Adriana Lisboa's My World: “When I started to become a professional musician, I had no more time for writing”

Born in Rio de Janeiro, award-winning Brazilian author and poet Adriana Lisboa has, from childhood, been infused with a love of music – reflecting a nationwide spirit. “In Brazil,” she explains, “it’s ingrained in the soul – a way of manifesting feeling.” The country’s geographical location has long welcomed a wide mix of influences, leading to a vibrant cultural outpouring. “One of the bands that I really like,” says Lisboa, by way of example, “that was active in the 1970s is called Os Novos Baianos. They would mix folkloric instruments with electric guitar and drums. Nobody had done that before. So Brazilian music has an ability, I think, to put together things that wouldn’t normally fit in a very creative and unique way.” Lisboa’s parents were musical. “My mother played the guitar very well,” she recalls, “she passed away ten years ago. I have her guitar with me now. My father was a great singer with a tenor voice. They used to do informal gatherings at home to play what we call MPB [Música Popular Brasileira], Brazilian Popular Music. I started playing the guitar myself when I was around 13 or 14. I played alongside my mother.”

Lisboa has many fond memories of such occasions. “They used to play a lot of Chico Buarque,” she says, “There was this one song that my mother was very fond of called ‘Gente Humilde’ [Humble People]. When I think of her playing the guitar, that’s always the song that comes to mind. And my father was a big fan of Orlando Silva.” Born in 1944, Chico Buarque, like Lisboa, is a multi-disciplinary artist, singer-songwriter, composer, guitarist, poet, writer and playwright whose works often tackle social and cultural themes. Known as ‘O Ídolo das Multidões’ (Idol of the Multitudes), Orlando Silva (1915-1978) was, as Lisboa explains, “one of Brazil’s great singers of the 20th century. He was also a great influence on [bossa nova pioneer] João Gilberto.” Lisboa herself initially pursued a professional music career. “I started with the guitar,” she says, “and then transitioned… I played electric bass for a while, and then when I was about 17 or 18, I discovered the flute.” She expounds: “The flute has a very important role in Brazilian popular music, especially choro.” With a typical ensemble featuring a guitar, flute and cavaquinho (small, four-stringed chordophone), choro (which means ‘crying’) originated in Rio in the 19th century. Despite its name, choro is upbeat and rhythmic. Like jazz, it contains elements of improvisation.

At the age of just 18, Lisboa spent a year in France. “I had this opportunity,” she explains, “a friend was going, and he played guitar. We decided to go together, and we made our living playing Brazilian music in bars and restaurants. It was a great experience for me.” The duo played popular music, which, as Lisboa explains, has a different meaning for Brazilians. “By MPB, we don’t mean pop,” she says, “we would categorise [composer and singer] Caetano Veloso and bossa nova artists as MPB, completely different from rock and so forth.” Veloso is one of Lisboa’s favourite musicians. “For me,” she says, “he’s really a genius. And he’s been reinventing himself. Every new album is different. It’s really striking.” After 12 months, Lisboa returned home. “I was never a performer,” she says, “if I was to evaluate the pleasure I was getting from playing against the stress and anxiety, the stress and anxiety were definitely bigger.”

Back in Brazil, Lisboa attended the Federal State University in Rio, earning a degree in music, before achieving a graduate degree in Brazilian Literature and a PhD in Comparative Literature, both from Rio de Janeiro State University. “I abandoned my ambitions as a musician,” she says, “I had always written throughout my whole life, but when I was starting to become a professional musician, I had no more time for writing. When I wasn’t teaching music classes, I was rehearsing. I decided that I would make the effort and try to become a professional writer on the very day that I had my recital for my music degree. The recital went well, and when it was over, I said, ‘I’m not going to do this anymore.’ That’s when I wrote my first novel [Os Fios da Memória – Threads of Memory]. I was about 26.” Since then, Lisboa has risen to become one of Brazil’s most successful modern authors, with her short stories, novels and children’s books translated into more than a dozen languages. Her literary honours include the José Saramago Prize of Literature (for 2001’s Sinfonia em Branco) and a Brazilian National Library Fellowship.

Despite this change of creative direction, music continues to play an important role in Lisboa’s writing. “It’s present all the time,” she affirms. “Often, I conceive a literary work as a piece of music. For instance, with my third novel [Um Beijo de Colombina (Colombine’s Kiss)], I thought of that novel as a bossa nova kind of piece. It’s set in Rio, my hometown, and I wanted to have that vibe, so I was listening to bossa nova while writing.” In another of her books, Hanoi, music is more explicitly in evidence. “The main character is a trumpet player,” she says, “so I conceived that novel as a sort of jam session. He meets people and plays with them, not in a musical sense, but at a relational level.” This creative crossover continues into Lisboa’s poetry, a form of expression which is innately connected to sound. “[With poetry] …I have a much more acute sense of rhythm and melody,” agrees Lisboa, “The kind of sound you get from each vowel, it’s much more nuanced, and you have a much closer relationship with the text and with the words themselves.”

For her poetry, Lisboa cites a perhaps surprising influence – experimental composer John Cage. “He’s been a great source of inspiration since I was 15,” she enthuses, “when I saw him in concert, by chance. His research on violence and noise and music, and what’s the difference between those? When is it noise, and when is it music? That informs a lot of my poetry. I have many poems dedicated to John Cage.” Now in the US, Lisboa continues to juggle creative projects. “I have a new book of poetry,” she says, “and a new novel coming out in Brazil next month.” Arriving back to music, Lisboa has also collaborated with Brazilian pianist and composer Jocy de Oliveira. “She is one of Brazil’s most important composers who has worked with Stravinsky and John Cage,” says Lisboa. “I wrote a fictional piece based on her work, which I interviewed her for. She really liked it and transformed it into a script.” The result is Realejo de Vida e Morte / Realejo dos Mundos, an atypical book containing Lisboa’s Oliveira-inspired novel and the script which Oliveira created after reading the novel; it will soon be made into a film. Despite her dedication to the written word, music continues to inhabit Adriana Lisboa’s work, flowing onto the page with all the colour and life of a festival on the streets of Rio de Janeiro.

+ Adriana Lisboa’s latest novel is Os Grandes Carnívoros. Books available in English include Symphony in White and Crow Road