L O R E L E Y,
L O R E L E Y,
L O R E L E Y!

(M E L G A C I A N_V A R I A T I O N S
O N_ A_T H E M E_O F_B R A H M S)

O t a c í l i o M e l g a ç o

[duration 22:22] all rights reserved

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The artist Otacílio Melgaço has two official curators in the virtual world. A curator (from Latin: ´curare´, meaning ´to take care´) is a manager or overseer. Traditionally, keeper of a cultural heritage institution (e.g., gallery, museum, library or, as the present case: sound archive) is a content specialist charged with an institution's collections and, highlighting the context in force here, involved with the interpretation of personal (heritage) material. Both, Mr. Paz and Mr. Campbell, are, therefore, reviewers of the Melgacian works. To learn more about their missions, tasks, assignments and responsibilities by means of valuable informations regarding the compositional process, the performative rhizomes and other special features, just click the following link: otaciliomelgaco.wixsite.com/preamblebypsp
(O.M.Team; P r e l u d e)

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"´Elle est retrouvée.
Quoi ? – L’Eternité.
C’est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.

Ame sentinelle,
Murmurons l’aveu
De la nuit si nulle
Et du jour en feu.

Des humains suffrages,
Des communs élans
Là tu te dégages
Et voles selon.

Puisque de vous seules,
Braises de satin,
Le Devoir s’exhale
Sans qu’on dise : enfin.

Là pas d’espérance,
Nul orietur.
Science avec patience,
Le supplice est sûr.

Elle est retrouvée.
Quoi ? – L’Eternité.
C’est la mer allée
Avec le soleil.´
(L’Eternité,
Arthur Rimbaud)

These are some of the figures that only Otacílio Melgaço is able to bring together around a witching epicenter (the sonic Universe that comes, without respite, creating), and so Melgaço does [here the metaphor applies] in this ´new sound Folio´ of its vibrant ´Thousand and One Nights´ - which are ... his idiosyncratic Series of albums with Variations on ´classical´ themes -. In ´Loreley, Loreley, Loreley!´, are they: François Couperin, Arthur Rimbaud, Johannes Brahms, Clara Schumann, Heinrich Heine, Odilon Redon, as well as legendary characters like Loreley and Parsifal.

´The worth of a human being lies in the ability to extend oneself, to go outside oneself, to exist in and for other people´, are empathetic words from the Czech writer Milan Kundera. Based on such postulate (and in countless other paroxysmal predicates), the value of ´Loreley, Loreley, Loreley!´ (thus, of its Begetter) proves to be irresistibly, masterfully, spellbindingly inestimable.

Briefly reconstructing some fantastic routes proposed by O.M. and their interconnections: 1- It all starts with the choice of one of Brahms's Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118 (1893). ´Intermezzo in A major. Andante teneramente´. I draw your attention to the fact that the total cycle of the Melgacian Variations purposely departs from better-known sound œuvres by renowned ´totems´. This is one of the challenges that Melgaço set himself: what kind of particularity could he give birth to precisely from consecrated pieces already so admired and performed worldwide? One of the requirements: that are examples of musical expressions that move Otacílio, more in an intuitive and visceral way than in a cerebral. And so the Ariadne's thread continues: Johannes Brahms dedicated these six pianistic opuses to Clara Schumann. She was, as you know, a German pianist, composer, and pedagogue. Among her creations, there is a lied called ´Loreley´ (1843) and was inspired by a poem by Heinrich Heine. We arrive at the first mythological icon, a species of Mermaid; 2- There is another one, which appears on the album cover, made by Odilon Redon (with aesthetic treatment from Melgaço): a representation of ´Parsifal´ (or Perceval / Percival / Parzival / Peredur), linked to the search for the Holy Grail; 3- Musically, this Variation, among soothing waves, has a kind of metasyntactic Ouverture, a very peculiar version of ´Les barricades mystérieuses´ (1717) by François Couperin. As a transition to the central focus of ´Loreley, Loreley, Loreley!´, we hear a hazy voice, with a certain fey content, pronouncing says that are not very understandable. I reveal to you, somewhat contradicting Otacílio's enigmatic act (because it seems to me to be a very relevant unveiling), that this is the poem ´L’Eternité´, by Arthur Rimbaud. And, in a projected climax, the ´Intermezzo in A major, Andante teneramente' - MELGACIAN Variations on a Theme of BRAHMS - is emanated.

There are many riddles intertwining here. For instance, in an album with a naam that evokes Loreley, the model we see on the sleeve represents Parsifal. Does O.M. invoke a silhouette that can be female / male, suggesting a sui generis fusion of both allegorical characters (and stories)? More: Is there an intimate complementation between all the symbolic interpretations of the Couperinean nomination ´Les barricades mystérieuses´ and the primordial meaning of Rimbaud's verses? And more: The chiaroscuro betwixt diaphanous melody / translucent chords and an exquisite modern rhythmicity [it is worth noting that every instrument and audible aura... were composed (the level of intervention reaches this zenith), arranged and played by O.M.] inaugurates what type of fresh transcendent direction as far as the synergistic and synesthetic multifaceted narrative? And so on. Instead of trying to decrypt so many correlations and inventive extrapolations, I think it is more valuable to allow each of you, when listening to this touching work, to be part of such thought-provoking and hypnotic jigsaw puzzle.

However, there is an addendum that is deeply linked to Brazilian culture, where Otacílio Melgaço comes from. The sixth novel by (his compatriot) the writer Clarice Lispector is called ´Uma Aprendizagem ou O Livro dos Prazeres´ (An Apprenticeship or The Book of Pleasures). The publication follows the romantic relationship between Loreley (Lóri), a primary school instructor, and Ulisses, a master of Philosophy. The tension between the two, who have different goals and desires, leads to a process of intense self-discovery. PhDs in Literature and Linguistics from the respective Federal Universities of Goiás and Ceará, as Frédéric Grieco and Leonildo Cerqueira endorse, under the baton of Clarice, 'the Seamaid does not sing and call the navigator to plunge into death; on the contrary, Ulysses is the one who seduces and invites the Nereid to the metaphorically fatal dive, w-i-t-h-i-n herself´. I include: such fate is fundamental to her [in the entirety of its Greek etymology:] ´holistic´ rebirth. I have no doubt that this reference is of Olympian significance for O.M. [an almost kept secret; a rabbit in its hat, an ace up its - multiconnotative - sleeve] and then, in addition to Lispector, at least two other names we should add since the unexpected inclusion of Ulisses (Ulysses), thus, Homer's and, collaterally, James Joyce's.

´...yes I said yes I will Yes´ but would you be able to connect all these dots? I think there are few contemporary artists who still dedicate themselves to so much metalanguage inserted in ascending metamorphoses (stylistic, aesthetic, thematic, etc.) under the heading of Variations! And all of this just as a backdrop for what jumps, like an angelic feline possessed, towards our ears: the sonic Piece itself, carrying other apotheotic baselines of exegesis & expansion purposed to us. In other words: Welcome, this is the Melgacian Multiverse!" (Caio Campbell; Anglo-Brazilian semiologist and musician)

"´How often have I actually discovered in myself that enthusiasm raises the artist above himself, how in an ordinary mood one would not have been able to accomplish many of the things for which enthusiasm lends one everything, energy, fire.´ (Clara Schumann)

LES Barricades Mystérieuses / Couperin >> Eccentric quote at the Overture of the present supramundane sonorous Piece. In the sway of the clairvoyant tides, Melgaço transforms the original sound of a harpsichord into a real (hitherto unimaginable) rotary machine gun (!) - howbeit, in a franticly, vertiginously oneiric manner -. Emphasizing Otacílio's punctilious Artistry, notice how the final chord is repeated like ripples, a figure of speech aimed at the niche of a determined Siren?

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´Straight-away the ideas flow in upon me, directly from God, and not only do I see distinct themes in my mind's eye, but they are clothed in the right forms, harmonies, and orchestration.´ (Johannes Brahms)

(RITUALISTIC) Intermezzo to (The) Intermezzo >> As if by magic, new surrounding... Noises that resemble those found in a spectral environment, until something close to an enchantment is uttered from a supposedly indecipherable language (peradventure by some Odysseus, King of some Ithaca, elevated to the adventurous status of some cunning Sailor, Hero of some epic poem?). From this point on, ´ordinary´ and ´extraordinary´ lose any frontiers. Transversal rite of passage. For, at last, (Hierogamic) Everlasting, Aeon, Eon were declaimed, chansoned, ...proposed.

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´Great genius takes shape by contact with another great genius, but, less by assimilation than by friction.´ (Heinrich Heine)

INTERMEZZO in A major, Op. 118 No. 2 / Brahms >> Variations on; through the elegant conduction of a subtle drums, a surprising jazzy atmosphere - à la O.M., of course -, in (hieratic) complementary contrast to the mysterious cadentially brushed trans harmonized coloraturas. As hoped for the modus operandi enfolded by the Brazilian composer and instrumentalist for its Series highlighted here: maintaining ethereal accents and mesmerizing developments; with meticulous timbral exploration and engaging generation of invaginating harmonics*; mixing indescribable textures of instruments that are not even identifiable and the distinct dimension of Brahms' offspring, ...such an Odyssey culminates in a ´fantomatique´ ceremonial gong that, perhaps [and, if I may, I can't escape an air of Arcanum now], after this sort of loving Initiation (because we are not facing a ´Cimetière Marin´ but an onward ´Lit Nuptial Océanique´) that we go through during a reverberant Saga (a ´Illumination´?) amid an Oceanid and, paradoxically, a Venturer of the Seven Seas (or at least of the River Rhine) who sang to her - hence alluring her - [maybe a token of an A(qua)rthurian Knight who finds his sirenic Holy Grail?], is, myth-in-reverse, the Annunciation - in a living voice for her & - for us to be embraced by another - unprecedented - visage of (Rimbaudian) undulate ´Eternité´ (Eternity). C’est la mer allée avec le soleil....... In short, if I could depict all of this in ... a trinity-of-vocables / a triad-of-incantations, Ladies and Gentlemen, it would be the same one repeated as soon:
L O R E L E Y,
L O R E L E Y,
L O R E L E Y!" (Pablo S. Paz; Argentinean musicologist)

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* A harmonic series (also overtone series) is the sequence of harmonics, musical tones, or pure tones whose frequency is an integer multiple of a fundamental frequency.

Pitched musical instruments are often based on an acoustic resonator such as a string or a column of air, which oscillates at numerous modes simultaneously. At the frequencies of each vibrating mode, waves travel in both directions along the string or air column, reinforcing and canceling each other to form standing waves. Interaction with the surrounding air causes audible sound waves, which travel away from the instrument. Because of the typical spacing of the resonances, these frequencies are mostly limited to integer multiples, or harmonics, of the lowest frequency, and such multiples form the harmonic series.

The musical pitch of a note is usually perceived as the lowest partial present (the fundamental frequency), which may be the one created by vibration over the full length of the string or air column, or a higher harmonic chosen by the player. The musical timbre of a steady tone from such an instrument is strongly affected by the relative strength of each harmonic.

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I - François Couperin (10 November 1668 – 11 September 1733) was a French Baroque composer, organist and harpsichordist;

II - Jean Nicolas Arthur Rimbaud (20 October 1854 – 10 November 1891) was a French poet known for his transgressive and surreal themes and for his influence on modern literature and arts, prefiguring surrealism. Born in Charleville, he started writing at a very young age and excelled as a student, but abandoned his formal education in his teenage years to run away to Paris amidst the Franco-Prussian War. During his late adolescence and early adulthood, he produced the bulk of his literary output. Rimbaud completely stopped writing literature at age 20 after assembling his last major work, Illuminations.

Rimbaud was a libertine (?) and a restless soul, having engaged in a hectic, sometimes violent romantic relationship with fellow poet Paul Verlaine, which lasted nearly two years. After his retirement as a writer, he traveled extensively on three continents as a merchant and explorer until his death from cancer just after his thirty-seventh birthday. As a poet, Rimbaud is well known for his contributions to symbolism and, among other works, for A Season in Hell, a precursor to modernist literature;

III - Johannes Brahms (7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period. Born in Hamburg into a Lutheran family, he spent much of his professional life in Vienna. He is sometimes grouped with Johann Sebastian Bach and Ludwig van Beethoven as one of the "Three Bs" of music, a comment originally made by the nineteenth-century conductor Hans von Bülow.

Brahms composed for symphony orchestra, chamber ensembles, piano, organ, voice, and chorus. A virtuoso pianist, he premiered many of his own works. He worked with leading performers of his time, including the pianist Clara Schumann and the violinist Joseph Joachim (the three were close friends). Many of his works have become staples of the modern concert repertoire.

Brahms has been considered both a traditionalist and an innovator, by his contemporaries and by later writers. His music is rooted in the structures and compositional techniques of the Classical masters. Embedded within those structures are deeply Romantic motifs. While some contemporaries found his music to be overly academic, his contribution and craftsmanship were admired by subsequent figures as diverse as Arnold Schoenberg and Edward Elgar. The detailed construction of Brahms's works was a starting point and an inspiration for a generation of composers;

IV - Clara Josephine Schumann (née Wieck; 13 September 1819 – 20 May 1896) was a German pianist, composer, and piano teacher. Regarded as one of the most distinguished pianists of the Romantic era, she exerted her influence over the course of a 61-year concert career, changing the format and repertoire of the piano recital by lessening the importance of purely virtuosic works. She also composed solo piano pieces, a piano concerto (her Op. 7), chamber music, choral pieces, and songs.

She grew up in Leipzig, where both her father Friedrich Wieck and her mother Mariane were pianists and piano teachers. In addition, her mother was a singer. Clara was a child prodigy, and was trained by her father. She began touring at age eleven, and was successful in Paris and Vienna, among other cities. She married the composer Robert Schumann, and the couple had eight children. Together, they encouraged Johannes Brahms and maintained a close relationship with him. She gave the public premieres of many works by her husband and by Brahms.

After Robert Schumann's early death, she continued her concert tours in Europe for decades, frequently with the violinist Joseph Joachim and other chamber musicians. Beginning in 1878, she was an influential piano educator at Dr. Hoch's Konservatorium in Frankfurt, where she attracted international students. She edited the publication of her husband's work. Schumann died in Frankfurt, but was buried in Bonn beside her husband.

Several films have focused on Schumann's life, the earliest being Träumerei (Dreaming) of 1944. A 2008 film, Geliebte Clara (Beloved Clara), was directed by Helma Sanders-Brahms. An image of Clara Schumann from an 1835 lithograph by Andreas Staub was featured on the 100 Deutsche Mark banknote from 1989 to 2002. Interest in her compositions began to revive in the late 20th century, and her 2019 bicentenary prompted new books and exhibitions;

V - Christian Johann Heinrich Heine (born Harry Heine; 13 December 1797 – 17 February 1856) was a German poet, writer and literary critic. He is best known outside Germany for his early lyric poetry, which was set to music in the form of Lieder (art songs) by composers such as Robert Schumann and Franz Schubert. Heine's later verse and prose are distinguished by their satirical wit and irony. He is considered a member of the Young Germany movement. His radical political views led to many of his works being banned by German authorities—which, however, only added to his fame. He spent the last 25 years of his life as an expatriate in Paris;

VI - Odilon Redon (born Bertrand Redon; 20 April 1840 – 6 July 1916) was a French Symbolist artist.

Early in his career, both before and after fighting in the Franco-Prussian War, Redon worked almost exclusively in charcoal and lithography, works known as his noirs. He gained recognition after his drawings were mentioned in the 1884 novel À rebours (Against Nature) by Joris-Karl Huysmans. During the 1890s, Redon began working in pastel and oil, which quickly became his favorite medium, abandoning his previous style of noirs completely after 1900. He developed a keen interest in Hindu and Buddhist religion and culture, which increasingly showed in his work.

Redon is perhaps best known today for the dreamlike paintings created in the first decade of the 20th century, which were inspired by Japanese art and leaned toward abstraction. His work is considered a precursor to Surrealism;

VII - Brahms's Six Pieces for Piano, Op. 118, were completed in 1893 and published with a dedication to Clara Schumann. The set was the penultimate of Brahms's published works. It was also his penultimate work for piano solo.

The pieces are frequently performed. Like Brahms's other late keyboard works, Op. 118 is more introspective than his earlier piano pieces, which tend to be more virtuosic in character. The six pieces are:

Intermezzo in A minor. Allegro non assai, ma molto appassionato

>>Intermezzo in A major. Andante teneramente<<

Ballade in G minor. Allegro energico

Intermezzo in F minor. Allegretto un poco agitato

Romanze in F major. Andante

Intermezzo in E♭ minor. Andante, largo e mesto;

VIII - Les Barricades Mystérieuses (The Mysterious Barricades) is a piece of music that François Couperin composed for harpsichord in 1717. It is the fifth piece in his "Ordre 6ème de clavecin" in B-flat major, from his second book of collected harpsichord pieces (Pièces de Clavecin). It is emblematic of the style brisé characteristic of French Baroque keyboard music. Les Barricades Mystérieuses was originally published with the spelling Les Baricades Mistérieuses ["single r" in the first word, and "i" rather than "y" in the second word]. All four possible spelling combinations have since been used with "double r" and a "y" being the most common. The intended meaning of the phrase has remained an enigma (an example of how musical allusions can remain hidden over time). There has been much speculation on the meaning of the phrase "mysterious barricades", but no direct evidence appears to be available. The harpsichordist Pascal Tufféry has suggested that, in keeping with the bucolic character of other pieces in Couperin's Ordre 6ème de clavecin, the pounding rhythm may represent the stamping of grapes in winemaking (given that the French word barrique means 'barrel', and barriquade was a designation adopted by viticulturalists of the day in France). In this view, the "mysterious" epithet could allude to the significance of wine in the Mysteries of Bacchus (as well as in the Eucharist). Some of the less likely interpretations of the "mysterious barricades" proposed over the years – sometimes in relation to the salonnières of the 17th century - include women’s eyelashes, underwear and even chastity belts;

IX - A plausible attempt to link the title to features of the music itself has been provided by the harpsichordist Luke Arnason:

"The title Les Barricades Mystérieuses is probably meant to be evocative rather than a reference to a specific object, musical or otherwise. Scott Ross, in a master class filmed and distributed by Harmonia Mundi, likens the piece to a train. This clearly cannot have been the precise image Couperin was trying to convey, but it is easy to hear in Les Barricades the image of a heavy but fast-moving object that picks up momentum. In that sense, the mysterious barricades are perhaps those which cause the "train" to slow down and sometimes stop... This hypothesis seems to fit in with the pedagogical aims of Couperin's music, since the composer presents himself as something of a specialist in building sound through legato, style luthé playing...Moreover, it seems to form a set with the following piece, Les Bergeries. This latter piece, though more melodic than Les Barricades, set in a higher register and more bucolic in feeling, is also an exercise in using a repetitive motif (in this case a left hand ostinato evocative of the musette) to build sound without seeming mechanical or repetitive. Both Les Barricades Mystérieuses and Les Bergeries, then, are exercises in building (and relaxing) sound and momentum elegantly."

While the title reflects the musical structure, there may be more at play. The suggestion of barricades is "a double entendre referring simultaneously to feminine virginity and the suspensions [of] harmonic [progressions] of the music, [whose] lute figurations [from the style brisé] are imitated to produce an enigmatic stalemate", as Judith Robison Kipnis explained the work's title and its interpretation by her husband Igor Kipnis.

Other suggested intended meanings for the title include:

- impeding communication between people
- between past and present or present and future
- between life and death
- masks worn by performers of Le Mystère ou les Fêtes de l'Inconnu (The Mysterious One or the Celebrations of the Unknown One) staged by one of Couperin's patrons, the Duchesse du Maine in 1714
- a "technical joke...the continuous suspensions in the lute style being a barricade to the basic harmony".

Claude Debussy, who considered François Couperin to be the "most poetic of our [French] harpsichordists" and an influence on his own piano études, expressed particular admiration for Les Barricades Mystérieuses. In 1903, Debussy wrote: "We should think about the example Couperin's harpsichord works set us: they are marvelous models of grace and innocence long past. Nothing could ever make us forget the subtly voluptuous perfume, so delicately perverse, that so innocently hovers over the Barricades Mystérieuses.";

X - Parzival is a medieval chivalric romance by the poet and knight Wolfram von Eschenbach in Middle High German. The poem, commonly dated to the first quarter of the 13th century, centers on the Arthurian hero Parzival (Percival in English) and his long quest for the Holy Grail following his initial failure to achieve it.

Parzival begins with the knightly adventures of Parzival's father, Gahmuret, his marriage to Herzeloyde (Middle High German: herzeleide, "heart's sorrow"), and the birth of Parzival. The story continues as Parzival meets three elegant knights, decides to seek King Arthur, and continues a spiritual and physical search for the Grail. A long section is devoted to Parzival's friend Gawan and his adventures defending himself from a false murder charge and winning the hand of the maiden Orgeluse. Among the most striking elements of the work are its emphasis on the importance of humility, compassion, sympathy and the quest for spirituality. A major theme in Parzival is love: heroic acts of chivalry are inspired by true love, which is ultimately fulfilled in marriage.

Regarded as one of the masterpieces of the Middle Ages, the romance was the most popular vernacular verse narrative in medieval Germany, and continues to be read and translated into modern languages around the world. Wolfram began a prequel, Titurel, which was later continued by another writer, while two full romances were written adapting Wolfram's story of Loherangrin. Richard Wagner based his famous opera Parsifal, finished in 1882, on Parzival.

>>The French Symbolist Odilon Redon uses the spelling Parsifal when giving the title to a work from 1912, an image that is on the cover of this album, with interventions by Melgaço himself;<<

XI - From Deutsche Welle, Louisa Schaefer and Augusto Valente (reporters and editors) tell us that old myths surround the steep Loreley Rock on the River Rhine, where many sailors lost their lives. But the story of the beautiful young woman whose charms lead to her death isn't even that old.

The Loreley is actually just a 132 meter high slate cliff on the banks of the River Rhine near Sankt Goarshausen in western Germany. At first, it doesn't seem like a big deal. However, this steep rock is one of the main attractions of the Middle Rhine Valley, the epitome of the so-called Rhine Romanticism, which attracts tourists from all over the world. The Upper Middle Rhine Valley is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, but what makes this region so attractive are also the many legends surrounding the Loreley cliff.

It is said that a beautiful young woman spent the day sitting on top of it, combing her hair and enchanting the boatmen passing by on the Rhine with her seductive siren song, leading them to their death.

Many Germans have − even as part of literature classes at school − a general idea of who this character was, immortalized in the famous 1824 poem Die Lore-Ley, by writer Heinrich Heine. Many remember at least the first lines of the poem:

Ich weiss nicht, was soll es bedeuten, dass ich so traurig bin, ein Märchen aus uralten Zeiten, das kommt mir nicht aus dem Sinn. ("I don't know why I'm so sad, a tale from ancient times keeps coming to mind").

History and archeology student Katrin Kober, 24, brings this figure from ancient times into the here and now by giving a modern interpretation of Loreley's allure.

"She is a kind of femme fatale. I think female characters in particular are used to give a sexual background to a story." She analyzed and edited the supposedly "old" Loreley legend for the website of the Institute for Regional Historical Studies at the University of Mainz, where she works.

Stories like this fascinate adults and are also understandable to children, explains Kober. And, by being linked to a real place, surrounded by old myths, Loreley's story gained even more penetration.

It is understandable that the Middle Rhine is good for myths: due to the sharp bends and rocky bottom, it is considered one of the most dangerous sections of the river.

Around 500 years ago it was also speculated that the cries of dwarves inhabiting the caves of this unique landscape created an unusual echo, which then resonated in the narrow part of the river. Additionally, there is a clearly audible "murmur" generated by the strong current and a waterfall. The echo created between the cliffs is really audible.

There are several explanations for the origin of the name Loreley. Of Celtic origin, ley refers to the slate of the Middle Rhine Valley. The word is still used today and can be found in many ancient place and vineyard names. Lore has several meanings, from "stalking" to "howling" and "shouting", but also "murmur" or "buzzing". In the context of the myths about the rock, it all makes sense.

The geological conditions and resulting myths may indeed be ancient, but the story of the enchanting mermaid on the "murmuring rock" is relatively recent: the German writer Clemens Brentano created it in 1800, in his ballad Zu Bacharach am Rheine (At Bacharach on the Rhine).

The beautiful Lore Lay, as Brentano calls her, is betrayed by her lover and accused of bewitching men and sending them to their deaths. Banished to a convent, on the way she asks her companion to stop at Loreley Rock, as she wants to climb it once again to admire the Rhine. Once at the top, she falls to her death. Since then, the story goes, the rock would echo her name (LORELEY, LORELEY, LORELEY!).

Brentano himself may have been inspired by classical mythology. The siren's song, for example, is mentioned in the Greek poet Homer's Odyssey. "It would not be unlikely that in this poem of his own creation Brentano referred to the ancient myth of Eco, a nymph madly in love with Narcissus and who in her pain became a rock, whose voice could only be heard. Thus Brentano created an explanation for the echo phenomenon on the rock by the Rhine, which can be told as an exciting story", explains Kober.

Heinrich Heine published his poem Loreley in 1824. Set to composer Friedrich Silcher's melody, it became a very popular German folk song. With her representation of the figure of Loreley, Katrin Kober wants to dust off the somewhat outdated interpretations of this female figure.

"I have the impression that these are stories about old white men who took pleasure in the suffering of an imaginary female figure and then published it to make money off of it. It seems that Loreley has no special qualities other than bad luck in love or kill men for fun."

Loreley lives on today in countless artistic representations, from Alfredo Catalani's opera to songs by Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt or George Gershwin. In one of the movements of his Symphony No. 14, Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich transforms Guillaume Apollinaire's poem Loreley, based on Brentano, into a dramatic bass aria.

American writer Mark Twain described Loreley as "an ancient Rhine legend" in his 1880 satirical travelogue A tramp abroad. Loreley also served as inspiration for a poem by the American Sylvia Plath, published in 1960, about a night river on a full moon and mysterious voices.

One of the most notable interpretations in pop culture is personified by movie star Marilyn Monroe. In her pink dress and her seductive interpretation of Diamonds are a girl's best friend, Marilyn played the character Lorelei Lee in the 1953 film Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, based on the 1925 novel of the same name by Anita Loos, which became a best-seller in the US. U.S.

Loreley has lent her name to a number of films over the decades, from the 1927 German silent film version, to a 2005 Japanese war drama, to a Marvel Comics character, to a dog in the 2003 novel The Dogs of Babel , and the protagonist Lorelai from the famous television series Gilmore Girls.

She also lent her name to a dark rock band from Pittsburgh, songs by the band Styx, Cocteau Twins

www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7tcFKakZTA

{ plus www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWKJ2FUiAQ }

Nina Hagen, The Pogues, The Scorpions and Mark Seymour & The Undertow.

In the 1930s, an amphitheater was built on top of Loreley Rock. Over the years, it has become an impressive concert venue for all types of music, from classical to rock;

XII - www.ogn.ox.ac.uk/sites/default/files/stuartaogo2015.pdf

XIII - Milan Kundera (1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship in 2019.

Kundera's best-known work is The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Before the Velvet Revolution of 1989, the country's ruling Communist Party of Czechoslovakia banned his books. He led a low-profile life and rarely spoke to the media. He was thought to be a contender for the Nobel Prize in Literature and was also a nominee for other awards.

Kundera was awarded the Jerusalem Prize in 1985, the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1987, and the Herder Prize in 2000. In 2021, he received the Golden Order of Merit from the president of Slovenia, Borut Pahor;

XIV - Clarice Lispector (born Chaya Pinkhasivna Lispector (Ukrainian: Хая Пінкасівна Ліспектор; Yiddish: חיה פּינקאַסיװנאַ ליספּעקטאָר) December 10, 1920 – December 9, 1977) was a Ukrainian-born Brazilian novelist and short story writer. Her innovative, idiosyncratic works explore a variety of narrative styles with themes of intimacy and introspection, and have subsequently been internationally acclaimed. Born to a Jewish family in Podolia in Western Ukraine, as an infant she moved to Brazil with her family, amidst the disasters engulfing her native land following the First World War.

She grew up in Recife, the capital of the northeastern state of Pernambuco, where her mother died when she was nine. The family moved to Rio de Janeiro when she was in her teens. While in law school in Rio, she began publishing her first journalistic work and short stories, catapulting to fame at the age of 23 with the publication of her first novel, Near to the Wild Heart (Perto do Coração Selvagem), written as an interior monologue in a style and language that was considered revolutionary in Brazil.

She left Brazil in 1944 following her marriage to a Brazilian diplomat, and spent the next decade and a half in Europe and the United States. After returning to Rio de Janeiro in 1959, she published the stories of Family Ties (Laços de Família) and the novel The Passion According to G.H. (A Paixão Segundo G.H.). Injured in an accident in 1966, she spent the last decade of her life in frequent pain, steadily writing and publishing novels and stories, including Água Viva, until her premature death in 1977.

She has been the subject of numerous books, and references to her and her work are common in Brazilian literature and music. Several of her works have been turned into films. In 2009, the American writer Benjamin Moser published Why This World: A Biography of Clarice Lispector. Since that publication, her works have been the object of an extensive project of retranslation, published by New Directions Publishing and Penguin Modern Classics, the first Brazilian to enter that prestigious series. Moser, who is also the editor of her anthology The Complete Stories (2015), describes Lispector as the most important Jewish writer in the world since Kafka;

XV - Homer (Hómēros; born c. 8th century BC) was a Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.

Homer's Iliad centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. The Odyssey chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus (Ulysses), king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy. The poems are in Homeric Greek, also known as Epic Greek, a literary language which shows a mixture of features of the Ionic and Aeolic dialects from different centuries; the predominant influence is Eastern Ionic. Most researchers believe that the poems were originally transmitted orally.

Homer's epic poems shaped aspects of ancient Greek culture and education, fostering ideals of heroism, glory, and honor. To Plato, Homer was simply the one who "has taught Greece" (τὴν Ἑλλάδα πεπαίδευκεν, tēn Helláda pepaídeuken). In Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, Virgil refers to Homer as "Poet sovereign", king of all poets; in the preface to his translation of the Iliad, Alexander Pope acknowledges that Homer has always been considered the "greatest of poets". From antiquity to the present day, Homeric epics have inspired many famous works of literature, music, art, and film.

The question of by whom, when, where and under what circumstances the Iliad and Odyssey were composed continues to be debated. Scholars remain divided as to whether the two works are the product of a single author. It is thought that the poems were composed at some point around the late eighth or early seventh century BC. Many accounts of Homer's life circulated in classical antiquity; the most widespread account was that he was a blind bard from Ionia, a region of central coastal Anatolia in present-day Turkey. Modern scholars consider these accounts legendary;

XVI - James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. Joyce's novel Ulysses (1922) is a landmark in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in a variety of literary styles, particularly stream of consciousness. Other well-known works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His other writings include three books of poetry, a play, letters, and occasional journalism.

Joyce was born in Dublin into a middle-class family. He attended the Jesuit Clongowes Wood College in County Kildare, then, briefly, the Christian Brothers–run O'Connell School. Despite the chaotic family life imposed by his father's unpredictable finances, he excelled at the Jesuit Belvedere College and graduated from University College Dublin in 1902. In 1904, he met his future wife, Nora Barnacle, and they moved to mainland Europe. He briefly worked in Pula and then moved to Trieste in Austria-Hungary, working as an English instructor. Except for an eight-month stay in Rome working as a correspondence clerk and three visits to Dublin, Joyce resided there until 1915. In Trieste, he published his book of poems Chamber Music and his short story collection Dubliners, and he began serially publishing A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man in the English magazine The Egoist. During most of World War I, Joyce lived in Zürich, Switzerland, and worked on Ulysses. After the war, he briefly returned to Trieste and then moved to Paris in 1920, which became his primary residence until 1940.

Ulysses was first published in Paris in 1922, but its publication in the United Kingdom and the United States was prohibited because of its perceived obscenity. Copies were smuggled into both countries and pirated versions were printed until the mid-1930s, when publication finally became legal. Joyce started his next major work, Finnegans Wake, in 1923, publishing it sixteen years later in 1939. Between these years, Joyce travelled widely. He and Nora were married in a civil ceremony in London in 1931. He made a number of trips to Switzerland, frequently seeking treatment for his increasingly severe eye problems and psychological help for his daughter, Lucia. When France was occupied by Germany during World War II, Joyce moved back to Zürich in 1940. He died there in 1941 after surgery for a perforated ulcer, less than one month before his 59th birthday.

Ulysses frequently ranks high in lists of great books of literature, and the academic literature analysing his work is extensive and ongoing. Many writers, film-makers, and other artists have been influenced by his stylistic innovations, such as his meticulous attention to detail, use of interior monologue, wordplay, and the radical transformation of traditional plot and character development. Though most of his adult life was spent abroad, his fictional universe centres on Dublin and is largely populated by characters who closely resemble family members, enemies and friends from his time there. Ulysses in particular is set in the streets and alleyways of the city. Joyce is quoted as saying, "For myself, I always write about Dublin, because if I can get to the heart of Dublin I can get to the heart of all the cities of the world. In the particular is contained the universal."

...for purposes of pragmatism and clear exegesis,
quotes have Wikipedia as a source...

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Between two parentheses...
(Atonalism, Twelve-Tone, Serialism, Musique Concrète... Acousmatic. Eletroacoustic. Magnetic Tape. Expressionism, New Objectivity, Hyperrealism, Abstractionism, Neoclassicism, Neobarbarism, Futurism, Mythic Method. Electronic...Computer Music, Spectral, Polystylism, Neoromanticism, Minimalism and Post-Minimalism...are addressed by Melgaço. Paradoxically New Simplicity and New Complexity also.
Art Rock, Free Jazz, Ethnic Dialects, Street Sounds are occasional syntax elements.
All the possibilities mentioned above and others that were not mentioned are the usual accoutrements of the composer/instrumentalist to establish his ´babelic´ glossary. We can prove this in a short passage of a single composition up along the entirety of a conceptual phonograph album. All distributed over a career and idiosyncratic records. Have we a universe before us and I propose to see it through a telescope, not a microscope.
I propose not handle very specialized topics here. Otherwise would be, with the exception of musicians and scholars, all hostages of a hermetic jargon. Because more important is to present Otacílio Melgaço to the general public and not to a segment of specialists. Faction of experts not need presentations, depart for the enjoyment beforehand. For this reason there is no niche here for intellectual onanism and encrypted musical terminology. The reason for these parentheses is to establish such elucidation. The non-adoption of technicalities leads to more panoramic, amplifier reviews. Are You always welcome. Those who do not dominate contemporary music and are introduced to the world of ubiquitous O.M. [autodidact and independent artist who, being more specific, does not belong to schools or doctrines; artist who makes Music and that´s enough; music devoid of labels or stylistic, chronological, historical paradigms or trends] and Those who belong to the métier and turn to enjoy propositions they know and also delving into advanced Melgacian sound cosmogonies...
I conclude poetically. ´Certeza/Certainty´ by Octavio Paz. ´Si es real la luz blanca De esta lámpara, real La mano que escribe, ¿son reales
Los ojos que miran lo escrito? De una palabra a la otra Lo que digo se desvanece. Yo sé que estoy vivo Entre dos paréntesis.´ If it is real the white light from this lamp, real the writing hand, are they real, the eyes looking at what I write? From one word to the other what I say vanishes. I know that I am alive between two parentheses.
We´re all more and more a-l-i-v-e now.)
- P.S.P.