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| Vinicius de Moraes |
Today, The Grandma has been reading at home. After some days working with The Watsons, she has had a free day due to her family is doing an exam.
She has read some compositions of Vinicius de Moraes, the Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist, and playwright.
De Moraes, who died on a day like today in 1980, is one of the most important names in Brazilian literature and music, and The Grandma has thought that the best way to pay homage to him is talking about his life, his career and his works.
Marcus Vinícius da Cruz e Mello Moraes (19 October 1913-9 July 1980), also known as Vinícius de Moraes and nicknamed O Poetinha was a Brazilian poet, lyricist, essayist, and playwright. Along with frequent collaborator Antônio Carlos Jobim, his lyrics and compositions were part of the birth of bossa nova music. He recorded several albums and also served as a diplomat.
Moraes was born in Gávea, a suburb of Rio de Janeiro, to Clodoaldo da Silva Pereira Moraes, a public servant, and Lidia Cruz, a housewife and amateur pianist. In 1916, his family moved to Botafogo, where he attended Afrânio Peixoto Primary School.
In 1920, he gained entrance to a Masonic lodge through his maternal grandfather. Fleeing the 18 of the Copacabana Fort revolt, his parents moved to Governador Island while Moraes remained at his grandfather's home in Botafogo to finish school. During visits with his parents on weekends and holidays, he became acquainted with the composer Bororo.
More information: All Poetry
Beginning in 1924, Moraes attended St. Ignatius, a Jesuit high school, where he sang in the choir and wrote theatrical sketches. Three years later he became friends with the brothers Paulo and Haroldo Tapajós, with whom he wrote his first musical compositions, which were performed at friends' parties.
In 1929, he completed high school and his family moved back to Gávea. That same year, he was admitted to the Faculty of Law at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
Moraes received his college degree in Legal and Social Sciences in 1933. Soon after, he published his first two collections of poetry: Caminho para a distancia (1933) and Forma e exegese.
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| Vinicius de Moraes |
Moraes wrote two sonnets, the first in 1939 Sonnet to Octavio de Faria, the second during the 1960s, Octavio.
In 1936, Moraes became film censor for the Ministry of Education and Health. Two years later he won a British Council fellowship to study English language and literature at Oxford University.
He abandoned his use of blank verse and free verse in favor of the sonnet, both the Italian form used in Portuguese poetry (two quatrains, two tercets) and the English form (three quatrains and a couplet).
He was considered one of the most prominent of the Generation of '45, a group of Brazilian writers in the 1930s and 1940s who rejected early modernism in favor of traditional forms and vocabulary. The basic meter in Moraes's love poetry is the decasyllable, taken mostly from Camões' lyric poetry.
During his stay in England, Moraes wrote the verse collection Novos poemas. He was married to Beatriz Azevedo de Mello, with whom he had two children.
More information: Eatrio
In
1941, he returned to Brazil and worked as a film critic for the
newspaper A Manhã as a contributor to the literary journal Clima and at
the Banking Employees' Institute of Social Security, the public pension
fund for workers in banking institutions.
During the following year, he failed the admission test for a diplomatic career at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MRE).
In 1943, Moraes passed the MRE admission test on his second attempt. He was assigned as vice-consul at Los Angeles. He published a book of poems, Cinco elegias, followed by Poemas, sonetos e baladas.
After
his father died in 1950, he went to Brazil, then returned to Los
Angeles and published two more books: Livro de sonetos and Novos poemas
II.
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| Vinicius de Moraes |
During the 1950s, he worked for the Brazilian consular service in
Paris and Rome. He often visited historian Sergio Buarque de Holanda,
father of the musician Chico Buarque de Holanda, who was teaching in
Italy as a visiting scholar.
In 1951, Moraes married Lila Maria Esquerdo e Boscoli. In 1953, his third child, Georgiana, was born. A fourth child by his second wife was born in 1956. He went to Paris as second secretary at the Brazilian embassy in France. He released his first samba, Quando tu passas por mim which was composed with Antonio Maria. During the next year, he wrote lyrics to chamber music pieces by Cláudio Santoro.
At the end of 1956, Moraes returned to France, having been transferred in 1957 from the Brazilian embassy to the Brazilian representation at UNESCO. In 1958, he was transferred to the Brazilian embassy in Montevideo, returning to Brazil in transit. While in Brazil, he married Maria Lucia Proença.
In
1958, the singer Elizete Cardoso released her album Canção do Amor
Demais, marking the beginning of bossa nova. This record consists of
compositions by the Jobim-Vinícius partnership, or by either of the two
(Canção do Amor Demais, Luciana, Estrada Branca, Chega de
Saudade, Outra Vez... The recording also included a relatively
unknown João Gilberto on two tracks. With the release of this record,
Moraes's career in music had begun.
More information: All Music
The
songs of Jobim and Moraes were recorded by numerous Brazilian singers
and performers of that time. Renditions of many Jobim-Moraes numbers on
Gilberto's first, second, and third albums established the sound and
repertory of the bossa nova and influenced a generation of singers and
songwriters, especially in Rio de Janeiro.
Among these songs are Garota de Ipanema, Insensatez, and Chega de Saudade. In August 1962, Moraes performed for the first time as a singer with Jobim and Gilberto at the Au Bon Gourmet in Rio.
This was the first of
his pocket-shows, performances made to small audiences where he
presented new compositions, some of which became international hits,
such as the aforementioned Garota de Ipanema, as well as Samba da
Benção.
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| Vinicius de Moraes |
His first undertaking as entertainer ended in 1963, when he returned to his post in the Brazilian representation at UNESCO, after his marriage to Nelita Abreu Rocha, his fourth wife.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Moraes collaborated with Baden Powell on a series of songs known as the Afro sambas. He collaborated with Edu Lobo on the Elis Regina hit song Arrastão.
During a purge at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, he was forcibly retired in 1969 at the age of 55. Although taken aback by his forced retirement, he laughed at the case against him. When it was made known that the ministry purge was directed against homosexuals and drunks, he jokingly retorted that his alcoholism was public knowledge.
In the 1970s, Moraes collaborated with Antônio Pecci Filho, a guitarist and vocalist nicknamed Toquinho, on musical and literary works. His most stable musical partnership, however, remained with Toquinho, with whom he released popular albums.
Their live performances in Brazil and Europe were often conducted as intimate meetings with the public. Moraes sat onstage at a table with a checked tablecloth and a bottle of whiskey, chatting and telling amusing stories to the audience in French, English, Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese.
Moraes was an alcoholic who said, O uísque é o melhor amigo do homem -é o cão engarrafado. After a long period of poor health, which included several visits to rehabilitation clinics, he died at his home in Rio de Janeiro on July 9, 1980, at the age of 66, in the company of his ninth wife, Gilda de Queirós Mattoso, and the faithful Toquinho. He is buried in Rio de Janeiro's Cemitério São João Batista.
More information: Via Negativa
The Brazilian poet Vinicius de Moraes
wrote that beauty is fundamental.
Well, with the poet's permission, so is courage.
Tina Brown
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