Francisco del Pino, Decir
Francisco del Pino, Decir
Decir—“to say”—is the debut seven-piece song cycle from Francisco del Pino, an award-winning Argentine composer who journeys the folds between classical and vernacular traditions. Imagined as the staging of a long poem, Decir was scored for voice, electric guitar, viola, and percussion, with lyrics by Argentine poet Victoria Cóccaro; Spanish to English translations were aided by Rebekah Smith. Cecilia Pastorino, a classically trained soprano—an acclaimed figure in South America’s folk scene—sings Cóccaro’s haunting lyrics of migration, displacement, and the rise of historically silenced voices.
es intentar (it’s to intend)
es entrar (it’s to enter)
es estar (it’s to be in)
es partir (it’s to break)
es borrar (it’s to erase)
es tallar (it’s to cut)
las piedras (the stones)
es escuchar (it’s to listen)
es intentar (it’s to intend)
es entrar (it’s to enter)
es estar (it’s to be)
es partir (it’s to break)
es borrar (it’s to erase)
desde el fondo (from the bottom)
es escuchar (it’s to listen to)
los huesos (the bones)
es para unos (it’s for some)
para otros (for others)
no es escribir (it’s not to write)
es esperar (it’s to wait for)
el nombre (the name)
es entrar (it’s to enter)
en las rocas (the rocks)
es escuchar (it’s to listen)
sobre el suelo (on the ground)
el ruido al cortar (to the sound cutting)
en el borde (the border)
es decir (it’s to say)
– “territorio” (“territory”), track 7, the final track
Cóccaro, a poet, essayist, and researcher from Buenos Aires, is the author of the poetry chapbooks El plan (Colección Chapita) and Hotel (Colección Chapita, Gigante). She has written on the body’s role in contemporary South American poetry for various academic journals; her current research and writing covers contemporary literature in Argentina and Brazil. del Pino, a guitarist and Ph.D. fellow in composition at Princeton University, whose work is often based on extensive contrapuntal techniques, draws influence from both classical notated music and contemporary pop, rock, and folk genres. His works have been presented in a variety of music series and festivals across the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
“We work with different mediums,” says del Pino, “but we both share an inclination toward pattern and process in our writing.” In Decir, the artists’ shared inclinations come together. Created during a process of profound collaboration, the work originated as a homonymous 50-minute theatrical concert of songs and poetry commissioned by Teatro Argentino de La Plata Centro de Experimentación y Creación.
The song cycle begins as a meditation on the materiality of writing.
una letra sobre otra sobre (one letter over another over)
otra sobre (another over)
otra: (another:)
una mancha (a stain)
negra, un golpe (black, a strike)
no (no)
una mancha (a stain)
sobre otra sobre (over another over)
una letra ahora (a letter now)
una puerta verde, un golpe (a green door, a strike)
no (no)
melodía del golpe (a melody of the blow)
y a través de la piel (and through the skin)
una letra (a letter)
sobre (over)
no (no)
– “la puerta” (“the door”), track 1
Decir then unfolds to explore notions of territory, both in a topographical and sociocultural sense. The song titles—“el viento” (“the wind”), “el agua” (“the water”), “la piedra” (“the stone”), “el campo” (“the country”)—serve as a sort of map, leading the listener across a landscape, animating the spirit, enlivening the body. Like the wind moves across the water, the stones, the country, the breath passes through the skin, the bones, the being—the body announces its presence, the voice becomes a place.
primero el cuerpo (first the body)
primero el lugar (first the place)
primero el suelo (first the ground)
primero el viento (first the wind)
primero el golpe (first the strike)
sobre el suelo (over the ground)
sobre el suelo, el peso (over the ground the weight)
el peso de estar— (the weight of being—)
respirá (breathe)
—estás (there)
a cielo abierto (to the open air)
estás— (there—)
en el campo (in the field)
afuera (outside)
el sonido está siempre (the sound is always)
afuera y vos (outside and you)
estás (are)
– “el campo” (“the country”), track 2
“For the past few years, not only in southern Latin America, but also in Europe, in the United States, and other areas, public spaces have been occupied by bodies, by voices,” says Cóccaro. “These bodies, these voices, often cry out for those who are no longer with us. The voices of those who are not in the voices of those who are.”
las voces de las que no (the voices of those that no)
las voces de las que si (the voices of those that yes)
vuelven (return)
– “las voces” (“the voices”), track 6
Structured in a series of seven songs, the music acts as a response to the lyrics—absorbing the words, echoing them back with new meaning. During the recital, Decir is augmented with visuals by Argentine artist Maximiliano Bellmann; with the lyrics projected on a wall, handwritten in real-time by Cóccaro, a geometric chain of mountains appears—a topographic representation of both the words and music. (Bellmann’s art is featured on the record’s cover).
del Pino’s vision is ethereal, yet heavy, distinguished, yet humble—and always beautiful.
“Decir is my most direct musical work so far,” he says. “Many of my most cherished influences are there—folk, rock, and post-rock songwriting intertwined with process-based musical structures, extensive use of counterpoint, and a mathematical approach to the musical form.”
del Pino has a rich background in playing with eclectic bands and ensembles, ranging from contemporary classical music to prog-oriented rock to South American folk. (His current performance projects include alba par, a voice and guitar duo navigating the crossroads between the medieval and renaissance chanson and the contemporary popular song).
"Decir embraces diversity as its natural home,” says del Pino. “The music explores the seams between classical notated music and contemporary pop, rock, and folk genres, and was written for, and performed by, a group of Argentinian musicians that are active in both worlds.”
“Perhaps decir, ‘to say,’ is a way of making the body present,” says Cóccaro. “Perhaps decir, ‘to say,’ is a way of making a voice become a place.”
Decir, the debut seven-piece song cycle from Francisco del Pino, is an abstract exercise in transforming words into worlds (and vice versa). Throughout the work, many bodies, many mediums, host many voices. Decir has much to say. We need only be ready to listen.
