Forró
The term forró (European Portuguese pronunciation: [fɔˈʁɔ]) (Brazilian Portuguese pronunciation: [fɔˈɦ̥ɔ]) refers to a musical genre, a rhythm, a dance and the event itself where forró music is played and danced. Forró is an important part of the culture of the Northeastern Region of Brazil. It encompasses various dance types as well as a number of different musical genres.[1][2] Their music genres and dances have gained widespread popularity in all regions of Brazil, especially during the Brazilian June Festivals. Forró has also become increasingly popular all over the world, with a well-established forró scene in Europe.
For the village in Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén County, see Forró, Hungary.Forró
19th century, Sertão, Brazil
Origin of the music[edit]
A theory on the origin of forró music is that it originated on the farms and plantations in Pernambuco and all over northeast Brazil, where farmers and workers used to sing to the cows and together with each other as they gathered coffee and other crops like sugarcane, corn, and vegetables. They had a different song for each crop, and for each phase of the collection. As the farmers and field hands corralled cows and carried crops from the fields into the houses and cafes, the songs came with them, and everybody joined in singing together. From there, talented local singers began performing the songs at parties and gatherings, and sometimes they did informal competitions with competing viola (guitar) players in freestyle rap-like improvisations. Originally the large metal triangle, zabumba (Afro-Brazilian drum) and guitar (called the violão) were the main instruments. Later on, with the French immigration between 1850 and 1950, the accordion was added to typical forró bands. The rabec, known as the Brazilian fiddle, joined the forró sound as well. The rebec has sephardic origins, and is possibly descended from the Arabic "rabeba" which may have arrived in Brazil by way of the Portuguese, who use the Rabeca Chuleira (Portugal having absorbed Arab influence dating back to the Moor's occupation from 711–1300 AD), or with the great Arab migrations to northeastern Brazil in the late 1800s to 1930s from Syria and Lebanon.
"Electronic" forró (modern forró)[edit]
Starting in the 1990s, forró music experienced renewed aesthetics, becoming a more "commercial" genre of Brazilian pop music. A forró music industry developed in Northeastern Brazil in that decade, when many new bands (with names like "Mastruz Com Leite" and "Limão Com Mel") were started, bands that used drums, electronic keyboards and electric guitars, and the lyrics of the songs became more similar to the lyrics of the sertanejo genre of Brazilian music, talking about romantic relationships and similar themes. Due to the use of electric guitars and electronic keyboards this new kind of forró music was initially called forró eletrônico ("electronic forró" in Portuguese). In the following decades this new kind of forró became much more popular in Northeastern Brazil than "traditional" forró.
International forró festivals[edit]
The first forró festival outside Brazil was in 2008; 'Forró de Domingo'[6] in Stuttgart, Germany and since its last edition in 2018, it was the biggest forró festival outside Brazil. A dance performance from the 2014 edition has more than 54 million views on YouTube and is the most watched forró performance on this platform.[7] Today, there are many more annually forró festivals celebrated in Germany and other parts of Europe. Since 2016, festivals have also been organised in North America, Russia, Oceania and Japan. In 2019, over 70 international festivals were planned outside of Brazil.[8][9]
Notes[edit]
*Guttural R, when spoken in the Central Northeastern Portuguese, is usually pronounced as a voiced or voiceless glottal fricative, in the beginning of words or "rr" digraph.