Modinha and its paradigms through Word Painting: Viola de Lereno, Nineteenth-century modinha and modinha by Catulo da Paixão Cearense

Abstract

It deals with the modinha genre and its paradigms through the centuries, namely: the specimens published in Viola de Lereno, by Caldas Barbosa, which denote the 18th century modinha, in simple, binary or tripartite form, in binary time and accompanied by strings fingered. With the arrival of the Portuguese Court in 1808, Lusitanian modinhas were imported to Brazil, the reverse process occurring – absorbed by the colony's production, they were used for keyboard accompaniment, like the modinhas of Father José Maurício Nunes Garcia. Derived strongly from Italian opera, it maintains the melismatic structure of the 18th century modinha, but incorporates Alberti's bass from classicism in the accompaniment of the domestic and salon piano, mainly from the mid-19th century, with the advent of printing in Brazil. At that time, the Italian soprano Augusta Candiani lived in the country, responsible for disseminating and establishing modinha as the preferred genre in Rio's salons, showing how the modinhas of the time were practically operatic arias. Repopularization would take place gradually, passing through Chiquinha Gonzaga, after the abolition of slavery, and the implosion of new sociocultural needs arising from the structuring of new urban social classes. Then comes the paradigmatic moment that will guide the guitar modinha, once again, popular and with bold verses, mainly in the compositions of Catulo da Paixão Cearense. The guiding thread of this entire repertoire may be the technique of using a European Renaissance method, called Word painting, in which musical clichés are translated from the elements of poetry in a literal way.