A Brazilian urban popular dance that appeared in Río de Janeiro around 1870. Originally the term ‘maxixe’ referred only to the free manner of dancing fashionable European dances such as the polka, mazurka and schottische; soon it became synonymous with the Brazilian popularized polka and the Brazilian (but not the Argentine) tango. The popular composer Joaquim Antônio da Silva Calado (d 1880) wrote many so-called polkas that were actually authentic maxixes because of the systematic syncopation of both melodic line and accompaniment. As a dance the maxixe incorporated Afro-Brazilian elements, such as dragging of the feet and hip movements. As a musical form it presented a buoyant melodic line and with its eight-bar sections followed the formal structure of the polka, in an ABACA design.
M. de Andrade: ‘Originalidade do maxixe’, Ilustração musical, i/2 (1930), 45
O. Alvarenga: Música popular brasileira (Río de Janeiro, 1950, 2/1982)
M. de Andrade: Música, doce música (São Paulo, 1963)
J. Ramos Tinhorão: Pequena história da música popular (Petrópolis, 1974)
J. Efegê: Maxixe, a dança excomungada (Río de Janeiro, 1974)
GERARD BÉHAGUE