Brazil’s musical identity reflects centuries of cultural exchange, bringing together Indigenous traditions, African rhythms, and European influences. Musicologist Nicolas Slonimsky points out that Brasil's earliest dance music was informed by rhythms and ritual of Africa. Oscar Lorenzo Fernández’s "Batuque," was informed by an African circle dance, with much clapping of hands, beating of drums and a variety of other percussive noises. Through its energy, Fernandez's Batuque found plenty of interpreters beyond Brasil, throughout Pan America. Slonimsky surpises me when he calls the "Batuque," also known under the name "Batacuda," the most expressive of Afro-Brazilian airs.
Francisco Mignone's "Congada" is another dance much indebted to Africa. The word congada is derived from Congo, a religious play of the Afro-Brazilians, celebrated in honor of Our Lady of the Rosary. Mignone's "Congada" is associated with his opera "O Contratador de Diamantes (The Diamond Contractor)." The orchestral piece became known independently and is a vivid example of Mignone’s use of Afro-Brazilian rhythmic and dance elements in concert music.
Of interest throughout Momentos Musicales 2026 has been how music and musicians throughout Pan America have migrated both north and south, performing their music in live concerts, by means of recordings, and as we learned earlier in this series, through the airwaves of La Cadena de las Américas, a network of stations connected by shortwave signals such that music, news and information was available from Alaska to the tip of Argentina.
Enter Walt Disney, by the way friends with Edmund Chester, the chief of La Cadena, who produced "Saludos Amigos" (1942), a film created during the Good Neighbor era, when the United States sought closer cultural ties with Latin America. Ary Barroso composed "Aquarela do Brasil," known internationally as “Brazil,” in 1939. Its sweeping melody and samba-inflected rhythms celebrate the country in vivid, patriotic colors. The song gained an enormous international audience through "Saludos Amigos" which helped make the song “Brazil” an enduring international standard. The song’s journey illustrates how music can move from one culture and language to another, acquiring new meanings and audiences along the way.
Brazil is called samba-exaltacao, or exaltatio in samba.
"Samba de Uma Nota Só" is . . . well . . . "One Note Samba." It's a famous bossa nova by Brazilian composer Antônio Carlos Jobim. Bossa nova, by the way, is a derivative of samba.
As I laid out the music for today's Musical Moment, I heard within the rhythmic engine of Fernandez' "Batuque" a suggestion of "Little Train of Caipira," by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Listen and think about this amalgam of the two as Union Pacific's Big Boy passing Villa-Lobos' Little Train. Don't you love trains, almost as much as a stylish samba? There's one more episode of Momentos Musicales tomorrow afternoon at 2:00.
This year's edition of Momentos Musicales is made possible by a generous grant from the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation.
