A wonderful creation of terms and expressions
Under the influence of concrete poets, Gilberto Gil created and reused words in his work, throughout all phases.
By Instituto Gilberto Gil
Text: Ricardo Schott, journalist and musical researcher
“I guess I was heavily influenced by that São Paulo people, Augusto de Campos, Décio Pignatari, and that whole new field of poetry, which had ways of treating words with processes of resignification, amalgamation of semantics, producing semantical developments, that is, a new semantics. There it was: the molds of concrete poetry. And that, back then, raised interest in the whole group. Me, Caetano, Capinam, Torquato, everybody had an interest in that way of processing words and feelings. Once in a while, here and there, I would play with some of it. I would do a trick somehow just to say: ‘Here is one of those new words’.”
Gilberto Gil
Gilberto Gil aos quatro anos de idade (1946)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Love of reading
The child memories of Gilberto Gil show that, for the singer, books were domestic items just as important as the clay bowls his grandma used.
The artist was used to having books at home and was influenced by authors such as Monteiro Lobato, Olavo Bilac (a reference in his first poems, written in the 1960s), Gonçalves Dias, and Castro Alves, in addition to Jorge Amado, João Cabral de Melo Neto, and many others.
Having been a great reader influenced his authorship, along with getting in touch with the concrete poetry written by brothers Haroldo and Augusto de Campos and Décio Pignatari, when he first arrived in São Paulo to end his career as a business administrator and cast himself into the world of music.
Caderno de partituras com diversas composições de Gilberto Gil, compiladas e publicadas pela Editora Musical Arlequim Partitura e letra da música Serenata de Teleco - TecoInstituto Gilberto Gil
Poetical originality
Gilberto Gil lyrics have always been marked by well-built phrases and an original use of words: many of them seem to gain other meanings coming out of his mouth.
In his lyrics, in addition to recovering less used Portuguese words, the writer also indulged the creation of new words.
“Portmanteau” is the concept that Gil used to poetically explain the neologisms he invents.
Gilberto Gil com seu pai, José Gil Moreira, na década de 1980 (1981)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Right in his third album, Gilberto Gil (1969), the song “Volks Volkswagen Blue” would be a wordplay both with the blue color of a VW Beetle that his father Zeca had purchased and the blues musical genre.
In the song, Gil inserted made-up words such as “marinaravilhas”—a joint of the names of his two “maravilhas” [Portuguese word for wonderful], his oldest daughters Marília and Nara—along with contrasting plays such as “minha cara bela” and “minha caravela” [respectively, “my beautiful face” and “my caravel,” both having a close sound in Portuguese].
Encarte do álbum Refazenda, de Gilberto Gil VersoInstituto Gilberto Gil
Songs like this make the reading of lyrics in the insert booklet an additional spice in the seasoned albums of the artist.
The third album also features “Futurível”, a song whose title sounds like a came up thing by the artist, but it is not. Dictionaries have it that it means a word connected to a “possible future” in Theology.
And it suits just fine an album featuring songs such as “Cérebro Eletrônico” and “2001.”
Words inventor
In “Tradition,” a samba released in 1978, he put the word “pongar” in the verse “inteligente no jeito de pongar no bonde” [smart in his way of catching the streetcar].
Possibly, it was the single time that this word—which simply means to catch the streetcar, while “despongar” is to get out of it—was used in a Brazilian song.
In Expression 2222, album released in 1972, Gil resorted again to word invention.
Gilberto Gil e Caetano Veloso em show para o Festival Jazz à Vienne, da turnê europeia Dois Amigos, Um Século de Música (2015-07-03)Instituto Gilberto Gil
In the song “Ele e eu,” he spoke of the differences between him and his friend Caetano Veloso, using terms as “eletricoconsumida” [meaning electrical and consumed] (about Caetano’s living style) and “calmalarga” [huge calm] (about his own view of life), in order to explain the moments of calmness and anguish of the duo.
“O sonho acabou”, in its turn, brings “de-manhando” [turning into morning] into the lists of neologisms of Gilberto Gil—the picture of the sun rising and “dissolving” the night.
Gilberto Gil na praia durante viagem com a turnê Tropicália 2 (1994)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Linguistic determination
The words were inserted as tools into songs that required reading, studying and the use of terms related to a given segment.
One of them was “cibernética” [cybernetics], which gave name to a Gil samba, performed in concerts in the 1970s and that remained unreleased until the 1990s, when a record of it was inserted as bonus track in a CD reissue of the album Gilberto Gil ao Vivo (1974).
To compose this, he took inspiration in a conversation he had with a friend about the subject, and in a book he was gifted with by the same friend about cybernetics.
To write the songs of Quanta (1996), the singer and songwriter worked hard in the reading of neuroscience and quantic physics books, said his wife and manager, Flora Gil. She said she had never seen her husband reading that much.
Gilberto Gil, Jorginho Gomes e Arthur Maia durante show da turnê do álbum QuantaInstituto Gilberto Gil
The album even had a glossary in the insert booklet to make certain terms clearer.
Livreto Brazilian Jazz World Guide, com matéria sobre a turnê internacional do álbum Quanta Gente Veio Ver, de Gilberto Gil Capa (9/1/1999)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Article on the concert Quanta Gente Veio Ver, in the Brazilian Jazz World Guide
Another Gil hit was marked by the usage of a word that is not quite a neologism—but is, above all, a familiar pet name of a beloved person.
Gilberto Gil e Sandra Gadelha durante o exílio do artista baiano (1970)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Drão, as he used to call his ex-wife Sandra Gadelha, became the name of the song he wrote as soon as the marriage ended. The lyrics were a farewell, and used the rhymes of “drão” with “grão” [grain] and “pão” [bread].
Gilberto Gil e músicos à época do álbum Refazenda (1975)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Musical neologisms
And a well-known phase in Gilberto Gil’s life, the so-called phase “re,” was branded by the use of many neologisms.
Gilberto Gil em ensaio fotográfico do álbum Realce (1979)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Realce [Highlight], album of 1978, brought in its title a word from the dictionary.
Gilberto Gil em apresentação à época do álbum Refavela (1977)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Refazenda (1975) and Refavela (1978) joined the “re” in “recomeço” [restart] to expressions that had something to do with the subjects wanted to approach in the albums: the northeast roots, in the first case, and the black culture, in the second.
The “re” in “reconstrução” [reconstruction], a term that became something vital for Gil, after his coming back from exile.
Gilberto Gil e Rita Lee em show da turnê Refestança (1977)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Between these two albums, the “re” turned into party with Refestança, a concert-album that united the Bahia-born with the singer, songwriter and former Os Mutantes, Rita Lee (1977).
Slide de ensaio de Gilberto Gil para o álbum Dia Dorim Noite Neon (1985)Instituto Gilberto Gil
In Gil’s work, pun also unfolded into albums titles, such as Dia Dorim Noite Neon (1985) a wordplay with the character’s name Diadorim, from Grande Sertão: Veredas novel, by Guimarães Rosa.
Parabolicamará Livro com partituras do álbum Parabolicamará, de Gilberto Gil (1992)Instituto Gilberto Gil
Or O Eterno Deus Mu Dança [being Mu Dança a wordplay that sounds like both the “God Mu dances” or the “changing God” in Portuguese], name of the album released in 1989. In 1991, the meeting of technology and Afro traditions was the genesis of yet another neologism, “parabolicamará”: the word naming the song and album is a portmanteau of a parabolic antenna with the word “camará”, widely used in capoeira sessions.
Exhibit credits
Research and text: Ricardo Schott
Editing: Chris Fuscaldo
Assembly: Patrícia Sá Rêgo
Copyediting: Laura Zandonadi
General credits
Editing and curating: Chris Fuscaldo / Garota FM
Musical content research: Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo, and Ricardo Schott
MinC content research: Carla Peixoto, Ceci Alves, and Laura Zandonadi
Photo subtitles: Anna Durão, Carla Peixoto, Ceci Alves, Chris Fuscaldo, Daniel Malafaia, Gilberto Porcidonio, Kamille Viola, Laura Zandonadi, Lucas Vieira, Luciana Azevedo, Patrícia Sá Rêgo, Pedro Felitte, Ricardo Schott, Roni Filgueiras, and Tito Guedes
Subtitle copyediting: Anna Durão, Carla Peixoto, Laura Zandonadi, and Patrícia Sá Rêgo
Data editing: Isabela Marinho
Acknowledgments: Gege Produções, Gilberto Gil, Flora Gil, Gilda Mattoso, Fafá Giordano, Maria Gil, Meny Lopes, Nelci Frangipani, Cristina Doria, Daniella Bartolini, and all photographers and characters in the stories
All media: Instituto Gilberto Gil
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