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.

retirada
Elomar Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Vai pela estrada enluarada
Tanta gente a retirar
Levando só necessidade
Saudades do seu lugar

Esse povo muito longe
Sem trabalho, vem prá cá
Vai na estrada enluarada

Tanta gente a retirar
Um ano para a cidade
Sem vontade de chegar
Passa dia, passa tempo
Passa o mundo devagar
Lembrança passa com o vento
Pedindo não retirar
Tudo passa nesse mundo
Só não passa o sofrimento
Na estrada enluarada
Tanta gente a retirar
Sem saber que mais adiante
Um retirante vai ficar
Se eu tivesse algum querer

Nesse mundo de ilusão
Não deixava que a saudade associada com penar
Vivesse pelas estradas do sofrer a mendigar
Vai pela estrada enluarada
Tanta gente a retirar
Levando nos ombros a cruz
Que Jesus deixou ficar

Eu não canto por saber
Nem tanto por reclamar
Tenho minha vida de labuta
Canto o prazer, canto a dor

Que às vezes até labuto
O que Deus do céu não mandou
Vai pela estrada enluarada
Tanta gente a retirar

Passando com traça e vento
Bebendo fel e luar

Overall Meaning

The song Retirada by Elomar depicts the struggles faced by people who are forced to leave their homes and embark on a journey towards an uncertain future. The lyrics describe a moonlit road filled with people who are all headed towards the same destination - away from their homes and towards a city where they hope to find work and a better life. Despite carrying only the bare necessities, the people are burdened with the weight of nostalgia and longing for their homeland.

The song speaks about the pain and suffering that the people endure during their journey. It speaks about the passage of time, and how memories fade away with the wind. Despite everything changing in this world, the suffering of these people remains constant. The song also highlights the idea that, while many people leave their homes, not all of them will make it to their destination, and some will be forced to remain as a "retirante" - someone who has had to leave their home due to difficult conditions.

Line by Line Meaning

Vai pela estrada enluarada
Traveling on the moonlit road

Tanta gente a retirar
So many people leaving, withdrawing

Levando só necessidade
Taking only what is necessary

Saudades do seu lugar
Missing their place

Esse povo muito longe
This people far away

Sem trabalho, vem prá cá
Without work, they come here

Um ano para a cidade
A year in the city

Sem vontade de chegar
Without desire to arrive

Passa dia, passa tempo
Days pass by, time passes slowly

Passa o mundo devagar
The world turns slowly

Lembrança passa com o vento
Memories pass with the wind