Well,
I started studying music as a child – this is already a cliché, many musicians say that – but I
was almost forced to because I was in a school where I spent the whole day, as
both my parents worked. They enrolled me in music and dance classes, to keep me
busy all day. I had musical training, I did music with a percussion group and
then I attended dance classes, classical ballet. And that is how I started to
become acquainted with music and the arts in general. Then I went to the
Coimbra Conservatory, where I started having piano lessons and continued my
musical training, but it was only when I was 14 that I started to really like
the piano. Before, my piano studies were fairly unconscious. I didn’t really
think about what music was or about what I was doing. Around that age I met a
piano teacher - Jorge Ly – who had come from Lisbon to teach in Coimbra. He
really encouraged me to study the piano – for I did have some patience – and
from then on I became really interested and studied many hours a day, as
pianists do as a rule. 8 hours a day or so and I did not want to do anything
else. Later I went to the Superior School of Education, in Coimbra.
But,
shortly afterwards – a year or so – I came to the conclusion that that was not
exactly what I wanted – teach kids, that was not it… I did not find that
stimulating and I decided to look for another course. That is how I met another
teacher, João Pedro Oliveira. It was with him that I began to study composition
and write my first pieces. The first one was for the piano, it was almost a
“joke”, because I had to present a piece for the exam and I went to see my
teacher, João Pedro, and asked him to help me write it. It was also with him
that I began to study composition as such, the theoretical part.
I studied
the theory of composition intensively for one year to prepare for the entrance
and I did that with my teacher João Pedro. During that year I discovered so
many things about composition, both the theory as well as listening to many
works – and I became fascinated. It’s really true, that’s what happened. And I
studied and studied…
I took the
standard course in composition and continued the classes with João Pedro
Oliveira, in electroacoustic music as well as in other theoretical disciplines,
but these were the 2 major subjects I studied with him.
When I
finished the course in Aveiro I felt a strong need to leave, to see new things,
new cultures – to know what was going on in other places. It was also an
academic preoccupation, for future work here in Portugal, because I wanted to
teach at university level and, therefore, I thought I would try and get the
necessary qualifications abroad and then come back. But, on the other hand, I
thought that it would not be easy to go abroad and start studying composition
straight away with a teacher of my choice, or to feel that that was the right
thing to do. It was quite an adventure, from that point of view, because I did
not know what I would find. And it all happened in England. I thought of other
countries, the United States, France, Germany – but I don’t know, perhaps it
was destiny… I ended up in England. First in Scotland, then I went to London
and finally to Southampton.
When I
went to the City University, I thought that – at least that’s what I had been
told – that we would have to “perform” works, that we would have many
opportunities. I was really enthusiastic about it, but when I started having
classes I was faced with someone who was really incompatible with me and with
my ideas. I was not managing to develop, either mentally or as a composer, with
the person I was confronted with. I stayed for about one year and then decided
I would definitely have to change university. But then it was quite a
difficult period, because I had to find the person I was interested in on my
own and, in that world, there are many people with whom one can work.
What
happened was that I went to see several English composers and by talking and
exchanging opinions, they came to the conclusion that I should work with
Michael Finnissy. Considering the work I showed them, my ideas, what they had
heard about me, he was the person I should be working with, even if I had to be
transferred to another university that’s what I had to do.
Despite
being someone who is very difficult to approach initially, once you penetrate
into his mental world, or when he sees who you are, and if we function
mentally, I think he is fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And very often he was
very hard in his critique and I left the class feeling really low; it was far
from easy! But he gave me so much and that was enough to make me forget these
situations. He was someone who encouraged me to read very important works of
philosophy which opened my mind to composition, to ideas, thoughts, to
everything. It was fantastic.
There was
a Belgian composer – Luc Brewaeys – with whom I studied – I had forgotten to
say that, but it is certainly worth mentioning. During the period I was in
London trying to find a new place to study and because I had met Luc some years
before, I asked him to give me a few lessons. I use to travel from London to
Brussels to have classes – because I was a bit lost and I needed someone to
guide me for a time – so I went to meet him several times to talk about
composition, to show him the work I was doing. He was another person who was
important in my development.
Generally,
when I write a piece there are always several ideas in the background, either
about drama, lightning, set design or about aspects that are outside the field
of music. I don’t know why, but when I have an idea, usually I have other
thoughts that have nothing to do with music. When I think about it and try to
find out why, I related it to Kagel,because I
remember festivals I attended in Belgium, in Ars Música – it was the year dedicated
to Kagel – and listening to some pieces that impressed me. They had some small
theatrical details which I found fantastic, despite the fact that, in my case,
the work does not have a sarcastic or comical character, being more dramatic
and more tragic. I was fascinated. I remember when I was still studying in
Edinburgh and arriving with my luggage to attend a conference by Kagel at the
Gulbenkian. So I remember all the effort I made to take advantage of situations
where he was present or to go to his concerts.
Generally,
the pieces I wrote started with an idea inspired by a painting or a
philosophical idea or a sculpture or perhaps something that has nothing to do
with music and after that it’s very difficult to put into words.
I
think that there are many sides to it. Often, it will be a visual idea that is
transposed to a musical gesture, which implies sounds and the gesture itself.
Frequently, if I use a painting as a starting point, elements of a painting –
either visual or even performance elements - these are transposed, filtered by
my thoughts and then transposed to a piece. For example, I am now thinking of a
piece I wrote called Mens Sana which is based on 2 Bosch paintings, The Stone
Operation and The
Ship of Fools,
and in which – particularly in this last painting – the fools gave me both an
idea for the characterisation of two characters that I use in the piece, as
well as a mental idea or an idea for a musical gesture – used at the beginning
of the piece.
The
two characters perform as actors and, simultaneously, as conveyors of sound. In
this case, they have 2 percussion instruments and they’re going to perform at
the beginning and at the end of the piece. Therefore, they are going to
intervene in the whole performance of the piece.
For
example, in Transfiguratio, the initial idea also came from a painting called the Three
Ages of Man and Death, by Hans Baldung
Grien. I was really struck by the characters he uses in the picture, symbols of
the various ages and stages of life. In my piece, I use various elements which
feature in the painting – a veil, an hourglass and even the lighting in my
piece is related to the colours he uses in the painting. I needed to do that
because music itself is related to the passing of time in life.
I’m not
quite sure if it is Musical Theatre!… Up to now I have not had a chance to
stage the whole piece – that is, the musical part and the dramatic part – it’s
all written down in the music scores, the whole staging involving the lighting,
the sets, the necessary actors, dancers, everything is noted down. I have
difficulty to getting people to accept, because that it’s so important.
Although even I have not yet had the chance to see what the result would be…
But, I
feel sure that it is not theatre… musical-theatre, it has nothing to do with that. It’s as
if there was another instrument playing, it’s something that is integrated.
That’s all I can say on the subject.
As I was
saying, it is very difficult for people to understand that what is written down
is a part of the piece, an essential part. Everything is integrated in such a
way that the whole thing works. I think that the fact that it is a difficult
piece is no reason for the choreography, or the part with the actors, not to
work. These are really integrated in the work – the gestures with, for example,
a movement performed by the actors – they are both integral parts.
Actually,
in the piece that I am now writing I already feel quite sorry for the
musicians, for they are going to be actors as well as players – well, not
actors as such – they are going to have to play and make vocal sounds – it’s a
different way of performing, they’re going to have to do both simultaneously.
Normally, I put in other people to do that, they have enough work with the
musical score.
I
don’t know that I would speak in terms of harmonic language, perhaps because
for me it works more in terms of lines, independent lines. Despite the fact
that there is, obviously, a relationship between the notes, they work more like
independent lines, vertical lines. Usually, I create melodies from ideas that
come from the title of the works, relating to letters of the alphabet and
making changes and creating relationships and, from then on, as I already
mentioned. I have a melodic basis that I also relate to theatrical ideas –
gestures and all that. In this case it’s the melodies – they go up, down or
stay. It has to do with the ideas that come up in relation to the theatrical,
dramatic part. From then on I start to visualise, but in terms of lines, and
not so much vertically. Vertically may work, for me, when I think in terms of
textures or gestures that have texture as their main element.
Melody
is one thing, rhythm is another, but very often there is an element that makes
a connection which is related to theatrical and dramatic elements which come
from the paintings I mentioned or from any other source of inspiration. It’s as
if the images I have – mental images – become notes, rhythms and situations.
That’s it.
Works:
“de-catalogued”, “catalogued” and recent works
I don’t
know if this happens with all composers, but I consider the work I write to be
an experiment and that is perhaps why the works you mentioned before I consider
to be experiments. This period corresponds to the time I spent at the
university in Aveiro, when I started to compose, to experiment and even with a
piece that I wrote from beginning to end – with a duration, instruments and
even if it has all the elements of a piece – I consider them experiments. Even
now, I have difficulty considering any work of mine an “opus” as such. For me
it’s an experiment and the whole phenomenon of the performance of the piece and
all that goes with it, it is an experience that one goes through. Perhaps later
on I shall become more aware that it is a work, but for now that is what I have
to say about the pieces that were removed.
I think
perhaps I’ve been through two important phases, since living in England. The
first, in which I wrote the pieces, was very unstable. I was going to a foreign
country, totally different from Portugal and I had to adapt mentally to the
place where I was, to the people, to English culture… and that adaptation was
very difficult and I did not manage to compose much at the time. I wrote a
piece for the violin – which I consider an experiment – I did a lot of
orchestration as I said before, and then I wrote a piece which I think was a
kind of arrival point. Strangely enough, I wrote it when I went to London and
perhaps it made me feel more secure at the time, because as I said I had to
change universities and look for a teacher and I needed some sort of security,
mentally at least. It was precisely that piece that was played in Holland by a
Russian group.
After that
there was another response to that phase in my life which was Argumentum, a composition that was played when the
city of Oporto was the Capital of Culture, in 2001. It was a fighting and
defensive reaction to the people who were around me. That is why I had the idea
of a slide and thought of conceiving a ramp with a castle on top which I was
trying to defend. The whole piece is built around that idea – defence, attack
- because that’s what I was going through at the time.
It was
precisely at that time that I started having classes with Michael Finnissy, – I
had started this piece and I began to have ideas and work on the material. It
was exactly at that time that he started teaching me and we began to have
deeper conversations on the aspects I wanted to develop in that piece. And it
was as from that time that a new phase began for me. By then I was studying
with Michael Finnissy and I read a lot. It was like an “injection” of books on
philosophy, English literature and this had a great impact on me. I did not
expect to find the stories and the fantasy that I discovered. English
literature gave me all that at a time when I perhaps needed to forget that I
was abroad and needed to feel more at home, mentally at least.
After
composing Argumentum I
composed 2 pieces - Illuminatio andRecordatio – and these 2 pieces are
connected, both as far as the material and the ideas go and, perhaps, they are
also linked to the nostalgia I was feeling in relation to the country and the
people. But that phase had to pass and I had, anyway, to change my attitude, so
perhaps as a reaction to this I then composed - Transfiguratio, Ludus
Aeternus, Mens Sana in Corpore Sano, Monstrum horrendum, fatum
hominis, Silens Clamor.
The
background to these pieces began to have deeper philosophical ideas related to
the philosophy of people like Michel Foucault, Carl Jung, authors I had
started to read and who fascinated me. Many of the ideas they developed in
their books inspired me and I tried to integrate them; I often used them as the
basis for the pieces I wrote. Not just that – I started taking ideas from
painting also, mainly from works by Hieronymus Bosch – I found the symbology in
these very interesting. The fact that these symbols had another meaning for me
was very important; I did not just want to show people a situation, but what it
meant symbolically. I’ve always found that very interesting and still do.
Perhaps
I should say a few words about a piece called Monstrum Horrendum, that was quite different from
other pieces because I based it on a story by Mary Shelley, about a monster - Frankenstein.
It was
different in that aspect, because I took a story that I was reading at the time
which made an impression on me – not just on a philosophical level, but the
story itself and the plot – and from there I went on to build the piece. I also
took some aspects from real life, the birth of a human being, all those aspects
related to man and his creation, to work on and develop ideas for the piece.
The book
ends by saying that he disappears into the infinite and the idea that I convey
in this piece is precisely – which finishes with a piano, a piano solo – that
of uncertainty. We all remain in limbo, because we don’t know. We remain in an
atmosphere that is rather strange, undefined, questioning.