- - - - - - PROJECT AWARDED NATIONAL PRIZE BY ARTS FUND - 2010 (click to read more) - - - - -

Variations on "The Devil to Pay in the Backlands"
(grande sertão: variações)
A journey through 20th century guitar music in dialogue with Guimarães Rosa's poetry

PRESENTATION

"Variations on 'The Devil to Pay in the Backlands' (or grande sertão: variações, in the Portuguese version) had its première in Bucharest, Romania, and was featured in many capitals until it was awarded a national prize by the main Brazilian arts fund, Funarte, in 2010. The project is an innovative concert with music and literature marking the centenary of João Guimarães Rosa, one of the greatest 20th century writers in Brazil and the world, born in 1908.

The configuration is unprecedented for a classical music event: a guitar concert inspired by Rosa's novel 'The Devil to Pay in the Backlands' ('Grande Sertão: Veredas'), which became paradigmatic in 20th century literature and beyond. The book, where the former gunman Riobaldo remembers his adventures, is an endless universe of atmospheres and sensations - not only narrated, but also singed in his experimental and resounding prose.

In the concert, I explore the alchemy between that literary musicality and pieces for guitar written by composers contemporary with Guimarães Rosa, like Heitor Villa-Lobos. Drawing from my personal experience as reader and listener, I suggest associations between the musical works and the novel. Each music piece is introduced by the recitation of a passage from the book.

The purpose is to go beyond the folk music tipically associated with works by Rosa and other modern writers, and match the rich literary aesthetic with a musical repertoire which honours both the popular and classical languages.

Given the great diversity and importance of Rosa's work and the musical production of his day, the possibilities of combination are unlimited. After all, as Riobaldo says of the 'sertão', the sound is everywhere."

PROGRAM

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959)
Valsa-Choro

Invitation to a journey through the 'sertão'. Invitation to dream.

Heitor Villa-Lobos
5 Preludes

Prelude n. 1 - "The sertão is everywhere."

Prelude n. 2 - The sincere encounter with a prostitute... who has all her teeth.

Prelude n. 3 - "Saudades, like those which answer to the wind; saudade for the Gerais."

Prelude n. 4 - Crossing the arid land.

Prelude n. 5 - Love, fear, bravery. We are close to our own things, but we don't know it.

Marlos Nobre (1939)
Moments I

Creeping in the brush, preparing the ambush.

César Guerra-Peixe (1914-1993)
Prelude n. 4
Prelude n. 5

"There is no devil! ... There is the human man. Voyage."

Leo Brouwer (Cuba, 1939)
La Espiral Eterna

"Everything which has been, is the beginning of which will come."

Leo Brouwer
Elogio de la Danza

"The devil in the street, in the middle of the whirlwind..."

(see videos and hear the audio trailer)