The musical rhetoric and the choro

Abstract

This article aims to point out ways to analyze the choro, based on a theoretical reference of musical rhetoric (CANO, 2011; BARTEL, 1997; RATNER, 1980). The text associates some concepts of the musical rhetoric with procedures used in the music that emerged in Brazil in the nineteenth century from the European dances. The supposed origins and meanings of the term choro are presented (TINHORÃO, 1991; ARAGÃO, 2013;
CAZES, 2010). The contexts of the emergence of rhetoric, poetic music and the development of the rhetorical-musical system are described, based on musicological researches in baroque treatises (REBOUL, 2004; CANO, 2011; BUELOW, 1980). Applications of so-called theory of the topics are exposed outside the scope of Baroque music — including the European classicism (RATNER, 1980), different Brazilian musical styles (PIEDADE, 2007) and the choro. Finally, some rhetorical figures concepts are used to propose a possible parallel between musical examples extracted from baroque works and choro pieces.