The Waters of March

Águas de Março provides hope in a hopeless world (well for me, at least)

I used to have a few CDs that were basically random samplings of Brazilian, samba and Bossa Nova music, like this, this and this. While listening to one of these collections, I came across the song “Águas de Março” by Elis Regina and Antônio Carlos Jobim. “Águas de Março” is Portuguese for waters of march. I always loved this song and the way Elis Regina and Jobim radiate such joy throughout the son and start to lose their minds in happiness toward the end of the song.

As I was sitting home today and that very song came on the radio. For some reason the song had new resonance and meaning today. Such a simple, yet beautiful melody that takes your mind far away from the a world dominated by COVID-19 concerns.

The song was written by Antônio Carlos Jobim who is also known as Tom Jobim. Maybe he thought that would make him more palatable to English speaking audiences. I think Antônio Carlos Jobim sounds like a much cooler name. Anyway, the song is performed by Elis Regina with help from Jobim as well.

The first thing that draws me in is the high piano figure over a slinky bass and guitar part to start out. Elis Regina’s voice is amazing as she sings the melody in beautiful Portuguese. In reading up on the song, it is about the “Waters of March” which in Brazil is the rainiest month of the year and usually signifies the end of summer. The lyrics are basically a list of all the things that are falling with the rain and being swept away like a a stick, a stone, or a piece of glass. The beautiful image here is that instead of all things falling away and signifying death, it is the “promise of life in your heart.” Even though the song is song in Portuguese, that feeling of warmth and promise of life comes through in the singing and playing. As I mentioned above, I really love the end of the song where they do a kind of call and response with nonsense syllables. The joy in their voices is obvious and almost sounds like they are not going to make it through the end of the song because they are laughing so much. At the very end it sounds like Elis is going to lose it. Such joy and beauty in song.

All this was going through my mind today when I heard the song on the radio. We are now in our second week of social distancing and being encouraged to stay in our house. It was also a rainy day at the end of March, so I get why the radio programmer played this particular song. For me, this song was the perfect tonic for a long week of depressing news. Everything I watch on TV, listen to on the radio/podcast or read online talks of sickness and death. I get emails from the mayor of my town every night that tells of confirmed new cases and that number keeps going up and up and up. This song captures the beauty and joy of nature renewing itself with the promise of life. For 3 and a half minutes it was nice to be in far away Brazil caught in a rain storm. As it looks like things are going to get worse before they get better, I will keep this song playing in my head as a light at the end of the long tunnel.

Enjoy the song and video for yourself below.