4.4 – vigor and subtlety

SARAIVA

00:00 question: Baden, the School of Meira and the “communication” at the square  ^[i]

MARCO PEREIRA

00:55 Baden had this vigorous taken

01:25 Baden and Paulinho Nogueira ^[i]

 

Paulinho Nogueira also appears– in the position of complementary opposite to Baden Powell – in Sérgio Assad’s talk. ^[i]

 

ASSAD

Actually the good guitar interpreter is who knows how to make a mix with what he is playing.

The melody is there in the foreground,

the harmonic part is in the middle, a lesser presence,

and the bass is there to give some support. ^[i]

Paulinho Nogueira, whom I consider a master,

independently of his technical limitations,

knew how to make his guitar sound like a group with these different plans.

 

We can assume that the solo guitar of Paulinho Nogueira “sounds like a group” to Sérgio Assad in the sense that it relates with a polyphonic hearing in its horizontal directionalities, whereas the expression “sounding like a band” ^[i] by Marco Pereira, referring to the common “voice and guitar” in the popular song – art in which João Bosco, one of our most important masters, will show in the sequence –, reveres the capacity to reproduce in the guitar the role that the “rhythmic section” (bass, drums, percussion) of a “band” generally plays.

The distinction between these two universes, the solo guitar and the popular song accompaniment guitar takes place through the transference from the melody, which is sustained in the foreground in the solo guitar, to the voice in the popular song. Singing that is completed with the guitar accompaniment performing the two other layers: one of the harmonic filling and the other of the bass line.

The American guitarist Ralph Towner shows in his method called “Improvisation and performance techniques for classical and acoustic guitar” the three layers mobilized by the soloist – which is very similar to Sérgio Assad’s explanation – and he also mentions the “role” of the musician who plays accompaniment for voice or melodic instrument:

As a soloist, you are responsible for all three conceptual functions simultaneously: a melody voice, chords and their variations, and a bass voice. The role of an accompanist to a melody instrument is less of a juggling problem, since you can occupy yourself mainly with performing the latter two functions. (TOWNER, 1985, p. 34) ^[i]

Thus, Paulinho Nogueira is recognized as a master who has influenced the generation of our interviewees as far as the management of these three different “plans” are concerned, a feat rarely accomplished by a guitar-player without erudite formation. ^[i]

1. LINK with the idea “When you go to a square, the musical communication cannot lean on this aspect of     sound purity; it has to deliver the musical message to the public in another way” presented in –  4.3 – the room, the bathroom and the square – in the statement of Marco Pereira.

2. 1. A point that brings them closer is the fact that Paulinho Nogueira – as suggested by the character of his songs – is another example of soloist who, as well as Baden, composed popular songs “detaching himself from the instrument”. LINK with the idea “Baden sometimes got stuck” presented in – 5 – “Boi de Mamão” – in the statement of P.C. Pinheiro.
3. 1. A point that brings them closer is the fact that Paulinho Nogueira – as suggested by the character of his songs – is another example of soloist who, as well as Baden, composed popular songs “detaching himself from the instrument”. LINK with the idea “Baden sometimes got stuck” presented in – 5 – “Boi de Mamão” – in the statement of P.C. Pinheiro.

4. Part in Track #14, in TRACKS FROM THE BOOK , concluding the “sound class” by Sérgio Assad presented in – 4.7 – polished sound.

5. LINK with the same idea presented in chapter – 4.1 – guitar-piano – in the statement of Marco Pereira

6. LINK with the idea “Ralph Towner and the reverb” and with the idea “the good guitar interpreter makes his mix” presented in – 4.7 – polished sound

7. LINK with the idea “That is why it is very difficult for another guitarist to play the songs of Baden, unless it is a formal song”, presented in – 3.3 – the song without a guitar – in the quote from the testimony of Turíbio Santos.