Moacir Santos’ Mediations

a Look at His Dialog Between Harmonic Languages

Abstract

This article seeks to provide a panoramic portrait of the work of the musician Moacir Santos according to his characteristic mediation between different forms of musical organization. More precisely, I indicate how functional harmonic treatments coexist in the composer's pieces with constructions not confined to the traditional limits of tonalism. Such "mediations" between distinct harmonic approaches are traditionally understood by Santos scholars as an "ambiguous" —and, in this sense, indefinite — trait of his music. However, in addition to the ambiguities, I seek to demonstrate here how this harmony obeys a proper and well defined organization, guided in general by the horizontal aspect of voice leadings as the main building element.