Choro

Choro is built on a small ensemble: flute or clarinet on the lead, six- and seven-string acoustic guitars, cavaquinho (a small four-string instrument similar to the ukulele), and pandeiro (a tambourine-like hand drum). The lead voice plays ornate, fast-moving melodies — often at 180 BPM or more — while the seven-string guitar plays a walking, syncopated bass line known as 'baixaria' that mirrors and answers the melody. Harmony borrows from European classical practice (polkas, mazurkas, schottisches) but the rhythmic feel is unmistakably Afro-Brazilian. The form is usually three sections (rondo-style) and performance leans on practiced improvisation between players who know the rep cold.

Choro developed in Rio de Janeiro from around 1870, when European dances brought by Portuguese migrants met the rhythmic sensibility of African-descended musicians in the city's working-class neighbourhoods. The flutist Joaquim Calado is often cited as a founding figure. By the 1910s and 20s composers like Pixinguinha — flutist, saxophonist, and bandleader of Os Oito Batutas — had codified the modern style. After a mid-century lull, choro was institutionalised in the 1970s as a Brazilian national music; the 'Clube do Choro' venues and the conservatory program at the Escola Portatil de Musica in Rio keep the tradition alive.

Track the conversation between the lead instrument and the seven-string guitar's baixaria — the guitar isn't accompanying so much as answering, with countermelodies that punctuate the lead's phrases. Notice that almost everything is in 2/4 but the syncopation makes it feel much busier; tap your foot on the beat and the melodic phrases will pull against your toe-tap.

Pixinguinha, 'Carinhoso' (composed 1917, most-cited recording 1937). For a modern virtuoso reading, Yamandu Costa, 'Tocata' (2005) on seven-string guitar.

The name 'choro' comes from the Portuguese verb 'chorar' (to cry), thought to describe the sobbing, ornamented quality of the lead flute or clarinet line. Pixinguinha wrote hundreds of choros and is treated in Brazil with roughly the cultural weight Americans give George Gershwin.