The Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim

Peter Freeman

• Publisher: Intellect Books
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN: 9781783209378
• eBook ISBN: 9781783209385
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music Biographies

Antônio Carlos Jobim has been called the greatest of all contemporary Brazilian songwriters. He wrote both popular and serious music and was a gifted piano, guitar and flute player. One of the key figures in the creation of the bossa nova style, Jobim's music made a lasting impression worldwide, and many of his songs are now standards of the popular music repertoire.
 
In The Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, one of the first extensive musicological analyses of the Brazilian composer, Peter Freeman examines the music, philosophy and circumstances surrounding the creation of Jobim's popular songs, instrumental compositions and symphonic works. Freeman attempts to elucidate not only the many musical influences that formed Jobim's musical output, but also the stylistic peculiarities that were as much the product of a gifted composer as the rich musical environment and heritage that surrounded him.

Chapter 1

Introduction

Antônio Carlos Jobim: Introduction and Background

Antônio Carlos Jobim came to prominence at a pivotal point in Brazilian cultural history. In 1959, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Brazil’s most internationally recognized composer, died, bringing to an end a significant era of Brazilian nationalism in art music. Three years earlier, the reformist Kubitschek government had come to power with its optimistic mandate of ‘50 years in 5’, promising rapid industrial expansion and capitalist modernization. A new capital, Brasília, was planned, international companies invested heavily in the country’s infrastructure and the results were soon seen in full employment, political support for the arts, architecture, interior and fashion design, technology and the media. Under Kubitschek’s leadership there was a national sense of well-being and positive self-assertion. It was in this confident social environment that bossa nova developed as a new musical expression of Brazilian identity.¹

A key aspect of this new musical expression was the struggle for legitimacy in creating ‘true and high-quality’ Brazilian music.² The author and musicologist, Martha Tupinambá de Ulhôa, referred to this struggle as a search for verdadeira música brasileira (Brazilian musical truth) and música de qualidade (music of quality), and stated that this search was embodied in Brazilian popular music of the latter half of the twentieth century.³ The products of this pursuit for quality and truth were found most notably in the music of Antônio Carlos Jobim.⁴ Ulhôa identifies these qualities as the possession of a ‘proper’ social circle and active relationships within it, a disposition for conquering and maintaining a leadership position, a capital of intelligence and a richness in cultural understanding. Ulhôa also identifies a familiarity with the standards of art music, such as linguistic ‘innovation’, literary lyrics and a distanced attitude in relation to commercial ends. With this background, Jobim’s work was able to be widely acknowledged and respected throughout his life in the realm of both popular and art music.

The Perception of Jobim: Reviews, Impressions, Quotations, Influences

Jobim’s death in December 1994 initiated a number of biographical publications, tribute recordings and scholarly articles on his life and musical achievements. In a comprehensive article, Reily refers to Jobim as ‘one of the most talented musicians Brazil ever produced’ and to the bossa nova movement, of which Jobim was an acknowledged leader, as having ‘reformulat[ed] the language of Brazilian popular music’. Acknowledging that Jobim was not alone in the creation of a distinctive musical style, Reily maintained that ‘just as bossa nova was the product of an era, it was also the product of the genius of those involved in its creation’.⁵ Later publications included references to Jobim’s ‘rich harmonic progressions’ and identified the bolero and samba canção influences in bossa nova as belonging to the ‘sophisticated segment of Brazilian popular music’.⁶ Even as early as the 1960s, the critic Robert Farris had made an often repeated comparison between Gershwin and Jobim, claiming that ‘[Jobim’s] creations are among the most enchanting and most melodic of our times’.⁷ Frank Sinatra had also said: ‘The work I did with Tom Jobim gave me the most personal and professional satisfaction of my career. He was a genius who made anyone who worked with him feel good’.⁸ Perhaps one of the most concise appraisals of Jobim and his music was given by Béhague, who wrote:

During the last 25 years of his life the worldwide recognition of his talents was unprecedented for a Brazilian popular musician: his music was recorded in the best studios of New York and Los Angeles and released on the largest multinational labels. He toured with his Banda Nova in several continents, received several further Grammy awards and was awarded many honours, including honorary doctorates from Brazilian and Portuguese Universities. […] His output, which numbers some 250 titles, reveals his talents as a profoundly creative composer whose innovative and inspiring melodies, harmonies and rhythms and inventive orchestration always expressed his passionate love for his native city and its people with simplicity and honest emotion.⁹

The composer/arranger Clare Fischer highlighted Chopin’s influence in Jobim’s music, stating in a video interview in 1993, that,

Tom is very influenced by Chopin. He has that lyrical quality which Chopin had. I don’t know if he’s aware of it or not, but it is definitely there. Now nobody is saying that somebody is copying, because […] see, music is like everything else. Nothing comes from nothing. Something always comes from something. We are all influenced by different people and we do different things with it.¹⁰

In his later years Jobim received many accolades and awards for his music and worked with some of the world’s best orchestras. He had worked with the New York Symphony Orchestra in 1975 for his album Urubu, which included mainly orchestral works. After the last recording session for the tone poem Saudade do Brasil, he was awarded a standing ovation by the members of the orchestra.¹¹ In 1984, Jobim and his ensemble Banda Nova began a tour of Europe, beginning in Vienna’s Konzerthause performing with the Austrian Radio (ORF) Sinfonietta. The group followed this initial success with performances in other European venues, including Rome’s Teatro Olimpico.¹² Carnegie Hall was also the venue for five of his concerts. He performed there for the first bossa nova celebration concert in 1962, then again in 1985 with the Banda Nova, and subsequently in 1989, 1992 and in 1994.¹³ The critic George W. Goodman of the New York Times wrote, amongst other things, of ‘the appearance and influence of bossa nova as part of American popular music’.¹⁴

On the few occasions that Jobim’s orchestral music was performed in public during his lifetime, it was generally well-received. The performance of Sinfonia da Alvorada during the National Commemoration of Independence week in September 1985 in the Praça dos Três Poderes in Brasília was enthusiastically received, in marked contrast to other planned events.¹⁵ Jobim was pleased and honoured to have two of his former teachers perform – Radamés Gnattali, playing piano, and Alceu Bocchino, as conductor of the choir and the Orquestra Sinfônica de Brasília. The official acceptance of the Sinfonia da Alvorada was reflected in Jobim being granted the title of Grand Commandeur des Arts et des Lettres by the French Minister of Culture, Jacques Lang, while he was in Brasília.¹⁶

Hodel’s description of Jobim’s Carnegie Hall concert in 1985 concluded that Jobim’s music ‘goes far beyond the standard harmonic formulae and pasted-on melodies that make up much popular romantic music’.¹⁷ He added that Jobim’s songs ‘are so well-structured that most of them would be appealing if arranged for piano solo or for any combination even up to a large chamber orchestra’, and affirmed that, ‘It was a delight to hear Antônio Carlos Jobim put sensuous flesh on the bones of songs we only get to hear these days in the muzak of banks and dentist’s offices’.¹⁸ In a review of Jobim’s concert at New York’s Avery Fischer Hall in 1987, Stephen Holden hinted at Jobim’s eclecticism:

Much as Ray Charles crystallised American pop-soul by fusing gospel, blues and pop in the early 1960s, Mr Jobim’s bossa nova wedded Brazilian samba and soft-edged European pop with classical and jazz influences ranging from Chopin to Debussy to Miles Davis in his cool jazz phase. The fusion resulted in a pop style that remains unmatched in its delicate sensuality, especially when the music is interpreted in the caressingly guttural intonation of the Portuguese language and played on the guitar.¹⁹

In the last decade of his life, Jobim received many awards in recognition of his work. These include the Medalha do Mérito Alvorada in Brasília, the EMI Major Performer and Composer Trophy, the Honors Diploma of the Inter-American Music Council, the title of Rector of the Universidade de Música de São Paulo and honorary doctoral degrees awarded by the Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ) and the Universidade de Lisboa, and the Medalha Pedro Ernesto, given by the Rio de Janeiro State Legislature. He was also named as a member of the National Academy of Popular Music’s Hall of Fame, alongside Cole Porter, the Gershwin brothers, Irving Berlin and Michel Legrand.²⁰

In the light of the endemic poverty and lack of opportunity for millions of Brazilians, it is surprising that the reception of Jobim’s sophisticated music throughout Brazil has generally been positive, especially considering a predictable envy and occasional resentment of his educated, middle-class background. The most profound manifestation of this acceptance came from a favela (slum) in Rio de Janeiro, home to one of the most traditional and beloved samba schools, G.R.E.S. (Grêmio Recreativo Escola de Samba) Estacão Primeira de Mangueira. In 1991 the school chose Jobim as the theme for the following year’s carnival parade. Prior to the carnival, several CD recordings were made featuring the Mangueira percussionists and 30 major names in Brazilian popular music. Later, ‘in the parade Jobim appeared on the tallest of Mangueira’s floats, wearing a white suit, beside his piano, waving...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abstract
• List of Musical Examples
• Chapter 1: Introduction
• Chapter 2: Influences
• Chapter 3: Harmonic Language
• Chapter 4: Rhythmic Techniques
• Chapter 5: Thematicism and Structural Design
• Chapter 6: Conclusion
• Bibliography