Brazil is a Country that has the World’s Richest Musical Culture

Brazil has always had a rich variety of unique instruments, talented musicians, strong African, European and Native Indian influences, and for sure the rich folklore. Brazil is a country that has the world’s richest musical culture, a strong culture that since the 40’s has influenced culture worldwide. Brazil is a country where talent and creativity is abundant among its people, and is a nation that has the music and what it involve as important ambassadors.

The best of Brazilian music is represented by extraordinarily talented artists such as Tom Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Hermeto Pascoal, Cartola, Pixinguinha, Villa Lobos, Ary Barroso, Carmen Miranda, Clementina de Jesus, Vinicius de Moraes, Bety Carvalho, Caetano Veloso and Gilberto Gil among many others. Phenomenal artists that have given their best for better promote and propagate the Brazil’s main culture: Music

From the Portugueses we got the sounds of flute, clarinet, guitar, piano, violin, cello, cavaquinho, accordion, and the tambourine. The cavaquinho is the main instrument played in samba de rodas or pagodes. It is a small guitar with four strings that was also taken to Hawaii, where it became the ukulele.

From the Africans who began arriving in Brazil around 1538, we decisively development of both, rhythm and choreography, like maracatu, bumba-meu-boi, lundu, caterete, cacuri, and most famous of all, the samba. An extensive array of percussion instruments is of African origin, from the atabaques used in Afro-Brazilian religions or Axe music to the surdo and tamborim used in Samba Schools or in a variety of samba styles.

From the Indians, as Gabriel Soares de Souza, a Portuguese colonist and chronicler have said in his “Tratado Descritivo do Brasil” of 1587, the Tamoios Indians “was great musicians and dancers, as well composers of improvised songs”; and the Tupinambas Indians “carry in their right hand a maraca, a gourd filled with pebbles. Brazilian Indian instruments still consist basically of rattles, drums, flutes, whistles and horns.