Thursday, July 10, 2014
Grupo Revelação - Deixa Acontecer (DVD Ao Vivo No Olimpo)
The title of this piece is: Deixa Acontecer
This group is called: Grupo Revelacao
The origin of this piece is: Brazilian (Portuguese)
The orchestration of this piece is: Vocals (solo and crowd), ukulele, banjo, grindstone, tambourine, guitar, shaker, reco-reco (a samba percussive instrument), piano, drums, and chimes
This group is as Brazilian as it gets. I've been told by friends who have lived in Brazil that Grupo Revelacao is the heart and soul of Brazil when it comes to music.
Here is a link to a page that explains more about the authenticity and background of the group:
http://gruporevelacao.com.br/360/lorem-ipsun-dolor-set-une-dastre-de-pifa-oluncolo/
I loved this song. As I did my "world listening" this week this piece just jumped out at me. It's exciting and captures the heart of a country and culture in music. There is so much passion and feeling in the lyrics and performance quality of this number. I love the way the verses are light and airy featuring the soloist and little ornamentations of the instrumentalists. Then when the chorus comes back in the crowd takes over and sings with a gusto that is riveting. The soloist improvs accents to go along with this chorus and adds little decorations to the piece.
The musical structure of this piece is quite simple. It is a basic Brazilian Samba. The timing is in 2/4 and keeps a nice, jazzy, samba feel throughout. The rhythm is known as a batucada rhythm which is an African influenced Brazilian percussive style. You can almost say the word "batucada" with the rhythm of the song and it fits throughout the piece. This would be fun for the students to do while they listened to work on their rhythm. After a brief introduction the song begins with the main chorus, the most memorable phrase in the song. After the initial chorus is revealed there's an instrumental modulation into the first verse. The tone comes down and is very soothing as the soloist leads us through the first verse. We then come to the chorus again and the dynamics swell, the background singers as well as the crowd joins in. They sing through the chorus two times. After this second chorus, we quiet down to another verse with some very interesting ornamentation going on with the instrumentalists. Then the instruments die out a bit and the singer has the crowd take over with this third chorus, when it repeats it increases in dynamics and the soloists sings with the crowd. If I were going to give it a musical structure I would say it is: ABAABAA or chorus, verse, chorus, chorus, verse, chorus, chorus.
Campbell said in our text, "For people of the world's cultures, music is vital to their very being" (Campbell, 30). I agree with that sentence one hundred percent when it comes to this song. You can hear the music being vital to their very beings. The rhythm, speed/tempo, and the pitch/melodic lines all contribute to the musical structure of this piece. I think it demonstrates musical structure for a culture, beautifully.
The lyrics of the piece translate to:
Let it happen naturaly
I don't want to see you cry
Let love find us
Our case will perpetuate
You've said you want me
For life, eternity
When you're away from me
Goes crazy with longing
Who is the reason for your life
Am I?
It's okay, I believe
I'm not doubting yourself
Just that I have a lot of fear
To fall in love
This movie has passed in my life
And you're helping me overcome
I don't want to be an evil in your life
Let it happen naturally
I don't want to see you cry
Let love find us
Our case will perpetuate
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As I'm watching this video, I'm trying to figure out how the instrumentalists can keep seated during this number. I'm envisioning dancing, lots of dancing as was the case in the back of the arena.
ReplyDeleteThe structure you described fits to a Tee as the audience is totally engrossed in the performance. I believe it was supposed to be ABABAA or possibly AABABAA, but that was not to be on this night.
It is always interesting to see how an audience reacts to music that they love. They took over the performance and probably elevated it for the performers. The lyrics "Let it happen naturally" literally spoke to them and that's what happened.
Oftentimes, one lumps all Hispanic sounding music into one, but this class is showing me the differences between merengue, salsa, Brazilian, Cuban, etc. Good stuff.
Thank you for sharing this piece. I really appreciate it.
Good analysis and commentary of the piece.
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