Resumo

O objetivo deste artigo é discutir os conceitos sobre tempo, duração e ritmo do filósofo francês Henri Bergson (1859-1941) e aplica-los aos estudos sobre a música popular brasileira. A canção popular será tratada aqui enquanto objeto complexo composto pelas relações entre música, letra e performance. Para este propósito, desenvolvemos os conceitos sobre tempo, duração e ritmo do filósofo e analisamos, a partir dessas referências, a canção Oração ao tempo, do compositor brasileiro Caetano Veloso, segunda faixa do álbum Cinema Transcendental (Philips/PolyGram), lançado em 1979.

The Bergsonian concepts of time, duration and rhythm in the Brazilian popular music: an analysis of the song Oração ao tempo, by Caetano Veloso

The aim of this article is to discuss and apply to the studies on Brazilian popular music the concepts about time, duration and rhythm of the French philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941), based on the intricate relationship among melody, musical arrangement, lyrics and performance that integrates popular song. The popular song will be considered as a complex object composed of the relationships between music, lyrics and performance. For this purpose, we develop the philosopher’s concepts of time, duration and rhythm, and analyze, with these references, the song Oração ao tempo (Prayer to the time), by the Brazilian composer Caetano Veloso, 2nd track on his album Cinema Transcendental (Philips/PolyGram), released in 1979. As a result, the notion of time is perceived as flow and as origin of the empathy that the song causes in the listener.