Poemas do Monte

Preface

In his keen eyes you can see the full moral and mental balance of a grand worker. Such honest and fine character lends charm to his art. Beneath the sophisticated musician one could say lies a countryman.

The rural lyricism emanating from his compositions makes them not merely recognisably Portuguese, but recognisably northern Portuguese.

This innate flavour of rusticity is substantiated in all his works. He finds sources of inspiration in scenes, feelings and motifs deep-rooted in Portuguese tradition. People appear in them as on pilgrimage to archaic sanctuaries, to the sound of melodies they could call their own, but with a very personal contour.

Without resort to popular music, there is a popular character to this highly cultured artist who frames, in such modern paintings, the poetry of this ancient land.

Admirably reviewed on 5 June 1925 in the Portuguese periodical O Primeiro de Janeiro, Poemas do Monte are a window to the 1920s’rural atmosphere of northern Portugal. The bucolic and melancholic nuances of Costa’s tone painting are both absorbing and immediate.

His daughters’memoirs describe Costa as a great walker who used to ramble for hours in the countryside across great distances. He was fascinated by the natural beauty of the Minho region and by the daily chores of country life. Most of his oeuvre is infused with these elements, like the Drei Klavierstücke Op.1, Telas Campesinas Op. 6, Cenários Op. 13, amongst many others. Poemas do Monte is a prime example of Luiz Costa’s bucolic lyricism.

In addition to the inspiration of his native land, Poemas do Monte may have been stimulated by a work by his master José Vianna da Motta (1868–1948) titled Cenas nas Montanhas (Mountains Scenes) Op. 14, composed around the mid-1890s. Albeit containing rustic and pastoral elements, da Motta’s composition is for string quartet and differs immensely from Costa’s cycle in character, colour and musical language. Yet, it may have partly inspired Poemas do Monte, given Costa’s proximity to da Motta.

The first piece to contain the designation ‘Poemas do Monte’ dates from c. 1916–7 and was called A moleirinha (Little miller girl), later reworked and intended as part of the cycle Telas Campesinas (Rural Scenes) Op. 6, but never published. More pieces were composed as ‘Poemas do Monte’ but ended up in other cycles or were published independently. This is the case with earlier versions of Solidão dos campos (Solitude of the fields) and Tarde bucólica (Bucolic afternoon), the first included in Telas Campesinas, the latter intended for Telas Campesinas but never published. Canção do moleiro (Miller’s song) was performed by Luiz Costa as ‘Poema do Monte’ during a concert in June 1925 but published separately without this designation in the Christmas 1927 edition of Commercio do Porto Illustrado.

In the early 1920s, Luiz Costa had begun composing in earnest the first character pieces that later would be compiled as Poemas do Monte: Pelos montes fora, À beira da fonte, and an earlier version of Ecos dos vales. The remaining compositions spanned eight years (1923–31). Four of these were revised in the mid-1930s for publication as Op. 3 – Pelos montes fora, Murmúrios das fontes,Ecos dos vales, and Campanários – dedicated to his master and friend Vianna da Motta. This four-piece cycle would have been published in 1936 or shortly after, given that the second version of Campanários dated from 1936, the revision of Ecos dos vales from 1935, and several revisions to Murmúrios das fontes were done in the 1930s. The impetus to publish at this time will have encouraged Costa to work on the definitive versions of these works. An incentive might have been the apparent publishing collaboration between Lisbon’s Valentim de Carvalho and Leipzig’s C. G. Röder, although it remains unclear why Pelos montes fora was published in Germany and the other pieces in Portugal. Luiz Costa may have wished to introduce his compositions to a German audience by publishing with Röder, a mega company in music publi-shing that continued to expand and became a joint stock company in the 1930s.

Luiz Costa’s daughter Madalena recalled, with great emotion, the occasions when her mother would announce, ‘Tonight Father will perform his latest composition for us’.^[1] His family was his first audience, yet some of these wonderful compositions were found as working manuscripts, making it likely they were never heard by anyone, other than the composer.

The first public performances of Poemas do Monte featured À beira da fonte, and an earlier version of Ecos dos vales played by the composer’s wife Leonilda in March 1922 at Sociedade de Belas-Artes do Porto, and Pelos montes fora played by Luiz Costa as an encore at a concert dedicated to Beethoven in Lisbon, February 1923. According to a programme announced in writing by Carlos Manuel Ramos, on 6 June 1925, Luiz Costa played seven Poemas do Monte in Porto’s Gil Vicente Theatre, including two published here for the first time: Conduzindo o rebanho and Malhadores na eira. Although Costa publi-shed Poemas do Monte with just four pieces, his concert showsthe compilation can feature more.

The present edition compiles for the first time the full set of twelve poems, eight of which never before published. Although the opus number was initially attributed by Luiz Costa to only four poems, this edition extends it to the remaining works. These pieces are presented chronologically (see Table 2). The assembly was not always straightforward, as some works are not dated and Costa performed several rounds of revisions on others over a long period of time. Even if future discoveries shed new light on the origins of particular works, the overall order is unlikely to undergo significant changes.

       Table 2   Poemas do Monte timeline

Poemas do Monte are extremely versatile: pieces can be presented individually, played in select com-binations, or performed as an entire cycle; and their chronological order does not necessarily have to be followed, as illustrated in Artur Pereira’s recording of the entire set, which begins with Pelos montes fora, one of the first character pieces composed by Luiz Costa and the opening number of the four-piece collection published in the mid-1930s as Poemas do Monte. In addition to its majestic, overture-like character, this piece provides a synopsis of the main keys used throughout the cycle. The middle section is in F sharp major, the dominant key of B which is the home key of Ecos dos vales, Luar nos açudes, Sobre os montes desce a paz and À beira da fonte. In the closing bars of the middle section, there is a shift to F sharp minor but with a strong emphasis on D major (the home key of Murmúrios das fontes, Névoa no vale and Ao romper d’alva em dia de festa…) and a hint of E major (prominent in both Malhadores na eira and the final piece, Campanários). As the dominant key of Pelos montes fora, E major is thus emphasised in the outer sections of the cycle. In turn, the home key of Pelos montes fora (A minor/major) is used extensively in Névoa no vale and Ao romper d’alva as a dominant key.

Despite the composition of the entire cycle spanning c. nine years and the uncertainty over whether Luiz Costa intended to publish all the pieces in one volume, the cycle is remarkably integrated in terms of tonality, structure and even motivic elements. The development section of Malhadores da eira (C major), for example, contains sections in E flat major (used in the first appearance of Sobre as cumeadas’ secondary theme), D major, F sharp minor and a pedal point in B major just before the triumphant recapitulation of the initial material. It is also worth noting that the second theme of Malhadores na eira appears in E major before the coda, thus fore-shadowing the key of the concluding piece Campanários (which also features echoes of the dotted rhythms that characterise Malhadores). Given its close relationship to B major, the home key of Sobre as cumeadas (G sharp minor) often appears in Ecos dos vales and Luar nos açudes. The melodic contours and accompaniment of Murmúrios das fontes and À beira da fonte are also closely related, as are their respective middle sections, mostly centred around B flat major.

The pieces of the cycle are saturated with bucolic imagery, and many feature a rising perfect fifth, evocative of the hunter’s horn. This is particularly conspicuous in Pelos montes fora, Ecos dos vales, Sobre as cumeadas, and Campanários. Open fifths also appear in more subtle ways in various accompaniment figurations, such as found in Murmúrios das fontes, Sobre as cumeadas, Malhadores na eira and Ao romper d’alva.

Poemas do Monte is a virtual journey to the rural north of Portugal of the early 1900s, a spiritual journey to contemplate the sounds and stillness of nature, as perceived by Luiz Costa’s most romantic and sensitive soul.

Biographical notes

Luiz António Ferreira da Costa (1879–1960) was a pianist, composer and pedagogue, and one of the most important personalities in Portuguese music during the first half of the 20th century.

He was born on 25 September 1879 in S. Pedro de Fralães, in Minho. This northwestern region of Portugal had a profound impact on him, particularly as a source of inspiration. He studied in Oporto with Bernardo Moreira de Sá, in Munich with Bernhard Stavenhagen and in Berlin with José Vianna da Motta, Conrad Ansorge and Ferruccio Busoni. He dedicated most of his time to teaching the piano in his private studio and at the Oporto Conservatoire, of which he was director in 1933–4. Notwithstanding, he maintained an active career as a concert artist, both as soloist and chamber musician, collaborating with Pablo Casals, Guilhermina Suggia, Alfred Cortot and George Enesco, among others. British critics were unanimous in their praise of this Portuguese virtuoso, after a recital with cellist Guilhermina Suggia in Wigmore Hall in London.

In 1924 Luiz Costa became the director of a concert society known as Orpheon Portuense, which hosted, as a result of his efforts, such personalities as Ravel, Arrau, Backhaus, Landowska, Fischer, among many others. In addition, he began a series of thematic concerts in Portugal devoted to the musical works of great masters, most notably Beethoven, for whom he had the highest admiration and to whose works he dedicated dozens of recitals. He was also the first to perform Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto in Portugal, in Lisbon, under the direction of Pedro Blanch.

Luiz Costa was a prolific composer, especially for piano and chamber music. Albeit influenced by German tradition and French Impressionism, his oeuvre displays a very unique style, a personal language, reflecting nationalistic fervour, and a love for the natural landscapes of his native region.

Artur Pereira

Manchester, August 2022

[1]Costa, Madalena Moreira de Sá e, Memórias e Recordações (Vila Nova de Gaia: Edições Gailivro, 2008), p. 10.