Forró

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Valdir Santos (left) and his musicians play Forró on guitar, zabumba, accordion and triangle
Statues of Forró musicians

Forró is a Brazilian style of music and couple dance from the northeast of the country. He is now known and popular all over Brazil; In the cities of the northeast such as Fortaleza , Recife or Natal there are frequent Forró festivals that last all night. Forró is also becoming increasingly popular in Germany. The word Forró is used both as a designation for a certain rhythm and as a generic term for an entire style. The dance festivals at which this music is played are also known as forró. Forró dancers are called forrozeiro and forrozeira .

Characteristics

The instruments that typically dominate the traditional Forró pé-de-serra are the zabumba , sanfona and the triangle . At the beginning of the 1990s the style of forró eletrônico developed , ten years later the forró universitário was created in São Paulo , which revived the traditional forró and expanded it with instruments such as flute , violin and double bass .

Five rhythms are summarized under the term Forró : Forró itself, Baião , Xaxado , the fast Arrasta-pé and the Xote (from Scottish) played with a slight shuffle-feel . It is interesting that you can clearly hear Eastern European influence; thus there is a close relationship to the polka and also similarity to Sinti and Roma music.

Forró is danced in a very sensual way, your own body and that of your dance partner have practically full contact. They move synchronously to each other in the characteristic rhythm of the music. Depending on the style, it is mostly danced in the closed position or different figures and rotations are built into the dance. The lambada , briefly popular in Europe in the late 1980s, inherited his dance movement from the forró.

Origin and Distribution

According to the Brazilian philologist Evanildo Bechara , Forró is an abbreviation of the term forrobodó , which is a modification of the Galician-Portuguese word forbodó , or the French word faux-bourdon . The use of the word forrobodó is dated to 1912 at the latest . In that year the play "Forrobodó", written by Carlos Bettencourt (1890-1941) and Luís Peixoto (1889-1973), premiered.

The folk etymology tells that the forró is a corruption of the English for all ; he should have occurred during construction of the Great Western Railway by an English company that dances to entertain the workers organized, then just For all , for those who were open. The workers who did not speak English would have turned it into Forró .

The latest on the 1937 published piece Forró na roça of Manuel Queirós and Xerém the word went forró then one in the history of music.

Although Forró was originally a regional music style of the música nordestina and was viewed from above in the other states of Brazil, it has now spread to all of Brazil, mainly through migrants who are leaving the poor northeast and moving to the south. In the big cities of the south, bars were gradually opened where migrants from the north-east could practice their culture.

The largest festival in the Northeast, São João (Saint John's), is celebrated on the Brazilian winter solstice on June 24th. Just as the Samba is part of the Carnival in Rio , the Trios de Forró belong to the São João. Forró is particularly present in Campina Grande , Caruaru , Mossoró and Juazeiro do Norte , where the biggest celebrations of São João take place. In the cities of Aracaju , Fortaleza , João Pessoa , Natal , Maceió , Recife , and Teresina , many Forró bands play at private parties that are particularly popular with young people.

The Forró had an influence on the Música Popular Brasileira insofar as many stars of the MPB used Forró music material and included it in their repertoire. An example of this is Gilberto Gil , who has already landed a few hits with Forró pieces. Often different styles of the música nordestina are mixed - besides the Forró, these are mainly Maracatu , Frevo and Coco , but also Ciranda and Embolada . New styles and forms such as Mangue Beat and Funkeado were created .

Forró has long been known in Portugal due to its colonial past and later migration movements. Forró has spread to other parts of Europe since the beginning of the 21st century. In numerous major European cities from Barcelona , Brussels and Stuttgart to St. Petersburg , dance festivals take place on a regular basis, at which Forró bands usually also perform.

Musician

The most famous Forró musician was probably Luiz Gonzaga (1912–1989) from Exu, in the state of Pernambuco . He is still referred to as O Rei do Baião . Other well-known musicians of this generation were Jackson do Pandeiro , Dominguinhos and accordionist Arlindo Ramos Pereira . In addition to the traditionally played in a trio forró, there is now a pop version of this music, the forró universitário , such as B. from Elba Ramalho or the Falamansa group . Other well-known Forró artists are or were Sivuca , Alceu Valença , Miltinho Edilberto or Zé Ramalho .

Dance styles

In Forró, as in most couple dances , a distinction is made between two dance roles : Leader (the leading role) and Follower (the following role). The traditional division of roles that men dance as leaders and women as followers is also widespread in Forró. However, many communities in Germany and Europe try to consciously break through and question these role models, so that one can observe same-sex dance couples and leading women / following men more and more often at Forró events.

Forró tradicional

Forró tradicional, or forró roots , is the original dance style of the Forró. It is mostly danced in the closed dance position, open turns are rather rare.

Forró universitário

Forró universitário has standardized the basic steps and adapted many figures from other dances, above all Salsa (Cuban Style), but also Samba de Gafieira and Brazilian Zouk .

Forró casino

Forró casino was developed by Marinho Braz. The figures are based on the Forró tradicional and are supplemented by additional elements. As with the Rueda de Casino, there is an announcer who determines which figures are danced. The names of the commands are e.g. B. based on famous Forró musicians, states and regions of Brazil or terms of the Brazilian landscape.

Distribution in Germany

Forró is also very common in Germany and is becoming increasingly popular. There are large Forró communities, for example. B. in Stuttgart (since 2006), Freiburg (since 2011), Aachen (since 2005), Cologne (since 2013), Berlin, Hamburg, Munich and Bochum. Forró courses are often offered at university locations as part of the university sports program and are therefore particularly popular among students.

Forró festivals in Germany

An important part of the Forró culture are the Forró festivals , where the Brazilian Forró culture is celebrated. At Forró festivals, dance lessons are mostly offered in the form of workshops , which are usually led by dance teachers from other (international) Forró communities. The festival participants can often choose between different topics and levels of difficulty from a range of workshops. The main components of a Forró festival are also parties with Forró concerts, live music or Forró performances. Depending on the size of the festival, workshops to learn typical Forró or Brazilian musical instruments ( e.g. Pífano , Zabumba or Sanfona ) are also offered. Sometimes, in addition to Forró, workshops on other Brazilian dances such as B. Samba de Gafieira, Coco , Cavalo Marinho, Frevo or Zouk are offered. As a rule, Forró festivals are not of a competitive nature.

In the meantime, several Forró festivals have established themselves in Germany. The first Forró festival outside of Brazil took place in Stuttgart in 2008 and was organized by the Brazilian dance teacher Terra Pasqualini. Until its last edition in 2018, the "Forró de Domingo Festival" in Stuttgart was the largest Forró festival in Europe and welcomed a strongly international audience. A Forró performance recorded at the festival in 2014 received more than 53 million views on Youtube.

Other festivals that take place regularly in Germany are:

  • Forró Aachen Festival
  • Psiu! Berlin
  • Forró days Hamburg
  • Tome Forró Berlin
  • Forrócamp Rügen
  • Forró Miudinho Berlin
  • Forró Marathon Freiburg
  • Forró de Colônia Festival
  • Forró Weekend Bochum
  • Forrówelt Festival Osnabrück

Web links

Commons : Forró  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ play Forrobodó , date of the first performance on page 2. Retrieved on January 19, 2018th
  2. ^ Entry in the Biblioteca Digital Luso-Brasileira . Retrieved January 19, 2018.
  3. ↑ List of Forró festivals The focus is on Europe. Retrieved January 4, 2018.
  4. ^ Rita Morais: Why do men lead & women follow? • Xiado da Xinela. In: Xiado da Xinela. August 27, 2019, accessed January 27, 2020 (American English).
  5. ↑ Forró Aachen - About us. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  6. ↑ Welcome to Forró de Colônia! Accessed August 30, 2019 (German).
  7. ↑ TanzKultur Brasil eV Accessed on August 30, 2019 (German).
  8. ↑ Festivals. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Forró de Domingo Festival 2014 at SWR TV. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  10. ↑ Forro de Domingo Festival 2014 - Valmir & Juzinha - Stuttgart, Alemanha. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  11. ↑ Forró Aachen - Forró Aachen Festival 2019. Accessed on August 30, 2019 .
  12. ↑ Psiu! Forró Festival. Retrieved August 30, 2019 (American English).
  13. ^ Forró days. Accessed August 30, 2019 (German).
  14. ↑ vitormv: start page. In: Tome Forró Berlin. Accessed August 30, 2019 (German).
  15. ↑ Dance complaints ForróCamp. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  16. ↑ Brazilian dances | Miudinho Forró Berlin. Retrieved August 30, 2019 .
  17. ↑ Forrozin Freiburg | Dancing, music and an attitude towards life for Breisgau Brazilians. Retrieved August 30, 2019 (American English).
  18. ↑ Welcome to Forró de Colônia! Accessed August 30, 2019 (German).
  19. ^ 1. Forró Weekend - TanzKultur Brasil eV Accessed on August 30, 2019 (German).
  20. ↑ Forrówelt Festival 2019. Retrieved on August 30, 2019 (German).