BRAZILIAN MUSIC AND SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS: - Elisabeth Blin

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The first samba song, “Pelo telephone,” recorded in 1917 by Donga (1891-1974),
and Mauro de Almeida (1892-1956), was a social parody of carnival, gambling and
police repression. In 1917, it became a carnival song hit in Rio, and since then samba has
remained the favorite carnival music in Brazil. 109 The official version of the song was:
“O chefe da folia pelo telefone (The chief of police rang me up
manda me avisar que com alegria To let me know with joy that
nao se questione para brincar” One does not ask questions to have fun) 110
But the unofficial version denounced the illegal roulette game and mocked the police
who were unable to control it:
“O chefe da folia pelo telefone (The chief of police rang me up
manda me avisar que na Carioca To let me know that in Carioca Plaza
Tem uma roleta para se jogar” There is a good roulette game) 111
Other samba songs had been recorded as early as 1910, but with “Pelo Telephone,”
samba became acknowledged as a musical genre and not simply a dance. The main
musical characteristics of the samba have pervaded afterwards, especially the binary
rhythms contrasting with African beats typically in triple meter. 112 “Coming from the
jongo, the maxixe, the samba de roda, and other rural genres, samba represents
esthetically the assimilation, or the passage to modernity. 113 ”
Several new versions of the song “Pelo Telephone” were written, but the one signed
by two main samba composers, Almirante and Pixinguinha (1898-1973), in 1955, became
a landmark of social protest in Brazilian music. In 2004, Gil “remodeled” the song “Pelo
109 Perrone and Dunn, “Chiclete com Bananas,” 9
110 Delfino, 39 (translation from the French by author)
111 Ibid
112 Fryer, 26
113 de Carvalho, “Afro-Brazilian Music and Rituals,” 48