A longa arte de Tom Jobim | Ep. 2: Orfeu da Conceição, Tom e Vinicius

Hi, I'm Arthur Nestrovski. I'm here to talk about Tom Jobim and Paula Morelenbaum is here with me today. A privilege, a luxury for all of us to have Paula here with us.

Orfeu da Conceição was the show that promoted Tom Jobim's meeting with Vinicius de Moraes, and this meeting would have impressive, overwhelming repercussions, not only for song and music, but I would say for Brazilian culture as a whole. And they got along well from the first meeting, they closed themselves in Tom Jobim's own apartment and at a certain point, the click was made and from then on they started to compose absolutely amazing things and very different from what had been done until then. in the field of Brazilian song, whether from a musical point of view or from a poetry point of view.

To give a first example, among many. If everyone were like you How wonderful to live It's a shame to stop, right? But everyone remembers that.

A wonderful song that is part of the Orfeu da Conceição soundtrack. And here the art of composer Tom Jobim draws attention. We talked about this a lot in the first episode.

Not just the talent that he himself doesn't control, that is Tom Jobim's personality. Where does this world of music come from, this very particular sensitivity towards a certain type of melody and a certain type of harmony, but the work, really, of composition, that introduction in another key, with chords chosen, like a goldsmith, until entering specifically in the lyrics of the song. Another example, another song by Orfeu da Conceição where, here as in this one, we are in a field where we are used to calling it a popular song because it is presented as a popular song and has been given to the world as a popular song, but it is a genre which could very well be considered a concert song if it were played in another way, which is the also very famous Modinha.

No My heart can no longer Live like this torn apart Enslaved to an illusion That is just disappointment Ah! The type of lyrics that Vinícius de Moraes was already practicing here, it is good for us to remember that, at this point, Vinicius de Moraes was a renowned poet of the book. He already had several important books behind him.

He was, without a doubt, one of the main active poets in the country and he took this turn and started writing songs, something he would do forever from now on, in a very particular way. And if you compare lyrics like the ones that Paula has just sung with what was the samba-canção repertoire, which was the prevalent form of urban popular song at that time, you will see the degree of invention and richness of images, the modernist conciseness of ideas, the unexpected metaphors, the richness in the internal games, in the internal rhymes, in the alliteration. Everything that Vinicius de Moraes already practiced as a poet of the book, he came to practice as a poet of the song, with the difference that he knew how to do it like no one else, at the same time that the language occurred in a very natural, very spontaneous way, as if was spoken language.

It's as if it were the voice itself speaking, as if it were someone saying it, but the melody of the speech is one degree above the ground, there is a musical space above reality. The contour of the spoken voice is musicalized and gains a new expressiveness. In the case of Orfeu da Conceição, this happens both in songs like the one we just did, Modinha, and also, naturally, in sambas.

So, we can show, for example. . .

It starts with this beautiful introduction. I can't forget Your look Far from my eyes Ah! My life is waiting for you To say goodbye to you Beloved woman My destiny It's dawn Serene in my eyes it's already gone I can't forget your look Far from my eyes Far from my eyes Far from my eyes This one couldn't be cut.

It's too beautiful. The opera, the musical Orfeu da Conceição premiered with great success at the Theatro Municipal in Rio de Janeiro, in 1956. The sets were by none other than Oscar Niemeyer.

Carlos Scliar and Djanira had designed the posters and the program. It was, in short, an enlightened generation of Brazilian modernism that came together to present this show. Three years later, in 1959, it was made into a film directed by a Frenchman, Marcel Camus.

For this film, Jobim and Vinicius ended up composing another song that would become one of the duo's most famous and certainly one of the best known in Orfeu da Conceição's song collection. Let's just play the beginning, Paula, and then we'll do it a little more, but just so people remember. Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Happiness is like a dewdrop on a flower petal Anyway, it's an extraordinary song in many ways, but we talk about Vinicius de Moraes' poetry, we talk about Tom Jobim's craftsmanship, about natural crossing, spontaneous with concert music, with jazz.

But I wanted to point out something else to you here, which is the very important relationship between poetry and composition. Think about it, this beginning is a solar thing, right? An ascending range.

The music opens. And then. .

. Then the music drops. She starts with this impressive solar leap.

Then it closes. Well, the natural thing would be for you to sing Happiness yes Sadness has no end That would be what other composers and other lyricists would do. The genius of Jobim and Vinicius is this inversion, because when singing Sadness there is no end Happiness, yes Here there is already the nucleus of poetry, not to mention the essence, of existence according to Vinicius de Moraes.

For Vinicius de Moraes, sadness, or melancholy, is a kind of force of gravity in life. This is the natural state. Things tend towards sadness, things tend towards melancholy.

The miracle of poetry, the miracle of music, the miracle of art is being able to create joy, happiness, lightness, light within this environment that always pulls the spirit down. This is done here in an anthological way. Two sentences are enough.

This first sentence is enough, in fact, for us to have this inversion between the meaning of poetry and the direction and musical meaning, which are everything in this song. Furthermore, there is another facet of composer Tom Jobim that can be seen in this song. That's it.

. . We'll see that too in the next episode.

What is known in the field of classical music as madrigalism, which was a form of composition for voices. When talking about madrigalisms, we are referring to the way in which the music itself imitates what the text is saying. It gives a musical expression to what is already being sung.

Let's sing the beginning again and then I'll show you. We do it again. Happiness is like a dewdrop on a flower petal And it continues.

It shines quietly Then, it wobbles slightly And falls like a tear of love Well, several things here. Can you help me with the lyrics? Happiness is like the feather That the wind carries through the air What music does, “and the wind carries through the air”.

This line that slides downwards. And here, we have to do this accompaniment, because when Jobim composes a song, he doesn't just compose the melody and harmony. He also composes the secondary voices, the counter voices.

And we have to do this, otherwise it looks like we're not doing it. So when you do, it's also something that comes down. The wind that carries it and the plume that remains suspended in the air.

And it flies so lightly. It flies so lightly, but its life is short There needs to be non-stop wind You practically see the leaf falling with the wind and this wind that it needs to sustain itself is, in fact, the music itself. It is the poetry itself that takes us with it, that holds us in the air in the moments when a song by Tom Jobim and Vinicius de Moraes lingers.

Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Happiness is like a dewdrop on a flower petal Shines calmly Then, it sways slightly And falls like a tear of love The happiness of the poor seems The great illusion of carnival We work all year long For a moment of dream, to make the costume Of a king, or a pirate, or a gardener For everything to end on Wednesday Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Happiness is like the feather That the wind carries through the air It flies so lightly, but its life is brief There needs to be non-stop wind My happiness is dreaming In my girlfriend's eyes It's like this night passing, passing In search of the dawn Speak quietly, for favor So that she wakes up happy as the day Offering kisses of love Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Sadness has no end Happiness, yes Sadness has no end Sadness has no end Sadness Improvised conventions. All very well. No, funnier is sadness.

People laughing. Sadness has no end. .

. One of the main ironies is that to sing Desafinado you have to be very in tune. You have to be João Gilberto or Paula Morelenbaum.

Try singing in the shower and let's see how you do. Pay attention to this melody. This is already strange.

Let's get back to that. And now? Now I challenge you.

How is it? But that's it.