The pitcher is an ancient instrument that has quenched the hunger and thirst of many peoples over the centuries. In today's world, hunger and thirst arise in wars where pitchers do not reach; the pitchers that wander there neither rise nor pour — they are merely filled with echoes of emptiness, as if floating in Space, brimming with vacuum in their fullness. Meanwhile, vessels are stored in other parts of the world, hoarded. The emphasis is — and must be — on the pitcher.

Elvira is a piece inspired by the visual echoes of the woman from Minho spinning in the traditional vira dance circles across threshing floors, to the sound of native cavaquinhos and braguesas. The circle dominates visually — seen in the swirling skirts and the imagined shapes of arms raised to the sky — and it is carried into the repetitive pattern of the theme across different contexts.

This song was submitted to the 1st Contemporary Traditional Music Competition, promoted by the Tradidanças Festival 2025, having won 1st place.

In an ancient-roman city of many pathways, these intertwine within the collective imagination. The Braguesa guitar emerges from the ordinarily-singular cosmopolitan atmosphere, guiding us into an introspection where both the solitary being and the social being coexist in the common everyday life, endowing it with meaning.

This song was composed to be part of the Trajetos Comunicantes initiative within Braga 25 – Portuguese Capital of Culture 2025.

Cavaquinhazada is a musical journey where the Portuguese cavaquinho breaks free from its traditional roots to rediscover itself through dialogue with more unconventional, fringe soundscapes.