ABSTRACT
Jose Ramos Tinhorao has observed that the new, direct treatment of love in song was facilitated by an unprecedented interaction between men and women in public and represented the creative projection of the changes occurring in society as a result of urbanisation. Indeed, one of Brazil's best-known exponents of the love song, Vicente Celestino, began his career in popular music singing modinhas and his first album contained the songs of the famous modinha composer, Catulo da Paixao Cearense. The emphasis on reality provides the means by which Rodrigues radicalises the genre of the love song. Duran represents a very important development in the tradition of romantic music; as a composer, writer of lyrics and performer, she opened up within the genre a new, female perspective on relationships, love and loss. Bossa nova took up the traditional romantic themes that had dominated the sambas-cancao, boleros and tangos and explored them in a language of consummate grace and refinement.
