The mask and the echo: music and (auto) biography in Marilyn Moore, by Manuel de Freitas

Abstract

In the contemporary work of the Portuguese poet Manuel de Freitas, the reference to the musical universe, especially regarding popular songs and the experiences of their composers and interpreters, has great importance. In this article, I will discuss one of the elements related to this phenomenon, namely: the poetic fictionalization of some musician’s biographies in Marilyn Moore, a collection of poems published by Freitas in 2011, and dedicated to the American jazz singer who gives name to the book. It is, in my view, a process in which the poetic text is conceived as an echo and reverberation of the musical experience and that, at the same time, propitiates metapoetic approach, through the artifice of the allegorical mask and the writing "in duet".