Desafinado

Welcome back to Tea with Liya! Today, I'm playing a jazz song by Antonio Carlos Jobim called "Desafinado." (It might be better classified as a bossa nova, but since it is often played in an ensemble with improvisation, it could still be considered a jazz song.) According to the title of this song, it's actually meant to be played improperly. Does that mean I'm playing it incorrectly by playing it correctly? I'm not sure how to answer that one, but I hope you like listening to it!


Listen to the song here
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That is actually a difficult question to answer. If the directions for playing the song are to play it incorrectly, and I play it incorrectly, then did I play it correctly? If I really wanted to play it incorrectly, should I not follow the instructions, and play it correctly? But then I wouldn't be playing it incorrectly... that's the problem with self-contradicting statements.

But why would the title of a song say anything about songs that weren't played properly? It actually has a connection to the lyrics of the song. 

The singer is talking to someone who says that he sings out of tune and his performances don't sound like music. He tells her that only a few people have the privilege of having ears like hers. He isn't one of those people.

Hurt by her lack of gratitude for the love he has shown her, he says that she is too focused on music, and that even inside those "desafinados" - the people who never seem to sing properly - a heart is beating, too. 

If an instrument you have decided to become a desafinado, you could use one of these forks to align the pitches properly. Unfortunately, you can't do that with your voice.

Of course this song was written and performed by professional musicians, so how come they wrote a song talking about how they don't sing properly? They could be referring to the rare ability to determine a frequency of a note by listening to it. Someone who has that might notice a lot more wrong notes that you are playing (if they know the song, that is). That might make the musician feel that they really don't have good ears at all.

However, that would mean that 99% of the listeners could be labeled with the title of this song. (You never know - that number might change if you start finding teacups to fill up. You're more likely to be able to determine notes if you listened to music in the first few years of your life. It's time to find some little teacups!)

Maybe the composer of this song was mentioning some different kind of criticism that he received. A person who is close to you is probably more likely to affect you with their statements. If he knew someone who also played music, what they said about his playing could have inspired him to write this song.

If you've been filling your teacup with songs, you might have noticed some things about music that you didn't know beforehand. So if you find someone who doesn't know that, you could throw some statements about their ears at them, but perhaps it's better to remember what the composer of this song said. Even if you're out of tune ... even if you're a "desafinado"... inside of you, a heart is beating as well. 

Keep filling your teacup with music!
~Liya