Baião

Baião, a popular form of music, dance, and song in northeastern Brazil, typically played by trios of accordion, triangle, and zabumba (bass drum). The baião, and related genres such as the baiano and abaianada, most likely originated in the nineteenth century as a social dance music and musical pattern in rural northeastern Brazil among the mestizo population. The name probably comes from an early association with the state of Bahia. The music and dance elements of baião were influenced by, if not derived from, Afro-Brazilian styles. An urban form of the baião was created and popularized nationally in the 1940s by Luiz Gonzaga, who mixed a rhythm played on the viola (a ten-string folk guitar) by northeastern bards with drum patterns from Bandas De Pífanos (fife-and-drum bands). In the 1950s and 1960s it became a national symbol of the Northeast when millions of northeasterners migrated to the South (especially to São Paulo) in search of work. Baião is not as popular as samba or bossa nova, but it has influenced important contemporary musicians, such as Gilbert Gil. Musically, the baião is characterized by a syncopated duple rhythm played on the zabumba and a melodic scale featuring a flatted seventh. The songs' texts dwell on love and on the natural beauty and chronic problems of the Northeast. They are usually told from a male perspective, often in slang and a heavy northeastern accent.

See alsoBanda de Pífanos; Bossa Nova; Cantoria; Gil, Gilberto; Samba.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

José Ramos Tinhorão, Pequena história da música popular: Da modinha ao tropicalismo, 5th ed. (1986), esp. pp. 219-229.

Mundicarmo Maria Rocha Ferretti, Baião dos dois: A música de Zédantas e Luiz Gonzaga … (1988).

Chris Mc Gowan and Ricardo Pessanha, The Brazilian Sound: Samba, Bossa Nova, and the Popular Music of Brazil (1991), esp. pp. 135-136.

Additional Bibliography

Crook, Larry. Brazilian Music: Northeastern Traditions and the Heartbeat of a Modern Nation. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2005.

Murphy, John P. Music in Brazil: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Santos, José Farias dos. Luiz Gonzaga: A música como expressão do Nordeste. São Paulo: IBRASA, 2004.

                                           Larry N. Crook