How the Viola Got Hip in Brazil

The history of the viola in Brazil always accompanied that of the
man in the field. There are more than 20 different tunings for
the instrument. One of the most common in the states of São Paulo
and Minas is the big onion. It's said that women cry when they
hear violeiros playing in this tuning as if they were chopping onions.

Rafaela Müller

Sound samples are available through the links.

"They say that if you want to look for the sertão you will never find it. Suddenly, by itself, when you are not expecting it, the sertão comes." The force of the sertão to which Brazilian fictionist Guimarães Rosa was referring is back once more thanks to one of the principal forms of expression of the culture of the sertão: music made with the viola caipira, also known as the viola cabocla, or the viola de arame (wire), or by as many names as there are years of Brazilian history.

A history that was forgotten, but which is making a comeback with a new generation of violeiros, who are doing research and reviving traditions, at the same time as they are inventing styles, and bringing the viola caipira to the areas of instrumental music, MPB and classical music.

For many of these new artists, the viola caipira also arrived unexpectedly, after years spent playing other instruments. Its sound recalls the songs from folias-de-reis heard in childhood, of the songs of Tonico and Tinoco and of Tião Carreiro played on the radio.

And it is thus that these artists explain the growth of the public for the viola caipira: "The viola has a lot to say about the history of Brazil, about the imagination of the people; that is why it is coming back so strong", says the violeiro Ivan Vilela, from Itajubá in Minas Gerais.

For Passoca, a Paulista composer who mixes elements of música caipira and MPB (Música Popular Brasileira—Brazilian Popular Music), "everyone in the city has roots in the country: they heard moda de viola as a child, with their father or grandfather."

There are curious stories that go along with the viola, such as that São Gonçalo, who, in addition to being the patron saint of violeiros, also protects prostitutes, is called on by those who wish to marry, and is the saint of fertility. Or the different versions of making a "deal with the imp", something necessary for those not naturally gifted—since as we know the devil has always been an excellent musician.

For these musicians, nevertheless, it is not easy to carve out a niche in the context of the contemporary record industry, in which the large record companies are not interested in modest sales.

"Some of these artists could even attract the attention of an important label, since their presence adds value to their catalogue, but they have a style which is far from that of the formula for mass success", explains José Roberto Zan, professor of music at the Departamento de Artes da Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp).

Independent production, or with small labels, ends up being the rule, and the discs are sold at shows, stores with broader coverage, or over the Internet. For this reason, there are more financial difficulties, but also more creative freedom.

"In comparison to what used to happen decades ago, today access to the means of musical production is easier, and this is reflected in the large quantity of recordings which happen at the margins of the traditional system", says Zan.

"As is happening throughout the world, Brazil also has an increasing demand for "authentic" cultural manifestations, which have some link with tradition, since, with globalization, culture is more and more losing its relation to its place of origin, and tends to become more standardized", he adds.

Tunings and Rhythms

"When I bought a viola, I thought that I would simply need to transfer my knowledge of the guitar to it. But I soon saw that it was quite different," tells Braz da Viola, who today gives classes for those who want to learn to play and construct the instrument, in São Francisco Xavier, is the state of São Paulo.

Generally smaller than the guitar, with a smaller waist, it does not have six strings, but ten in groups of two. Nevertheless, according to the violeiro and researcher of the instrument Roberto Corrêa, in his book A Arte de Pontear Viola (The Art of Playing the Viola) at present it is possible to find in Brazil violas with anywhere from five to twelve strings.

Widely known in Portugal in the sixteenth century, the viola was brought to Brazil soon after its colonization. At the very beginning, indigenous rhythms were mixed with those from Portugal. Later came African influences, and by the twentieth century, those of countries bordering on Brazil.

Thus, there is a variety of rhythms today: cururu, cateretê, toada, cana-verde, arrasta-pé, batuque, lundu, moda campeira, xote, rasqueado, waltz, mazurka, polka and guarânia, among others.

The history of the viola always accompanied that of the man in the field. In the past, the violeiro sought, in a spontaneous way, to tune the strings of the instrument "so that the sound would be good for accompanying the voice, and so that it would not be necessary to be too gymnastic with the fingers, since his hand was already sore because of his heavy labor", explains Ivan Vilela.

And so various tunings began to appear—today there are more than 20 different ones in Brazil. One of the most common in São Paulo and in the south of Minas Gerais, the cebolão (big onion), was already used in Portugal, and is so named because "they say that women, when they hear the violeiros playing in this tuning, used to cry as if they were chopping onions", according to Vilela.

The rio abaixo tuning, used by the Paulista violeiro Paulo Freire—and, they say, also by the devil—is typical of the Urucuia valley (in the north of Minas Gerais), where Freire learned to play the instrument.

After reading Grande Sertão: Veredas, by Guimarães Rosa, he went there in search of the sound of the sertão. He learned with old violeiros, such as seu Manelim—Manoel Neto de Oliveira—, with whom he composed some of the songs of his disc Rio Abaixo, winner of the Prêmio Sharp for new instrumental in 1995.

Accompanied by violoncello, seven string guitar, and various percussion instruments, he plays songs such as Mosquitão, - http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/revistas_sesc/pb/mosc.asx - also performed this year in his project "Personagens por Seus Sons" (Characters and their sounds), at Sesc Vila Mariana, in São Paulo, together with the Contadores de Estória Miguilim (Miguilim Storytellers), who declaimed portions of the work by Guimarães Rosa.

The paths by which players learn to play the instrument are various. Some artists emphasize the importance of living in the sertão, of contact with older, unknown violeiros who are still spread throughout Brazil. Other do not think this is so important, and mention the young urban generation which is now learning to play the viola caipira and including it in various musical contexts.

The notion that transformations in the style and in the arrangements of the song, leading to a broader knowledge of the instrument, are inevitable is widespread. But the question remains of how to modernize without losing the connection with tradition.

On Track for Success

A pioneer in the dissemination of música caipira, Cornélio Pires had to cover the costs of the first 78 rpm discs that he launched in 1929, with a repertoire from the interior of São Paulo, after Columbia turned him down, not believing that they could be commercially viable.

He soon proved Columbia wrong, and the Cornélio Pires series, which ended up being released on Columbia, ran to a total of 48 records, beginning the history of recorded música caipira.

With the advent of radio came the success of the duplas caipiras. The idea of two voices, explains Roberto Corrêa, is almost intuitive in rural areas, and was brought from there to the recording studios.

In folias-de-reis, for example, there is always a guia (guide) and a contraguia (counterguide), who repeats or responds to the verses sung by the guide.

The duo Alvarenga e Ranchinho, one of the first to appear, made their name singing humorous songs, and political satire. Tristezas do Jeca (Jeca's Woes) by Angelino de Oliveira, was another classic of the period.

Raul Torres, another important figure, joined Serrinha in a duo, recording hits such as "Cabocla Tereza" and "Pingo d'Água" (composed with João Pacífico), and also sang with Florêncio.

Tonico and Tinoco already had made their appearance by the fifties, as well as Tião Carreiro, who played with Pardinho and Carreirinho, and with the latter created, in 1959, a new rhythm—pagoda—fundamental for any violeiro who is beginning to strum the instrument.

One of the songs that established the new beat, "Pagode em Brasília" - http://www.robertocorrea.com.br/mp3/Pagode_em_brasilia.mp3 - by Teddy Vieira e Lourival dos Santos, was rerecorded as an instrumental, renamed Crisálida (1996), by Corrêa.

In this period, rhythms such as the bolero, the Paraguayan guarânia and the Mexican rancheira were already having an influence of the music of the duos, bringing with them new instrumentation.

"Beginning with the initial change, in which música caipira stopped being just folk music and entered the market, stylistic fusion has intensified", explains José Roberto Zan. Along with this came the gradual electrification of the instruments, and as this happened, the viola lost prominence.

Duos such as Chitãozinho and Xororó, active since the seventies, sought to get closer to the successful young urban music, such as that by the Jovem Guarda and especially that of Roberto Carlos, exploding in 1982 with their eighth album, Somos Apaixonados (We are in love), and the hit Fio de Cabelo (Strand of hair).

Like them, others would adopt the visual style of the American cowboy, which would later evolve to the typical heartthrobs of pop música sertaneja-romântica, such as Leandro and Leonardo.

Rediscovery of the Instrument

While most musicians were hanging their violas on the wall, others took it up once more and worked on its possibilities. In the hands of Renato Andrade, from Abaeté in Minas, the viola began to be heard as a solo instrument in concert halls by the seventies.

"He broke many taboos. The viola still did not have the credibility to be played without accompaniment or someone singing," tells Roberto Corrêa, also a Mineiro, but based in Brasília, and who since 1977 has been interested in the viola, and began to write songs and arrangements, and appear in recitals.

He also composed for the viola-de-cocho, as for example in his Peleja de Siriema com Cobra, on his disc Uróboro (1994). An instrument typical of Mato Grosso, the viola-de-cocho is smaller than the viola caipira, made of a single block of wood, generally without a hole in the front, and with only five strings.

With Elis Regina singing Romaria (1977), by Renato Teixeira, and Pena Branca and Xavantinho recording Cio da Terra (1981), by Milton Nascimento and Chico Buarque, the viola had a space with the audience for MPB.

The duo was presented by Som Brasil, a program hosted by Rolando Boldrin, which aired on Sunday mornings on TV Globo, between 1981 e 1989, and later made its way to various networks, before finally going off the air.

It was Boldrin who brought to the TV screen the excellent violeiro Zé Coco do Riachão, "discovered" by the singer Téo Azevedo at the end of the seventies, in the region of Montes Claros , state of Minas Gerais.

The program "Viola, Minha Viola", had better luck, hosted for 22 years on TV Cultura of São Paulo by Inezita Barroso, an iron defender of traditional music, with more than 80 records.

But it was when Almir Sater appeared in the novelas (soap operas) Pantanal and Ana Raio e Zé Trovão (from the late TV Manchete), and later in O Rei do Gado (TV Globo), that the viola definitively entered the majority of Brazilian homes.

"Suddenly, the violeiro was a handsome young man, with a nice voice, who was successful. That eliminated a lot of prejudice, and gave a boost to the career of other musicians", says Braz da Viola.

At the time, Almir Sater, from the south of Mato Grosso, already had five discs. His two instrumental discs, released in 1985 and 1990, are always cited as fundamental by young musicians.

Although the viola was prominent at the beginning of the nineties, Helena Meirelles, native of Mato Grosso do Sul, only became well-known after appearing in the American magazine Guitar Player, in 1993.

Her family had taken cassettes with her music to Brazilian radio stations in vain, until a nephew decided to send them to a friend in the United States, and then things changed.

Playing the instrument since the age of nine, she learned to play by herself, listening to her uncle, as well as the cowhands and Paraguayans who passed through the region by the Paraná river.

She left home and began to live and to perform in bars and bordellos of her native state and in the west of São Paulo. At 77, she is preparing her fourth album, and her unique way of playing is a success.

The renewal of interest in the viola also favored handmade production. Vergílio Artur de Lima, luthier from Sabará (MG), perfected his construction techniques with Roberto Corrêa.

He made the violas used by Corrêa, Paulo Freire and Ivan Vilela. Using various types of wood, he takes about 150 hours to make an instrument. Since the first, made in 1984, he has made 150, and the price is never less than R$ 750 (US 250).

In addition to Vergílio, many other luthiers make violas, such as Joacir de Carvalho, Roberto Dimathus, João Batista e Francisco Munhoz.

Old and New Styles

"Today there is a big space for those who want to make modern music connected with the rural scene. But the musician can also simply use the viola to diversify his work", says Roberto Corrêa.

"It is important not to make labels, and in spite of thinking that the strength of the viola in is popular culture, we play everything, which helps to get rid of the idea that it is only good for música caipira", adds Pereira da Viola.

Born in the valley of the Mucuri, in the north of Minas Gerais, he includes in his four discs, not only various traditional songs of the region, such as "Bicho Calango" - http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/revistas_sesc/pb/bicho.asx - but also an arrangement of the "Bolero," by Maurice Ravel, and the "Habanera," from the opera Carmen, by Georges Bizet.

Roberto Corrêa, for his part, presents the "Trenzinho Caipira," by Heitor Villa-Lobos, "Odeon" and "Brejeiro," by Ernesto Nazaré, and "Tico-Tico no Fubá," by Zequinha de Abreu (on his record Crisálida). And even "All Blues," by Miles Davis, has been played on the viola by Paulo Freire.

The fact is that instrumental music for viola has grown vigorously. "I think that this necessary in order to rehabilitate the instrument, but it is certainly not the only way" says Corrêa, who sings various songs on his most recent CD, Extremosa-Rosa (2002).

For those who make use of the voice, like Pereira da Viola, poetry, always very present in the caipira genre, takes an important place. But even old violeiros already had a great deal of success with the solo viola, such as Zé do Rancho—grandfather of Sandy and Júnior—and Tião Carreiro.

Some violeiros use the viola in a classical way. "Our music is made with the contribution of knowledge acquired through technical studies and the use of other instruments", says Ivan Vilela.

On his disc Paisagens (1997), he presents arrangements with rabeca, guitar and percussion, the result of which is a sonority at the same time simple and sophisticated, as in the song "Saudade da Minha Terra."

The variation that he made for "Asa Branca," on the disc Violeiros do Brasil, recorded live in São Paulo, at the theater in Sesc Pompéia, in 1997, featured the participation of various violeiros.

"But we have both classical and spontaneous violeiros, as you can see in `Viola, Minha Viola'", recalls Inezita Barroso. With a full schedule of shows, lectures and recordings, the "fairy godmother of the violeiros", as Inezita is known, points out that this generation is important because it writes its own songs which allows it to perpetuate rhythms and melodies more easily, in contrast to the predominantly oral tradition of the past.

The duos are less frequent today than in the past, perhaps because their image is strongly connected to the pop sertanejo-romântico style. Nevertheless, Zé Mulato and Cassiano, who won the Prêmio Sharp in 1997, with the song "Meu Céu," from the album by the same name. "And there is a generation of young people coming back to playing in duos, with the work of Tião Carreiro as inspiration ", recalls Pereira da Viola, whose song "Mãos e Pilão" - http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/revistas_sesc/pb/maos.asx - is performed by the Orquestra de Viola de Coité, of Londrina, in the state of Paraná.

There are other orchestras of violeiros, such as that of Osasco, a pioneer, and that of São José dos Campos, both from São Paulo, which, like that of Londrina, is led by Braz da Viola, as well as the Oficina de Viola Caipira, located in Campinas, also São Paulo, directed by Ivan Vilela.

Once Upon a Time There Was a Saci...

The story goes "you can't tune the viola". Today with new instruments and new musicians, this has become another "causo" (tall tale) to tell, than a universal truth. They also say that a violeiro spends more time telling stories than playing...

When they meet, they like to talk about potions for making their fingers nimble, or of the various agreements to be made with the devil for playing well, such as taking some pinga along with the viola to a crossroads, on a night with a full moon.

And if, even then, the show is not good, it is because a saci popped up, because he always messes up everything. These are stories that bring to the art a dimension of fantasy and ritual that has always been very present in the caipira universe.

But when you ask if they made a pact with the devil… "Yes and no", answers Paulo Freire, who tells a story of such a meeting on his disc Rio Abaixo.

And Renato Andrade says that he doesn't know if he did or not, since, as he tells in the book Música Caipira: Da Roça ao Rodeio (Caipira Music: from the backwoods to the rodeo) by Rosa Nepomuceno, while he was flying with the imp, he called out a saint's name, because of the beautiful view, and the devil dropped him.

But, in the text that accompanies his song "Renato e o Satanás" (Renato and Satan) - http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/revistas_sesc/pb/maos.asx - in A Viola e Minha Gente, he tells that, in hell, he heard the devil trying to imitate his style of ponteado rápido (quick playing) on the viola.

And Roberto Corrêa adds: "I always say that, besides those who need to make a deal with the devil, there are those who were already born with a gift!" How ever that may be, many of them deserve to be heard.

Rafaela Müller is a Brazilian journalist. You can email her at revistapb@sescsp.org.br.

Translated from the Portuguese by Tom Moore. Moore has been fascinated by the language and culture of Brazil since 1994. He translates from Portuguese, Spanish, French, Italian and German, and is also active as a musician. Comments welcome at querflote@hotmail.com.

This article appeared originally in Portuguese, in the magazine Problemas Brasileiros— http://www.sescsp.org.br/sesc/revistas/pb.