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maxixe

Maxixe

Brazil · 1890s
DancingHappyRomanticSentimental
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Description

Maxixe (pronounced ma-SHEE-shee) is a Brazilian urban dance-music style that crystallized in Rio de Janeiro at the end of the 19th century. Often nicknamed the "Brazilian tango," it blends Afro-Brazilian rhythmic drive with European ballroom forms.

Typically notated in 2/4 and propelled by a syncopated habanera/tresillo feel, maxixe favors bright tempos, off‑beat accents, and elegant yet playful melodies. It thrived in salons, theatrical revues, wind bands, choro ensembles, and on solo piano, where left‑hand habanera patterns support harmonically mobile, ornamented tunes. The style was once considered risqué, but it became a fashionable symbol of modern Brazilian cosmopolitan life in the early 20th century, spreading to Europe and the United States.

History
Origins (late 19th century)

Maxixe emerged in Rio de Janeiro’s dance halls and street culture in the late 1800s, when musicians and dancers fused Afro‑Brazilian practices (batuque and lundu) with European couple dances (polka and schottische), salon repertoire, and the habanera/tango pulse. Early choro musicians and wind-band leaders helped codify its syncopated 2/4 feel and lively phrasing, while pianists adapted it to virtuosic salon pieces.

Turn-of-the-century consolidation

By the 1890s–1900s, maxixe had a recognizable sound and social presence. Composers such as Chiquinha Gonzaga and Ernesto Nazareth published widely circulated piano maxixes (“Corta‑Jaca,” “Brejeiro,” “Odeon”), and bands performed them in cafés, theatres, and carnival festivities. The dance’s sensual close embrace and rhythmic swing made it both wildly popular and controversial.

International visibility (1910s–1920s)

Around the 1910s, the dancer Duque popularized the maxixe in Europe (often billed as “tango‑maxixe”), and touring Brazilian ensembles brought the style abroad. In 1914, First Lady Nair de Teffé’s performance of Gonzaga’s “Corta‑Jaca” at the presidential palace symbolically moved maxixe from “popular” to “national” culture. Recordings and sheet music further cemented its vogue.

Transition and legacy

From the 1920s onward, samba’s rise—along with evolving ballroom fashions—gradually eclipsed maxixe as a social dance. Yet its rhythmic language, melodic syntax, and harmonic motion left a deep imprint on Brazilian music, feeding into choro practice, samba variants (especially samba de gafieira), carnival marchinhas, and the development of frevo in Recife. Today, maxixe is preserved in historical recordings, piano literature, choro repertoires, and vintage dance scenes.

How to make a track in this genre
Core rhythm and tempo
•   Write in 2/4 with a clear, syncopated habanera/tresillo undercurrent (often notated as a dotted‑eighth–sixteenth–eighth–eighth grouping per bar). Accents frequently fall on the off‑beats, giving the dance its springy feel. •   Aim for a lively but elegant tempo—typically medium‑fast rather than breakneck—so dancers can articulate the close‑embrace figures clearly.
Instrumentation and texture
•   Common settings include solo piano (left hand outlining habanera bass and stride-like figures; right hand carrying the tune) and choro-like ensembles: flute or clarinet for melody, cavaquinho for rhythm punctuations, 6‑ or 7‑string violão (guitar) for syncopated accompaniment and bass runs, plus light percussion (pandeiro) in later practice. Wind bands can orchestrate the same patterns across brass and woodwinds.
Melody and phrasing
•   Compose lyrical, danceable melodies with frequent syncopations, appoggiaturas, turns, and passing chromaticism. Phrase in balanced, song‑like periods suitable for partner-dance figures. •   Favor repeatable strains and contrasts (e.g., AABBACCA or ABACA), allowing dancers to anticipate changes.
Harmony and form
•   Use functional harmony with choro-like mobility: secondary dominants, diminished passing chords, brief tonicizations, and circle‑of‑fifths motion (e.g., I – VI7 – II7 – V7 – I). Modulating to closely related keys between strains is idiomatic. •   Keep cadences crisp and rhythmic “set‑ups” (two‑bar turnarounds, dominant pedals) to prepare dance figures and sectional repeats.
Articulation and feel
•   Keep accompaniment light and buoyant; avoid heavy downbeats. On piano, articulate left‑hand habanera patterns cleanly while letting the right hand sing the melody. •   In ensembles, let the cavaquinho and guitar interlock off‑beat chords with bass runs, and have the lead instrument phrase slightly ahead of the beat to enhance lift.
Dance-conscious arrangement
•   Structure sections to match dance phrasing (8‑ or 16‑bar strains), and use short introductions/ritornellos to cue partners. Occasional breaks or stop‑time bars can spotlight steps while preserving the groove.
Main artists
Influenced by
Lundu
Lundu is an Afro‑Brazilian dance‑song that emerged in colonial Brazil, blending Bantu‑derived rhythms with Portuguese melodic and harmonic practices. Typically set in 2/4 with marked syncopation and a swaying groove, it was both a circle dance (often featuring the playful umbigada gesture) and a sung genre accompanied by guitar and hand percussion. In its urbanized, salon form of the late 18th and 19th centuries, lundu became a fashionable entertainment in Brazil and Portugal, sharing space with the modinha. Its music commonly features strophic verses with a recurring refrain, call‑and‑response, and light, flirtatious texts. Instrumentation ranges from voice and violão (6‑ or 7‑string guitar) or cavaquinho to pandeiro, atabaque, and handclaps.
Polka Paraguaya
Polka paraguaya is the Paraguayan adaptation of the European polka, fused with Indigenous Guaraní musical aesthetics and rural criollo practice. It is typically lively, dance-oriented, and marked by a characteristic sesquiáltera (6/8 against 3/4) feel that produces a buoyant hemiola swing. It is most often performed by small folk ensembles centered on the iconic arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan harp), accompanied by guitars, requinto, and sometimes accordion and light percussion. Lyrics frequently mix Spanish and Guaraní (Jopará), ranging from romantic and pastoral themes to historical and patriotic subjects. While the default character is festive and bright, many classics carry a nostalgic, sentimental tone in their melodies.
Habanera
Habanera is a Cuban song-and-dance genre that emerged in Havana in the 19th century, written in duple meter and defined by a distinctive syncopated rhythmic cell often described as a tresillo with an added backbeat (frequently felt as a 3–3–2 grouping across the bar). Typically moderate in tempo and frequently set in a minor key, habaneras combine European salon-song harmony with Afro-Cuban rhythmic sensibility. The style flourished both as a vocal strophic canción with romantic or nostalgic lyrics and as an instrumental dance form for piano and small ensembles. Its characteristic lilt and sensual sway made it an international craze by the late 19th century, permeating opera, art song, and popular music across Europe and the Americas.
Choro
Choro is an urban Brazilian instrumental genre that arose in Rio de Janeiro in the late 19th century. It blends European dance forms (polka, schottische, waltz, mazurka) with Afro-Brazilian rhythmic sensibilities from styles like lundu and early maxixe, producing a supple, highly syncopated groove. Typical choro ensembles (regionais) feature a lead melodic instrument—often flute, clarinet, or bandolim (mandolin)—supported by cavaquinho and 6-string guitar for harmony, a 7‑string guitar providing counter-melodic bass lines (baixarias), and pandeiro for light percussion. Pieces commonly use multi-strain forms (e.g., AABBACCA), incorporate modulations, and encourage melodic variations and counterpoint rather than long harmonic solos. The result is music that is both virtuosic and lyrical, at once salon-refined and street-savvy.
Schottische
Schottische is a partnered social dance and tune type that emerged in mid‑19th‑century Central Europe and quickly spread across ballrooms and village dances. Typically in 2/4 (sometimes 4/4) at a moderate tempo, it features a characteristic step pattern (step‑step‑step‑hop) followed by a turning figure, creating a gentle, gliding feel. Musically, schottische tunes are usually built from two 8‑bar strains (AABB), use diatonic melodies in major keys, and are accompanied by a pronounced oom‑pah rhythm. Fiddles, diatonic button accordion, clarinet, piano, and small dance bands are common. The dance took root under different names and flavors: as schottis in Scandinavia, chotis in Spain (especially Madrid), and xote in Brazil, where it entered the forró tradition.
Tango
Tango is a music and dance genre that emerged in the RĂ­o de la Plata region at the turn of the 20th century, characterized by its dramatic phrasing, bittersweet harmonies, and close-embrace dance. The music typically features an orquesta tĂ­pica with bandoneĂłns, violins, piano, and double bass, playing in 2/4 or 4/4 time with a distinctive syncopated pulse derived from the habanera and Afro-Rioplatense rhythms. Its sound blends European salon dances (waltz, polka, mazurka), rural gaucho song (payada, milonga), and Afro-Uruguayan/Argentine candombe. Melodies often lean minor, with chromatic inner lines, lush diminished chords, and expressive rubato. Vocal tangos frequently use lunfardo (Buenos Aires slang) to tell stories of love, loss, and urban life.
Batuque
Batuque (batuku in Cape Verdean Creole) is a traditional music-and-dance genre from Cape Verde, especially associated with the island of Santiago. It is communal, percussion-driven, and built around call-and-response singing led by an improvising soloist (the finaçon) and answered by a chorus of batukadeiras. The core sound comes from tightly interlocking handclaps, thigh-slaps using a rolled cloth (tchabeta), foot stomps, and, in modern settings, added hand drums and shakers. Cyclical grooves in a lilting 6/8 or 12/8 feel, social commentary, praise, playful satire, and storytelling define its aesthetic, while the dance forms a ring where participants take turns in expressive movements.
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