DESCRIPTION:
This is part of Ensemble PHOENIX's program "Amar-te até Morrer: Brazilian Music of the 18th and 19th centuries".

Joca Perpignan - baritone & pandeiro; Omer Schonberger - baroque guitar; Myrna Herzog - viola da gamba & musical direction.

The performance was recorded and filmed by Eliahu Feldman at Beit Dondikov, Rehovot, on 17th December 2011.

"Yayá você quer morrer?" written by Xisto Bahia (1841-94) was the first piece ever to be recorded in Brazil!

Yayá, você quer morrer?
Quando morrer, morramos juntos
Que eu quero ver como cabe
Numa cova dois defuntos

Isto é bom, isto é bom, isto é bom que dói.

A saia da Carolina
Me custou cinco mil réis
Arrasta, mulata, a saia
Que eu dou mais cinco e são dez

Mulata, levanta a saia
Não deixa a renda arrastar
A saia custa dinheiro
Dinheiro custa ganhar

Os padres gostam das moças
E os solteiros também
Eu como rapaz solteiro
Gosto mais do que ninguém.

Yayá, do you wish to die?
Whenever you die, let's die together
for I wish to see how it fits
two deceased in one grave.

This is good, so good that it hurts!

Carolina's skirt
Cost me five thousand réis
Drag the skirt, mulatta,
I'll give five more and makes ten.

Mulata, raise your skirt,
Do not let the laces drag
The skirt costs money
and money is hard to earn.

The priests like young women
so do the bachelors;
As a bachelor,
I like them more than anyone.

translation by Myrna Herzog