In the early nineties of the last century, I bought a score book, The Brasilian Modinha by Carlos Barbosa Lima. As the title indicated, the book contained a number of Modinhas, traditional love songs from a rich tradition with a wide spectrum of moods, from sad to elated, from sincere to cynical.
Carlos Barbosa Lima’s settings appeared to be beyond my reach, the left-hand stretches were too wide. Because of these technical demands, once I heard my duo mate sigh: “Barbosa Lima? Bare Woes Lima!”. Of course, he only referred to the pain of the stretches, Barbosa Lima himself is a good guitarist, as I remember from his Scarlatti interpretation.
But still… what a beautiful music! It came to my mind almost instantly to make arrangements of these tunes for flute and guitar. It was a considerable effort with complex chords, but after some time I got a set of tunes which were well received by audiences.
The result was the collection Conselhos.
Van Teeseling Music Publishers has published the book under number VT348.
Nine arrangements are included: Dos Canciones by Marcos Portugal, Modinha, Acaso sao Estes and Deixa Dalia Flor Mimosa by anonymous composers, the Modinha Conselhos by Carlos Gomes and the traditional Brazilian dance tunes Samba Lele, Dansa and Ciranda.
The title song Conselhos is a love song with a remarkably cynical undertone. It gives the impression of a ‘good advice’ concerning the contact with women, given by an experienced lady-killer to someone wearing the willow. Cynicism affects the lady-killer who deep in his heart envies the poor soul for his true passion in all meanings. All this against the background of an obscure bar in which many people try to forget.
Below you’ll find the option to play back the songs. 😉 One at a time, please. This prevents cacophony.