GCSE: Edexcel Set Works

Samba em Preludio

Background Information

Esperanza Spalding (born 1984) is an American jazz bassist, vocalist, and composer who rose to prominence for her virtuosic skills and boundary-pushing approach to music. She has released several critically acclaimed albums and has won multiple Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist in 2011.

‘Samba em Preludio’ is a Brazilian song written in 1962 by Baden Powell with lyrics by Vinicius de Moraes. The composition is a bossa nova which was a popular musical style in Brazil in the 1950s and 1960s, featuring elements of Brazilian samba and jazz.

Esperanza Spalding recorded Samba em Preludio on her 2008 studio album ‘Esperanza’.  The lyrics are in Portuguese and include the recurring lines ‘Without you, I have no purpose, Without you my love, I’m no one’.

Instrumentation

This performance includes female voice, acoustic bass guitar and acoustic guitar. It begins with an acoustic bass guitar solo and features large leaps, double stops, harmonics, and ornamentation (mordent).

Rhythm & Meter

Apart from a rubato beginning and last 2 bars, the piece is in 4/4 time with a tempo of ~115 and features syncopation, triplets and dotted rhythmic values.

Harmony & Form

The recording is in B minor and includes jazz-infused extended chords with 7ths, 9ths, 11ths and 13ths, and some chromatic chords (chords that are not diatonic to the key).  The form includes an introduction, multiple verses with linking sections, a guitar solo and a coda.

Texture

Whilst largely employing a homophonic texture, monophonic and polyphonic textures also appear in this recording.  These can be heard in the introduction and following the acoustic guitar solo respectively.