The show “Ana Person sings to the Earth Charter”, presented to the public for the first time last June 4th in Sao Paulo, Brazil, intends to make people understand the Earth Charter. It is based on the research of its content, the words, the melodic quality, the rhythmic diversity, and the four main Earth Charter principles. The repertoire consists of 16 interactive songs, impregnated with talks of the artist with the public.
The participating musicians were as follows:
Ana Person – voice, guitar, percussion
Cristiane Otutumi – flutes and vocal
Babi Bergamini – percussion and vocal
Gabi Person – special participation
It was an involving spectacle with moments of reflection, emotion and perception of life’s interdependence.
This is her story on how the songs were created:
Creation of “Utopia” and “New Trends” – lyrics and music from Ana Person
It all began with a telephone call from Oscar Motomura on a rainy day, February 14, 2009, proposing the challenge of composing an Earth Charter song. He guided me to feel the spirit of the Earth Charter, that the songs would move with the actions, that I would not attach to the intellectual text of the official document, that I would remember the central theme which is to honor life, try to understand what peoples want, convey the idea that everything is connected, no justice no peace, with Brazilian rhythm and joyful…
The song “Utopia” was created especially inspired in Spacca’s cartoons on the Earth Charter theme. I literally bent over the cartoons and found myself immersed in a funny process of presenting work plans with the images until they would match the music and the lyrics in the following order: principle I, III, II and IV.
I looked for a relaxed and happy rhythm, vitality in the lyrics and very Brazilian. For the concept of the final arrangement I thought about bass drum, triangle and guitar, deep voice in solo (Arnaldo Antunes), other voices and accordion. Without much emotiveness and focused on interactivity.
The song “New Trends” was made focusing on emotiveness, reflection and inspired on the feelings that I perceived from the Earth Charter text.
I looked for a more elaborated melody with a slow rhythm, the concept of a piano arrangement, voices, strong percussion in the second part in a crescendo and strong voices. I chose attractive words of the Earth Charter and included them into the lyrics of the song. I attended the “Mutation Point” documentary, read the book “Presence” by Peter Senge, checked the notes and suggestions of my talk with Oscar Motomura regarding the topic, red the book “Coexist and improve” by Francisco do Espirito Santo Neto, had family dialogues, made drafts and endless attempts, consulted the Earth Charter text several times, read the book “Hado – hidden messages in the water” by Massaru Emoto. It took me ten days to compose from March 23 to April 3, 2009.