In 1934, Antônio Maria was hired by Rádio Clube de Pernambuco as announcer and presenter of musical shows with records. His name soon starred alongside some famous professionals of the time, such as Nelson Ferreira, José Renato, Mercedes Del Prado, Ziul Mattos, Hélio Peixoto and Aloísio Pimentel.
Antônio Maria traveled to Rio de Janeiro in 1940 to work as a sports commentator at Rádio Ipanema. However, due to his peculiar style of expressing the games, he soon was fired from his job.
He improvised sambas with Fernando Lobo and attended the bars of Rio de Janeiro. Since he could not get a job in Rio, he returned to Recife to work at newspapers, to produce music for advertising and also as a sports commentator.
In 1944, Antônio Maria married Mariinha Gonçalves Ferreira, the sister of his friend Hugo Peixa, and moved to Fortaleza. He worked in this city for almost a year at Rádio Clube do Ceará, due to the efforts of his friend Fernando Lobo. However, he soon returned to Rio de Janeiro to work as production director at Rádio Tupi, besides publishing chronicles in the journal O Jornal.
He also worked as a journalist at Diário Carioca, with the column The night is great; at Revista Manchete, with the column Overnight; and at the newspapers O Globo and Última Hora. Many said that he was a reporter of the Rio de Janeiro nights, because he worked at night.
Because Antônio Maria was very talented, he was hired as production director for the first Brazilian television ‒ TV Tupi ‒ on January 20, 1951. He was responsible for many activities at this television, such as sports commentator, jingles, scripts of the shows, comedy shows and chronicle.
Antônio Maria did not play any instrument. He used to hum the songs and write the lyrics with the melodies. His first frevo, titled “Frevo no. 1 of Recife” (part of a series of five frevos), was composed in 1951. That same year, he created the samba “Well intended”, in partnership with Fernando Lobo.
His great success as a composer, however, came only in 1952, when the singer Nora Ney released the samba-song “Nobody loves me”, as well as the samba-lullaby “Big boy”, a partnership between Antônio Maria and Fernando Lobo.
In 1955, the composer acquired new partnerships, such as Manezinho Araújo, Vinicius de Moraes, Evaldo Gouveia, Moacir Silva, Paulo Soledade, Zacarias, Zé da Zilda, Pernambuco, Reinaldo Dias Leme, João Roberto Kelly and Luís Bonfá.
In the 1950s, Antônio Maria and Vinicius de Moraes composed the sambas “When you pass me by” and “Bent of love for São Paulo”, both recorded by Aracy de Almeida. They created another song together: “Beating heart”. And with Zé da Zilda, he produced the sambas “I did nothing”, “My bass” and “Don’t go away”.
Ismael Neto was an essential partner for Antônio Maria. They composed “Waltz of a city”, “The slow cry of Rio de Janeiro”, and the samba-song “I know how to miss the return song”. In 1959, they wrote “Carnaval morning” and “Orpheus’ samba”, two songs that were in the soundtrack of the movie Black Orpheus.
The songs “Come today”, “Nobody knows about us”, “Stay with me” and “When she’s gone” were produced with Moacir Silva. With his friend and brother-in-law Luís Bonfá, Antônio Maria made “Sweet cashew tree”, “Do what you want” and “Song of the beloved woman”.
The songs “Prejudice”, “I’m going to Paris” and “The night is great”, Antônio Maria composed with Fernando Lobo. The composer Pernambuco and Antônio Maria created “Concert in heaven”, “Sleep”, “Your hands”, “This better love”, “More than my life”, “Window love”, “The love and the rose” and “Things of love”. “Sweet cashew tree”, in turn, was created in partnership with Manezinho Araújo.
Antônio Maria composed many other songs: “Frevo no. 2 of Recife”, “Frevo no. 3 of Recife”, “Sunday”, “That someone”, “Big boy”, “My beloved fell asleep”, “Old gate”, “Recife”, “Return song”, “You can talk”, “Middle of the night 3 and 5” (in partnership with Reinaldo Dias Leme), “Ten nights”, “Partnership”, “Rio dawning”, “I know how to lose” and “Oh! What a fright”.
Among famous singers of his songs, we can mention Dolores Duran, Ângela Maria, Nora Ney, Aracy de Almeida, Emilinha Borba, Elizeth Cardoso, Jamelão, Agostinho dos Santos, Dircinha Batista, Silvia Teles, Dóris Monteiro, and the ones from Pernambuco, Claudionor Germano and Luiz Bandeira.
As a prank by fate, Antônio Maria - a fighter against the Military Coup of 1964 - died on October 15 of that same year due to a heart attack.
The composer has been recognized and honored since his death. A concert by Maria Bethânia and Raul Cortês in 1970, in Rio de Janeiro, was presented only with his songs. There are a few biographies about him and, in 1997, the singer Marisa, Gata Mansa, recorded the album Meeting with Antônio Maria, which consisted of 14 of his songs, including “The love and the rose”, “Carnaval morning”, “Orpheu’s samba” and “The song of your eyes”.
Here is one of the most beautiful compositions of Antônio Maria: Frevo no. 1 of Recife. He composed this song when he lived in Rio de Janeiro.
Oh, how I miss
I miss so much
This longing I feel
Of the Clube das Pás, the Vassouras
Dancers crossing like scissors
Its crowded streets
Bombo beats are slow maracatus
They arrive tired from the city
With their banners in the air.
What’s the point if Recife is far away
And I miss it so much
That I even get embarrassed
It seems I see Walfrido Cebola on the step
Haroldo, Mathias, Colaço
Recife is inside me.
His partner and friend Vinicius de Moraes wrote the following words in the preface to the book Antônio Maria’s Journal, whose edition was censored and held by the military:
[…] Sometimes I think. I don’t know if you would like to be alive right now, my Maria, after 1964. Everything is worse, the Government, the character, the music, that good and free creativity of the 1950s is lost. To summarize, Maria, the music was not lost, but its dignity.
Recife, April 6, 2004.
sources consulted
ANTÔNIO Maria. ACERVO da Fonoteca da Fundação Joaquim Nabuco.
ANTÔNIO Maria [Foto neste texto]. Disponível em: <https://overcast.com.br/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/324_1722-alt-AntonioMaria.jpg>. Acesso em: 15 mar. 2018.
MARCONDES, Marcos Antônio (Org.). Enciclopédia da música brasileira: erudita, folclórica e popular. 2. ed. São Paulo: Art Editora, 1998.
A NOITE é grande: Antônio Maria. Encarte integrante do LP nº. PA 89.022.
how to quote this text
VAINSENCHER, Semira Adler. Antonio Maria. In: Pesquisa Escolar. Recife: Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, 2004. Available from:https://pesquisaescolar.fundaj.gov.br/pt-br/artigo/antonio-maria/. Access on: month day year. (Ex.: Aug 6. 2020.)