No Meio do Caminho [In the Middle of the Road] for solo percussion 2011 17’ First performance: January 23, 2014 Riverside (CA), USA, Culver Center of the Arts Joaquim Abreu, percussion Live recording of the first performance The piece uses a set of percussion and a marimba of 5 octaves. The percussion is organized in three groups: a group of drums (bongos, congas, tom-­‐toms, alfaia, bass drum), a group of cymbals, and a group of woodblocks and temple blocks. The form of the piece is inspired by the poem "No Meio do Caminho” (In the Middle of the Road) by the Brazilian poet Carlos Drummond de Andrade. The percussionist declaims the poem while playing the percussion. The poem of two verses emphasizes two main phrases that are constantly repeated and permutated from the beginning to the end. The music refers to the structure of the poem by creating elements that are both in synchrony and asynchrony with the text. The temporality of the poem is transformed by a long interlude at the end of the first verse and a coda at the end of the second verse. The composition develops a sort of orchestration by exploring the sonority of the drums, cymbals and blocks. The game of similarities and parallels between the families of instruments is articulated by a rhythmic structure that alternates different meters, and a dynamic structure unfolding strong contrasts and movements of crescendo and decrescendo. This game is interpolated by others more static elements. The linearity of the poem is constantly transformed by insertions into the musical narrative: for instance the musical reverberations that expand the temporality of the syllables and the two interludes of the marimba. Finally, the music creates continuously symmetries and asymmetries as semiotic interpretations of the poem, which, at the same time, transcend the meaning of the text. No Meio do Caminho In the Middle of the Road Carlos Drummond de Andrade Carlos Drummond de Andrade No meio do caminho tinha uma pedra In the middle of the road it was a stone tinha uma pedra no meio do caminho it was a stone in the middle of the road tinha uma pedra it was a stone no meio do caminho tinha uma pedra in the middle of the road it was a stone. Nunca me esquecerei desse acontecimento I will never forget that event na vida de minhas retinas tão fatigadas. in the life of my so tired eyes. Nunca me esquecerei que no meio do caminho I will never forget that in the middle of the road tinha uma pedra it was a stone tinha uma pedra no meio do caminho it was a stone in the middle of the road no meio do caminho tinha uma pedra in the middle of the road it was a stone