Black suffragette’s sheet music unearthed and revived on the piano
Seventy-five-year-old piano student Maria José Febraro’s eyes smile as the melody casts a spell over her senses. The notes of Noturno come from the fingers of teacher Renata Sica and fill the living room of a house in Araras, São Paulo. The student feels swept away through time as she learns the piece was composed by a black woman like her, with dreams and hard-fought achievements not unlike her own.
The author of the song was suffragette, typist, and trade unionist Almerinda Farias Gama (1899–1999). Born in Alagoas state, Northeast Brazil, Gama was an unrecognized figure in the 20th century hitherto unknown to the teacher, the student, and the world. The two women know that the yellowed sheets they have before them is nothing short of a historical relic.
The first to realize it was researcher Cibele Tenório, doctoral student in History at the University of Brasilia (UnB) and journalist at EBC’s Rádio Nacional. Tenório had encountered the scores archived at the National School of Music at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ).
A wide range of music styles
Next year, Tenório will release a biography of Almerinda Farias Gama. The work was put together as part of her master’s research at UnB, under the guidance of Professor Teresa Marques. As she explored Gama’s life, Tenório discovered that the suffragette had a lifelong passion for the piano and had drawn inspiration from a wide range of music styles in her compositions.
“We’re talking about a historical figure who was thrown into oblivion,” the researcher pointed out. In a 1984 interview Gama notes that her paternal grandmother had taught her French, housework, and basic piano lessons, Tenório mentioned. “She said she never went to a conservatory as a child. [...] Later, when she was old and retired as a typist, she returned to the piano, the instrument of her childhood,” she added.
“You’ll ruin your fingers”
Gama’s story fascinates Maria José, who first became acquainted with the piano as a child. “Knowing the story of struggle of a black woman like me further increased my desire to learn to play the piano,” she revealed. In the past, Maria José heard from the employers of her mother—a domestic worker on a farm—that she should not go anywhere near the piano in the house. “They said that if I played it, I could ruin my fingers,” she recalled.
Today, the fingers and heart of the former washerwoman and maid find their way through the keys thanks to her neighbor and piano teacher Renata Sica. “I was touched when the Brazilian Piano Institute announced the discovery of the scores. I wanted to play them. And it was like traveling back in time,” the teacher said.
Closer to Gama
The discovery of the scores was announced by Cibele Tenório. She was thrilled when she saw the scores in her hands and yet again when she heard the time-worn pages turning into music through Sica’s rendition. “It’s like meeting Almerinda.” More than written documents, the scores have the power to bring Almerinda Farias Gama back to life. It is no longer just a story in a book. Gama lives on as music.
“Almerinda played the piano as a child. She also spent her whole life at the keys of a typewriter. It’s as if she had replaced one set of keys with another. As an old woman, she went back to the black and white keys.” The researcher explained that, at the age of 85, Gama said she had composed over 90 songs throughout her life.
The sheet music had been sent to Rio de Janeiro’s National School of Music. Tenório was able to locate 29 and get permission for them to be made public. “Most of them have lyrics, written in her hand. They cover a variety of genres, including baião, waltz, and samba. Since she said there were over 90 pieces, there’s still a lot to go through.”
The scores are undated and some of their lyrics deal with love, some tell Amazonian legends (Gama lived in Belém, in North Brazil), some are lullabies. “I first got to know the public figure—an activist for women’s rights. It wasn’t until later on that I discovered the scores,” Tenório pointed out. The find was an achievement, but listening to the music brought a new dimension to the discovery.
Spreading the word
Listening to Gama’s music was also made possible because Tenório took the scores to the Brazilian Piano Institute so the materials could be shared and disseminated. “We’ve already published more than 4 thousand videos of scores by Brazilian composers.” After it was published on the institute’s website, pianists made sure Gama’s music did not just remain on paper.
“Almerinda’s songs are simple. They can be played at home or in recitals,” said the institute’s president, Alexandre Dias. The songs, he went on to remark, work on solo piano, but can—and should—also be sung.
“What struck me most was how eclectic this intellectual was. It shows what a lively and sharp mind she had,” Dias noted.
In Cibele Tenório’s view, listening to Gama’s music was different. Beyond method and theory, certain feelings, she said, cannot be explained through reason alone.
“My encounter with Almerinda was also brought about by our shared ancestry. I’m the daughter of a black woman, and my research is, in a way, a reunion with my mother [who died when the researcher was a teenager].” This material is rescued, she went on to argue, so that people are not forgotten.
Revolutionary
Professor Kátia Santos, researcher at the Advanced Program in Contemporary Culture at UFRJ’s Department of Letters, believes that stories like the life of Gama—a black woman born 11 years after the abolition of slavery, are revolutionary. Professor Santos believes that, even within black families, art often could not be the priority because survival had to come first. Almerinda Farias Gama’s achievements were far from ordinary.
“Black women are the ones who suffer the most from oppression. […] They always have to come together to try and make room for themselves. But the basis of all this, to make sure these people have the opportunity to find out if they have these skills, is to guarantee education,” Kátia Santos argued.
In her opinion, the story of Gama’s life represents a need for art. “She wanted to practice art as well. That’s important.” This need is now shared by teacher Renata Sica, who took it upon herself to play and record Gama’s songs. It is also a need for piano student Maria José. “I’ve loved the piano ever since I was a child. But I was extremely poor and couldn’t afford to study. Now I can. Almerinda is another inspiration for me.” The silence has been broken.
