“My work is made of my circumstances”, says Alceu Valença

Philosophy and Literature. Sophisticated and popular. Regional and universal. The work of Alceu Valença, who turns 77 next week, mixes elements that make the musician from Pernambuco a renowned artist. In an interview with Agência Brasil, in the week of the release of his first biography, a work by writer Julio Moura, the multi-artist reflects on his main professional and life influences. Rooted in São Bento do Una, in the interior of Pernambuco, it is an important key to reading his poetry on instruments, including his powerful and arretada voice. Agência Brasil – How to understand all the influences of your work? Alceu Valença – I will not betray my music and my way of thinking. My influence goes through the culture that comes from Africa, the indigenous peoples and the Iberian Peninsula. I’m not anglophone, although I understand that musically they are great. But I have nothing to do with it. I just go out doing my thing all the time, doing it the way I want it, the way I want it and what I believe in. Agência Brasil – Society incorporated its music at different times, such as Anunciação, for example, sung for different purposes. Do you see with good eyes? Alceu Valença – Anunciação is an open work. When a child sings, he is thinking about something. When someone sings for lost love, it’s another look. It’s a song full of hope. Agência Brasil-his work mixes popular and sophisticated elements. How do you see it? Alceu Valença – Thinking like this, I was a person who read a lot. I loved philosophy. Each person has their own circumstance. As the Spaniard Ortega Y Gasset says: “I am me and my circumstances”. No one will have the same circumstance as me. I believe in the thing I do. I always believed. I don’t have that history of being proud. Not even in success that goes to the head. Agência Brasil – Does any song mean more to you? Alceu Valença – Not really. My favorite is the work as a whole. Every song has its moment. The streets I walked are the reflection of Alceu Valença who lived in Recife. Anunciação is a song that appeared in Olinda, also on my journey. I had a flute and started to learn on my own. One day I went out into the street and suddenly I started playing. Didn’t even know a song was playing. Someone said it was a beautiful song. I took a piece of paper and wrote the song. I was also inspired by my walk through Olinda, where I went out into the street. I went to the São Bento Monastery and then went back home. When I’m going to make a song, I don’t think about what I’m doing. Agência Brasil – But what inspires this intellect? Alceu Valença – I read Fernando Pessoa when I was 16 years old. I also read Eça de Queiroz. Let’s say that Carlos Drummond de Andrade was another one who influenced and moved me. As (philosopher) José Ortega Y Gasset says, I am myself and my circumstances. All my circumstances are within my work. Everything I’ve experienced is within my work and always has been. Agência Brasil – Is the invasion of technology a good thing or a bad thing? It’s good for everyone to express themselves. However, as a profession, it can become something else. Agência Brasil – But is artificial intelligence a risk? Alceu Valença – I already said this before (about the risks). (It will be possible) to have an interview, that they take my voice. In music, (may have) plagiarism. But it’s plagiarism very well done. Artificial intelligence can be a big problem. Agência Brasil – How do you analyze social networks? I am very afraid of this issue of fake news [informações falsas]. AND [algo] very complicated. You can make an edit and chip my name. Something called viral also happens on the internet. I noticed an interesting thing analyzing later. I was there in Rio de Janeiro (at the time of the Olympics) in front of a bakery. I went with my wife to the other side. Suddenly, I saw the sound of Annunciation. I sang on time. It went viral. There was no rehearsal. Anything. [Por outro lado], when I arrived in Portugal doing a show a year later, there was a moment when we went to record with very good equipment with wonderful cameras. We recorded a song, Silly Heart. And then they put it on the social network and nothing happened. Did you understand? Coração Bobo was much better recorded. And the poorly recorded one that had the most repercussions.

Agência Brasil