Where this was said
Failed Lyrics II: The 1841 Coronation Attempt
At 42:44 · chapter starts 40:20
A decade of instability — including another Pernambuco revolt, a slave uprising in Bahia in 1835, and the catastrophic Pará rebellion in which a third of the local population died — convinces the political elite that they need a display of legitimate authority. The solution is to bring forward the coronation of the 14-year-old Dom Pedro II. They commission new lyrics for Silva's anthem to mark the occasion. The result, penned for the moment, reads: 'When you come, auspicious day, may happiness dawn among us. We see in Pedro II, The Adventure of Brazil.' Tom immediately spots the problem: what happens if Pedro II also gets deposed? The authorities draw the same conclusion and abandon the lyrics entirely. [1] — Dominic Sandbrook "So keep playing this hymn by Francisco Manuel da Silva whenever the monarch goes to public events, whenever there's military ceremonies, bu…" 42:44 For the next four decades, Brazil's national anthem is a purely instrumental affair — a tune in search of a story, in a country too divided and unstable to agree on one.
A rebellion in the northern Brazilian state of Pará in the late 1830s killed roughly a third of the local population — about 30,000 people — yet is almost entirely unknown outside Brazil.
