As Duas Flores
(“The Two Flowers”)
For Tenor and Piano (2024)
Duration: c. 5 mins
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As Duas Flores (“The Two Flowers”) was commissioned by the National Association of Teachers of Singing and Cincinnati Song Initiative, with major support from Lori Laitman, and was composed in January and February 2024. When I spent 2013 in Brazil as a Fulbright scholar, I discovered that Brazilian music was a deep and rich world unto itself that is hardly known outside of its own country’s borders. I also got a small taste of Brazilian literature and poetry, which is also a significant cultural tradition that is little known internationally. When I finally started to look at some of this poetry, I noticed a striking pattern of famous (at least in Brazil) poets of the 19th century who died extremely young. I find it fascinating (and, as a 36-year-old, intimidating) that at such a young age these poets produced art of such substance that Brazilians still read and study today. One of these poets was Castro Alves (who I first heard of because there is a city square and theatre named after him which I frequented in the city of Salvador) who died at the age of 24. This setting of “As Duas Flores” is my first musical setting of a text in a foreign language (excepting some commonly-set sacred Latin texts I’ve used in some of my choral works).
Digitally premiered in June 2024 by Alex Gushrowski-tenor, and Evan Martschenko, piano, in Cincinnati, OH.
Text
There are two flowers joined together
There are two roses born
Maybe from the same afterglow,
Living on the same branch,
From the same dewdrop,
From the same sunbeam.
United, as well as the feathers
of the two small wings
Of a little bird in the sky...
Like a couple of turtledoves,
Like the tribe of swallows
Of the afternoon in the loose veil.
United, as well as the tears,
That descend so many in pairs
From the depths of the gaze...
Like the sigh and the distaste,
Like the dimples on a face,
Like sea stars.
United... Oh who could
In an eternal spring
Live, as this flower lives.
Gather the roses of life
In the green and flowery branch,
In the green branch of love!
(English translation by the composer)
São duas flores unidas
São duas rosas nascidas
Talvez do mesmo arrebol,
Vivendo no mesmo galho,
Da mesma gota de orvalho,
Do mesmo raio de sol.
Unidas, bem como as penas
das duas asas pequenas
De um passarinho do céu...
Como um casal de rolinhas,
Como a tribo de andorinhas
Da tarde no frouxo véu.
Unidas, bem como os prantos,
Que em parelha descem tantos
Das profundezas do olhar...
Como o suspiro e o desgosto,
Como as covinhas do rosto,
Como as estrelas do mar.
Unidas... Ai quem pudera
Numa eterna primavera
Viver, qual vive esta flor.
Juntar as rosas da vida
Na rama verde e florida,
Na verde rama do amor!
-Castro Alves (1847-1871)