Abstract
This article covers the reflections of the polygrapher Mário de Andrade on Brazilian music between the decades of 1920 and 1940. The musicologist advocated the use of the popular rhythms like a base to modern compositions. However, one should be careful about excessive use of the folk document, since it could lead to a meager production, a pastiche created only for trade and entertainment. The task consisted of defining a collective musical pattern that could refrain the virtuosity of the modern artist. The folk songs would guarantee that standard. On the other hand, one should not abandon the legacies of Western harmonious development, but rather bring them to level with popular rhythms. The documentary sources used here are chronicles and essays that Mário de Andrade published between the end of the 1920s and the beginning of the 1940s, indicated at the end of the text, in the references.
Keywords:
classical; modern; popular; music; Brazil.