Abstract
This article focuses on the lyrics of “Sinfonia do café” (“Coffee Symphony”), a song composed in 1944 by Humberto Teixeira, and attempts to analyze it from a linguistic and socio-historical perspective. The theoretical foundation of this analysis is Mikhail Bakhtin’s philosophy of language, particularly his understanding of enunciation and verbal interaction. Based on the intersubjective relationship between speaker and interlocutor, we look for potential meanings in this composition and the main topic (coffee) within the context of its creation. This analysis shows the role played by the musical genre known as samba-exaltação during the New State period. Within this context, coffee and samba-exaltação were the main exports (agricultural and musical) that were intended to express the splendor of Brazilian economics and culture.
coffee; samba-exaltação; Brazilian popular music; Humberto Teixeira (1915-1979; Mikhail Bakhtin (1895-1975