SETE FLECHAS

It starts with a festive tune and, yes, in the form of a march. After all, it's title is "Revelry March". Some phrasings on flute and violin (or rabeca, an instrument similar to the violin) complement each other very well, and are inspired.

Next track is also joyful, with vibrant strums on the acoustic guitar. On this occasion, the listener can feel a lack of variety on the percussive elements. For me, this is the biggest problem on this record.

Third track has a mysterious and incisive beginning. The central axis of the composition are the strong rythmic sections; however, they're a little poor.

The title of the next music can be "Improvise" or "Improvisation". It's the bands best song on all it's discography, IMO. The percussive executions are made almost only by the acoustic guitar, and are brilliant. Besides, the same acoustic guitar delivers some solos, with brief participations of flute and a background created by the violin. The music flows very well, and makes great changes on the key signatures. Besides, many fast passages on the acoustic guitar are particularly captivating.

Nice introduction on the fifth track, specially on the violin. The transition between the different musical ideas are firm, but the percussive performances once again are poor and repetitive.

On the next song, the only one with vocals, these are the main axis of the composition. The only instrument present is the viola (a kind of a brazilian acoustic guitar), which only contours the vocals, and doesn't bring any relevant musical ideas. It's one of the worst songs on the group's discography. Annoying and extremely simple.

7th track is sad, or maybe it would be better to define it as melancholic. It's centered on the viola, the violin and some flute. The picture I see on it's audition is the lament for the lost of the loved one. It's beatiful and transmits a lot of emotion.

Some certainly creative phrasings are made by the viola and violin on the next track. Along with the flute, they all fill spaces with talent. Like on "Improviso", the percussive part is made by the acoustic guitar, with some contributions by the violin.

The smooth start of the last track unfortunately soon gives place to monotonous rhytmic harmonies, that endures almost all of the composition. They don't commit errors, nor develop a carelessly play, but there's a lack of variety of arrangements, transitions between ideas or harmonies or excessively naif, and the absolute absence of cymbals or other percussive instruments, harms their musicality.

So, if you're willing to explore a little more this musical style or genre, I reccomend the work of Antônio Nóbrega, e former member of Quinteto Armorial. From the 90's until now, he brings a more fresh, rich and crafted combination between the traditional folclorical music of Brazil, along with some pop, jazz and even classical music influences.

This ensembles discography guaranteed an important position for them on the history of music in Brazil. Until then, no other group or artist on that time was able to bring traditional brazilian folclorical music to the appreciation of so many people. They were a lot far away from being as popular as some musicians of that time like Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Jorge Ben Jor and others from MPB or the Tropicália movement. But if we consider the fact that these last artists musicality was much more closer to a soft-pop genre than was Quinteto Armorial, this is undoubtedly understandable. Because of this, they have a great respect from me. Undertake that kind of combination I already told about demands courage, if you have the intention for a good financial return. However, this site and my musical knowledge is much more about progressive rock, not other genres. Therefore, in order to analyze this record, my comparison will be made with groups with a similar proposal, like for instance Gryphon, that are (at least a bit) on the prog rock spectrum. And when making my assessment on these manners, I consider the combination of classical music with rock, or rock with jazz, far away much better than the combination of xote* with Bach, frevo* with Chopin, or xaxado* with Beethoven. So, with no further explanations or contextualization, my rating is 2.7. *some of the traditional musical styles of Brazil.

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