The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim

Antonio Carlos Jobim has been called the greatest of all the contemporary Brazilian songwriters—the "Gershwin" of Brazil. Like Gershwin, he wrote both popular and serious music and was a skilled piano player. One of the key figures in the creation of the “bossa nova”style, Jobim’s songs have made a lasting impression worldwide and many are now standards of the popular music repertoire. In The Music of Antônio Carlos Jobim, one of the first extensive musicological analyses of the Brazilian composer, Peter Freeman examines the music, philosophy and circumstances surrounding the creation of Jobim’s popular songs, instrumental compositions and symphonic works and attempts to elucidate not only the many musical influences that formed his musical output, but also the stylistic peculiarities that were as much the product of a gifted composer as was the rich musical environment and heritage that surrounded him.