September 7: What was Brazilian music like at the time of Independence?

This Wednesday, September 7th, we celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Independence of Brazil, proclaimed by Dom Pedro I on the banks of the Ipiranga River. After that day, in September 1822, Brazilian politics underwent a drastic change, as the country went from being a colony to becoming a nation. But what happened to national music?

At the end of the 18th century, the urbanization of the Captaincy of Minas Gerais favored a broad growth of Brazilian music. This is because, with large extractions of gold and diamonds, the region began to attract more residents who moved the musical life.

Whether in public or private, religious or secular, Brazilian culture received several influences and the two oldest Brazilian orchestras emerged, the Lira Sanjoanense and the Ribeiro Bastos Orchestra. Such was the consistency of the artists that the cultural scene of Minas Gerais at the time came to be classified as Minas Gerais School.

In 1808, however, Brazilian culture underwent a major upheaval, with the arrival of the Portuguese court in Rio de Janeiro. The state became a huge cultural center and new trends emerged in the country’s music scene, this time much more classicist.

It so happens that, when traveling to Brazil, the court brought with it the musical library of the Bragança, as well as dozens of musicians and singers from Lisbon and Italy. At the same time, Dom João VI required the construction of Royal Theater of Sao Joao and great names in national music emerged, such as the composer and priest Jose Maurício Nunes Garcia.

In the scenario of the classic modinhas, which sang about romanticism and love, Gabriel Fernandes da Trindade distinguished himself with great works. Quite common in celebrations of imperial salons, the modinha soon conquered the Brazilian population.

The cultural richness of the time, however, vanished with the return of Dom João VI to Portugal. And despite the love that Dom Pedro I he felt for the music — being a composer himself — the proclamation of independence had created an unstable economic scenario in the country, which did not leave much room for luxuries.

In the midst of the complex context, then, Romanticism emerged and some of its greatest representatives, such as Francisco Manuel da Silva — who even composed a national anthem, shortly after the abdication of Dom Pedro Iin 1831. In opera, a genre that attracted many musicians at the time, Antonio Carlos Gomes he distinguished himself with nationalist compositions.

In Recife, São Paulo and Salvador, the European classic beautiful corner won the hearts of opera lovers and, in 1857, Brazilians followed the creation of the National Opera. To accompany melodic productions, the piano was the most beloved of instruments.

With reference to the 19th century, it is also important to mention the advent of lundu and gherkin, both brought by slaves and imported by the national culture. With roots in African drumming, the lundu came to be interpreted by several artists in Portugal, but ended up banned by Dom Manuelfor being “contrary to the good customs” of the time.

In Brazil, however, after being brought by Angolan slaves, the genre became the lundu-song and began to be represented in circuses and imperial salons. So famous in the 19th century, the genre was even the first to be recorded in Brazil — thanks to the singer Bahiawhich, through Edison Houserecorded the song ‘This is good‘ in 1902.

O gherkinor Brazilian tango, in turn, was born from a mixture of influences in Rio de Janeiro, with characteristics of the lundufrom polkas and the Cubans habaneras. With melodies created by the chorões, it became one of the first urban dances in Brazil and, until the arrival of the beloved sambabecame the most relevant genre in Rio de Janeiro.