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.
O Pedido
Elomar Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
traga de lá para mim
Água da fulô que cheira,
Um novelo e um carrim
Traz um pacote de miss
Meu amigo Ah! Se tu visse
Aquele cego cantador
Um dia ele me disse
Que eu havera de viver
Por este mundo e morrer
Ainda em flor
Passa naquela barraca
Daquela mulé resera
Onde almoçamo paca,
Panelada e frigideira
Inté você disse uma loa
Gabando a bóia boa
Das casas da cidade
Aquela era a primeira
Traz pra mim umas brevidades
Que eu quero matar a saudade
Faz tempo que eu fui na feira
Ai saudade...
Ah! Pois sim, vê se não esquece
D'inda nessa lua cheia
Nós vai brincar na quermesse
Lá no riacho d'areia
Na casa daquele homem,
Feiticeiro curador
O dia inteiro é homem
Filho de Nosso Senhor
Mas dispois da meia noite
É lobisomem comedor
Dos pagão que as mãe esqueceu
Do Batismo salvador
E tem mais dois garrafão
Com dois canguim responsador
Ah! Pois sim vê se não esquece
De trazê ruge e carmim
Ah! Se o dinheiro desse
Eu queria um trancelim
E mais três metros de chita
Que é pra eu fazê um vestido
E ficar bem mais bonita
Que Madô de Juca Dido,
Zefa de Nhô Joaquim
Já que tu vai lá pra feira
Meu amigo, tras essas coisinhas
Para mim.
The lyrics of "O Pedido" by Elomar describe a request from the singer to his friend who is going to the market. The singer asks his friend to bring back water from a fragrant flower, a ball of yarn and a cart. He also asks for a package of the mixture ingredient called miss and some snacks to enjoy. The lyrics then mention a blind singer who once told the singer that he would live and die young. The singer asks his friend to visit a woman's booth where they once ate paca (a type of porcupine), panelada (a dish made of tripe) and frigideira (fried food), and asks his friend to bring back something for him to remember the delicious food. The lyrics also mention a curer who turns into a werewolf at night and two bottles of canguim, a type of alcoholic beverage. The singer also asks his friend to bring back rouge and carmine, and three meters of fabric called chita, so he can make a beautiful dress and be prettier than Madô or Zefa. In summary, the song is a request for different items and memories from the market.
Line by Line Meaning
Já que tu vai lá pra feira
Since you are going to the market
traga de lá para mim
Bring me some things from there
Água da fulô que cheira,
Water from the fragrant flower
Um novelo e um carrim
A ball of yarn and a spool
Traz um pacote de miss
Bring a packet of cornmeal
Meu amigo Ah! Se tu visse
My friend, if you had seen
Aquele cego cantador
That blind singer
Um dia ele me disse
One day he told me
Jogando um mote de amor
Reciting a line of love poetry
Que eu havera de viver
That I should live
Por este mundo e morrer
In this world and die
Ainda em flor
Still youthful
Passa naquela barraca
Stop by that stall
Daquela mulé resera
With that reserved woman
Onde almoçamo paca,
Where we had lunch of pacas
Panelada e frigideira
Dishes cooked in a pan
Inté você disse uma loa
You even praised
Gabando a bóia boa
The good meal
Das casas da cidade
Of the houses in the city
Aquela era a primeira
That was the best
Traz pra mim umas brevidades
Bring me some souvenirs
Que eu quero matar a saudade
Because I miss them
Faz tempo que eu fui na feira
It's been a while since I went to the market
Ai saudade...
Oh, homesickness...
Ah! Pois sim, vê se não esquece
Oh, definitely, don't forget
D'inda nessa lua cheia
To come during this full moon
Nós vai brincar na quermesse
We will play at the local fair
Lá no riacho d'areia
By the sandy brook
Na casa daquele homem,
At the house of that man
Feiticeiro curador
A healer sorcerer
O dia inteiro é homem
He is a man all day
Filho de Nosso Senhor
Son of our Lord
Mas dispois da meia noite
But after midnight
É lobisomem comedor
He turns into a werewolf who eats people
Dos pagão que as mãe esqueceu
Of the unbaptized children that their mothers forgot
Do Batismo salvador
Of salvation through baptism
E tem mais dois garrafão
And there are two more bottles
Com dois canguim responsador
Filled with strong liquor
Ah! Pois sim vê se não esquece
Oh, definitely, don't forget
De trazê ruge e carmim
To bring some lipstick and rouge
Ah! Se o dinheiro desse
Oh, if only I had the money
Eu queria um trancelim
I would like a bracelet
E mais três metros de chita
And three meters of cotton fabric
Que é pra eu fazê um vestido
So I can make a dress
E ficar bem mais bonita
And look much prettier
Que Madô de Juca Dido,
Than Madô, Juca Dido's wife
Zefa de Nhô Joaquim
Or Zefa, Nhô Joaquim's daughter
Já que tu vai lá pra feira
Since you are going to the market
Meu amigo, tras essas coisinhas
My friend, bring me these things
Para mim.
For me.
Contributed by Mila O. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Airton Luna
Coisa linda, realmente. Uma grande emoção ouvir Elomar através desta dupla maravilhosa. Isto é um bálsamo nesses dias tão terríveis.
Gabriel Ferreira
🤲🤲🙏
Neide d'ávila
Mônica, Neymar trazem Elomar… perfeito! 😍
Itamar Rios
Arte da gota, bateu na veia
Eliel Freitas Jr
Rapaz
Eu até que sempre quis tocar na Viola
Mas depois dessa
Joguei os panos.. .
Lindo de mais
Leon Duarte Borges
Interpretação simplesmente maravilhosa!
Tanúrio Brito
"O Pedido" (Viva Elomar) Ficou lindo. Obrigado Mônica por mais essa preciosidade. E ao "violeiro também. Abraço aqui de FEIRA de SANTANA, Bahia.
Regina Barbosa
É a verdadeira tradução do espírito sertanejo. Adoro o trabalho de Elomar.
Regina Barbosa
Bela homenagem a Elomar. Valeu !
Ida Fonseca
Quanta beleza, meu Deus! Um trio de primeira grandeza: Elomar, Mônica e Neymar.