Elomar Figueira de Mello is a Brazilian Northeastern composer from the rura… Read Full Bio ↴Elomar Figueira de Mello is a Brazilian Northeastern composer from the rural area of Vitória da Conquista, in the state of Bahia. The son of a prosperous farmer and his Methodist wife, he has grown up under the influence of both the Christian, Protestant faith and of violeiros, the troubadours that range all Brazilian hinterland singing their own and others’s compositions, with themes related to the cordel literature.

He tried to study Music with a Swiss professor living in Brazil, but their ideas about roots music were incompatible, Elomar having a vision both more dynamic and more linked to the mentality of the people, while still fully committed to the sophistication and quality of Classical music; while his teacher wanted, and produced, a fully Contemporary music with influences from the region. Elomar’s music, while keeping the Classical forms of operas, cantatas, oratorios and other sacred music, has a distinctive Mediæval flavour, Elomar maintaining in his characteristic, idiosyncratic speech that ‘Brazilian Northeast is the last time of the Middle Ages’ (‘O Nordeste é o último tempo da Idade Média’).

He was Secretary of Urbanism for Vitória da Conquista for a while. Now he keeps a home at the city but spends most of his time in his goat-raising farm, where he shares in the work of the farm and direct it, besides writing down his music. He says he has most of it ready in his mind, and he only asks God time enough to live to be able to write it all down.

Elomar has a passion for European culture with a strong preference for the French, while totally rejecting the Anglo-Saxon one. He is nearly a Luddite, thinking all technology misused. He is deeply religious and thinks all modern European culture dead and sick.

His music, while not too difficult to hear, is quite sophisticated and manages to successfully combine both modern and Mediæval elements. It carries expressions of deep faith both by the author himself and the poetical egos. It has some striking themes to it, some universal – like Incelença ad Moribundum Solem, a requiem thanking God for all the services the Sun has performed us, to be sung when it finally dies somewhere in the future – and some parochial, like the fate of specific, if fictional violeiros and migrants from the dry, feudalised lands of the Northeast to the rich, industrial lands of the Southeast.

Some connoisseurs consider him the greatest living musician, because he manages to do Classical music that is modern and relevant to today's time while still being deeply stepped in his region’s mentality and beliefs, totally avoiding the Nihilism seen as dominating modern art in general and Contemporary music specifically.

From 2000 to 2004 he lived at Lagoa Real, trying to form a ‘sertaneza’ (country) opera project.

Donzela Tiadora
Elomar Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

E a donzela Tiadora
qui nas asa da aurora
vei À sala do rei
infrentá sete sábios
sete sábios da lei
venceu sete perguntas
e de bôca-de-côro
recebeu cumo prenda

mili dobra de ôro
respondeu qui a noite
discanso do trabai
incobre os malfeitores
e qui do anjericó
beleza dos amores
e qui da vilhilice
vistidura de dores
na eterna mininice
foi-se num poldo bai

isso vai muito longe
foi no seclo do pai

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Elomar's song "Donzela Tiadora" tell the story of a young maiden named Tiadora, who rises with the dawn and goes to the king's hall to confront seven wise men of the law. Against all odds, Tiadora successfully answers seven questions posed by the wise men, and as a reward, she is given a thousand pieces of gold. The lyrics also mention that Tiadora believes that night provides respite from labor, hides wrongdoers, and is the source of beauty and love. It also states that night cloaks the sorrow of poverty and represents eternal innocence. Finally, the lyrics mention that Tiadora's story took place in a bygone era, in the "seclo do pai" (father's century), suggesting a distant past.

Overall, these lyrics depict a narrative of a brave and intelligent young woman who challenges societal norms by outsmarting the wise men. The song celebrates Tiadora's triumph and also reflects on the duality of the night, presenting it as a time of rest, but also a realm of hidden realities and contrasting emotions.

Line by Line Meaning

E a donzela Tiadora
And the maiden Tiadora

qui nas asa da aurora
who in the wings of dawn

vei À sala do rei
came to the king's hall

infrentá sete sábios
to confront seven wise men

sete sábios da lei
seven sages of the law

venceu sete perguntas
she conquered seven questions

e de bôca-de-côro
and with a silver tongue

recebeu cumo prenda
received as a gift

mili dobra de ôro
a thousand folds of gold

respondeu qui a noite
she answered that the night

discanso do trabai
is a rest from work