First Advisor
Caffey, H. David
Document Type
Dissertation
Date Created
5-1-2017
Department
College of Performing and Visual Arts, Music, Music Student Work
Abstract
Infância: A Brazilian Suite in Three Movements for Jazz Orchestra is an original music composition in which I blend a variety of Brazilian music elements with the traditional jazz big band style. American jazz and Brazilian popular music share similar African and European roots, but it was only in the 1940s that Americans became aware of the music coming from Brazil, through the work of Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, who starred in many Hollywood movies and Broadway shows, performing songs by some of the greatest Brazilian composers of the time. Later in the 1960s, with the arrival of bossa nova in the US, Brazilian music enjoyed its widest acclaim, rising to a position of prominence within the jazz standard repertoire. Since the 1960s, the relationship between Brazilian music and American jazz has greatly expanded, mostly thanks to collaborations between artists from both countries. With Infância: A Brazilian Suite in Three Movements for Jazz Orchestra, I am offering a Brazilian-influenced jazz piece that reaches beyond the obvious groove-based compositional approach. Thus, Infância includes typical melodic lines, rhythmic patterns, characteristic elements of orchestration, and a subtle blending of Brazilian folkloric genres. In addition to the creation of a new musical work, this dissertation provides an analysis of such Brazilian elements, their histories, and their contextualization within Brazilian geography and social structure. It also provides a description of the compositional process itself, with a study of the composition techniques used in the writing of this piece, which include set theory, modalism, and jazz functional harmony. My hope is that Infância will contribute to the expansion of the repertoire for jazz orchestra, while providing detailed information to composers, arrangers, performers, scholars, and listeners who wish to deepen their understanding of Brazilian musical genres.
Keywords
Brazilian Music, Jazz Composition, Jazz Orchestra, Jazz Studies
Extent
218 pages
Local Identifiers
Vianna_unco_0161D_10554
Rights Statement
Copyright belongs to the author.
Recommended Citation
Vianna, Cassio Fernando Barbosa, "Infância: a Brazilian Suite in Three Movements for Jazz Orchestra" (2017). Dissertations. 411.
https://digscholarship.unco.edu/dissertations/411