Classic and Historical Backlands in Elomar Figueira Mello

The literary-musical production of Elomar Figueira Mello is marked by the ubiquity of the theme of backland. The analysis of the letters of the songs from the album Na quadrada das águas perdidas, disc recorded by Elomar in 1978, allows us to distinguish, in such compositions, three meanings, or three “levels” of backland: a “classic” or “ideal” backland, which is based in Elomar’s conviction of the existence, in a indeterminate past, of an interior territory inhabited by people who guided his actions based on feelings of justice, dignity, honor, nobility and courage; a “historical-geographical hinterland”, that emerges from the references made by the composer to places and characters – singers, drovers, men of the hinterland – of the Sertão da Ressaca, southwest of Bahia region; and, at last, a “deep backland” or “internal backland”, the backland resulting of artistic creation, hinterland that is constructed by the specific aesthetic and poetic work of the composer. This paper seeks to address, in more detailed form, through examination of the letter of song Canto de guerreiro mongoió, the Elomar’s representations of historical and geographical hinterland where the composer is included as an individual and as an artist - the Sertão da Ressaca.