The First “Sound of the Aura” of Hermeto Pascoal (1984): Hearing the Spoken Voice as a Sung Melody

Abstract

This article explores the “Som da Aura”, a term created by the Brazilian composer and multi-instrumentalist Hermeto Pascoal to designate musical compositions based on the notion that the spoken voice is a non-conventional melody. I show how the “Sound of the Aura” derived from Hermeto’s intuitive childhood experimentations with the sounds of his environment, later developed into the musical use of unconventional sound patterns, such as human speech, discerned by Hermeto with his accurate hearing. I analyze the antecedents, the context and the music of the first “Sound of the Aura” to be recorded, the piece “Tiruliruli” (1984), originally a narration done by the sports announcer Osmar Santos about a goal by the soccer player, “Doutor” Socrates. The article discusses the dichotomy between the “natural” and the “conventional”, used by the composer in order to structure the “Sound of the Aura”, addressing musical, psychological, sociocultural, economic and spiritual aspects.