Friday, October 27, 2017

Brazilian Samba


The title of this piece is "Não Deixe O Samba Morrer" which translates into "Do not let Samba Die."  This is a Brazilian Samba, and features many wonderful classifications of instruments.  


The singer is Maria Rita a famous Brazilian singer, and I would classify her voice as either an alto or mezzo soprano.   She has a very low tessitura, and could border as being classified as a tenor.  Her vowels reflect her dialect, and the style of Samba is culturally significant.  


 There are many unique instruments in this video that are Brazilian.  But the instrument that really stood out to me was the unique sound of the cuica that you hear in the beginning of the video. 





This sound is created by friction.  The sound is produced by rubbing a stick on the inside of the head of the drum with a moist rag or cloth.  The head of the drum is compressed to create a variation of pitches.  It resembles the talking drum.  The International classification of musical instruments would say the cuica is a Membranophone.  This type of instrument is unique to Brazil. 


 I found this piece of music to be fun and I loved the various classes of instruments that go together to create the heterogeneous sound of Samba. 

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1 comment:

  1. K. HedquistOctober 29, 2017 at 11:33 AM

    Michael,

    Thank you for sharing this video! I enjoyed it very much. To the best of my knowledge, this is my first exposure to the cuica. Thank you for explaining the performance technique of the instrument; it's unlike any instrument with which I am familiar. Did you find studying the classification systems of instruments this week helped you in your identification and understanding of the instruments in the video?

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