Motet em ré menor (Beba Coca-Cola)

Beba Coca-Cola (literally “Drink Coca-Cola”) is undoubtedly one of Gilberto Mendes’s most iconic compositions. This motet for mixed a cappella choir was composed in 1966, at the height of Brazil’s concrete poetry movement and artistic avant-garde. A signatory of the Manifesto Música Nova (1963), which called for the exploration of new musical languages, Mendes drew direct inspiration from Décio Pignatari’s 1957 concrete poem Beba coca cola. This emblematic work of Brazilian Concretism deconstructs the familiar advertising slogan by permutating its syllables to reveal darker resonances (e.g. cola, cloaca). Mendes recognised in this text an ideal vehicle for an experimental composition blending irony, sound play, and social critique. The result — Motet em ré menor (Beba Coca-Cola) — quickly became a landmark of Latin American choral avant-garde, hailed by some as “the most iconic choral work in Latin America.”

Despite its title, “motet in D minor,” the piece diverges radically from the traditional motet. Mendes employs a single chord (D minor) as the foundational tonal material, continuously stretched or compressed to form dissonant clusters. The structure is rooted in Pignatari’s poem: the syllables be-ba co-ca-co-la become the raw phonetic material of the composition. Mendes develops this text through systematic syllabic permutations, mirroring the original visual poem, until the slogan loses all semantic meaning in a pure sonic game. The singers — divided into a mixed choir — articulate the syllables rhythmically, creating obsessively repetitive patterns. Rhythm is central: Mendes imposes an unrelenting ostinato based on a 3+2+2+2+2+1 quaver pattern, lending the piece a pulsating yet subtly off-kilter energy.

Throughout its three-minute duration, the D minor chord appears and dissolves, at times expanding into a cluster, at others reducing to whispered breaths. Mendes incorporates extended vocal techniques — aspirated sounds, whispers, tongue clicks — enriching the timbral palette. The word “Coca-Cola” is gradually transformed phonetically into cloaca (sewer), sung on the final syllable. This biting conclusion clarifies the underlying message: behind the sweetness of soda lies the fetid truth of consumer society. Musically, Beba Coca-Cola impresses through its percussive vocal energy, subversive humour, and the coherence of its minimalist apparatus.

Premiered in the late 1960s, the piece made a strong impression within avant-garde circles in Brazil and Europe. It represented a synthesis between concrete poetry (Haroldo de Campos praised the poem’s “anti-propaganda” stance) and experimental music. Over time, Beba Coca-Cola became a cult piece, frequently cited as a model of playfully engaged art. In the tense political context of Brazil’s military dictatorship (established in 1964), the work’s anti-imperialist satire drew considerable attention. For Mendes — ever the iconoclast — the motet was a way of “swallowing” mass culture in order to subvert it, echoing Oswald de Andrade’s theory of cultural anthropophagy.

Beba Coca-Cola has been performed by numerous university and professional vocal ensembles. Its execution demands great rhythmic precision and theatrical flair, making it both a challenge and a delight for choirs. One recent benchmark recording is by the Coro da Osesp (São Paulo Symphony Choir), conducted by Naomi Munakata, released in 2011 in celebration of Mendes’s 90th birthday. This version showcases the piece’s dynamic build-up and the sculptural clarity of its aspirated sounds and tongue clicks. An earlier recording is featured in the documentary A Odisséia Musical de Gilberto Mendes, where the composer offers a humorous commentary on the work near the film’s conclusion. More than fifty years after its creation, Beba Coca-Cola remains a cornerstone of Latin American choral repertoire, merging musical modernity with critical awareness. It is regularly studied in music history courses in Brazil and continues to be programmed at festivals devoted to contemporary choral music.