Rildo Hora, Brazilian Harmonica and Musical Hybridism

Abstract

The rich and diverse Brazilian musical tradition is an interesting case in order to observe and analyze the issue of more global influences on more local elements, and vice versa. Indeed, with regard to culture, particularly music, it is difficult to speak of purities or essentialities. In fact, what can be observed is that, even in those traditions considered more popular, therefore, supposedly purer, there is an amalgamation of elements from different cultures. Thus, what moves us in this work is not to discuss and analyze whether or not there are hybrids in Brazilian music, but rather their content and extent based on an investigation based on some compositions by Rildo da Hora, which will be made explicit in the course of work. In this way, it is our objective in this work to analyze the harmonic work of Rildo Hora in three phases of his work, which we will outline below. We start from the hypothesis that Rildo Hora's work expresses a cultural hybridity, particularly musical, in which elements considered more universalistic – such as jazz – are fused with musical characteristics originating from his native region, Caruaru (PE).