Bachianas Brasileiras No 5 - Heitor Villa - Lobos

The moon is a pretty girl, wanting
to look her best; but for whom in this dark
world, does she long ? She sings to the quantum
of the music’s moons about the moon arcs,

in precession round her cantilena.
Her vocalise threshes her sorrow,
so that every woman is Selena,
at her most vulnerable, on borrowed

time, that she will have to catch up on.
The pizzicato trickles away her dust,
drips till the Earth’s rain and seas are gone.
This aria is for women, who trust

to desolation, never made up for,
no matter how punctually the moon soars.

Woodford Halse - 18 June 2025

The Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos ( 1887 - 1959) composed the 5th of the Bachianas Brasileiras between 1938 and 1945. The lyric part contains styles of song and references that belong to the mountains of the State of Ceara in the North-east.