Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music

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Encyclopedia of Latin American Popular Music Page 32

by George Torres


  questras d e pau e corda (orchestras of wood and string) that included guitars,

  flutes, mandolins, violins, banjos, and pandeiros. The male-oriented pau e corda

  ensembles provided accompaniment to female singing groups ( corais feminos ) that

  were intergenerational in nature comprising relatives and close friends. Several na-

  tionally known popular music composers (Raul and Edgard Moraes, Nelson Fer-

  reira) from Recife participated in the blocos carnavalescos and wrote marches,

  sambas, and tangos for the blocos, which were published in sheet music form

  and later recorded. The marcha de bloco ( bloco march) became the favored genre

  among these groups. Its characteristics included a slow tempo, a mildly syncopated

  rhythmic accompaniment, use of minor keys and simple modulations, and highly

  sentimental lyrics. The marcha de bloco included a verse/refrain format with a re-

  curring instrumental interlude before each subsequent verse. During the late 1950s,

  this form of composition would acquire the label frevo de bloco, after the national

  commercial success of Nelson Ferreira’s “Evocação No. 1.”

  Nationalizing the Frevo

  In the 1930s, the frevo entered Brazil’s national recording and broadcast industry lo-

  cated in Rio de Janeiro with songs and instrumental pieces composed by musicians

  from Pernambuco. These were published under a variety of genre designations:

  Frevo | 173

  marcha nortista (northern march), marcha pernambucana (Pernambuco march),

  and frevo pernambucano (Pernambuco frevo ). By the end of the 1930s, two dis-

  tinct subgenres of recorded frevo were: frevo (an orchestrated instrumental frev o following the basic two-part plan of Pernambuco’s Carnival frevo ) and the frevo-canção (an orchestrated frevo with an instrumental section followed by a solo

  song). From 1933 to 1938, Os Diabos do Ceu led by Pixinguinha (Alfredo da

  Rocha Viana Filho) recorded eight instrumental frevos while the frevo-canção was

  being recorded by some of Brazil’s most popular vocalists of the time, including

  Mário Reis, Aracy de Almeida, and Francisco Alves. While the composers were

  largely from Recife, the recording arrangements and performances were by Rio de

  Janeiro-based musicians. Major frevo composers included Capiba (Lourenço da

  Fonseca Barbosa) and the Irmãos Valença (João Vítor do Rego Valença and Raul

  do Rego Valença).

  Rio de Janeiro’s dominant position in the production of frevos prompted calls

  in Recife for a musical infrastructure to support the local production of frevos. Of-

  ficially sponsored competitions for frevo songs and instrumental pieces in the Re-

  cife area stimulated new compositions that were arranged by the bandleaders of

  local radio orchestras. From 1931 through the mid-1960s, Nelson Ferreira led the

  PRA-8 orchestra of the Rádio Club de Pernambuco and, in 1952, Discos Rozenblit

  opened its doors in Recife and established the local record label Mocambo where

  frevo s and other local musical genres were prioritized. The first recording released

  by Mocambo (1953) featured a frevo by Nelson Ferreira titled “Come e Dorme” on

  side one and a frevo-canção by José Menezes and Ademar Paiva titled “Boneca”

  on side two. Both recordings featured the PRA-8 orchestra under the direction of

  Nelson Ferreira.

  The 1950s and 1960s witnessed the codification of the frevo into three main com-

  mercial subgenres: frevo-de-rua (instrumental frevo ), frevo-canção (song frevo ), and the frevo de bloco (marcha carnavalesca). A new generation of composer-bandleaders of frevo included José Menezes, Duda (José Ursino da Silva), Guedes

  Peixoto, and Clovis Perreira. Claudionor Germano and Expedito Baracho were im-

  portant frevo singers from Recife.

  In the 1970s, several failed attempts to market frevo to younger generations re-

  sulted in the decline of Discos Rozenblit and its eventual closing in 1980. New ef-

  forts were undertaken to revitalize the tradition by bringing the music in line with

  modern recording and production values associated with Brazilian rock and MPB.

  Some of Brazil’s most popular singers of the era including Gilberto Gil, Caetano

  Veloso, and Alceu Valença were contracted to cover frevos canções for the Asas

  da America recording series launched by CBS/Sony Music. Rejected by frevo tra-

  ditionalists and not widely popular among rock and MPB audiences, such endeav-

  ors were short lived.

  174 | Frevo

  Most recently, some post Mangue Beat musicians in Recife have drawn on the

  frevo for continued inspiration. Chief among the latest developments is the group

  Spok Frevo Orquestra led by saxophonist Spok (Inaldo Cavalcanti). This group has

  infused new life into the frevo tradition by emphasizing tight formal arrangements,

  expanded harmonic resources, and improvisatory performance practices reminis-

  cent of the role of the requinta players of an earlier era.

  Further Reading

  Crook, Larry. Brazilian Music: Northeastern Traditions and the Heartbeat of a Modern

  Nation . Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

  McGowan, Chris, and Ricardo Pessanha. The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova,

  ad the Popular Music of Brazil. Revised and expanded edition. Philadelphia, PA: Temple

  University Press, 2009.

  Larry Crook

  G

  Gaga. See Afro-Dominican Fusion Music .

  Grever, María

  María Grever (1885–1951) was a prolifi c composer and singer. Accomplished

  as a pianist, violinist, and singer, she published her fi rst song, “A una ola,” when

  she was 18. It sold three million copies. Grever, Mexico’s fi rst famous fe-

  male composer, wrote between 200 and 500 romantic songs into which she

  incorporated folk rhythms and elements of Mexican and Spanish style tango.

  She worked with American lyricists to translate her songs into English. Enrico

  Caruso helped bring her songs international popularity. Grever’s songs were

  broadcast frequently on the radio, and she wrote music for many fi lms and

  Broadway musicals including the 1944 fi lm Bathing Beauty and the 1941 musical

  Viva O’Brien. Her popularity peaked in the 1930s and 1940s. Her most popular

  songs include “Bésame,” “Make Love with a Guitar,” “My First, My Last, My

  Only,” and her biggest hits, “Ti-pi-tin” (performed by Benny Goodman) and

  “Cuando Vuelva a Tu Lado,” or “What a Difference a Day Made” (performed

  by Vikki Carr, Trios Los Panchos, Frank Sinatra, Dinah Washington, and many

  others).

  Further Reading

  Malspina, Ann. “Maria Grever.” In Diane Telgen, and Jim Kamp, eds., Notable

  Hispanic American Women, 184–86. Detroit: Gale Research, 1993.

  Rebecca Stuhr

  Gender in Latin American Popular Music

  The study of gender within the context of Latin American popular music consid-

  ers the ways in which the people of Latin America interpret their roles as men and

  women using music as one form of expression. Gender, the cultural, social, and

  175

  176 | Gender in Latin American Popular Music

  historical interpretation of the biological and physiological state of being male or

  female, is undoubtedly an important part of the construction of both personal and

  cultural identity along with other fa
ctors such as age, race, and sexuality. Recent

  studies have pointed to gender as a learned phenomenon that is socially and cul-

  turally imposed, which makes it difficult to define in concrete terms. As a result,

  gender is a variable field of study that has altered over time and taken on different

  meanings in different cultural contexts. In studying the importance of gender in the

  context of Latin American popular music, scholars have used a variety of method-

  ological approaches including textual analysis, evaluations of the production, con-

  sumption, and reception of popular songs, and studies of the separate gender roles

  for men and women musicians.

  Gender, in Latin America, is derived in part using two important concepts: ma-

  chismo and marianismo. In Spanish, the word machismo is used broadly to define masculine traits, cutting through class lines to describe the generosity, dignity, and

  honor expected of men from all social positions. But machismo also has wide-

  ranging connotations, and has even been interpreted as dominating and chauvin-

  istic. Marianismo is the female counterpart to machismo that is used to describe

  the ideal of femininity and a veneration of female virtues such as purity and moral

  strength. Because many Latin American countries are deeply immersed in Catholi-

  cism, the role of women, termed marianismo, is often linked to the maternal figure

  of the Virgin Mary. Traditionally, domesticity is highly respected in Latin America

  and while men are concerned with the public sphere, women dominate the private

  sphere of the household. Even though urbanization, modernity, and political revo-

  lutions have challenged traditional sex roles, the gendered expectations represented

  by machismo and maranismo are so inherent in Latin American culture that their

  vestiges still remain an important part of understanding gender in both the Latin

  American and popular music contexts.

  As a central means of expression, music is one of the many ways that Latin

  Americans have wrestled with issues relating to traditional and modern gender

  roles. With music, Latin Americans have reinforced the social constructions of gen-

  der and sexuality that they cannot discuss directly due to social taboos and mores.

  But music does not just passively reflect society, it also provides a public forum

  for models of gender organization to be affirmed, tested, or challenged. Popular

  music, often found as an outgrowth of mass culture in large urban centers, is es-

  pecially susceptible to volatile changes as the boundaries between traditional and

  modern sex roles clash. By examining different aspects of Latin American popular

  music including its texts, reception, and sex roles, scholars have gained a better

  understanding of the role that music plays in the critical analysis of gender identity

  in Latin America.

  Textual analysis is one important way that musicologists conceptualize the

  role that gender plays in Latin American popular music. Scholars are especially

  Gender in Latin American Popular Music | 177

  concerned with the ways in which gendered language in song texts create stereo-

  types that intersect with other social and historical factors. For example, Frances

  Aparicio discusses women as absence through the lens of the texts of boleros . The

  image of the lost, or fallen woman, known as perdida in Spanish, is prevalent in

  boleros and alludes to the abandonment of the domestic sphere as women began

  to work outside the home a result of the industrialization and urbanization of the

  turn of the century. To Aparicio, boleros are an alternative discourse on masculin-

  ity that have allowed men to be open, raw, and emotional while still attempting to

  retain their dominance and control over women. María Herrera-Sobek considers

  the Mexican corrido in order to make larger claims about Latin American popular

  music. Through literary analysis of the lyrics of the corrido, Herrera-Sobek iden-

  tifies five types of recurring images, or archetypes, of women: the good mother,

  the terrible mother, the mother goddess, the lover, and the soldier. She sees these

  archetypes, which tie the role of women to motherhood, as a product of not only

  the patriarchal system inherent in the Latin American notions of machismo and

  marianismo, but also the class consciousness and widespread worldviews found in

  Mexican society. John Murphy links his textual analysis of samba lyrics with is-

  sues of work and money that appear prominently in samba songs from the 1920s to

  the 1950s. While these musicologists primarily consider song texts, other scholars

  have approached gender issues in popular music by considering its reception or by

  examining the sex roles of male and female musicians.

  The reception of songs and the opinions of the consumers who actively use and

  enjoy the music is a telling and often overlooked aspect of popular music. Peter

  Manuel studies the ways in which Latina women help to produce meaning through

  the plurality of their responses to popular songs, specifically those that are overtly

  misogynistic. He describes how some of these women find misogynistic lyrics to be

  offensive, while others feel that even sexually explicit songs give women the oppor-

  tunity to express their sexuality on their own terms on the dance floor. Brenda Ber-

  rian considers the different ways in which male and female performers are marketed

  in the French Caribbean. She finds that as a result of the struggling recording in-

  dustry, women feel more intense pressure than men to conform to preset molds that

  often exploit their female sexuality to sell their music. In addition, Berrian studies

  how French Caribbean musical groups such as Kassav and Zouk Machine perform

  for and market themselves differently at home than they do abroad by changing the

  lyrics and length of their songs. These reception studies of Latin American popular

  music coupled with close textual analysis lead other scholars to consider the fixed

  gender roles that are found in Latin American popular music.

  Scholars have begun to highlight the often clearly delineated gender boundaries

  for the roles of women and men as musicians performing Latin American popular

  music. While there are exceptions, the different roads for inclusion taken by male

  and female musicians are often clearly marked. Susan Thomas raises questions

  178 | Gender in Latin American Popular Music

  about these gender barriers in her study on the Cuban nueva trova movement,

  which she found to be dominated almost entirely by men. Through interviews

  with both male and female trovadores, Thomas uncovered the stigmas associated

  with including women in the genre. For example, female trovadoras were often

  thought to be lesbian, they could rarely perform outside of Cuba, and their music

  was often dismissed as children’s music. Thomas linked these stigmas to histori-

  cal factors especially the extreme homophobia, institutionalized repression of

  sexual deviance, and strong emphasis placed on the ideals of machismo found in

  Cuba after the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The Mexican ranchera is another exam-

  ple of a genre that has been long associated with men. Women performing within

  this genre are limited to singing and even such a well-known female ranchera

  as Lucero has
chosen to adopt the traje de chorro, the cowboy outfit of a man.

  Through analysis of the constrained worlds of male and female performers, some

  scholars have come to understand gender roles within the Latin American popu-

  lar music context.

  Gender is no less complex when applied to Latin American popular music than

  it is in any other field of study. The approaches to its study touched on here, while

  representative of the methodologies used by musicologists and scholars within the

  broader academic study of gender, are by no means an exhaustive sampling. Never-

  theless, influential scholars have illuminated aspects of gender within Latin Ameri-

  can popular music through the methods of textual analysis, reception, and gender

  role studies.

  Further Reading

  Aparicio, Frances R. Listening To Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, And Puerto Rican

  Cultures. Hanover, NH: University Press of New England, 1998.

  Berrian, Brenda F. Awakening Spaces: French Caribbean Popular Songs, Music, And

  Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.

  Herrera-Sobek, María. The Mexican Corrido: A Feminist Analysis. Bloomington: Indi-

  ana University Press, 1990.

  Manuel, Peter. “Gender Politics in Caribbean Popular Music: Consumer Perspectives

  And Academic Interpretation.” Popular Music and Society 22, no. 2 (1998): 11–29.

  Manuel, Peter, Kenneth M. Bilby, and Michael Largey. Caribbean Currents: Caribbean

  Music From Rumba To Reggae. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2006.

  Murphy, John P. Music in Brazil: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York:

  Oxford University Press, 2006.

  Thomas, Susan. “Did Nobody Pass The Girls The Guitar? Queer Appropriations in

  Contemporary Cuban Popular Song.” Journal of Popular Music Studies 18, no. 2 (2006):

  124–42.

  Whiteley, Sheila. Women and Popular Music: Sexuality, Identity, and Subjectivity . Lon-

  don: Routledge, 2000.

  Tracy McFarlan

  Guajeo

  |

  179

  Gran orquesta. See Orquesta.

  Guadeloupe. See Martinique and Guadeloupe.

  Guaguancó

  Guaguancó is the most common form of rumba and often synonymous with the

  word rumba itself. Guaguancó appeared in Matanzas and Havana, Cuba, during

 

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