Making chamber music with recorders is like travelling through both the old and the new world of musical expressions. In Brazil, the relationship with the old fascinates us by the creative risk we run in our musical interpretations. Artistically, we have the freedom which poetic license offers us through the distancing from the familiarity of the aesthetic rules of European music. However, the relationship with the new is a taste of the vanguard, of being “at the front”, opening new settings for the foreign instrument, among them the universe of Brazilian music. Falando Brasileiro is full of original compositions for recorders.  

This repertoire introduces the concept that a musical instrument only remains alive while musicians make use of it, and while composers are interested in writing and arranging music for that instrument or particular instrumental formation.

Falando Brasileiro is filled with original songs for recorders and arrangements of very well known tunes. Some works were composed or arranged specifically for the group, as a result of the group’s partnership developed with other musicians.

This album also features coincidences of the music world. On June 2nd, 1980, the composer Rafael dos Santos marked the arrival of his first son with his original composition for recorders called Choro do Fábio; and it was the same Fábio who offered the arrangement of the 1ª Suíte Infantil, by the Brazilian composer Guerra-Peixe (1914-1993) to Quinta Essentia. Another big surprise was the present the group received at Christmas 2011 from the renowned Dutch recorder player Paul Leenhouts, an arrangement of the song Desafinado by Tom Jobim.

As to original compositions, we present a work by Eduardo Escalante, an Argentine composer based in Brazil, which was composed in the 70s in the midst of the enthusiasm for the recorder in São Paulo. This makes us very proud because Escalante returned to composing for recorder quartet in 2011, dedicating a piece to Quinta Essentia.

The German composer living in southern Brazil, Bruno Kiefer (1923-1987), stated that the “artist must have roots in the land”. According to him, artists must understand the nature of economic, political and social issues through poets. Therefore his Poemas da Terra, original music for recorders, is presented here as an example of the writing of this composer.

The recorder, via Quinta Essentia, is speaking Brazilian. To the composers who seek the Brazilian sonority for their compositions, and arrangers who look for the Brazilian accent to their musical creation, here is an example.

With this new work, using instruments providing a “speech”, the group presents the Brazilian accent: a blend of different rhythms inherited from African music and flowing melody inherited from European music. Speaking Brazilian is how Quinta Essentia tells us the stories of this reuniting of musical and national poems.

Thus, Quinta Essentia makes known Brazilian music for recorder which is not known by the wider public, and makes arrangements of well established pieces for the instrument, contributing to the recorder literature and practice.

 

Summary

Falando Brasileiro is filled with original music for recorder quartet and arrangements of Brazilian popular tunes. In this new work, using instruments that provide a “speech”, the group presents the Brazilian accent: a mixture of different rhythms inherited of African music and fluent melody inherited from European music, Speaking Brazilian is how Quinta Essentia tells us the stories of this bringing together of musical and national poems.