[Dixielandjazz] Choro Music

[Stephen G Barbone]

 From www.choromusic.com





What is Choro?

Choro (pronounced “shoh-roh;” “cho” as in “sho” of “show,” “ro” as in  
“ro” of “rose” when pronounced with a Scottish accent), popularly  
called chorinho, is a Brazilian popular and instrumental music genre  
that has more than 130 years of existence. A Choro Ensemble is called  
“Regional,” and a musician, composer or instrumentalist is called  
“Chorão” (or weeper). In spite of its name, this kind of music has, in  
general, a very vibrant and cheerful beat, characterized by the  
virtuosity and improvisation of its participants. Choro represents the  
most typical Brazilian instrumental formation, as well as the longest- 
standing musical organized group within the Brazilian popular music.

The Choro Ensemble is traditionally formed of one or more solo  
instruments (flute, mandolin, clarinet or saxophone) and the  
cavaquinho, guitars and pandeiro as accompaniment instruments. The  
cavaquinho performs the “core” of the harmony, one or more 6-string  
guitars (along with the 7-string guitar) perform the harmony and the  
variations/modulations, the 7-string guitar acts as bass, and the  
pandeiro establishes and keeps the rhythm of the music. The  
cavaquinho, despite its limited range extension, can also be used as a  
solo instrument.

Choro, in its essence, is a purely instrumental musical genre. In the  
very few cases of Choros with lyrics we may say that a large part was  
written years after they were composed by the author, or even years  
after the composer’s death.

We could say that Choro has its historical dawn in the city of Rio de  
Janeiro in the early 19th century, with the arrival of the Portuguese  
Royal Family in Brazil, fleeing from Napoleon’s invasion and bringing  
along fifteen thousand Europeans. As a direct consequence, the city of  
Rio de Janeiro undergoes unprecedented urban and cultural  
transformations. Musicians, new musical instruments and new European  
rhythms reach the city and are immediately accepted by local society.  
Before long, the city of Rio de Janeiro becomes known, as attested by  
the poet Araújo Porto Alegre, as “the city of pianos.”

Choro resulted from the exposure of Brazilian musicians to European  
musical styles, mainly the polka (introduced in Rio de Janeiro in  
1845), in a musical environment that was already strongly influenced  
by African rhythms, principally the Lundu, that had been present in  
the Brazilian culture since the end of the 18th century. Just like  
Ragtime in the United States, Choro springs up as a result of  
influences of musical styles and rhythms coming from two continents:  
Europe and Africa.

The first reference to the term "Choro" was made in the 1870’s, when  
flutist Joaquim Antônio da Silva Callado, regarded as a pioneer in  
this process of merging European and African musical styles and  
rhythms, formed an ensemble called "Choro Carioca" (Choro from Rio de  
Janeiro). Maestro and Professor Baptista Siqueira, the biographer of  
Joaquim Callado, explains that "when Callado formed the Choro Carioca,  
or simply "Choro de Callado," (Mr. Callado’s Choro), he organized the  
most out-of-the-ordinary small musical group in Brazil. Since its  
beginning the group had one solo instrument (the flute), two guitars,  
and one cavaquinho, and only one of the composers could read music:  
all the others would improvise the harmonic accompaniment.”

Where does the word “Choro” come from?

Among researchers, it seems that no uniform stand has been taken on  
the origin of the word “Choro.”

The word may have derived from the plaintive style of playing foreign  
songs at the end of the 19th century, and its enthusiasts started to  
call it “weeping music.” Hence the word Choro. The Choro Ensemble, as  
a group, then started to be known as Choro, as in “Choro de  
Callado” (Mr. Callado’s Choro).

The term may also have derived from “xolo,” a sort of ball that would  
gather slaves of the farms, an expression which, based on the  
confusion caused by its paronym in the Portuguese language, started to  
be known as “xoro” and finally, in the city, must have started to be  
spelled with “ch.”

Others argue that the origin of the term is related to the melancholic  
feeling conveyed by the guitar improvised modulations played in  
response to the principal theme (also known in the Portuguese language  
as “baixarias”).