A longa arte de Tom Jobim | Ep.5: As canções mateiras

Hi, I'm Arthur Nestrovski. I'm here again to talk to you about the art of Antonio Carlos Jobim's composition and we have here with us the privilege of privileges, Paula Morelenbaum, predestined interpreter of Tom Jobim's songs. Tom Jobim composed a series of songs that are known as Jobim's ecological songs, which he himself called forest songs, especially in the 80s.

Before that, he had already been composing a lot of things where nature played a very important role, whether in songs from the pre-bossa nova period, like As Praias Desertas, for example, or marvels like. They are still shining They are still singing In the happy wind that brings me this song Partnership. .

. Estrada do Sol, partnership between Tom Jobim and Dolores Duran where we have the raindrops mimicked here in the form of making this melody. It looks like raindrops falling and still shining in the sunlight.

Another song of this nature, from the 70s. You already know which one it is. Look, it's raining on the rose bush That only gives rose, but doesn't smell The freshness of the wet drops That belongs to Luisa, which belongs to Paulinho, which belongs to João Which belongs to no one And so it goes.

Raining in Roseira, lyrics and music by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Now, at a certain point, concern for nature became something very important for the composer and citizen Antonio Carlos Jobim. He was one of the first, he was a visionary.

He was one of the first to defend Brazilian nature. This was a passion of his since he was young. It is associated with his passion for Villa-Lobos, too, who he saw as the one who first reproduced in music, created in music what was the natural power of Brazil.

Let's take an example. I'm just going to show the beginning, because it's important for us to hear, the original arrangement and then we sing a little piece of Boto, okay, Paula? Berimbau, as you noticed.

Passeredo. Now let's go. On the inside beach there is sand On the outside beach there is the sea A dolphin married to a mermaid Sails on a river through the sea The body of an animal washed up on the beach And the lost soul wants to return Crab talks to a stingray Marking the trip through the air Just yesterday I came from from Pilar Just yesterday I came from Pilar I already feel like going there Yesterday I came from there Yesterday I came from there I wanted to go there To go there, to go there On the island deserted the sun faints It makes you want to continue, right?

How wonderful. But why did I play you that long berimbau introduction? There is an important musical issue here, because the berimbau is making these two notes.

You remember that. And he does this for a long time. That's where this song comes from , which has an almost symphonic treatment.

Well, interesting stuff. I'm going to go back to these two berimbau notes. First, the theme itself, where he does this and here it comes.

This melody is very similar to the chorus melody. If you're looking at my fingers. They are the same notes with a small difference in accent, right?

Exactly what it has to do with the lyrics. Now, the berimbau is an even more spectacular case because of the fact that it's making those two notes. It's not casual.

Nothing is casual about Tom Jobim. This is certainly not casual in a way that we will only discover later on, because, eventually, there is a. .

. An instrumental interlude. And after this instrumental interlude, look what happens.

Inhambu sang there in the forest Good. We went to another tone. This song was here.

It's a strange chord. That's beside the point. A poisoned chord.

But we're basically in E major. And suddenly. We went for another tone.

What other tone is that? We went out of mi. .

. Strange chords, but we're in mi and went to f. It went up.

You feel. Intuitively, you feel that. .

. It has gone up. Now, where did you go up to?

Exactly those two berimbau notes at the beginning. So, in a song that has a totally aberrant form, because it doesn't have the common structure of a song in which you have the chorus and go back to the beginning and it's all symmetrical. This one is not symmetrical.

It evolves and goes through various sections of music, but at a critical moment, it modulates. And where does it modulate? It modulates following exactly what the berimbau had already announced.

And then where will she return? She will return exactly to that E at the beginning and will repeat this gesture once before the end. So this, I saved this to show you, because it shows the kind of coherence of the great composer.

This type of relationship between the minimal element and the great form is characteristic of the great composers in this tradition, and Tom Jobim is a supreme artisan. Well, another song from the same period, a little earlier, is Matita Perê. This is also a very special song.

It's a long song. It's worth listening to the beginning, and then I want to comment on a series of important features. Orchestra.

It could be Villa-Lobos. In the rose garden of dreams and fear Through the beds of thorns and flowers, there I want to see you Olerê, olará Attention! You get me Horns.

There's no way not to do this little line. Well, and you see that it is a symphonic treatment properly. It's an orchestra playing.

Before I show you things that are important in composition, a little context. This song, Matita Perê, was composed at a time when Tom Jobim was creating the musical score for a film called O Duelo, by director Paulo Thiago, inspired by a short story from the book Sagarana, by João Guimarães Rosa. In this story, the essential summary of the story's narrative has to do with a chase.

It's a case of a love triangle, it's a betrayed husband who goes after the man his wife was having an affair with. It's been years and years that these two gentlemen have been going from grotão to grotão, in the backlands of Minas Gerais, without ever meeting , to the point where they no longer know why they continue with this. It's been so long.

They go back to their little towns and stuff, but they never cross paths and they will never meet. This is the basic script for The Duel. Well, now something extraordinary happens in this song, because it is perhaps a unique case.

I don't want to say this because it's difficult to make this kind of statement, but it seems to me to be a unique case, in the repertoire of popular songs on the planet, of a song that modulates through 11 keys. There are 12, okay? The total of shades.

If you play a scale, all white and black keys, there are 12 possible keys. C, C sharp, D, D sharp and so on. Bigger and smaller.

Well, he uses 11. It's important for you to be aware. A song usually takes place in one key.

It's in E major, it's in A major, it's in A minor. It's not just one chord, it's a whole regime of chords. It is a system of relationships between chords, but founded, centered on that key.

When I say that Tom Jobim is going through 11 shades, it means that this fundamental stone has changed. The entire relationship regime has changed. This is highly unusual.

It has nothing to do with the type of relationship between chords that we are used to hearing in a song, especially a tonal song. Any song we played here. Any song you think of, this is something else.

Already at the beginning. We are in tune. And he will do something very strange.

Let's just make this beginning. In the rose garden Of dreams and fear Through the beds of thorns and flowers There, I want to see you Olerê, Olará, you catch me Now, pay attention. Look what he's going to do.

Cold dawn of a strange dream João woke up, the dog was barking What is impressive here that is not at all common? First, this oscillation from this chord to this one is very strange. But from that point on, this drop, and then, at the end of this stanza, and then, at the end of this stanza.

. . He goes down semitone by semitone, he changes the keys and he changes the keys, because he He even says this in a text he writes.

There is a note from Tom Jobim talking about this song. Important to say: partnership with Paulo César Pinheiro. The lyrics are a partnership between Paulo César Pinheiro and Tom Jobim.

Musically, what is he doing? He says he's doing it. It's just that he's going from grotton to grotton.

It's the chase. As these riders advance through the backlands, the music also changes tones, but it changes tones eleven times. Now, it's an absolutely extraordinary song, of a totally new kind.

There are no followers. That. .

. Not even Chico Buarque wrote a song like Matita Perê or like Boto. These free songs, songs expanded in a totally new way and which serve here, I think, in a very expressive way to demonstrate, once again, the size, grandeur and extraordinary variety of Tom Jobim's compositional modes.

Thanks to his passion for the nature of Brazil, the ecological cause that he defended with such commitment, he invents for himself and for all of us a new, blunt, powerful nature of Brazil in music. Passarim wanted to land, he couldn't, he flew away Because the shot hurt but didn't kill Bird, tell me, then tell me: Why wasn't I happy too? Tell me what I do with the passion That devours my heart That devours my heart That mistreats my heart That mistreats my heart Now, in addition, this rhythmic pattern.

. . Where do you know about it?

It's the heart. It is the promise of life in your heart.