Samba, Form and Formation: Dialectic of Modern in Paulinho da Viola (1965-1976)

• Grant number: 24/21479-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: August 01, 2025
• End date: May 31, 2027
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Other specific Sociologies
• Principal Investigator: Maria Arminda Do Nascimento Arruda
• Grantee: João Lucas Rojek Halla
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas (FFLCH). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The present research seeks to analyze, in the work of Brazilian sambista Paulinho da Viola, the relation between tradition, as sociocultural material formed and referenced, and modernity, defined by modern techniques of formal composition. To this end, it will first develop sociological principles about the relation between art and society (that is, between aesthetic form and social process) to, articulately, understand, in Rio de Janeiro´s samba, the relation between form and formation. Afterwards, it will examine, in Viola´s work, the forms of this formation and the handling of its musical material - understood as the samba tradition - and the genesis and incorporation of modern compositional resources and techniques. Finally, from a perspective of the sociology of art and culture, it will work on how, in the music of Paulinho da Viola and in his particular treatment of tradition, a dialectic of the modern was formed, under which the samba´s constituted tradition and aesthetically modern creation are articulate, in its varied social imbrications.