“And the sound of the water sings to our ears!”, wrote Fernando Pessoa / Álvaro de Campos in Ode Marítima (1915), the poem that Eduardo Lourenço considered “one of the greatest and most profound of which the Portuguese language can boast”.
This CD is a sound journey by the poem Naval Ode (Ode Maritima), by Álvaro de Campos, one of Fernando Pessoa's heteronyms, and is the result of the collaboration between João Grosso, interpretation, and Francisco Leal, sound design. It is an author's edition with the support of the GDA Foundation.
It is not an audiobook. Through the crossing of sound production technologies, the CD was designed to enhance the interpretation that the actor João Grosso (D. Maria II National Theatre, Lisbon) makes of Álvaro de Campos' poem, enhancing it for the phonographic format.
It also features graphic design developed by the award-winning and internationally recognized R2 Design studio, with visual care that makes the object more appealing and unique.
The division of its three tracks corresponds to the tripartite structure of the Greek odes - stanza, antistrophe and epode, alluded to by Pessoa and established by Pauly Ellen Bothe1. The poem can be simply listened to, or accompanied by simultaneous reading of the text, allowing access to the density of the verses driven by the fluidity of orality.
The sound treatment carried out by Francisco Leal on the voice is supported by a spatialization that varies the perspective and timbre of the acoustic space, stimulating constant attention when listening to the poem. It aims to highlight the rhythm, the dynamics, the speed, the emotion and subtleties of the interpretation.
The images carried by the voice do not require illustration with sounds and therefore there's a contained, minimal use of it, which signals moments of changing mood, sometimes agitated and other times of moved tenderness.
João Grosso's relationship with this poem has a long history that began in 1985, having traveled to many national and international places, including theaters, schools, and other unconventional spaces. Therefore, it establishes an experienced and mature relationship with the text itself, an understanding of its structure and the images it contains.
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The project is part of the subtheme Technopoetics - AI, Digital Media and the Future of Creativity.
Author
João Grosso
Actor, director and artistic education professor.
He graduated from Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema (ESTC), Lisbon.
He belongs to the resident cast of the D. Maria II National Theatre.
Widely awarded in theater, he also has extensive experience both in television and cinema.
Author
Francisco Leal
Sound engineer and sound designer.
He has a master’s degree in Arts and Technologies of Sound, from Escola Superior de Musica
e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE), Oporto, and classical and jazz musical training.
He was Head of the Sound at the S. João National Theatre, Oporto, for 28 years.
He worked for more than 35 years with various creators in theater, music and dance.
