“Ricardo Tacuchian” – A brazilian composer ahead of his time

Ricardo Tacuchian (1939-) is one of the most performed Brazilian composers today. Starting since the 1960s, his work has about 250 titles, according to the book Ricardo Tacuchian e sua obra: catálogo e notas biográficas (2014) edited by FBN (Fundação Biblioteca Nacional) and organized by Elizeth Higino and Valéria Peixoto. Tacuchian’s catalog also contains 23 titles for voice and piano, written throughout his compositional career. They constitute a significant portion of his compositional universe and, therefore, deserve further reflection. The music-poetry complicity is evident in his production and, according to him, “a third is formed by music with texts. The choice to use poetry as the guiding thread of my music reflects the reading habit that I acquired in childhood and that accompanies me to this day” (TACUCHIAN, 2009). The very important brazilians poets like Manuel Bandeira (1886-1968), Cecília Meireles (1901-19640), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902-1987) and Vinicius de Moraes (1913-1980) were set to music by him. Perceiving this interaction and the way the composer constructed it, manipulating the rhythmic, harmonic, melodic and musical expression elements, demands from the performer an analytical study that is configured as an initial stage for its interpretative elaboration.