Mar Portugues

This is a setting for soprano and piano of Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa's poem, Mar Portugues, part of a larger work called Mensagem. Here's a link for the text and a translation.

http://www.tabacaria.com.pt/Mensagem/MarPortugues/marportuguez.htm#ingles

This poem speaks of the sea, and its metaphors for life, and how it was eventually conquered despite its enormous mystery and hazards. I capture this with bi and polytonality, heavy use of chromaticism, and big rolling arpeggios and chords like waves. This is my first song (not piece ;)), let me know what you think!

Mar Portugues

I really like the flowing arpeggiations... I think those would sound really neat with the voice. The measures around 35, however, i'm not to sure on. They are very clashing with the overall flow of the piece a bit. I love the sonorities created here.

I figured I should expand on that. Your opening material is very nice - I love the piano accompaniment.. I think it really adds depth to it. My only concern is the structural change at measure 35. You allude to the change just a tab bit in the voice but in the piano there's no clear transition at all. The text really speaks of a smoother transition, I think. Perhaps you could expand on that idea a bit and lead into it more. I hope that's more clearer.

I figured I should expand on that. Your opening material is very nice - I love the piano accompaniment.. I think it really adds depth to it. My only concern is the structural change at measure 35. You allude to the change just a tab bit in the voice but in the piano there's no clear transition at all. The text really speaks of a smoother transition, I think. Perhaps you could expand on that idea a bit and lead into it more. I hope that's more clearer.

Thanks for listening! I appreciate the comments :happy:.

I see what you're saying, but I stand by my compositional decision. A change is definitely needed after nothing but septuplet arpeggios, so around measure 28 I start transitioning, and the accompaniment eventually becomes quintuplets and a trill in the right hand, prayers being sent to heaven in vain, reaching an angry climax, related harmonically (tritone tonality relationship) but not necessarily melodically with previous material, for brides left to be married, who lost their loves to the sea. I wanted to transition to a quiet place for the next line, and transitioning back to the sea, on which I start arpeggios again :P

Thanks for listening! I appreciate the comments :happy:.

I see what you're saying, but I stand by my compositional decision. A change is definitely needed after nothing but septuplet arpeggios, so around measure 28 I start transitioning, and the accompaniment eventually becomes quintuplets and a trill in the right hand, prayers being sent to heaven in vain, reaching an angry climax, related harmonically (tritone tonality relationship) but not necessarily melodically with previous material, for brides left to be married, who lost their loves to the sea. I wanted to transition to a quiet place for the next line, and transitioning back to the sea, on which I start arpeggios again :P

Well, it is your compositional decision. I agree the change fits the text I just thought perhaps you could lead into it a little better. Nice work though!

yeah, I get what your saying, again, thanks for listening and for the comments :). I was sort of going for a clashing kind of effect, though, like waves crashing against rocks or boats, causing deaths of fiances of brides to be, left alone because of the unforgiving sea :(

I can't open this. I think the space in your user name (%20) is causing a redirect to the homepage. Can you open your piece? Is this a bug?

The description sounds interesting, but this is about all I can say :(

Ah. Now its working, strange.

Ok, I liked the piece, interesting harmonies. Only the end struck me as odd. The C-G chord, that feels like a sort of resolution, but in the end seems not to be, felt out of place. The idea that something that feels like a resolution but isn't I really loved, but the difference between consonance and dissonance is too big and unexpected. It is like a whole new thought.

About the transition. Musically I am glad you did. After writing such a nice accompaniment it could have been tempting to exploit only that, but you chose to add a new texture. I think it is perfect!

I have a playability question. ms 45, the hand crossings. You place the left hand rather high, AND in octaves, AND with grace notes. As a pianist I think this altogether makes it rather awkward to play. Because the left hand is playing that, the hand needs to be turned, overstretched. Are you a pianist? maybe you can do it, I think its too awkward...

I am a pianist, and the left hand playing that is possible....but you're right, it's easier if the hands are switched. I ran into a bit of a problem with the return to arpeggios, where the right hand doubles the soprano's C# to A, but solved it by just having the right hand play the second half of the measure. So now I think it'll work. I could definitely play it at tempo with some practice.

Anyway, I've cleaned up the score a lot, and added those changes. I've uploaded the score and Mp3 again :)

As for the ending, I see what you're saying about the sudden switch into consonance, but I definitely wanted that. If you read the text, the last line is "But it was in [the sea] that He mirrored heaven", and on the word heaven, "ceu" (that's a c pronounced like an s), I transition into the most consonant intervals of 4ths 5ths and octaves...but, being an atheist, I want it sort of distant and thin, then bringing back dissonance with the Bb and both the major and minor third of the triad (e nat to eb), along with a Db for more dissonance and a reference to the beginning motif. Thanks a lot for listening and commenting on it :D

Great!

I loved the harmonies. I wasn't expecting such a quick accompaniment given the material... but it worked because you didn't try and do too much within the piece. One part that was especially good to me was when the arpeggios flowed into a blocky, defined dotted-eigth/sixteenth section. In combination with the voice, it would sound really beautiful. I also applaud your syllabification as it would be sung very smoothly.

Bravo! Look forward to hearing the other poems in the cycle.

Very impressive piece! The piano accompaniament works really well and contrary to what has been said, I think it is ok to just jump from the septuplet accompaniament to the block chords because the melodic material is similar so that gives the listener some familiarity along with the new texture. The rhythms that you used with the block chords were creative and as I'm always being told, it has to be because the further you stray from conventional tonality, the more rhythmic interest you need for the listener to cling to and you do this very well here. The tremolo worked well. I especially liked it in bar 56 where the soprano is holding the Db while the piano has a Db tremolo an octave lower. It creates a very pleasant shimmering effect. It's very well scored as well. I like the fact that you've tied everything in the piano so you can always see the beat. It makes it a lot easier to read like that in my opinion. One thing I would've liked to have looked at is whether you used any word painting. It sounds like you did from your initial description of the piece but unfortunately I can't understand the lyrics to judge for myself. Well done and thanks for sharing! :D

Apologies I have just noticed the text and translation link. Thanks

Edited January 2, 201115 yr by tuohey

I disagree with JCramer about the ending, I personally liked the unresolved nature of it, if you were singing it live you could have a lot of play with how to finish that final phrase.

Not too sure about some of the harmonies going on, there was a sense of conflict in the piece between the obviously beautiful harmonies and the ones which grated. Although perhaps live this would create really interesting sound world.

Nice soprano part, you've obviously thought about how to write for voice in a way which makes it comfortable for someone to sing.

I think the best thing about this piece is that I felt transported somewhere else, I wasn't listening to the music technically I was involved in it emotionally.

Sophie.