It may be
commonplace but I had the first urge which led me to study composition while I
was still in the Conservatory. My time as a student was more or less normal and
in the last year that I had Composition Analysis and Techniques (C.A.T.). I was
perhaps lucky to have met some students from the University of Aveiro who were
doing a course in Viseu, which – in parallel with the normal classes of one of
the teachers who was Isabel Ramos -were trying to do various activities within composition (besides the
“curriculum” which is established for the 3rd year of the C.A.T.
course.). These activities were aimed at the practical side of composition: to
compose in a group, composing things other than the type of composition
included in the “curriculum” and which we have to study. Perhaps this was the
starting point. After that I entered here at the University of Aveiro and I did
the normal courses of a student, a higher course of music in the University.
Here there were a few teachers who influenced me, of
course. Important teachers for my musical path as a composer, three of whom I
could point out here. I will start by speaking of my teacher Evgueni
Zoudilkine, who was my composition teacher for some years; it was with him that
I really began to compose or to take my first steps in composition. Here and
besides the conservatory, it was with my teacher Evgueni that I began to work
and begin to understand what it was to develop a musical idea and what it is to
compose. I worked with him for 4 years. I also worked with the teacher João
Pedro Oliveira and with my teacher Isabel. With João Pedro Oliveira I worked
more with electro-acoustic music, which also made me very interested in
composition, interested in working with sound and not simply working on a
musical idea which is put down on paper which someone can eventually interpret.
It is working the sound itself and the musical idea through sound, sculpting
it, working the sound itself.It was with my teacher João Pedro
Oliveira that I began to work in this field of composition. With my teacher
Isabel Soveral, this was much later… a stage during my Degree and which had to
do with my Masters which I am now finishing. Here I not only worked on an
important part of my path as composer such as the technique of “making music”,
but also thinking about things and organising methodologies to achieve a
supposedly artistic, compositional work. She was an important teacher as I
worked a lot in this area.In terms of my educational
experience, this was more or less what influenced me most. There are also
another two institutions which played an important role and which influenced me
in one way or another. One was the Gulbenkian with “Encontros” – the famous
“Contemporary Music Encounters” of the Gulbenkian. These were really
stimulating weeks for a young composer full of all of those ideals, with that
energy to compose… in fact, when I came out of there it seemed as if I could
compose anything – well, that energy would soon evaporate afterwards! But in
any case, it was there that I came into contact with great names and with great
works which you could hear there. I think that for a young composer this
represented an energy which came from outside of the academic path and which
could make us go beyond it somewhat.
Another important institution is Miso Music. Not only
for the same reason as the “Encontros” of the Gulbenkian, or rather, for the
contact we have with composers and with various trends, but also for the
support and promotion which is given to young composers and their works. Even
if they are not “great” works, it takes courage to back these composers and
their works which may possibly not be “the ones”, but which really play a
decisive role. It is extremely important to promote concerts with these works –
and that is where Miso Music has been (and still is) a very important
institution for any young apprentice composer who wants to begin to show their
work.
The Role
of Electroacoustics and the Creative Processes
When I think of a work, I almost always think of it
now with electro-acoustics and we could say that it is almost a “sacrilege” to
have this resource available and not use it and develop it in a work. Obviously
with a large orchestra (with the resources that a young composer does not have)
you can also achieve results which may be similar or, maybe, even better than
with electro-acoustics. But in fact, when I now think of a work or of writing a
new work, I always think of doing it with electro-acoustics, with the computer,
working the sound itself. Therefore… I practically no longer think about
writing for a “classic” string quartet. But if I did a string quartet, or if I
was asked to do a string quartet, I would try to have a string quartet with
electro-acoustics. And this is due to what interests me about composition:
working on sound, the work of exploring timbres, working timbres, on the sound
itself. It can be done with sound and with derivations, not only in
electro-acoustic terms, but also through electro-acoustic processes which act
on the sound. Well, you can perform similar operations and ideas to those in
instrumental writing… all based on the work you do on the computer, with
software which works with sound. When I have to write something as an
instrumental, this electro-acoustic idea is always present. Of course when I am
thinking of writing something only for instruments, even where there is no
electro-acoustics, it will be there somehow, the idea will be connected to it
somehow; the timbric and textural treatment that I will apply to the acoustic
material that I want to develop will have a lot to do with the electro-acoustic
material.
I also use both possibilities (concrete sounds and
transformations) because this is sometimes necessary to achieve a given
objective and a certain idea I may have about what it is I want to work on.
Lately, the works I have done are more based on sonic objects, essentially
taken from the sounds of instruments with which I work on in the instrumental
pieces and which have electro-acoustics. In this sense, the sonic synthesis is
not so present.The way in which I
work the objects and how the instruments are used is by using programs which
synthesise sound to transform these very objects. And also to create my
instrumental electro-acoustic vocabulary, which eventually includes the
synthesis of sound.
The transformations… this has motivated me, but
there is an essentially practical question, which is a lack of knowledge on my
part in this area in real time. And Miso Music has given, - well it has given
more, now it seems that the courses have not been so active – very important
courses which were done with Max/MSP and others, but which I did not take full
advantage of at the time. It is also the case that during my curricular plan
here in the University this area was not greatly elaborated and so I have a gap
which prevents me from exploring this area in a more interesting way. This
exploration would be much more empirical and so it is best not to go any
further.
The first piece that I have in my catalogue, Pequena Almofada, is a
“children’s” piece I did while I was still in the Conservatory. It was that
starting point for the composition students to create various activities based
around composition. One of them was an in-house competition in the school where
I received my first prize (if that is what a composition prize is); in any
case, it was a motivation for me and for me to think that I could learn
composition. It wasn’t such an important composition prize in the sense of the
prize in itself, from the Institution which gives it, etc., but it was important.
I believe that it was from this point on that I understood that a composition
could be viewed differently and to then try to look at composition more
seriously in my life. This children’s piece, based on Ostinato, is no great
shakes in compositional terms but at the time it served exactly this purpose.
In relation
to the following pieces… the piece for guitar Pitina
was perhaps my first piece while at University, where I began to use a more
structured manner of thinking andmore related with composition in more “serious” terms although it was
naturally still a very incipient work.This exploration, at the beginning of my academic studies, shall we say,
already had something to do with the study of sound, with a concern to explore
the instrument, an exploration of uncommon instrumental gestures and which are
typical of contemporary music. To explore the gestures of playing an instrument
in a non-conventional manner and from there to also take non-conventional
sounds. This is what my piece already reflects, even at the early stages of my
learning. I did it within the context of my string quartet the name of which
had to be altered to Quarteto de Cordas Evgueni when I
registered it for copyright… There must be hundreds of string quartets and I
ended up by paying tribute to this teacher who influenced me a lot and who
helped me a lot in my compositional development.
It is a
piece which I think is important and basically the thinking that was behind it
represents a kind of work with sonic fields, clouds or sonic aggregates, which
change and in which some aggregates move into others through microtonal
processes. I worked the microtones and created sonic fields wherever the piece
went. It is possibly an interesting piece… at least for me it was important and
was part of my learning process.
Then came the electroacoustic pieces… Both Apocalíptica and Viagem were
very important pieces for the discoveries I made concerning new possibilities.
To compose the sound itself, to work the sound itself... These pieces were really
important, principally in this aspect of timbric work, the development of
sounds made only on the computer through the synthesis of sound, which I made…
Obviously the software is created by various people and there may be very
similar sounds, but perhaps in these pieces there are sounds which are more
“mine” than in other pieces. And in this sense they were also very important
pieces in my musical career.
The piece Viagem
ended up by being important in another way because it won a prize (although Apocalíptica
also received an honourable mention and was very important as it is a piece
that I like a lot). Both are pieces which, in my opinion, are interesting due
to this work with sound, and not only with the representation of sound, which
is an important difference.
In relation
to Mousikomanía I and II,
these are works where I thought more in spatial terms, or rather in using space
in the work, both in space and in their execution. They have not been played
yet, but at least the work and thinking behind Mousikomanía II
for chamber orchestra, which has to do with resonant spatial placement, without
electro-acoustics, but which is related with what I had studied in
electro-acoustics, or rather that electro-acoustic thinking which is also
present in the instrumental pieces.
The spatial developments in my writing itself are more
notable in Mousikomanía
II and have to do with the very location of the musicians. Most of the
musicians are on the stage with the conductor and then there is the spatial
placement of a percussionist, which will have a number of instruments “above”
the orchestra musicians. At the end of the hall there are another two
percussionists with another series of instruments and where I can possibly move
the various sounds produced. Lastly, at an even higher level and above these
percussionists, there will be a horn section which also play at a certain
moment in the piece. And this piece was not conceived for a virtual space, it
was actually conceived for a real space which is the auditorium of the Music
Department at the University, which has a metal structure where the lights are
placed, for example. Another idea I had is that, when putting on a concert in a
place like this, the musicians could possibly be suspended… Well, it’s just a
thought, but the works haven’t been played yet…
The Contemplations
cycle is constituted by pieces where I see myself again as a composer and which
explore more of that which I prefer to work on as a composer, which is
electroacoustic music with instruments. Of course I also like to work with
instruments – what sort of composer doesn’t? But I like to blend both worlds, I
don’t like to use only instruments or only “solo” electroacoustics, I like to
create works which end up perhaps a little more complex to perform because the
electroacoustic part is not in real time. It is prepared in the studio and its
interpretation becomes more complicated: if the musician drags a little or gets
ahead, it is obvious that things won’t happen in the right place. And that is
why the pieces are not so easy for the interpreter.
At least
these pieces have all had their debut and been played, one of them in the
Música Viva Festival last year, which was Contemplation III,
for string quintet, piano and electronics. The others… Contemplation I,
which is for two guitars and tape, and Contemplation II,
which is for saxophone and tape, are pieces where I – knowing the musicians for
whom I composed them and with whom I worked a lot – did not write with the
musicians but very much “used” them to extract the sounds which I wanted to
work in the piece, and to discuss possible technical problems which might arise
in the execution, etc. These pieces already reflect well what I think or the
idea that I want to actually compose. And they are also pieces which are
connected by the “starter motor” which is the timbre, timbric work with
resonant objects, timbric metamorphoses operated via the computer or
instrumental metamorphoses which I operate on each instrument throughout the piece.
This was what was most important for me and was my fundamental concern in these
pieces: this sonic, timbric work of exploration of mine is transversal to all
the pieces of this group, I think. In some pieces the transformation of timbre
is very pronounced, because they are sounds which are eventually played on the
instrument and which are then put on tape, they are then transformed and return
to the instrument transformed in some new way. But essentially they are pieces
in which the main work, the main concern was the sound, the transformation of
the sound, the timbre, in spite of being – well – anchored within an
organisation into what might be semi-serial structures, whether in pitch or
rhythm.
In these
pieces the harmonic material is similar but not part of the same source – the
harmonic and rhythmic treatment is similar, it is worked with the same models –
but what unites them is more the manner in which the sound is worked, or
rather, the timbric work, whether from the instruments or from the electronic
and acoustic metamorphoses which are employed in all aspects.
For now, this is a cycle which closes here, which also
had to do with the practical work in my Masters Degree, for which I needed to
present a project. The project consisted in producing a cycle of works which
included electroacoustic instruments, mixed works, and as these timbric
concerns are part of the dissertation for my Masters, my work dealt with that.
Of course,
this topic will be very present in the pieces which I will continue to compose,
and this timbric work is something which I want to continue to explore.