Samba Em Prelúdio

Question 1

When and where did Samba become popular?

Answer 1

During the 20th century as the national dance of Brazil where it’s loud drumming and syncopated rhythms form an exciting part of the carnival season

Question 2

When was this set work written and what gender is it

Answer 2

It was written in 1962 and it is a bossa nova

Question 3

Describe bossa nova including it’s differences to samba

Answer 3

It means new trend and was developed in the late 1950s as an alternative to carnival samba. It is slower and more lyrical than samba with a focus on rich and complex harmonies borrowed from contemporary cool jazz.

Question 4

Who was this set work composed by?

Answer 4

Roberto Baden Powell de Aquino a virtuoso brazillian guitarist and composer who had been encouraged to popularize bossa nova by Jobim

Question 5

What does Samba Em Preludio mean?

Answer 5

It means Samba in the form of a prelude (A prelude being a short piece written in the form of an improvisation

Question 6

The wrote the lyrics? What language are they in and what story do they tell?

Answer 6

The Portuguese lyrics were written by the brazillian poet and playwright Vinícius de Moraes. They tell a sad story of lost love.

Question 7

When was this recording of the set work released and in what context?

Answer 7

It was released 2008 as the last track on Esperanza Spalding’s album Esperanza

Question 8

Who is Esperanza Spalding?

Answer 8

She is an American singer and multi instrumentalist who plays acoustic bass guitar on this track as well as singing the vocal line

Question 9

What are the instruments used in this set work?

Answer 9

Female voice, the acoustic bass guitar, an acoustic guitar

Question 10

What sort of voice is used?

Answer 10

A female voice with a low tessitura (ranging from E below middle C upwards to G a 10th higher)

Question 11

What is the acoustic bass guitar?

Answer 11

A large version of the acoustic guitar with 4 strings tuned to E A D and G

Question 12

What does the acoustic bass guitar part include,

Answer 12

Broken chords, scale patterns and double stopping. As well as ornaments such as the mordent in bar 1, the harmonic on the highest note in bar 3 and the glissando from the low F# that goes up to D at the end of the bar

Question 13

What does the acoustic guitar do?

Answer 13

It joins the accompaniment in bar 23 where it plays chords and melodic fragments between vocal phrases . It also has a virtuoso solo in the middle of the song

Question 14

What does ds al coda mean?

Answer 14

Dal segno al coda. It means from the sign to the coda. It is an instruction to go back to the s sign in bar 39 and repeat from there up to the end of bar 52 where the instruction to coda indicates a jump onto the coda sign

Question 15

What happens in bars 1-3?

Answer 15

Solo in free tempo for acoustic bass guitar

Question 16

The song includes two main melodies labelled A and B and each is immediately repeated in varied form. What does this mean

Answer 16

The structure is AA1 in bars 4-22 and BB1 in bars 23-54

Question 17

What happens in bars 4-22?

Answer 17

Section AA1. Verse 1 is 8 bars with varied repeat in bars 12-18
The introduction to bossa nova indication begins in bar 19

Question 18

What happens in bars 23-54

Answer 18

Section BB1. Verse 2 (different music). Acous5if guitar joins in. It is 16 bars with a varied repeat in bars 39-54

Question 19

What happens in bars 55-87?

Answer 19

Guitar solo based in chords of section B

Question 20

What happens in bars 88-103?

Answer 20

Repeats. The bass plays an augmented version of vocal melody A over which the voic3 sings verse 3 to a simplified version of melody B. The acoustic guitar is silent. It is followed by an exact repeat of B1 (bars 39-52) which is inicated by dal segno

Question 21

What happens in bars 104-114?

Answer 21

The coda. It is based on melody of bars 50-53 sung twice more

Question 22

What does augmentation mean?

Answer 22

The note lengths are increased (mostly doubled) so it is slower

Question 23

What is the texture,

Answer 23

• In bars 1-3 It is monophonic apart from two double stops
• much of the rest of the music is homophonic (melody and accompaniment) although the combination of the two independent melodic lines in bars 88-103 is contrapuntal

Question 24

What is the tonality?

Answer 24

It is in the key of B minor. There are no modulations but there are many chromatic chords

Question 25

Describe the harmony

Answer 25

• many chords are complex because bossa nova is based on the rich harmonic vocabulary of cool jazz. Plain triad in root position are rare and when they do occur non chord notes are free mixed in
• chord extensions (7ths, 9ths, 11ths and 13ths) are used along with chromatic chords such as the diminished 7th (e.g. in bars 33 and 35) and the chords of C and F (which are both chromatic in the key of B minor) in the bars 27 and 28
• an extended chord is frequently used to end a jazz performance and here the final chord is a Bm#13 (although it is labelled Bm13). The B in the bass is the tonic but it soon dies away leaving a discord deliberately avoiding any sense of finality

Question 26

Describe the melody A of this set work

Answer 26

• In the A section the vocal melody is based on a four note rising figure that is varied throughout bars 4-17
• Each phrase spans a 7th and the first or second note of each phrase falls by a step creating a free downward sequence. The fall sequence, low tessitura and minor key create a sad mood designed to portray the melancholy lyrics. The melody in section A moves mainly by leaps of between a 3rd and 7th

Question 27

Describe the melody B of this set work

Answer 27

• It is almost entirely conjunct with bars 31-34 being a repeat of bars 23-26 transposed up a 4th. Bars 34-36 are repeated in a descending sequence to form bars 36-38
• the word setting throughout is syllabic

Question 28

Describe the melody if the instruments

Answer 28

They have improvisatory character.
•In the introduction the acoustic bass guitar part consists of broken chord and scale bass figures.
•The unacompannied pattern in bar 2 returns in bar 7 and is changed to a triplet rhythm in bar 15
•the acoustic guitar solo in bars 55-87 is based on scale and chord patterns and shows the range and versitality of the instrument in its upper register
•the guitarist uses fingered tremelo

Question 29

What is the metre of the piece?

Answer 29

It is in 4/4. There is a 5/4 In bar 3 as a way of expressing the free rhythm.

Question 30

What is the tempo in the first 3 bars?

Answer 30

It is in free time as the first three bars have a thoughtful, improvisatorary quality achieved through rubato

Question 31

Why and how does the music look complex?

Answer 31

It looks complex because much of the musical detail is improvised so the transcription shoes there to be lots of triplets and syncopation

Question 32

Give three important rhythmic features of this set work

Answer 32

• triplets
• syncopation
• cross rhythms

Question 33

What does the direction ‘bossa nova’ in bar 19 mark?

Answer 33

It marks the start of the dance section of the song with the bossa nova’s characteristic combination if gently syncopated and dotted rhythms