Territorial Reaffirmation Through Regional Musicality: the Brazilian Northeast by Luiz Gonzaga, the King of Baião

Abstract

This paper seeks understanding of the effect of the regional musicality in the territorial reaffirmation of the Northeast region of Brazil during the 20th century. As evidenced by key geographical characteristics, Traitional Forró’s musicality and language are taken as means of valorization of the Northeast region, emphasizing the discography of Luiz Gonzaga do Nascimento (1912-1989), the King of Baião. The discography of Luiz Gonzaga was inventoried, and the songs categorized among 5 non-excluding thematic classes: Way of life in the sertão; Nature of the sertão; Migration from sertão; Other geographical aspects; Not applicable. The inventory was consolidated in a database that allowed interpretative analyzes of specific songs selected and the whole set. The analyzes focused on the sonorities (instrumental and oral) and the content of the lyrics, illustrating the path of Luiz Gonzaga’s poetic persona. The musicality of Traditional Forró, spread by the Northeastern migrants, provided the territorial reaffirmation of the Northeast as a region of value, mainly cultural, in the Brazilian geographic space. In the trajectory of the poetic persona sung by Luiz Gonzaga, the prospect of the return of rain to the sertão and the longing for their way of life (composed of people, practices, places and landscapes) are enough to bring the migrant back to the never forgotten sertão.