Carinhoso (Pixinguinha)

flute, 3 clarinets, bass clarinet

So once upon a time I had a clarinet quartet (for those of you who aren't well-trained in musical terminology, a clarinet quartet consists of four clarinets, which can be of various sizes -- this one contained three sopranos and a bass). We met once a week for half an hour each time for a semester, and we never performed, but I did get to write music for it -- nothing original, just arrangements. I figured I could transcribe some chorinhos, and those sound so much better with a flute that I figured I'd add one. Thus I wrote Carinhoso for mixed woodwind quintet (which is different from a "flute quintet", which would consist of five flutes, perhaps including a piccolo and an alto flute; this quintet only contains one flute and therefore it can't be a flute quintet). It can be said that chorinhos are to Brazilian music what ragtime is to American music. They sound quite similar, in fact. But like the Australian and European wolves, they're not related. Only later were chorinhos influenced by jazz and evolved into bossa nova. But anyway. Carinhoso is one of those "signature" Brazilian songs, something like Stars and Stripes forever in the US. It's about as famous as famous gets. I hope to be able to play it on guitar to a girlfriend at some point, but until then we'll have to be content with this recording.

Listen to Carinhoso (right-click to download)

UPDATE: While not played on guitar specifically, a much cooler, sung, recorded version (by me) is here!