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036-If I could set the whole earth...

036-If I could set the whole earth...

Feel like he looks, think like who makes the way.

Work
- 036
Name
- Se eu pudesse trincar a terra toda...
City and date
- Besalú, January 1991
Duration
- 5’30
Instrumentation
- piano, violin and voice
Texts
- Fernando Pessoa
Text language
- Portuguese
Cd
- Water Nymphs-The show (2013)
Premiere
- Girona, Municipal Theater February 10, 2013 Violin: Eszter Schütz Piano: Anna Cassú Soprano: Maite Mer

Extract from the work "Songs to the livestock keeper", lyrical show about poems from the book "The livestock keeper" by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, although in this work he used the heteronym of Alberto Caeiro.

The origin of this work was conditioned by three challenges: the first one, to present it in a composition competition held in the city of Valencia, if I remember correctly, the second one, the self-imposed challenge of generating a work in in which the melodic line was created without any instrumental help, a melodic line generated uniquely and exclusively by what my musical mind was creating, and the third one challenge and not least, to use some of the poems that I had fallen in love with at that time of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa.

And so it was. Once I finished the melodic part of each section of the work, I continued in the creation of the piano accompaniment and then added the violin, and thus I progressed in the creation of the whole proposal.

I submitted the finished work to a competition, but it didn't get support. Then I realized that the real prize had been creating it and having learned so much along the way as a composer.

Now I just hope that both the effort and the joy I invested in making it, will be used for everyone who listens to it or who wants to interpret it, as it happens with the rest of my creative catalog.

The original work from 1991 was created for baritone, violin and piano. Later, in 2012 a version for soprano, violin and piano was born thanks to the interest in my work by the soprano Maite Mer (Water Nymphs (the show)), and finally in 2024 I created a new revised version of the entire work where I corrected some errors and simplified and cleaned up the violin part.

Maite Mer

Se eu pudesse trincar a terra toda... (Original in Portuguese):

Se eu pudesse trincar a terra toda...

E sentir-lhe um paladar,

Seria mais feliz um momento...

Mas eu nem sempre quero ser feliz.

É preciso ser de vez em quando infeliz

Para se poder ser natural...

Nem tudo é dias de sol,

E a chuva, quando falta muito, pede-se.

Por isso tomo a infelicidade com a felicidade

Naturalmente, como quem não estranha

Que haja montanhas e planícies

E que haja rochedos e erva...

O que é preciso é ser-se natural e calmo

Na felicidade ou na infelicidade,

Sentir como quem olha,

Pensar como quem anda,

E quando se vai morrer, lembrar-se de que o dia morre,

E que o poente é belo e é bela a noite que ␣ca...

Assim é e assim seja...

If I could set the whole earth... (English translation):

If I could set the whole earth
and hearing the tasting, would be a happier moment...
Not always, however, I want to be happy.
You have to be unhappy from time to time
to be natural ...

Not all are sunny days,
and rain, when most needed, is asked.
So I took unhappiness with happiness,
naturally, as one who is not surprised
that there are mountains and plains
and that there are rocks and grass...

What it takes is to be natural and calm
in happiness or in unhappiness,
feel like someone who looks,
think like who makes way,
and, at the instant of death, remember that the day dies,
and that the twilight is beautiful, and beautiful the night that follows...
Since it is so, so be it...

Work included in the show Water Nymphs (The show) (2013)

Se eu Pudesse trincar a terra toda... (version 2012 for soprano, violin and piano) (5'18)