Samba (music)

The samba is a Musical genre and a popular form of Danse of the Brésil. The word samba is male when the musical genre is indicated, with female when the dance is indicated. The amateurs of samba are called sambists .

The musical genre

The samba is a binary Musique to two or four Temps born with the Brésil. It is based on a syncopated rhythmic composition, resulting from a mixture between the traditions of the African blacks brought in slavery in the plantations, of the natives and the European colonists.

Musicalement, its structure rhythmic is noted 2/4 or 2/2, sometimes 4/4 by the Brazilian jazzmen and some European percussionnists.

Sub-genera

Starting from the samba original many sub-genera, more or less recent were built. The samba also influenced many kinds by its particular rate/rhythm (for example the Bossa nova, starting from the Jazz). The principal styles which one can find are:

the samba of ground, Partido Alto, Pagode
the samba of coconut
the samba-canção, a melodieux samba. The musics of Chico Buarque are an good example.
the Batucada, Batuque, Afoxé
the Samba C enredo is a particular form of samba to topic, with another time, which developed gradually within the framework of the Écoles of Samba, in particular with Rio de Janeiro, since the end of the Années 1920.
samba-rock'n'roll, a samba plus jazz in the play and arrangements, more funk in the spirit of the end of the year sixty and the beginning of the year seventy. Example: Jorge Ben accompanied by the Trio Mócoto.
the samba-reggae developed in the state of Bahia starting from 1985 approximately, under the influence of the Reggae jamaïcain.

History

From Africa in Brazil

There are several assumptions on the origin of the word samba .

It could come from the term semba which means probably Nombril in one of the languages of the Esclave S which were torn off with what is now the Angola: the Bantou. In this context, samba wants to say “to dance with cheerfulness”. The term semba is thus associated with the umbigada , an invitation with the dance which consisted in rubbing navel against navel on binary rates/rhythms.

In Umbundu, another language of the area of origin of the slaves, samba means “animated being, excited”. Historians however also noticed the similtude of the samba with Beninese dances, but it is known that many blacks of Benign were also off-set in Brazil.

Birth of the samba kind

The samba was born in the Bidonville S from Rio de Janeiro at the beginning of the 20th century. Indeed, at the end of the 19th century, with the Abolition of slavery, much of Blacks moved towards this large city (at the time capital of the country) to work in the docks, as salesmen of street, or servants. They brought with them their African dances and their percussions.

The first samba recorded was “Pelo telefone” (On the telephone), in 1916 by the Donga singer. The first sambas were very influenced by other rates/rhythms of the time like the maxixe (a very fast rate/rhythm) and went it (a simple, binary and long-lived rate/rhythm).

Talented artists such as Pixinguinha, Donga, Heitor back Prazeres and Sinhô, invented the bases of the samba little by little: a music with 2/4 or 4/4 of which the rhythmic structure can be reduced to 2/4, key period being over the second time, with an accompaniment rich in syncopated melody lines. The rate/rhythm is given primarily by the percussion instruments, the Guitare and the Cavaquinho. oO

Development of the tradition sambist

The samba became " la" music of the carnival towards 1930. Until there, it was prohibited, because too considered to be obscene, brutal, violent. The first schools of samba consist of small groups of hardly more than 50 people who ravel without costumes, to the sound of the percussions. These groups, or " blocos" compete of audacity and imagination, the very first one to make known itself being " Deixa Falar" , in 1928, in the district of Rio de Janeiro called Estacio. Very quickly these processions are organized and transformed into competitions. The first of them goes back to 1932 and sees the victory of Mangueira. In 1935, the schools are officially recorded like Gremio (entertaining circle).

The samba develops and is formalized within the framework of this immense popular holiday, through the ryhtmic, melody part and through the frantic dance which accompanies it. It then makes it possible all the layers of the population to be expressed and défouler.

In the Years 1940 and 1950, the identity of each school of samba is built, between the choice of colors of recognition and the musical choices: the word school then takes also its direction of doctrines, with its professors and their disciples… The costumes are however still made up only of uniforms. The introduction of wiring for sound for the songs in 1961, by Mangueira, gives a new dimension to the sambas with topic (Samba C enredo). It is in a certain way the musical golden age of the schools of samba.

The Years 1960 - 1970 are in the center of a " revolution plastique" , with the acquisition of a holding of the middle-classes which bring new esthetic currents. The schools of samba work their visual with the often spontaneous contribution famous artists.

The 20 following years carry the mark of the money and its vicissitudes. Indeed, the procession of the schools of the Special Group of Rio de Janeiro is the stake either simply of competitions of district, but also an economic issue between schools through many financial repercussions. For this city, which seeks to attract a public conquered in advance but which still hesitates to take its ticket, it is also about a major stake. The samba grows rich as for him lasting this period by the pop music, or operates returns to the sources towards the maracatu. In parallel, with El Salvador, the Axé develops in the Années 1980 and gives rise to the samba-reggae, which builds a bridge between the samba and the music jamaïcaine.

From the Years 2000, one attends the arrival of new influences like the Funk or the Hip-hop, which come to spice the rates/rhythms of samba. Large batteries of percussions emergent of the more reduced formations based on fusion samba-rock'n'roll and samba-funk, as the group Funk' Lata resulting from Mangueira.

Diffusion in the world

A strong impact in the collective spirit, and compared to the image of the carnival, were worth with the samba to be copied and included a little everywhere in the world. In France for example, its diffusion starts with creation with Paris of a first school of samba in the years 1975-1980: Unidos da Tia Nicia. The other Western countries also see the arrival of musicians fleeing the dictatorship of their country and of many hearths of diffusion of the samba open then in the form of schools in particular open to the amateurs.

Majority of the pupils of these schools, and some others impassioned which had been initiated meanwhile with the Brazilian percussions on their side, became in the years 1980 to 1990 the founders of the independent groups currently existing. Most of the other groups which were constituted since result from this musical current, and much still share common rhythmic references.

Since approximately 1995, one attends in Europe a rise to power of the samba-reggae: many groups introduced it into their repertory, while others were built only on the model of Brazilian celebrities of the kind. Beyond the phenomenon reggae, one notes an appropriation of the samba by the local groups, which, in their majority, do not hesitate to introduce there elements of their own musical inheritance (pop, funk, but also folk musics of the vintage).

Dance

The samba is the Danse which is practiced on the rate/rhythm corresponding to the music (resulting from a popular dance Brazilian Negro), primarily by a movement of the hips, basin and legs: the top of the body moves very little, even at all.

The samba is practiced in solo under many alternatives, or in dance of living room (dance practiced in couple with formalized choreographic figures). However, certain forms of samba result from collective dances from which the steps come from a utility practice: the coconut samba, for example, results from the steps, the rates/rhythms and the songs which accompany beating by the ground with the feet for the construction of beaten ground houses.

The step of samba consists of an alternation of supports of the feet of before behind. The temporal sequence division is based on approximations of triplets inside each time of the measurement of samba.

External bonds

international Gate on the samba (in English)
European Wiki on the samba (multilingual)
Samba in France
History of the Samba
Manual of samba batucada (group Surdo' Rei, La Rochelle)

Simple: Samba

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