Styles of Composition, Languages,
Experiences and Projects
In fact, there are various styles of
composition in me. Basically, I like to feel that I am a professional. Or
rather, I get up, begin at nine and work until two, then have lunch or eat
something and then I work from three till seven. I don’t believe in
inspiration, inspiration is something for amateurs. Amateurs need to go to the
countryside to see the birds, and things like that... Imagine if Mozart had to
go and be inspired, he would open a travel agency! He would have had no chance!
What I have is essentially an idea which is not
musical. I have a basic idea, be it ideological or philosophical, about what I
will do and then, during the work, the “graft”, it comes out in response to
this idea. Therefore, it’s not so much “I have a theme, or I have a chord
sequence, or a series or whatever, that I think is very nice” No, I first think
and then the things come out, music is put to work for the ideas I have. This
happens always. Of course there are very small pieces, but they also always
have an idea behind them.
If I could choose – I don’t know if
what I am saying is totally true, not that I wish to lie, but I don’t know if
what I am saying is correct – but, if I could choose, I would spend my life
writing for orchestra. What I like is to write for orchestra and I like the
grand orchestra! So I am a fisherman without a boat, without a sea, without water!
And the limit, a few excerpts of my opera which was performed in the São
Carlos… That doesn’t even have a name! An opera which has 600 pages and only
200 were performed! And I give you my word of honour that I don’t believe that
more than 2% of what I wrote was played! I didn’t even want to go to the
first night but then they convinced me that Álvaro Malta and Elsa Saque were
making an effort. And it’s this kind of thing that only harms Portuguese music!
And not only mine, I have also heard terrible interpretations of Lopes-Graça’s
work, which have nothing to do with what the composer wrote!
I was never the head of an
orchestra, I am rather a composer who directs. It is something completely
different. You should not confuse what it is to be the head of an orchestra
with what any musician has the obligation to know and what it is to conduct. I
will never be the head of an orchestra! Of course it is one thing to be
competent in something and, between me and someone who comes along and says
that he is a conductor but in the end knows much less than I do – in this case,
I will do it. And really I have also directed more than I thought, perhaps some
80 times… I have already directed all the Portuguese orchestras, the Vienna
Symphony Orchestra, the Linz Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra,
the Sofia Symphony Orchestra… Well! If there is no one else then I’ll do it,
but it’s easy to find people conducting better than I do!
I also get on well with the
musicians, and do you know why? Because the musicians understand straight away
and I show them that I am one of them, that I am a musician too and that I am
not there to show off as a Maestro, and also because I only want to see if I
can help them to understand what’s written down. So, a good understanding is
created and, sometimes, even surprisingly, good results appear!
In terms of landmarks in my career…
For me, there is a language which is particularly dear, which I like. It is the
language I used in recorded works, a little in the string quartet, a little in Un
Rêve d’un Rêve, in symphonic works, in Pornofonia, for example, which is a piece that
I like a lot, where I feel very much at home… The Symphony also – not this one
but another one, because before I had a Symphony no. 1 but now I am not going
to call a symphony where I went back twenty years in my life my Symphony no.
2... So
no. 1 became the no. 2 and this became the no. 1. The no. 2 was never played
here, only in Beijing, by the Beijing orchestra.
I particularly like one piece I did
for the Opus Ensemble, which is De Profundis, which will be played by a dectet
on the 1st of August and which has nothing to do, for example, with Três
Andamentos à Procura de um Quarteto… These are all in a language very
much like the Sonata de Viola, which has a completely delirious third movement in
it and suddenly there is a slow foxtrot – but there is a reason for the slow
foxtrot, and these group together. The opera, quite clearly, is one of the
things which is hard for me to “swallow”. The Vilar de Mouros Symphony, the
Symphonies – except the Benfica one, which is different – and other works like
that, are along the lines of what I consider my best. Also some of Camões’
sonnets for Lied, two songs by André Heller, which are for two pianos and which
was never played – at least I have never heard them – but I am quite confident
about that. There are various pieces like that. In spite of everything, I
realised, upon opening the collection of some of mine Chamber music which is
here in three CDs, that people – and this is the editor speaking – did not want
that, or rather, were not expecting that… But this is my music, I’m sorry!
The Fifth Sonata is in another style, it
is a little more in a Fellini vein, shall we say... For the second, for
example, I have a fantastic letter from Shostakovich. These are works which I
can say I relate to more. The others, they are all my “children”, even if it is
only a fado for Carlos do Carmo! But the truth is that they are more pieces of
circumstance, that I do for this circumstance, for this or for that person, for
a film... I very much enjoy doing it and I do it with the same dedication. But
it is not exactly where I most see myself or where I consider myself more
realised. I have done thirty or more works which are fundamental and there are
another thirty plus which I still need to do!
Works appear… The Dectet is a
commission for good musicians. The pieces for violin and piano are also
commissions from musicians. And always when I can do something which is only
for musicians, I open that drawer which is the one with which I most relate. I
can also make a piece which has other circumstantial objectives… Benfica’s
festivities, music for a film, or something else. And I do not belittle the
music I write for Cinema at all, or for Theatre and which I end up by “hiding”
or putting into a Suite, for example. I have various of what I call Theatrical
Suites, music I did for the Vienna City Theatre, the Vienna Burgtheater, for
example. I have done pieces of Feydeau, Simone de Beauvoir, Tchekov and others.
I have done a lot of music for theatre and I still do – just a few days ago I
did another – but it is music which has little to do with the play and it is
not that slot where I consider it “within my own music”.
I also like the Memórias do meu
Sótão.
In the middle there is a Can-can! I wrote something thinking about my loft and
about the grammophone up there and which belonged to my grandmother. Then, that
is what came out. Normally that is how I do it: I have the idea and then I find
a name for it.
José Saramago told me he makes up a
title and then he writes a novel about the title. Jorge Amado, for example,
once told me that he created characters. The characters existed and he then had
to invent a story for them; it wasn’t the characters who were made for the
story, but rather a story made to fit the characters.
I also like to improvise a lot, but
I do not overrate it. I think that there is always something which is not true
about it if it isn’t written down. Perhaps it’s because I am a lawyer’s son, I
think that the written paper is more important than what is improvised. But,
for example, one thing I do in the interior of Portugal and which I am very
sorry that the public in Lisbon has never heard, are shows where I improvise,
because I improvise well, but... only sometimes!
I would like, for example, to do a
show like this: “now I will return to the piano, but to do a concert
improvising, only, with nothing else”. Outside of Lisbon I do that often! But
there they don’t know it is improvised, they listen and that’s that…
Now, I am doing something new with Ricardo Rocha. I am
writing pieces for Portuguese guitar and piano. I think that we are doing an
excellent job, with Ingeborg Baldaszti and Ricardo Rocha! I began by doing
something musically simple, there we have it, for A Ferreirinha, by
Moita Flores, but I have already written a Sonata for Portuguese guitar and
piano, and it sounds quite good.