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Choro - Music and Mandolin in Brazil
By: Paulo Sá
Ronaldo do Bandolim, a great Brazilian mandolin choro player
Photo: Reidar Falch
Brazil has many popular music styles, and one of them is Choro, which was originated in late 19th century and is still performed today.
It was born in Rio de Janeiro city and developed from Brazilian performers interpreting with African-influenced rhythms some European dance music, specially, Polcas, Mazurcas and Schottisch. Considering the great variety of cultural influences on Brazil between the 17th and 19th centuries, it is easy to understand how the large quantity of rhythms, musical genres and styles developed in this country. Choro is a typical instrumental genre of music and the main characteristics are the syncopation and harmonic modulations, involving also the rhythmic improvisation, melodic variation and ornamentation in performance.
Originally, the instrumentation in Choro groups was flute, guitar and cavaquinho, a small four-string guitar which tuning is D - G - b - d and played with a plectrum. While the flute makes the melody, guitar makes the harmony with bass lines and cavaquinho makes the harmony with rhythmic variations. Usually is in 2/4 meter and rondo form with 3 sections ABACA, but today there are also Choros with 2 parts ABA. In Portuguese Choro means cry, and somehow today, this expression in Brazilian music refers to the nostalgic melodies, which can be played slowly or rapidly, depending on the spirit of each piece. But originally, it was used to refer to the typical instrumentation flute, guitar and cavaquinho. Since the beginning of 20th century Choro has been played also with mandolin (or other soloist instrument like clarinet) and it was also included some kind of percussion, specially the pandeiro (tambourine).
It can be difficult for the novice to distinguish between the many different types of Choros if they aren't familiar with the entire range of Brazilian music styles. Often when you hear a Choro, you are actually listening to a Samba-Choro, a Frevo, a Baião or another Brazilian musical genre that can be similar to Choro in the structure and form, but different in rhythmic and melodic accents. The key to understanding the Brazilian rhythms is to concentrate on what is being played by the percussion, the cavaquinho and the acoustic guitar because the musicians who play this instruments will determine their rhythm according to the musical genre. Melodic instruments like the mandolin are also important, as long as the musician plays the right accents with the proper interpretation.
Choro music is also related with improvisation, and in Brazil it is not uncommon to hear people discuss the topic of improvising in Choro. You often hear both amateur and professional musicians say things like "a true Choro musician must know how to improvise" or "only the best improvisers can be in a Choro jam session." But unfortunately, the concept of improvising in Choro music is a bit obscure, and there is no precise method or agreement even among some Choro musicians. Besides, the term improvisation is often used in a very looser manner, inadvertently, with no real explanation or precise meaning. The music and ideas of Jazz have spread out to so many countries, including Brazil, that the meaning of the word "improvising" in Choro is often misunderstood and confused with the idea of improvisation in Jazz context. The main difference between improvising in Choro and in Jazz is found in the way the performer "thinks" in the style of each musical genre and culture. A jazzman thinks a lot about the harmonic structure of the song and improvises. A Choro musician expresses his improvisational abilities through the development and variation of the melody of the Choro he is playing rather than concentrating on the harmony, which is not the central idea. Of course these are very broad generalizations and they are not meant to imply that the Choro musician has no ear for harmony or that the jazzman has no interest in melody. The compositional process involves both melodic and harmonic sequences, based on chords of various degree and function, so melody and harmony are always together. But in Choro, the improvising is based mainly on the Choro's melody. It's that simple.
When mandolin was introduced in Choro during the first decades of the 20th century, the Choro musicians used the round-back model, which was very common in Brazil. After the 1940 decade this kind of mandolin began to disappear in Brazil because most of the Choro musicians began to use the flat-back model. Jacob do Bandolim (1918-1969) whose real name was Jacob Pick Bittencourt, was one of the most important Brazilian mandolin player and composer. His way of playing and composing Choro inspired many musicians in Brazil. Today the mandolin in this country is used much more in Choro than in any other Brazilian musical genre, and considering the great Jacob's influence in many Choro musicians, we can say that his way of playing is a school.