Três Contos de Cortázar

Três Contos de Cortázar (“Three Tales by Cortázar”) is a piano cycle composed in 1992, directly inspired by the literature of Argentine writer Julio Cortázar. Gilberto Mendes selected three of Cortázar’s short stories — Diálogo de ruptura, Ventos alisios, and Apocalipse de Solentiname — and sought to musically evoke their atmosphere or narrative structure. Each title corresponds to one of the movements, forming a kind of narrative suite for solo piano. This work reflects Mendes’s ongoing interest in the relationship between text and music, as well as his affinity for Latin American cultural currents. Cortázar, with his blend of magical realism and experimental narrative techniques, had become an emblem of literary modernity across the continent. With Três Contos de Cortázar, Mendes pays homage to a fellow artist from a neighbouring country, forging a link between musical composition and literary imagination.

Each movement corresponds to one of the three stories and may be approached independently:

The first, Diálogo de ruptura (“Breakup Dialogue”), likely captures the dramatic tension of a conversation leading to emotional or relational separation. Pianistically, Mendes may employ alternating motifs as musical “lines” of dialogue, with rhetorical silences, sharp dynamic contrasts, and shifting registers — the bass perhaps responding to the treble — to evoke clashing voices and moments of emotional rupture.

The second movement, Ventos alisios (“Trade Winds”), suggests a more contemplative atmosphere. The title evokes steady maritime breezes, implying a sense of travel or endless motion. Musically, Mendes may construct this section with gently flowing arpeggios or oscillating textures, layered with subtle melodic fragments. The result is a kind of perpetual-motion fabric with slight, evolving variations — an aesthetic not far from postminimalism, inviting immersive listening.

The final movement, Apocalipse de Solentiname, refers to one of Cortázar’s most celebrated short stories, in which an apocalyptic vision emerges while viewing photographs of a peasant commune — a powerful allegory of political violence in Latin America. This closing movement is likely the most dramatic. Mendes may deploy percussive sonorities, hammering chords, and extreme contrasts of tempo and register to represent musical “shocks” akin to the story’s visual violence. Clusters, sudden ruptures, and abrupt intensifications could mirror Cortázar’s jarring narrative turns.

Although the three movements are independent in character, the work as a whole maintains coherence through subtle motivic recurrences and a shared harmonic language. Analysts have noted, for instance, Mendes’s frequent use of specific intervals (such as the minor second) across all three pieces — a quiet thread that binds the suite. The total duration is approximately 14 minutes, making this one of Mendes’s most ambitious solo piano works in terms of expressive scope.

Três Contos de Cortázar was premiered in Brazil in 1992, most likely by pianist Antônio Eduardo Santos, a long-time interpreter of Mendes’s piano music. In 1993, it was programmed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art as part of the Summergarden series, with pianist Stephen Gosling delivering a much-praised performance. American critics lauded the work’s evocative power, calling it “a striking musical reading of Cortázar’s literary universe.”

In Brazil, the piece earned Mendes the prestigious APCA Award (Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte) in 1994, in recognition of his bold synthesis of literature and musical expression. Though the work demands a high-level performer — both technically and interpretively — it has since been performed across numerous Latin American contemporary music festivals.

Partial recordings appear in Beatriz Balzi’s Compositores Latino-Americanos collection, which includes Diálogo de ruptura and Apocalipse de Solentiname as stand-alone works. Today, the cycle is frequently studied in Brazilian conservatoires as a model of intertextual composition — a work that transposes Cortázar’s narrative imagination into musical form, and a key contribution to Mendes’s literary-influenced output.