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FOR SCORE AND PARTS EMAIL THROUGH FORM

I. MACACO DO MUNDO
 
A song in Portuguese language. A shaking woman's life on a cliff over the Mediterranean sea, just before dawn.

 

The recording is the première at LISTEN CLOSELY, Manhattan, May 10th 2014.

Soprano: Alexandra Filipe Piano: Alyona Aksyonova Cello: James Waldo

II. 657 VIGNALI

 

Song in Italian language. 657 VIGNALI is a bus that serves the north-eastern boundaries of Rome, almost empty, on a sunny day, on a street between the city and the countryside.

From the première program:

"Piano represents Time itself, weaving its tissue with mechanical precision. The soprano is singing the Facts, recognizable by the human senses; the cello plays the inner melodies of the human body."

III. SANCTORUM

 

An instant story of a woman whose mind is overwhelmed with an old memory: an opportunity that's long gone and sadly done with. It's lunchtime.

MACACO DO MUNDO

 

Lento e inchado, o desejo nervoso permanece

rodeia a pedra, e retorna para tras.

Desajeitada, a noite não está convencida

tentando esconder dois navios.

Buscar uma resposta pelas ruas

quando as ruas são silenciosos

não me diga se voce vive.

Não me diga o que decidir

 

a fantasia de um infeliz na baia.

 

Eu me escondi,

deseje com mais frequência,

E mutas vezes disse “Eu tambèm”.

 

(Na sombra no covil entre

a fome eo segredo

Eu podia ouvir os rugidos respirar.)

 

Làgrimas infames como os gansos

foram mais tarde, como lacunas;

O medo de nunca ter sido,

na temporada de dormer...

 

Abraça a pedra e volta para tras,

o Macaco do Mundo!

 

 

657 VIGNALI

 

Tiene svegli gli occhi, Roma,

e addormenta il grano.

 

Tira su l'asfalto, il Sole,

e lo spezza piano.

 

Di colpo un tintinnare di cancelli

sveglia un poco il grano.

 

Dormo anch'io la sera, presto,

mano nella mano.

 

SANCTORUM

 

I was home alone, my sweetheart far away.

 

Someone called me on the phone, the phone!

 

"Come here, have some lunch with me"

 

I was busy, said "No".

 

now he's smiling at me from a frame.

L Y R I C S

 

 

 

The Run-O'-The-Mill is a song cycle born multi-lingual, inspecting - and barely dealing with - ordinary moments and their  potential energy. 

The lyrics, non-narrative as the music, depict different situations that are set in an ordinary scheme of things with a possibility of a change - either dramatic or minimal - although the change never takes place. Small facts in a still world, that open, several times a day and just for a second, windows to parallel dimensions.

There is a person questioning the sea and the rocks on a cliff, at dawn (Macaco do Mundo), a woman receiving a mysterious phone call at lunchtime (Sanctorum), a cornfield rustling in wind out of the east suburbs of Rome in the afternoon (657 Vignali).

No stories - or perhaps, more than stories, portraits that give just hints, potential beginnings, sketches, exceptional small things that are never-ending in their ordinary nature and whose existence is just slightly touched and respectfully left alone, in its fulfilling misery.

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