Dulce Pontes, Fadista

My great love for Ennio Morricone, ultimate film composer of over four hundred film scores, has led me to another wonderful artiste. Dulce Pontes from Portugal has been heard before on a more popular CD, sharing a duet with Andrea Bocelli on Sogno. However, I only learned of her recently when checking up on Morricone's latest releases (and boy, does he have a lot: two albums of remixes to mark his 75th birthday, more film soundtracks, more contemporary musicians playing his compositions, a live concert CD, and a couple of albums in which he orchestrates non-film compositions).

Focus is a collaboration between Morricone and Pontes. They met years ago when she was asked to sing on one of the soundtracks that Morricone was working on. Morricone is known for his use of the human voice as an instrument and Pontes was the voice, and a lovely, haunting one at that. He told her that he hoped to record an album with her one day, but that she should wait until she hit thirty years old. I believe he wanted her to mature and be able to express the rawness of emotions, emotions that come only with age. Her thirtieth birthday came and went, and now at last, Focus, is out, although it's a little hard to find.

Morricone allowed several of his famous movie themes (think Once Upon A Time In The West, Cinema Paradiso, The Mission, Lolita) to be set with lyrics. He also wrote new songs for Pontes. A most beautiful album with orchestration, acoustic intruments and that soaring voice.

Pontes is famous in her home country for her modern interpretations of fado. Fado is a Portuguese musical genre in which a man or woman (usually the latter) sings songs of melancholy, expressing the pain of life and loss felt by the people of Portugal. A fadista usually dresses in black with a black shawl in her hands or round her shoulders and is accompanied by a guitarist. She stands motionless as she sings and only moves her hands to express the feelings within the song and within herself. Perhaps the experts could tell you better. Go here to read more.

What I like about Pontes's music is that it's traditional and modern. Her recent release, O Primeiro Canto, has the classic fado songs as well as new compositions. The new works feature poetry by Portuguese poets, and though I understand none of it, I love that powerful voice and the simple acoustic instruments (guitars, violins, cellos). Here is one song whose English translation moved me:

The Heron (Garca Perdida)

Darkness fell
across my eyes of sorceress,
of starfish, of sky, of full moon,
of lost heron in the sand.
Darkness fell across my eyes,
lost my feathers, cannot fly,
I left nests and fledgings,
cares, affections, in the sea...
I only fly internally,
and dream of embracing
the endless sky and sea, the whole earth!
And I take the sea inside myself,
and the sky alive and dreaming,
and I will dream, until the end,
until I can awake no more...
And then I shall return crossing over sky and sea,
I'll fly, I'll fly endlessly around the world entire!
Nests I would build from the full moon, and then
I would go to sleep in the sand.

Posted by Monoceros at February 25, 2004 11:09 AM