A Ópera "A Compadecida" de José Siqueira: elementos musicais característicos do nordeste brasileiro e subsídios para interpretação.

Abstract

This Thesis is an attempt to identify idiosyncratic elements of Brazilian Northeastern music - like the use of modalism, the baião rhythm and features of Cantoria - in José Siqueira s opera A Compadecida (1960) - a work based on Ariano Suassuna s play Auto da Compadecida. Were used, as primaries sources, the vocal and full scores autograph manuscripts, and the single phonograph record existing - realized in the opera debut at the Municipal Theater of Rio de Janeiro, in 1961. Based on theoretical content described by the composer in his didactic works, in studies of others musical researchers - like João Batista Siqueira (his brother), Dulce Lamas and Ermelinda Paz, - sought to analyze how Siqueira combined the musical elements of Brazilian northeastern oral tradition with his language of concert music; and also as linked your music to the northeastern universe of characters created by Suassuna. We seek to recognize and study influences on their process of musical composition, which reflect the identification with ideas of important composers such as Claude Debussy, Richard Wagner and Béla Bartok. Then, using as reference the work of Lilia Nunes and Jane Celeste Guberfain about voice and diction were proposed interpretive vocal subsidies for the work in question. Our research is also an attempt to understand the educator, composer, conductor, musical entrepreneur and musicians' leader, José de Lima Siqueira, one of the most important twentieth-century figures in Brazilian music, and the reasons behind the oblivion to which he was subjected after his death in 1985. We try to understand the basis of his musical education - from impoverished childhood in the hinterland of Paraíba to academic studies in Rio de Janeiro and Europe - which led him to be one of the main Brazilian nationalist composers, representative of a Brazilian Northeastern musical school. Together with the bibliographic and documentary research about the composer and his work, we conducted interviews with the author of the text, with a family member and with researchers and musicians who knew José Siqueira.