Essential Choro Works Every Musician Should Know

Definition

Every chorão knows that there is a core repertoire with no excuses: pieces that any musician in the genre is expected to know, carry in memory, and be ready to play as soon as someone starts the introduction. Not because any institution established it, but because these works have survived over time, keep returning in choro gatherings, and each carry, in its own way, something essential to the language of choro.

This entry brings together that indispensable core, organized by composer. The choro canon is broad, and no list is definitive, but there is practical consensus around these pieces: anyone who knows them belongs within the tradition.

Why this repertoire matters

Choro is, above all, an oral and collective practice. Unlike traditions in which the musician plays what is written on the stand, the chorão carries the repertoire in memory and immediately recognizes it when another musician starts the introduction. This shared recognition, knowing by heart the themes, modulations, and character of each piece, is what makes the choro gathering possible without prior rehearsal.

Studying the fundamental works is therefore studying the common language of the genre. Each piece contains, in miniature, a technical or aesthetic aspect that choro developed throughout its history: the rhythmic articulation of the early repertoire in Callado, the transition between salon music and popular music in Chiquinha Gonzaga, Nazareth’s pianistic sophistication, the public dissemination of the genre in Anacleto, Pixinguinha’s lyrical counterpoint, Waldir Azevedo’s virtuosity, and Jacob do Bandolim’s unmistakable compositional signature.

The works by composer

Chiquinha Gonzaga (1847–1935)

Prolific composer and central figure in the transition from the salon to popular music

Chiquinha Gonzaga was a pioneer in conducting a popular orchestra in Brazil and one of the most important composers of Brazilian music in her time. Her works help show how nineteenth-century urban dances were gradually reshaped until they acquired an increasingly Brazilian accent.

Fundamental works:

• Corta Jaca (also known as Gaúcho) — A Brazilian tango of enormous circulation, later also associated with the world of the maxixe. It became famous beyond specialized musical circles when it was performed at the Catete Palace in 1914, an episode that caused political controversy and helped consolidate the work’s notoriety.

Joaquim Callado (1848–1880)

Flautist, teacher, and the first great organizer of choro practice

Callado was the decisive figure in the formation of the ensemble that would become known as Choro Carioca, associated with the combination of flute, two guitars, and cavaquinho. His work as an instrumentalist, teacher, and organizer of ensembles lies at the origin of the consolidation of choro as an identifiable urban practice.

Fundamental works:

• Flor Amorosa (c. 1880) — Callado’s best-known piece and one of the melodies most often played in choro gatherings to this day. A polka with a singable melody and elegant form, it is often the first Callado work that a chorão learns. Its permanence in the living repertoire shows the strength of its melodic invention.

Ernesto Nazareth (1863–1934)

A major reference in piano choro and in the urban Brazilian language of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries

Nazareth brought Brazilian popular-rooted piano writing to an unusual degree of refinement without losing the urban accent that connects it to the world of choro. His music occupies a singular position: it dialogues with the salon, dance music, and concert piano, while at the same time directly nourishing the melodic and harmonic vocabulary of choro musicians. Villa-Lobos described him as a “genuinely national” composer, and historiography also records the well-known discussion surrounding the relationship between Brejeiro and thematic material later used by Darius Milhaud in Scaramouche.

Fundamental works:

• Brejeiro (1893) — One of Nazareth’s first great successes. A Brazilian tango of lively and spirited character, it became a central work of the piano repertoire linked to choro and one of his oldest pieces still active in the jam-session repertoire.

• Odeon (1909) — Associated with the Cine-Odeon, where Nazareth worked as a pianist. It is one of his most balanced pieces: immediate melody, secure formal design, and harmony that, without sounding heavy, broadens the expressive ambition of the genre.

• Apanhei-te, Cavaquinho (1914) — A festive and bright polka, very well known both inside and outside Brazil. Its title carries the humor typical of the choro environment, and the piece remains among the most recognizable in Nazareth’s catalogue.

• Tenebroso — A tango of darker, more dramatic character, distinct from the brightness more common in many of Nazareth’s works. This contrast helps reveal the expressive breadth of his writing.

• Escorregando — An agile, sliding piece in which the title itself seems to suggest the contour of the phrasing and the lightness of the pianistic gesture.

Anacleto de Medeiros (1866–1907)

Master of the bands and a key figure in taking choro beyond domestic spaces

Anacleto de Medeiros played a central role in the public circulation of Brazilian urban music by bringing this repertoire into the world of bands. His contribution was decisive in expanding the presence of choro and related genres beyond private salons and informal gatherings, giving the music another social and sonic scale.

Fundamental works:

• Três Estrelinhas — A polka of enormous popularity, one of the most enduring pieces of its period. Its melodic clarity, dance impulse, and formal solidity explain why it remains alive among musicians of very different levels.

• O Boêmio — A maxixe of strong expressive appeal, associated with the bohemian universe of Rio de Janeiro’s musical life at the end of the nineteenth century.

Zequinha de Abreu (1880–1935)

Composer of one of the Brazilian pieces with the widest international circulation

Zequinha de Abreu composed a work of extraordinary reach: a piece born from the urban and inland environment of São Paulo that went beyond the jam-session repertoire and became an international symbol of Brazilian music.

Fundamental work:

• Tico-tico no Fubá (1917) — A choro-polka of demanding virtuosity and immediate melody. With recordings dating back to the early twentieth century and vast international circulation, including in American films of the 1940s, it became one of the most recorded and rerecorded Brazilian pieces in the world. Its global fame never displaced it from its condition as an essential work of the choro repertoire.

João Pernambuco (1883–1947)

A pioneer of the Brazilian guitar and one of the first great soloists of the instrument in choro

João Pernambuco was decisive in establishing the guitar as a fully projected solo instrument in a tradition where, for a long time, melodic primacy had been concentrated in the flute. His historical role goes beyond the choro repertoire in the strict sense: he helped found an idea of the Brazilian guitar.

Fundamental work:

• Sons de Carrilhões — João Pernambuco’s best-known piece for solo guitar and one of the most important works in the Brazilian guitar repertoire. Built with campanella effects and resonances on open strings, it creates a shimmering texture that fully justifies its title.

Bonfiglio de Oliveira (1891–1940)

Flautist and composer linked to choro in the first half of the twentieth century

Bonfiglio de Oliveira is less discussed than other central names of the genre, but he remains present in the living repertoire of choro gatherings. A flautist, composer, and important figure in the Rio environment of the first half of the twentieth century, he left pieces of broad circulation among choro musicians.

Fundamental works:

• O Bom Filho à Casa Torna — A choro of festive character and witty title, built on an immediately recognizable gesture that helped secure its place in the jam-session repertoire.

• Flamengo — A choro with lively melody and communicative drive, one of the works that ensured Bonfiglio’s permanence in the traditional repertoire.

Nelson Alves (1895–1960)

A composer linked to the Rio de Janeiro choro scene of the first half of the twentieth century

Nelson Alves belongs to the group of composers who moved in the same universe as the great twentieth-century choro musicians and whose output remained alive even without always receiving the same biographical attention as the most celebrated names.

Fundamental work:

• Mistura e Manda — A choro of energetic and communicative character, whose title neatly condenses the spirit of confluence and vitality that marked the genre. The piece remains among the most recognizable in the traditional repertoire.

Álvaro Sandim

A composer preserved above all by the living repertoire of the jam sessions

Álvaro Sandim is one of those authors whose historical permanence owes less to critical fortune than to the practical strength of a work that never completely disappeared from circulation.

Fundamental work:

• Flor do Abacate — A choro with a singable melody and natural phrasing, valued by musicians for its balance between dance-like lightness and lyricism. The piece’s permanence in the jam-session repertoire is the main testimony of its musical strength.

Pixinguinha (1897–1973)

The central figure in the history of choro, a composer, arranger, and instrumentalist of incomparable influence

Alfredo da Rocha Vianna Filho, known as Pixinguinha, occupies the center of the choro tradition. His work brings together melodic heritage, harmonic refinement, rhythmic invention, and a sense of counterpoint that redefined the genre. His recordings with Benedito Lacerda remain one of the highest points of recorded instrumental choro.

Fundamental works:

• Carinhoso (composed c. 1917, first instrumental recording in 1928) — Pixinguinha’s most famous work and one of the most celebrated melodies in Brazilian music. The lyrics by João de Barro, written in 1937, broadened its reach even further, but the instrumental version remains central to the world of choro.

• Lamentos — A choro of intense lyricism and melodic contour of rare expressiveness. It is one of the pieces that best shows how Pixinguinha expanded the emotional depth of the genre.

• Um a Zero (1×0) (1919) — A choro of jubilant character, traditionally associated with a sporting celebration. It shows the composer’s more affirmative and festive side.

• Naquele Tempo — A choro of contained nostalgia and very high melodic elaboration, frequently cited among the most fully realized forms of the genre.

• Ingênuo — A delicate piece, with clean phrasing and an almost transparent character, a small lesson in expressive restraint.

• Cochichando — A choro of intimacy and subtlety, representative of the composer’s more inward-looking side.

• Cheguei (with Benedito Lacerda) — An animated choro linked to the phase of partnerships and historic recordings with Benedito Lacerda, an essential core of the language of classic choro.

• Sofres Porque Queres · Ainda Me Recordo · Vou Vivendo · Ele e Eu — Works that complete the portrait of a composer capable of handling humor and melancholy, celebration and memory, with equal confidence.

Note: Rosa is a central work by Pixinguinha, but it belongs to the world of the waltz, not to choro in the strict sense, and therefore is not included here as a fundamental work of the choro repertoire.

Waldir Azevedo (1923–1980)

The great virtuoso of the cavaquinho and the musician who redefined its solo role

Waldir Azevedo transformed the cavaquinho into a fully projected solo instrument. His work shifted the instrument from a mostly accompanying function into a position of technical brilliance and melodic affirmation, with enormous impact on the repertoire and on the public imagination.

Fundamental works:

• Brasileirinho (1949) — One of the most performed and recorded choros of all time. Its extraordinary diffusion did not reduce its technical demands. On the contrary, the piece became an emblem of cavaquinho virtuosity and of choro’s sonic identity.

• Pedacinhos do Céu — A choro of great melodic beauty and lyrical character, proof that Waldir went far beyond the brilliant, percussive velocity with which he is sometimes simplistically associated.

• Delicado — A baião of melodic refinement, strongly associated with Waldir Azevedo’s name. Although it is not a choro in the strict sense, its historical presence in Brazilian instrumental repertoire is so strong that it often appears alongside the composer’s central works.

Jacob do Bandolim (1918–1969)

The greatest mandolinist in the history of choro and a composer with an immediately recognizable voice

Jacob Pick Bittencourt, known as Jacob do Bandolim, was at once a supreme performer and a singular composer. His perfectionism, aesthetic discipline, and refusal of easy solutions are inscribed in works that preserve a wholly distinctive identity within the choro repertoire.

Fundamental works:

• Noites Cariocas — Jacob’s best-known choro, with broad melodic arc and nocturnal atmosphere, today almost synonymous with the refined Rio style of the genre.

• Vibrações — An energetic and virtuosic piece, highly valued by mandolinists for the impact it produces within the ensemble and for the drive of its writing.

• Doce de Coco — A lyrical choro, sweet but controlled, with delicate melodic invention and no excess of sentimentality.

• Assanhado — A restless, lively, and agitated work, perfectly consistent with its title. One of the favorites in choro gatherings.

• O Voo da Mosca — A piece of extreme virtuosity, required whenever one wants to measure agility, precision, and mastery of the mandolin.

• Receita de Samba — A work that makes explicit the composer’s dialogue with samba and illuminates the living boundary between the two genres.

• Bole-bole — A festive and dance-like choro, representative of Jacob’s more direct and communicative side.

How to approach this repertoire

The study of choro’s fundamental works follows a logic different from that of Western concert music: there is no universal order of difficulty, nor any mandatory formal progression. According to the genre’s tradition, the most effective path usually looks like this:

1. Start with what already sounds familiar — choose the pieces you have heard many times, whose melodies have already entered the body and ear.
2. Learn by ear before reading the score — choro is an oral tradition; the score is support, not the starting point.
3. Learn to accompany before soloing — attending jam sessions as an accompanist expands passive repertoire much faster than studying only the solo line.
4. Go deeper by composer — after playing works by several authors, diving into a single composer allows one to perceive the internal coherence that links one piece to another.

Connections within Choropedia

Composers: → Joaquim Callado · Chiquinha Gonzaga · Ernesto Nazareth · Pixinguinha · Jacob do Bandolim · Waldir Azevedo
Related concepts: → Choro Jam Session · Regional de Choro · Syncopation · Rondo Form · Baixaria
Instruments: → Cavaquinho · Mandolin · 7-String Guitar · Flute · Pandeiro

Sources

• CAZES, Henrique. Choro: do Quintal ao Municipal. São Paulo: Editora 34, 1998.
• PINTO, Alexandre Gonçalves. O Choro: reminiscências dos chorões antigos. Rio de Janeiro, 1936 (FUNARTE reprint, 1978).
• CABRAL, Sérgio. Pixinguinha: vida e obra. Rio de Janeiro: FUNARTE, 1978.
• DINIZ, André. Joaquim Callado: o pai do choro. Rio de Janeiro: Jorge Zahar, 2008.
• SÈVE, Mário. Vocabulário do Choro: estudos e composições. Rio de Janeiro: Lumiar, 1999.
• Itaú Cultural Encyclopedia — Individual entries on composers and works.
• Musica Brasilis — Archive of scores and reference notes on Brazilian repertoire.
• Instituto Moreira Salles — Digital archive of historical scores and recordings.
• Casa do Choro — Digital archive of composers and works.
• Cravo Albin Dictionary of Brazilian Popular Music — Biographical and discographical entries.

Note: dates of composition, first recordings, and genre classification are not always entirely stable in choro repertoire. In some cases, there are divergences between oral tradition, current jam-session practice, and musicological cataloguing. In the case of Álvaro Sandim and part of the less documented repertoire, there is still room for deeper biographical and historiographical research.