The Calendar of Sound of Hermeto Pascoal (1996)

In this article I take an ethnomusicological look at the Calendar of Sound – Calendário do Som – a musical corpus made up of 366 compositions prepared on a day to day basis by the Brazilian composer, arranger and multi-instrumentalist, Hermeto Pascoal, during the period 1996 - 1997, and published in the year 2000. The Calendário do Som is a popular sacred work. Its 366 autograph scores, one for each day of the year, were composed as a birthday present for all human beings, including those born in leap years. Through the publication, Hermeto Pascoal wants to transmit a message of brotherly peace, as a musical antidote to violence, racism, social inequality and ecological imbalance in Brazil and in the contemporary world. In addition to the musical notation, the scores contain illustrations, commentaries and memories about his family or related to certain musicians, friends, characters, dates and places, either real or fictitious, thus exemplifying interconnected aspects of the career, personality and innovative musical system of Hermeto Pascoal.