By *
The song “Cálice” by Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil, inserted in the context of Brazilian Popular Music during the military regime, reveals the depth and impact of art as a means of protest and social reflection
Introduction
In the most varied organic functions of everyday life, it is common for us to listen to music, watch films, series or consume certain audiovisual resources for the purpose of pastime or as an illustration of everyday life. After all, who has never heard a song and said: “This is my song” or when watching a film said: “This character represents me”. What we often do not notice is the real meaning of the representations behind the work, the discourse that each artist brings with them, not only as an artistic expression, but also as a form of protest that often materializes in the works.
However, there are thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, who argue that art has lost its main function, its aesthetic bias, and has adapted to a capitalist idea of industrialization of culture, where art abandons its main objective and becomes just another commodity in the lives of the masses. The Cultural Industry[I] argues that art is used as an instrument to generate financial resources for the artist or his/her producer, which leaves the work with a single objective, that of fostering and raising more and more capital and not with its main function, the artistic one. Which makes one question whether it is in fact art, or just an allusion to everyday life or another commodity for sale. Therefore, the trade in culture becomes increasingly worrying, especially for the poorest layers of the population, who often use state services, since they do not have the financial means to pay for private services such as education, health, security or leisure with the purchase of books, music streaming, films and series.
However, when we look at MPB (Brazilian Popular Music), it is clear to see that it has many protest works and also narratives of everyday life in Brazil, even though its works come from a Cultural Industry, but not only guided by a capitalist perspective. Especially between the 60s, 70s and 80s; when the country was going through a tainted period in its history, marked by a Military Dictatorship (1964-1985). During this time, Brazil went through its respective social transformations in music, culture and cinema; still very much guided by the 20s, which brought Modernism to Brazil, led by the Modern Art Week (SAM).[ii] (1922-SP). Years later, especially in the 60s, the world and national scenario changed, causing major cultural revolutions as the world was going through the Cold War conflict.[iii] (1947-1991) and Brazil, Dictatorship. Thus, music and cinema open space for protest works and the democratization of culture becomes more present to the people, with literary vanguards such as Tropicália[iv] and Concretism[v], which came mainly from Europe and the United States, but still penetrated the national territory and were used as a way of raising awareness among people and fostering critical thinking among them, as can be seen: “Tropicália was configured as a cultural movement, transcending the limits of merely aesthetic issues or those confined to the scope of popular song. There was a predisposition, on the part of the musicians who inaugurated the trend, to think critically about Brazilian art and culture.” (Naves, p. 47).
In this same logic, the present work aims to analyze the work “Cálice” by Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil in 1973, using methodology for case studies (YIN, 2001), and to discuss acclaimed theories of thinkers such as Vygotsky and Bakhtin.
Presentation of the authors and the work
In the face of the process of seeking redemocratization in Brazil, great names in MPB emerged producing protest marks, among them was Chico Buarque, Francisco Buarque de Hollanda, his baptismal name. Chico, an architect trained at USP (University of São Paulo), is a composer, writer and debuted his career as a singer in 1966 with the album “Chico Buarque de Hollanda”. Having his first hits such as the songs A Banda, A Rita, Pedro Pedreiro and others, he in turn became a militant against the ruling government and participated in the historic march of the Hundred Thousand[vi] (1968), and in 1969 he went into exile for 14 months in Europe, returning only in 1970 and receiving political amnesty only in 1979.
Furthermore, we have the composer Gilberto Passos Gil Moreira (Gilberto Gil), one of the great names of tropicalism in Brazil, with a large resume of works, and currently holding the twentieth chair of the Brazilian Academy of Letters. Gil, graduated in Administration from the Federal University of Bahia (UFBA), has a vast body of work in music, with more than fifty albums throughout his career. The singer also had a career in politics as a councilman (1980-1984) in Salvador and serving as Minister of Culture (2003-2008). While he is a politician, he is also a cultural figure, recognized as a great Brazilian celebrity.
Thus the song Cálice was initially released in 1973, in a show by Gilberto Gil and Chico Buarque at Anhembi, as Gil narrates: “O Cálice/I, I, I alone, I will sing…/I sing a little bit that I remember only/No, it’s because, it’s because there’s one/There’s… I want it! Give it to me/ There's a part of the lyrics that's by Chico/ That I don't remember/ That I didn't even learn, because.../ Yeah, I'll explain why, because, because, I arrived.../ We arrived at Chico's house, and we decided, we arranged, we decided.../ Okay, give it to me./ Let me explain what happened./ Then, Chi, Chi, Chico had.../ No, wait, let me tell you./ I agreed with Chico that we were going to do it and such/ I took a little bit of the ideas that I already had, written and such/ We agreed: Let's do it, let's do it/ Then he traveled, came to the interior of São Paulo/ To be part of the University Circuit/ And, I stayed there in Rio, then I came and went back/ When it arrived the day before, the day of the show/ The day before Anhembi was when we went to meet, so he already had part of his lyrics ready/ And I had the mine/So he sang his part and I sang mine/And I don't know, I don't know, I don't know to this day, but it's.../Let me, let me sing for you here / Let me see how it is/Father, take this chalice away from me...“ (Chalice – Gilberto Gil live at USP. 1973)
However, it was heavily censored at the time, and was only released on the album “Chico Buarque” (1978), sung by Chico Buarque and Milton Nascimento. The work makes a direct allusion to the censorship carried out by the regime, drawing a connection between the word “cálice” and “cale-se”. In this way, we can characterize that the works had utopian narratives for the time, such as the ideal of freedom, issues regarding sexuality, major questions about the regime imposed at the time, etc. Since Brazil was dealing with major repression and the removal of civil, individual and social rights; to the detriment of the dictatorship, artists, teachers, religious people, students and all those who were against the regime came together to fight, and many were persecuted, exiled and even killed. In this attempt to illustrate life, great songs emerged that are acclaimed to this day and used as a critique of the fascist moments that surrounded the green and yellow country at the time, such as the song Cálice.
In 1978, when Chico released the album “Chico Buarque”, his seventeenth album, featuring great compositions such as Cálice, Apesar de Você, Tanto Mar and others, after managing to circumvent the censorship in force at the time, as most of the songs were at odds with the national situation. That said, it can be characterized that the song was born with the intention of criticizing the censorship imposed at the time, which in turn, the authors use a Figure of Speech[vii] called Paronomasia, which consists of the approximation of words with similar sounds but different meanings, as we can see below: “Cálice” and “Cale-se”, where cálice evokes the idea of a small cup with a foot, and cala-se comes from the verb calar, which promotes the meaning of being silent, not producing sound or noise. Furthermore, the lyrics of the song make a direct reference to a passage from the Christian Holy Bible, as quoted below:
“He went a little farther and bowed down with his face to the ground and prayed: My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me. Yet not my will, but yours be done.” (The Bible, New Testament and Psalms, 2008, 84)
We can see that the chorus of the song makes direct reference to the excerpt quoted above:
“Father, take this cup from me
Father, take this cup from me.
Father, take this cup from me.
Of red wine of blood…”
(Buarque and Gil. 1973)
Therefore, it is clear that in addition to the message paraphrased from the Bible, the song portrays a cry for help coming from the Divine, sometimes seeking to remove the “shut up” as censorship and breakdown of the regime, sometimes the idea that if it is possible to remove the “Chalice”, asking for the removal of pain, of the suffering imposed by it.
Language, discourse and their tendencies
The concern when it comes to language is a stage for many fields of study: Linguistics, Literature, Semantics, Communication, Anthropology and others. From this point of view, Social Psychology could not be left out, after all, what social space is not crossed by the language factor or the artifact of discourse?
According to Rimé's perspective (1984), it is common to think of language as a neutral disseminator of ideals and ideologies, where we have the sender, the recipient, and the receiver and others who interact with each other, sometimes as a producer, sometimes as a consumer. In this way, the author often produces something thinking about the dissemination of the work, to certain people, groups or classes, however, even if the producer does not know them and without the final intention of being an influence, he often ends up passing some of his thoughts to the work, opening a stage and feeding a certain discourse among those who consume his work, fostering new opinions and their dissemination, opening space for new discourses and from there, conquering clusters and strengthening the idea.
Thus, it is clear that the song “Cálice” is an illustration of Rimé’s thesis. It is clear that the discourses are reproduced from speeches, texts and others; with a certain basis from reference figures on the subject, however not all are canonical on the subject, but still have their respective spaces for discourse. This was the case in the period when Chico Buarque, Gilberto Gil and Milton Nascimento, and other names of reference in MPB, were seen as inspiration for the youth in terms of resistance and combat against the regime of the time. It is important to emphasize that the interaction of man with his environment is very common, rescuing the thinkers Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975), Vygostsky (1896-1934), Volochinov (1929/1992) in the group theories “Bakhtin Circle” it is possible to verify the idea. Bakhtin argues that there is an interaction between the producer and the consumer, where the author's communications must incorporate his personal languages and his day-to-day social interactions, so that there is a connection between the author and the consumer. This creates an organic and comfortable relationship, creating in a way an inspiration for the production of other works. Bakhtin and Volochinov say that there is polyphony of voices in the speeches, to the fact that many statements do not follow only one perspective and have a broad intertextuality of several dialogues that mix with each other, which opens space for broad interpretations and gives rise to other expressions and values.
Furthermore, although many of the works are for a select group, the song “Cálice” seeks a broad language, with forms and contents of communication that bring listeners closer to the authors, showing a single reality for all groups, describing the reality that the country was going through as the song shows:
“Father, take this cup away from me / Father, take this cup away from me / Father, take this cup away from me / Of red wine of blood / How to drink this bitter drink / Swallow the pain, swallow the toil / Even if my mouth is shut, my chest remains / Silence in the city is not heard / What good is it to me to be the son of the saint / It would be better to be the son of another / Another reality less dead / So many lies, so much brute force / Father (father) / (Chorus) / How difficult it is to wake up silent / If in the dead of night I hurt myself / I want to let out an inhuman scream / Which is a way of being heard / All this silence stuns me / Stunned I remain attentive / In the stands for any moment / To see the monster emerge from the lagoon / (Chorus) / The pig is too fat to walk anymore (cup) / The knife is too used no longer / How difficult it is, father (father), to open the door (cup) / This word stuck in the throat / This Homeric drunkenness in the world/What's the point of having good will/Even if you keep your chest quiet, there's still the head/Of the drunks in the city center/(Chorus)/Maybe the world isn't small (cup)/Nor is life a fait accompli (cup, cup)/I want to invent my own sin/(Cup, cup, cup)/I want to die from my own poison/(Father, cup, cup, cup)/I want to lose your head once and for all (cup)/My head to lose its mind (cup)/I want to smell diesel fumes (cup)/Get drunk until someone forgets me (cup)” (Buarque and Gil. 1973)
Although the song is written entirely in a connotative sense, in which words take on meanings different from their original meaning, the authors' ideologies are evident in the narrative. According to Vygotsky in his theory of language, he argues about the referentials "meaning” and “sense”. Thus, meaning, also referred to as “referential meaning”, claims to be a comprehensive process of semantic relations that are based on the historical process, that is, a meaning is not born in a brief instant, but rather the sum of several instants generating a definition for the proposed meaning. Another point is meaning, which is also called “social-communicative meaning”, in which the subjective points of meaning come from individuality, through which it leads the subject to reproduce a given discourse, which is shaped according to the moment and the intention of the same. In this way, for Vygotsky, language is not a mirror of reality, which has less of a reproductive function, but rather the function of creating or interpreting the reality presented.
It can be stated that, based on what has been discussed in the text, discourse is power. After all, only those who have legitimacy and space to do so have a voice, although in the digital age, discourses have been disseminated increasingly quickly and with less legitimacy, where a brief post about something as insignificant as it may be receives a range of instant access and views and becomes a compass that guides and controls thoughts, of the most varied kinds. Even though linguistic practices do not have the same power as economic and political issues, they can still be a form of domination that can appear in the most varied social configurations.
In view of this, we can present the case of censorship imposed in the early years of the dictatorship in Brazil, which resulted in the song Cálice, composed after the imposition. This shows that discourse is powerful, and that legitimate forces of power often prefer to silence subordinates, avoiding questions. The control is so great that the authors mention in the song: “How difficult it is to wake up silent/If in the dead of night I hurt myself/I want to let out an inhuman scream/Which is a way of being heard/All this silence stuns me/ Stunned I remain attentive/In the stands for any moment/To see the monster emerge from the lagoon” (Buarque and Gil, 1973). Thus, it is important to mention ideology, which according to Parker (1989), consists of a set of beliefs, highlighting a critical bias, as the author states: “an adequate notion of ideology must include an appreciation of the importance of conflict and, therefore, understand it as a consequence of power relations in discourse and texts” (p.4), and that in a certain way ideology is directly linked to the idea of alienation, which consists of leaving the subject insignificant to the point of not being mentioned or questioned as little as possible, providing the least interest and diverting dedication to deconstructing the imposed oppressive form, which is often legitimated by power.
In view of this, we can risk paraphrasing in a simple way the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, who debates about Nihilism. Where the individual reaches the point of suspending the values given by his daily life, to live his own completely different ideas of the world, which are often completely utopian for the direction of the present world. Thus, it leads us to believe that ideology can be a “false consciousness” that the individual takes for himself in order to live the relations of exploitation and suspend consciousness about them, as Yépez (1999) discusses. The authors do a lot in the excerpt: “I want to lose your head once and for all (chalice)/My head to lose your mind (chalice)/I want to smell diesel fumes (chalice)/Get drunk until someone forgets me (chalice)” in which the excerpt is narrated in the first person singular, in this case “I”.
The analysis of the song “Cálice” by Chico Buarque and Gilberto Gil, inserted in the context of Brazilian Popular Music during the military regime, reveals the depth and impact of art as a means of protest and social reflection. Amid the repression and censorship of the Military Dictatorship, music emerges not only as a work of art, but as a powerful instrument of resistance and denunciation.
The work uses paronomasia, associating the “chalice” with “keep quiet,” to criticize the censorship and oppression of the period, evoking the Bible to amplify its message of suffering and resistance. Through the analysis of the lyrics and the linguistic strategies used, it becomes clear that the song not only expresses pain and the cry for freedom, but also connects with a tradition of cultural and political protest that characterized MPB in the 60s and 70s.
The study of discourse and ideology presented demonstrates how art, even when filtered by the culture industry, can preserve and transmit subversive and critical messages. Vygotsky’s theory of language and Bakhtin’s approach to the polyphony of discourses are evident in the way the song “Chalice” articulates multiple layers of meaning and interpretation, reflecting both individual experience and the broader social context.
Therefore, Buarque and Gil's song is not limited to a mere cultural product, but is configured as a powerful vehicle of political and social resistance. Examining the work illustrates how art can challenge and subvert power, highlighting the importance of continuing to explore and value the role of artistic expression in the fight against oppression and in building a more just and conscious society.
*João Gabriel of the Birth Pires is a graduate in Human Sciences at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF).
References
“Down with the dictatorship, people in power: 56 years of the March of the Hundred Thousand.” Portal Gov.br, 27 June 2024, https://www.gov.br/memoriasreveladas/pt-br/assuntos/noticias/açado-a-ditadura-povo-no-poder-56-anos-da-passeata-dos-cem-mil . Accessed 4 August 2024.
The Bible New Testament and Psalms. The Prayer in Gethsemane. 1st ed., New Song, 2008.
Buarque, Chico, and Gilberto Gil. Cup. 1978, https://www.letras.mus.br/chico-buarque/45121/.
Cambric Ships, Santuza. From bossa nova to tropicália. 2nd ed., vol. 1, Rio de Janeiro, Zahar, 2001. 1 vols.
CEGALLA, DOMINGOS PASCHOAL. Brand new grammar of the Portuguese language. 46th ed., National Publishing Company, 2005.
Gil, Gilberto, and Chico Buarque. Cup. Live, 1st ed., May 26, 1973, p. Brazil. Spotify, Gege artistic productions, https://open.spotify.com/intl-pt/track/1PARDo3xqFIdJSUkmLD1XJ?si=ebec47821c7e4ad1. Accessed 07 08 2024. Online.
Gomes, Gustavo. Proceedings of the 10th ANPUH-DF Meeting. 1 ed., Biblioteca Central, 2023, https://d1wqtxts1xzle7.cloudfront.net/105539451/XEncontroANPUHDF-libre.pdf?1693945290=&response-content-disposition=inline%3B+filename%3DReinterpretacoes_da_homossexualidade_na.pdf&Expires=1722874371&Signature=VXJMREJH4786iV11nltTAOTZOGuSM7KpSPNKwhU5DafuFA.
“Cultural Industry: what it is, characteristics and examples.” FIA, https://fia.com.br/blog/industria-cultural/. Accessed 4 August 2024.
Nietzsche, Friedrich. Gaia and science. Companhia das Letras, 2012.
“What was the Cold War?” National Geographic, 7 November 2022, https://www.nationalgeographicbrasil.com/historia/2022/11/o-que-foi-a-guerra-fria. Accessed 4 August 2024.
Yépez, Martha Travesso. “Discourses and the symbolic dimension: a form of approach to Social Psychology.” Psychology Studies, full. 4, no. 1, 1999, pp. 39-59.
Notes
[I] Cultural Industry is one that uses the culture of certain parts of the world as a basis to manufacture its products. However, it also promotes a change in the cultural style of individuals, thus promoting behavior that is often considered massive from a perspective of exacerbated consumerism.
[ii] The Modern Art Week took place in São Paulo (SP) and brought together artists from a wide range of fields at the Theatro Municipal de São Paulo from February 13 to 18, 1922. Musical performances and conferences were interspersed with exhibitions of sculpture, painting and architecture, with the aim of introducing the latest trends in art to the Brazilian scene.
[iii] A Cold War was a period marked by a political-ideological conflict between the United States and former Soviet Union (USSR), between 1947 and 1991. This period polarized the world into two large blocks, one aligned with capitalism and the other aligned with communism.
[iv] A Tropicália was a cultural movement widely disseminated in 1967 and 1968 in Brazil, mainly in the musical sphere. Its characteristic was the break with the intellectualism of Bossa Nova and the approximation with popular and mass culture. In addition, Tropicália was characterized by the mixture of manifestations and aesthetic innovations, thus creating a musical hybridism with electric guitars with berimbaus, acoustic guitars, cuícas and violins. Its main names were: Os Mutantes (Rita Lee, Sérgio Dias and Arnaldo Baptista), Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Tom Zé, Gal Costa and Torquato Neto.
[v] Concretism is an artistic and literary movement that became popular in Brazil through the works of Décio Pignatari and the Campos brothers. The movement is characterized mainly by experimental work with space, a break with lyrical poetry, a verbal and visual character that explores words, sounds and images, and aesthetic autonomy.
[vi] The March of the Hundred Thousand was an act that took place on June 26, 1968, in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The protest, called as an act of repudiation of the repression and violence of the Brazilian military dictatorship, was the largest popular demonstration since the 1964 coup and is a milestone in the fight for the restoration of democracy in Brazil.
[vii] Figures of speech are special resources for those who speak or write, to communicate with more strength and color, intensity and beauty.
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