Poets

Catulo da Paixão Cearense was the lyric writer of some of the most widely known Brazilian songs. He was also responsible, along with João Pernambuco, for the introduction of the violão (acoustic guitar) to the elite. Though Ernani Figueiredo (died 1917) and Alfredo de Souza Imenes (1918) where virtuoses at this instrument and the very pioneers of a rich and genuinely Brazilian tradition of violão, they were quickly forgotten after their deaths. A generation of distinguished composers who followed them (Sátiro Bilhar, Brant Horta, Joaquim Francisco dos Santos -- the Quincas Laranjeiras -- Mozart Bicalho, Melchior Cortez, and Heitor Villa-Lobos) took to heart to write for the violão, but they weren't accepted out of the popular domain, and except Villa-Lobos, they were forgotten and their production almost completely lost after their deaths. With the immense magnetic power of their songs, the duo Cearense/Pernambuco affirmed their reign of the violão in Brazil.

Cearense moved to Rio in 1880 with his father, a watchmaker and jeweler; his mother; and two brothers. His mother died soon after their arrival. He already played the flute and got acquainted with some excellent chorões (choro players is a generic name given at the time any group of musicians played in the open): flutists Antônio Calado, Viriato, and Anacleto de Medeiros; singer Cadete; and virtuose violonista Quincas Laranjeiras, who taught Cearense to play his instrument. Involved with musicians, he quickly acquir..