Edição original em LP Alvorada/Melodia MEL 362
(PORTUGAL, 1980)
Frederico de Freitas was one of Portugal’s most prolific composers, whose highly successful ballets are inspired by local folklore and romance. "The Dance of the Foolish Girl" is a work of exuberant musical vitality about a timid village girl who turns out to be the loveliest of them all. "The Medieval Suite" conjures ‘the fragrance of medieval Portuguese poetry’, while dances, songs and ‘fiestas’ are evoked in the lively Ribatejo. "The Medieval Suite" was written after the completion of the composer’s opera "A Igreja do Mar" ("The Church of the Sea"). In the composer’s own words, he felt the need “after a complex polyphonic and sometime polytonal work, to compose a contrasting work whose melodic and harmonic structure is inspired by the fragrance of medieval Portuguese poetry”. The Suite’s harmonic structure is pre-classical, almost modal, with rare modulations into distant keys. It has 6 contrasting mono-thematic movements whose respective main themes are repeated often, although in different instrumentations and with slight variations. Their titles are medieval and not easily translatable: 1. Bailia (baile or ball): a dance (Allegro vivo ma non troppo); 2. Serena (serene / serenade / night music): a nocturnal song about unrequited love (Andante largo, Mesto); 3. Serranilha (serra or mountain range): a song from the mountains (Tempo di pastorale, Moderato); 4. Cantar de Amigo (A friend’s song): a well-known poem by King Dom Dinis (1261–1325) (Andante affettuoso); 5. Cantarcilho (cantar or song): a well-known Iberian poetic-musical form (Allegretto); 6. Jogralesca (jogral or jester): a medieval jester’s dance (Allegro con spirito). From an instrumental viewpoint, the suite follows quite closely a chamber music or “concertante” approach. Each movement is scored differently (all instruments appear in the last movement only), and each one, except for the first, features different and very delicately handled solo instruments. The second is written for solo flute and strings, a reflective “pause” contrasting with the flowing feeling of the other movements. The work is scored for one flute, pairs of oboes, clarinets, bassoons, horns, trumpets, timpani, percussion, harp and (reduced) strings.