Pixinghinha

View moreBrowse piano sheets by Pixinghinha on Zen Virtual Piano. Pixinguinha was born to the flutist Alfredo da Rocha Viana, who owned a large collection of choro scores and often held musical gatherings at home. He was given a tin flute, and the musician Irineu de Almeida, who lived at the Pensão Vianna, was so impressed by the boy's playing that he recommended that his father send him to study music. He attended classes at the Instituto Nacional de Música from March to October and received his music theory certificate from its director, Guilherme Fontainha. A house of choro scores and regular musical gatherings suggests that the style was simply the air he breathed. A collection of choro scores at home, beside later classes at the Instituto, hints at learning that joined the home and the school. At 13 or 14 he made his first recording as flutist of the group Choro Carioca, led by Irineu de Almeida, in which his brothers Léo and Otávio (the latter known as China) played guitar. Isaac Frankel suggested the name Orquestra Típica Oito Batutas, and the group had Pixinguinha on flute, Donga on guitar, China on voice and guitar, and three more players on cavaquinho, bandola and mandolin. Two brothers playing in Choro Carioca, beside a father who was a flutist, may suggest music was a family matter around him. The journalist Sérgio Cabral argued that Pixinguinha's arrangements and orchestrations were fundamental to making samba sound like samba, and that he was the great pioneer of orchestration for Brazilian popular music. Brasílio Itiberê called the counterpoint Pixinguinha created in his duet playing one of the most complex elements in Brazilian popular music. A 1944 chronicle in O Globo by Henrique Pongetti, cited by Cabral, has him explaining at a soirée in Botafogo why he switched instruments: one day he felt he no longer played the way he wanted. In 1934 he entered public service as an inspector in the urban cleaning service, appointed by the mayor of the Federal District, Pedro Ernesto. The orchestration verdict, beside Itiberê's remark on his counterpoint, may suggest that his musical craft drew praise on more than one front. A reputation for orchestration, beside an appointment as inspector in the urban cleaning service, hints at a working life with more than one side. A Parlophon 78 rpm record carried the Orquestra Típica Pixinguinha-Donga's recording of Carinhoso, an instrumental choro with two parts instead of the traditional three. His career declined in the early 1950s but recovered in 1954, when Almirante organized the first Festival da Velha Guarda in São Paulo, gathering veteran choro musicians. The bar Gouveia in the Centro became his everyday "office" until his death, and a street in Ramos, where he lived with Betty, was renamed Rua Pixinguinha. A choro with two parts instead of the traditional three may hint at a willingness to vary the form. A bar that became his everyday "office", beside a street renamed in his honor, hints at a life tied to everyday places as well as honors.

Search the library