 1988 to
1990, and the remaining requirements at the UNESP, Instituto de Artes, from 1991 to
1994. She received a Master’s degree in Music (Musicology) from UNESP in 1994
[Chamber music during the Brazilian Romantic Period: 1850-1930], under the
supervision of Dr. Régis Duprat. In August 1995 she entered the Graduate School of
The University of Texas at Austin. She taught piano, music theory and music history at
the Conservatório Musical Rio Claro from 1982 to 1984, and from 1991 to 1992. She
Universidade Livre de Música (ULM), São Paulo, from 1992 to 1993, at the
Universidade Mackenzie, School of Arts and Communications, São Paulo, from 1992 to
1994, and at the Faculdade Mozarteum, São Paulo, from 1992 to 1994. She was the
University of Texas at Austin, during the Spring Semester 1999. She was the Assistant
Editor of the Latin American Music Review, University of Texas Press, from August
1999 to July 2000. She received the following research scholarships and grants:
344
Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico, Ministério da Ciência
the research project “Memória Musical Paulista” [Musical Memory of São Paulo],
coordinated by Dr. Régis Duprat, from August 1988 to July 1989; CNPq, Research
the Museum of Inconfidência, Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais], coordinated by Dr. Régis
Duprat, from March 1990 to February 1991, and Advanced Research Assistant level,
from March 1991 to July 1992; Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
(FAPESP), Master’s degree level, from August 1992 to December 1994; and
Educação, Governo Federal, Brazil (CAPES), Doctoral degree’s level, from August
1995 to July 1999. Her publications include “Período Romântico Brasileiro: Alguns
Régis Duprat, org. (São Paulo: Editora Arte & Ciência and Editora Empresa Unimar,
1999); “Moteto a solo: O vere Christe (c. 1792), by José Joaquim da Paixão,” in
Música do Brasil Colonial (II), Régis Duprat, org. (São Paulo: Editora da Universidade
345
de São Paulo; Ouro Preto: Museu da Inconfidência, 1999); and Recitativo e Ária para
José Mascarenhas, in co-authorship with Régis Duprat, Flávia Camargo Toni, org.
(Uspiana Brasil 500 anos. São Paulo: Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, 2000).
346