2023: 1930 Chronology: Appendix 16: Samba

APPENDIX 16

SAMBA

Samba, is a name or prefix used for several rhythmic variants, such as samba urbano carioca (urban Carioca samba) and samba de roda (sometimes also called rural samba).  Samba is recognized as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. Samba is a broad term for many of the rhythms that compose the better known Brazilian music genres that originated in the Afro-Brazilian communities of Bahia in the late 19th century and early 20th century, having continued its development on the communities of Rio de Janeiro in the early 20th century.  Having its roots in the Afro-Brazilian Candomble, as well as other Afro-Brazilian and Indigenous folk traditions, such as the traditional Samba de Caboclo, Samba is considered one of the most important cultural phenomena in Brazil and one of the country's symbols.  Present in the Portuguese language at least since the 19th century, the word "samba" was originally used to designate a "popular dance". Over time, its meaning has been extended to a "batuque-like circle dance", a dance style, and also to a "music genre". This process of establishing itself as a musical genre began in the 1910s and it had its inaugural landmark in the song "Pelo Telefone", launched in 1917.  Despite being identified by its creators, the public, and the Brazilian music industry as "samba", this pioneering style was much more connected from the rhythmic and instrumental point of view to the maxixe than to the samba itself.

The maxixe, occasionally known as the Brazilian tango, is a dance, with its accompanying music (often played as a subgenre of choro), that originated in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro in 1868, at about the same time as the tango was developing in neighboring Argentina and Uruguay. It is a dance developed from Afro-Brazilian dances (mainly the lundu) and from European dances (mainly the polka).

Choro (Portuguese for "cry" or "lament"), also popularly called chorinho ("little cry" or "little lament"), is an instrumental Brazilian popular music genre which originated in 19th century Rio de Janeiro. Despite its name, the music often has a fast and happy rhythm. It is characterized by virtuosity, improvisation and subtle modulations, and is full of syncopation and counterpoint. Choro is considered the first characteristically Brazilian genre of urban popular music. The serenaders who play choros are known as chorões.

Samba was modernly structured as a musical genre only in the late 1920s from the neighborhood of Estacio and soon extended to Oswaldo Cruz and other parts of Rio through its commuter rail. Today synonymous with the rhythm of samba, this new samba brought innovations in rhythm, melody and also in thematic aspects. Its rhythmic change based on a new percussive instrumental pattern resulted in a more "batucado" and syncopated style – as opposed to the inaugural "samba-maxixe" – notably characterized by a faster tempo, longer notes and a characterized cadence far beyond the simple ones palms used so far. Also the "Estácio paradigm" innovated in the formatting of samba as a song, with its musical organization in first and second parts in both melody and lyrics.  In this way, the sambistas of Estácio created, structured and redefined the urban Carioca samba as a genre in a modern and finished way.

In this process of establishment as an urban and modern musical expression, the Carioca samba had the decisive role in the creation of samba schools, responsible for defining and legitimizing definitively the aesthetic bases of rhythm, and radio broadcasting, which greatly contributed to the diffusion and popularization of the samba genre and the samba song singers. Thus, samba achieved major projection throughout Brazil and became one of the main symbols of Brazilian national identity.  Once criminalized and rejected for its Afro-Brazilian origins, and definitely working-class music in its mythic origins, the genre has also received support from members of Brazil's upper classes and the country's cultural elite.

At the same time that it established itself as the genesis of samba, the "Estácio paradigm" paved the way for its fragmentation into new sub-genres and styles of composition and interpretation throughout the 20th century. Mainly from the so-called "golden age" of Brazilian music, samba received abundant categorizations, some of which denote solid and well-accepted derivative strands – such as bossa nova, pagode, partido alto, samba de breque, samba-cancao, samba de enredo and samba de terreiro – while other nomenclatures were somewhat more imprecise – such as samba do barulho (literally "noise samba"), samba epistolar ("epistolary samba") ou samba fonético ("phonetic samba") – and some merely derogatory – such as sambalada, sambolero or sambão joia.

In 2005, UNESCO declared Samba de Roda part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, and in 2007, the Brazilian National Institute of Historic and Artistic Heritage declared Carioca samba and three of its matrices – samba de terreiro, partido-alto and samba de enredo – as cultural heritage in Brazil. Also, in 2018, the prefecture of Salvador proclaimed Samba Junino, also known as Samba Duro, an urban variation of Samba to be another part of Brazil's Cultural Heritage.