Milhaud and Brazil

Milhaud's two years in Brazil (1917–1919), serving as secretary to Paul Claudel at the French Legation in Rio de Janeiro, transformed his compositional language. He encountered the choro (a Brazilian popular street music), the maxixe (a syncopated dance form), and the beginnings of the samba, and recognised in these traditions a rhythmic vitality and a particular kind of popular lyricism that immediately attracted him. The twelve Saudades do Brasil are the most direct memorial of this experience: each piece evokes a specific place in Rio, and the saudade — the Portuguese term for a melancholic longing for what is absent — gives the suite its emotional keynote. The Brazilian influence persisted throughout Milhaud's career: the Brazileira from Scaramouche (1937) and much of the rhythmic character of his mature piano writing shows its continuing presence.

Brazilian dance rhythms require a different physical engagement from European classical rhythms: the 2/4 should have a sway and a forward lean rather than the vertical bounce of a march or the rotary feel of a waltz. Listen to actual samba and choro recordings before learning the Saudades — the body should know the rhythm before the fingers do. The bitonality of the Saudades is inseparable from their Brazilian character: it is Milhaud's way of 'Frenchifying' these rhythms, adding a European harmonic dimension without losing the Brazilian rhythmic essence.