“Questionnaire / Interview
Part I: Roots and Education
How did music begin for you? Where do you identify your musical roots? Which paths led you to composition?
My contact with the Arts began in a daytime intern college where, beyond regular education, I also had piano, music and ballet lessons. Later at the Coimbra Conservatory, I continued my musical education with the pianist Jorge Ly, who encouraged me to study composition – musical analysis and compositional techniques. Then I progressed my piano studies with Miguel Henriques, in Lisbon, and composition with the composer João Pedro Oliveira at the Aveiro University – that is how I started my path in composition.
Which moments from your music education you find the most important?
There were not only moments but also remarkable interveners and I never consider my education as concluded, continuing, in a certain form, to be “influenced” along the way. I accept this fact as indispensable for a continuous evolution, as opposed to stagnation. Here I can make reference to various stages: the initial contact with electroacoustic music and composition during the Licentiate in Music Education at the University of Aveiro; development and progress in orchestration during the Master’s Degree in Composition at the University of Edinburgh; the PhD programme at the University of Southampton supervised by Michael Finnissy; seminars and lessons with composers such as Emmanuel Nunes, Jonathan Harvey, Luca Francesconi, Hilda Paredes, Gérard Grisey, Brian Ferneyhough, Mauricio Kagel, Pascal Dusapin, Luc Brewaeys, as well as experimental workshops and concerts with the Arditti Quartet, Ian Pace, the Gulbenkian Orchestra, L’Ensemble Itinéraire, the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, the Remix Esnemble, the OrchestrUtopica, and with such conductors as Guillaume Bourgogne, Pedro Neves and Pedro Amaral.
Part II: Compositional Practice | Influences | Aesthetics
Which references do you assume in your compositional practice? Which works from the history of music and the present are most significant for you?
In terms of teaching and supervision I emphasize as referential composers as João Pedro Oliveira, Michael Finnissy and Luc Brewaeys. As for other composers from the history of music until today I would mention Johann Sebastian Bach (works for harpsichord, concerts and orchestral suites); Antonio Vivaldi (concerts and operas); Georg Friedrich Händel (operas); Ludwig van Beethoven (symphonies); Anton Bruckner (symphonies); Alexander Scriabin (works for piano); Igor Stravinsky (“The Firebird”, “Pertushka”, “The Rite of Spring”, Symphony of Psalms, Ebony Concerto) for his polyrhythmic structures, motivic development, application of traditional forms and serialism; Arnold Schönberg (“Transfigured night”, “Pierrot Lunaire” op. 21, Drei Klavierstücke op. 11, 5 Pieces for Orchestra op. 16, Variations for Orchestra op. 31, String Quartets nos. 1, 2, 3, 4) for the developments in atonality, dodecaphonic techniques as well as reverse combinatorics of hexachords, invariances, aggregates, derived series and Sprechstimme; Witold Lutoslawski (symphonies) for his construction of structures, application of small interval groups and rhythmical desynchrony; Krzysztof Penderecki (“Polymorphia”, “Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima”, “Anaklasis”, De Natura Sonoris No. 2, 3, String Quartets nos. 1, 2, 3) for the use of modern and unorthodox techniques of instrumental / vocal performance, graphic notation, cluster textures; Brian Ferneyhough (Carceri d'Invenzione I, II, III, Adagissimo and other quartets) for rhythmical complexity, tendency for creating systems of material and formal delimiters, complex notation; Mauricio Kagel (“Staatstheater”, “Les idées fixes”, Sonant, “Match for Three Players”, “Dressur, Rrrrrrr...”, “Anagrama”, “Pas de Cinq”) for the involvement in musical theatre; Karlheinz Stockhausen (“Klavierstücke”, “Gesang der Jünglinge”, “Gruppen”, “Licht”) for electroacoustic music and spatialization.
The opposition between "occupation" and "vocation" ("inspiration") constitutes one of the questions in defining the artistic approach of a composer. Where, on the scale between the emotive (inspiration and vocation) and the pragmatic (occupation), could you place your way of working and your stance as composer?
What is called “inspiration” does not appear without activating our interior, always implying investigation and work. We cannot sit and wait for the inspiration for it to knock at the door. It is obvious that it exists and stimulates every kind of human activity. Nevertheless and according to Stravinsky, this activity is developed only if one invests effort in order to make it work.
Could you describe the process subjacent to your compositional practice?
In the first phase what is always essential is the work, which can embrace research in different musical fields or other artistic areas, always allied to any act of composition. These are the so-called sources of inspirational impulse. They can become essential elements or simply be present in the process of composition, interacting with the music and characterizing the work as multidisciplinary. In the next phase, one uses a process, which involves a relation with the work’s title predefining the sound and rhythmical material as well as the structure. The titles are in Latin since one intends to go to the roots of Portuguese language and meet the desired meaning. There is a connection between the letters of the titles and the sound material defined for every work. I use specific methods, implying rules, which transform the Latin words into a musical code. This interest in codes, cyphers can be also found in the works of various other composers, such as Johan Sebastian Bach, Robert Schumann, Maurice Ravel, Alban Berg, etc. Then, in melodic terms there is a connection with the serial practice, nevertheless not as in the integral serialism but associated to the existence of a scale with a certain number of notes and intervals, in this case related with the former approach (letters of the title) as well as with transposition and chromatic processes. As for the rhythmical processes, these imply transformations of diminution and augmentation of the values. In the formal plan, one conceives a pre-outline of the form, sometimes associated to a continuous narrative with central and climax points of arrival and resolution, whose initial scheme can suffer from alternations during the composition. I mean that when a work unfolds itself in various artistic strands (multidisciplinary works), all of them are combined into the whole for the total and final coherence.
Are there any extra-musical sources, which in a significant manner influence your music?
I think that we should never ignore other forms of art, even if the composition part was purely instrumental. They follow a path, which turns out to be common and in this sense analyzing them is of great interest. In my case, I do not consider them only as sources or influences but also as intervenes in my work, particularly in multidisciplinary pieces where they interact with the musical language. In this sense I should mention some sources and influences derived from photography such as Berenice Abbot, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Brassaï, J. Gutmann, Josef Koudelka, Sebastião Salgado, Gérard Castello Lopes, Alfred Stieglitz, Paul Strand, Claude Cahun, Bill Brandt, Edward Weston, Clarence Laughlin, Paul Outerbridge, Rodney Smith, Joyce Tenneson, Jerry Uelsmann, Ralph Eugene Meatyard, Paul Cava; from painting in the Renaissance, Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel; the Pre-Raphaelites, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, John Everett Millais, John William Waterhouse; in the Cubism, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris; in the Dadaism and Surrealism, Max Ernst, Yves Tanguy, René Magritte, Paul Delvaux, Leonora Carrington, Varo Remedios, Leonor Fini, Frida Kahlo, Salvador Dali; from the cinema, in silent film (emphasis on the corporal and facial language), “Metropolis”, “Sunrise”, “City Lights”, “Nosferatu”, “La passion et la mort de Jeanne D'Arc”, “Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari”, “Die Buchese der Pandora”, “The Wind”, “Broken Blossoms”, “Der lezte Mann”, “Faust”, “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”, “Dr. Mabuse”, “Der Spieler”, “The Lodger”, “Der Golem”, “Der mude Tod”; in the film noir (influences form German expressionism), “The Big Sleep”, “The Big Heat”, “The Set-Up”, “Night and the City”, “Gun Crazy”, “Double Indemnity”, “Detour”, “Sunset Blvd”, “The Third Man”, “Scarlet Street”, “The Woman in the Window”, “The Big Clock”; and in films by such directors as Fritz Lang, Robert Siodmak, e Michael Curtiz, Ingmar Bergman, Federico Fellini, Stanley Kubrick, Luis Buñuel, Alfred Hitchcock, Michelangelo Antonioni, Luchino Visconti, Roberto Rossellini, Vittorio De Sica, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, D. W. Griffith, David Lynch; from philosophical literature by Gaston Bachelard, Jean Paul Sartre, Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Susan Sontag, Carl Gustav Jung, Martin Heidegger, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Bertrand Russell, Theodor Adorno; from Portuguese, English, French, Spanish and German poetry; from prose (tales and novels), with tendency toward police, mystery, detective and investigation genres. In more concrete terms with regard to the works I should stress “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano” (woodwinds and 2 actors) with a chamber ensemble divided in two, symbolizing the duality mind-body implicit in the title (mens + corpus). The presence of two actors, in special costumes accompanied by their mimetic fool-like actions, was influenced by the fool character from “The Ship of Fools” by Hieronymus Bosch and by the woodcuts of Albrecht Dürer included in the book by S. Brant under the same title. “Dulce Delirium” (string quartet) was composed “En Hommage à Ophèlie”. Her life story and the paintings of Sir John Everett Millais were the main sources of inspiration. The words of Arthur Rimbaud are quoted in the work’s introduction, characterizing Ophelia for her gentleness, innocence (Dulce) and madness (Delirium): “Sur l’onde calme et noire où dorment les étoiles,/La blanche Ophélia flotte comme un grand lys,/Flotte très lentement, couchée en ses longs voiles/On entend dans les bois lointains des halalis…/Voici plus de mille and que la triste Ophélie,/Passe, fantôme blanc, sur le long fleuve noir,/Voici plus de mille ans que sa douce folie,/Murmure sa romance à la brise du soir.” “Aranea insidiis noctis sereanae…”, (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello and dancer / film) was influenced by “Confessions of an English Opium Eater” (1821) by Thomas de Quincey where the “Carceri D’Invenzioni” by Giovanni Battisa Piranesi are mentioned. The predominant “sensations” were based a “no way out” condemnation, and the necessity of liberation and constant fight, which are being transmitted to us: by the fantastic, labyrinthine constructions, dark, cavernous and phantasmagoric, crossed by vertiginous paths; by the constant sensation of abyss and its hypnotic fascination – coming to an abrupt end – falling into a deep hole; by stairs without end, without way out to escape; by machineries, cables, levers, arches, which seem traps; by chaotic / orderly webs; by solitary horror of space, its expansion and contraction. “Aranea” has two possibilities of performance – with dancer or film projection: in the first case it includes a special stage plan, scenery, in which the dancer finds herself in the background, wrapped in a cloth, forming a kind of cocoon; in the second one, a film, with the main rule as in the former case, is projected only in determined parts of the work. “Monstrum Horrendum”, with three groups of instruments (group no. 1: flute, clarinet and bassoon; group no. 2: violin, viola and violoncello; group no. 3: piano) includes the performance of an actor dressed up as a horrendous, deformed and gigantic creature or of a huge doll, which needs the intervention of various people in order to be manipulated and which moves behind a transparent screen according to the performance indications, with its shadow as the essential element. The source of inspiration comes from literature – “Frankenstein”, gothic terror novel by Mary Shelley – implying the idea to create life from dead body parts, the conquest of death and diseases and the simple act of creation, at the same time being a sin not only against God / Nature but also against the feminine principle. The piece is divided into four sections. Each section consisting of sub-sections is related to the prior ideas: the 1st section is related to the birth; the 3rd section to the novel’s characters; the 4th section to the disappearing of the monster created by Dr. Frankenstein. “Silens Clamor” (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello and 3 dancers / actors), had as inspiration “Merry-go-round” by Mark Gertler. It includes a particular stage plan, lighting and performance of dancers / actors who use three white masks with an exaggerated smile, made of porcelain, and black costumes. A choreographer, through previous instructions, creates their movements. A group of soldiers and civilians – in tunics, hats and open mouth – is caught in a vicious circle of a carrousel, going up and down automatically, in an extreme and hysterical velocity. A mechanized horror – the initial adventure ends suddenly becoming a race from which it is not possible to get out. There is nobody to ask for help and nobody is listening. The carrousel is used as a metaphor of life itself, with its ups and downs. The people ridding it can only observe what is happening. Realizing that it is not possible to escape they shout, but their voice is frozen in time and space – silence shouts, imaginable for the viewer and perceptible for the listener.
Part III: Language
Which of your works constitute turning points in your career as composer?
When making reference to works which I consider important, various implicit factors make them essential: sources of inspiration, instrumentation, the group or soloist who premiered it, to whom it is dedicated as well as the experience, which the work proportionated. I should mention the orchestrations realized during my Master’s Degree course in Edinburgh (Syncopes, Allegro, Bela Bartók; Romanze, Ziemlich Langsam, Robert Schumann; “Feuille D'Album”, Allegro Vivace e Grazioso, Edward Grieg; Ballade, Andante, Bela Bartók; Variations, Più largamente, Aaron Copland; Prélude, Op. 3, Nº 2, Sergei Rachmaninoff; Serenata, Isaac Albéniz; “La Flûte De Pan”, Claude Debussy) giving me an orchestral / instrumental practice just like during the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Gulbenkian Workshops for Young Portuguese Composers, supervised and conducted by Guillaume Bourgogne. The orchestration / composition of works written for ensemble (“Mostrum Horrendum”, “Silens Clamor” and “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano”) was experimented directly with orchestra. I would like to mention “Solitudo” (flute, clarinet, viola, violoncello and piano) chosen for the Gaudeamus 2001 International Competition in Amsterdam where I worked with the Ensemble Studio New Music from Moscow, conducted by Igor Dronov. This was one of my first experiences outside Portugal. The work’s creation is connected with my going to the United Kingdom and beginning of a new phase in my compositional project with British composers, as well as with Luc Brewaeys from Belgium. The title comes from the word solitudo, solitudinis, which means “loneliness”, being related to nostalgic moments (leaving my country and family), to the solitary act of composition and to my residence in the city of London where the main feature is the abundance of “everything” – people, activities and culture. I should mention “Dulce Delirium”, as my first work for string quartet, composed for the Arditti Quartet in the framework of the Centre Acanthes workshop in Metz (2005), posteriorly performed by the same quartet at the Atlantic Waves Festival in London (2006) at the Auditorium of the University of Aveiro and at the Belém Arts Centre within the Aveiro International Festival (2007). The second quartet, “Nocturna Itinera – sum in magna animi perturbatione...” was also written for the Arditti Quartet, integrated in the International Summer Courses for New Music in Darmstadt (2008), having been previously tried out and composed day-by-day during intense rehearsals at the 2nd Blonay Workshop for Contemporary Quartet Music (2008). I would also like to mention the two works for piano “Fatum Hominis” (piano and two actors) and “In Occulto” (solo piano and actor) presented in concert by Filip Fak and Ian Pace. Regarding “Fatum Hominis” the source of inspiration was Fado (Fado themes and the atmosphere of its performance with 3 musicians: voice, two guitars) and the Latin word, fatum. The piece involves the intervention of two actors, in long tunics, hoods, with their bodies completely covered. They symbolize the unknown and undefined destiny, which in the piece’s final overcomes the pianist completely, being covered with a “dark moving cloud” (actor). The candle lighted at the beginning is extinguished with a delicate blow. This work was selected for the ISCM World Music Days / 23rd Music Biennale in Zagreb (2005), having been performed by the pianist Filip Fak as well as integrated in the concerts of the Ny Musik – Norwegian Section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM); and in the York Late Music Festival (2006), with concerts performed by Ian Pace. Regarding “In Occulto” the source of inspiration was the book by Vitor Hugo – “Notre-Dame de Paris” – but also films created and based on this story. The following lines, taken from the book, describe precisely the essential inspiring “sensations”. In this sense they are quoted in the work’s introduction: “Et il est sûr qu'il y avait une sorte d'harmonie mystérieuse et préexistante entre cette créature et cet édifice. Lorsque, tout petit encore, il se traînait tortueusement et par soubresauts sous les ténèbres de ses voûtes, il semblait, avec sa face humaine et sa membrure bestiale, le reptile naturel de cette dalle humide et sombre sur laquelle l'ombre des chapiteaux romans projetait tant de formes bizarres...C'est ainsi que peu à peu, se développant toujours dans le sens de la cathédrale, y vivant, y dormant, n'en sortant presque jamais, en subissant à toute heure la pression mystérieuse, il arriva à lui ressembler, à s'y incruster, pour ainsi dire, à en faire partie intégrante. Ses angles saillants s'emboîtaient, qu'on nous passe cette figure, aux angles rentrants de l'édifice, et il en semblait, non seulement l'habitant, mais encore le contenu naturel. On pourrait presque dire qu'il en avait pris la forme, comme le colimaçon prend la forme de sa coquille. C'était sa demeure, son trou, son enveloppe. Il y avait entre la vieille église et lui une sympathie instinctive si profonde, tant d'affinités magnétiques, tant d'affinités matérielles, qu'il y adhérait en quelque sorte comme la tortue à son écaille. La rugueuse cathédrale était sa carapace.” This work was presented in concert by Ian Pace at the Momentum Concert Cycle, at the Aveirense Theatre (2009), at the New Music Festival (Transit 2009) Leuven and at the Concert Series of the City University of London (2010). I would also mention “Sublime Volans” (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello and piano), an experience of writing a miniature in order to become part of a collective work of 25 Portuguese composers (“Cadavre Exquis”), in the framework of the 25th anniversary of the Miso Music Portugal and performed by the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble at the French-Portuguese Institute in Lisbon (2011), at the International Forum for Young Composers of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, Goethe-Institut in Lisbon (2011), at the Korea Foundation – Cultural Center Gallery, Seul (2011) and in Guimarães – European Capital of Culture 2012.
Part IV:Portuguese Music
What do you think of the present situation of Portuguese music? How could you define the composer's role nowadays?
In terms of concerts and projects the situation nowadays is not very different than a couple of years ago. Definitely, there is no possibility of change because the political, educative and cultural systems do not engage themselves in new strategies for a development of flexible mentalities. The difficulty in organizing concerts with contemporary music programmes still prevails, and in this sense the emphasis continues to be put on the pre-20th century repertoire, since it probably has the desired audience and fulfills the financial demands of organizations and profits. In this sense, the attempts of organizing and presenting projects with programmes containing works form the 20th and 21st century, are not always easily accepted, due to the lack of public and expenses without profits. It turns out even more difficult when the works are multidisciplinary, requiring not only musicians but also other performers and conditions. Concerning human resources, there is an urgent necessity to valorize people (artists) of generations, which now feel capable of sharing / teaching and forming “schools” in Portugal, so that in future one will be able to trace artistic currents. If this situation is not proportionated, there will be nothing to present as national. An example is the situation of scholars with projects in investigation, who feel a kind of incentive to dedicate themselves to their country. They are allured to teach during the course of their project; cutting off the time for individual research and at the end of this research they do not have professional security. If they were not persistent they would not manage to survive in this context. There are also empty “spaces” of knowledge, which could be occupied by highly qualified professionals if the door was opened for them. These spaces need to be filled in order to form and create currents of knowledge. Without neglecting the past centuries these “spaces” should embrace materials turned to contemporaneity either on the instrumental or theoretical and compositional level. One sometimes feels a lack of interest on the part of teachers (professors) in discovering, encouraging and guiding the potentialities of their pupils, directing them to a possible artistic field. There is also lack of courses (in need of remodeling) with an intention to meet the ideas of pupils, whose slogan could be: “Courses for the pupils and not for the Professors”. Regarding the Festivals and Commissions, their existence is necessary in order to provide a continuous exchange of knowledge and the organization of concerts with new works. Without Festivals or Commissions, the composers / performers will have to continue to write only sporadically, when they have time, or simply out of their own will and artistic need, It is obvious that we cannot compare our reality with the others, yet the existence of Festivals of Contemporary Music in other countries, in which any musician, composer takes part as listener or participant, is clear. Apart from that and according to the possibilities, it is desirable to contact other artistic realities as well as to work with other professionals outside Portugal. It opens our eyes to different possibilities. In this sense we should make our choices following a path, which in the mean time, can always have turning points during its course.
How could you define the role of composers nowadays?
There are two sides / possibilities according to different artistic visions, which should be defined for a better functioning of the whole system: on the one hand those who by tendency are creative should dedicate their life to research and on the other the ones who by tendency are creators and educators should need not only to create but also to share and teach. The composer’s role as teacher (educator) is to encourage various attitudes in the pupils: discipline, concentration as well as mental and physical availability towards realities of performance and creation, since education often creates a tense connection between pupil and teacher; a greater existential conscience of body / mind, which leads to a liberation from tensions and prejudices in order to explore in a relaxed way what is proposed; curiosity towards analyzing concepts, which turn out to be essential in contemporary studies of creation (Performance Art, Experimental Musical Theatre and Instrumental Theatre), such as time (importance of organizing time in creative structures), body (importance of the performer’s physical factor in producing sound) and space of the performance; exploration of spatialization (varied sound sources, produced from different points of the concert hall space – even offstage); exploration of different sound sources such as the voice, the instrument and the body, but also the mechanisms of scenery and environment; analysis of attitudes of various interveners in a multidisciplinary work – the composer, the instrumentalist(s), the actor(s), etc… and the audience itself; development towards crossing the limits between music and other artistic languages with the intent to produce coherent works; an exploration of contemporary, unconventional, unorthodox and untraditional techniques (extended techniques); knowledge on the repertoire from the past, but essentially from the 20th and 21st century, as well as on other musical styles, beyond the so called “serious music”. The classical music composer’s role (it is important to mention the compositional side) as creator is neither becoming a socially separated individual, nor being superior in relation to other genres of composition, in spite of being frequently judged as being so. Above all the creator should become reflexive in relation to the musical panorama and other forms of art. In this sense, being attentive can conduct him / her to the development of new concepts and models being applied to his works. Still, it does not mean constantly emphasizing the unique and new. Apart from that, any kind of artistic event involves a mixture of stability and change, even if belonging to the traditional framework. The composer should enrich Portuguese culture by developing his daily research, possessing knowledge on present reality and opening paths towards future.
Part V: Present and Future
What are your current and future projects? Could you highlight one of your more recent works, present the context of its creation and also the particularities of the language and used techniques?
Presently, my main project is the Post-doctorate at the University of Aveiro, as FCT scholar, which implies Studying, Analysis and Development, New Concepts of Interaction between Various Arts with the Musical Language and its Application in Compositional Multidisciplinary Models. In this context, on the one hand, there is an analytical study of themes which encompass the Performance Art, the aesthetic and compositional influences of John Cage, the Experimentalism, the composer Mauricio Kagel – Instrumental Theatre and the Music Theatre –, and on the other hand the elaboration and application of new concepts referred in compositional models, having as main concept the union between diverse arts and music. This process resulted in composing of “Nocturna Itinera” (string quartet and film), “Sublime Volans” (flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano), “In Occulto” (solo piano and actor), “Tempus Fugit” (flute, clarinet, violin, viola, violoncello, piano, film and photography) and in the continuation of “Imagnis umbra est” (4 sopranos, male actor and 2 pianos), “Somnium” (soprano, narrator, flute, clarinet, bassoon, 2 violins, viola, violoncello, piano, harp and percussion), and “Reditus ad vitam” (solo piano and marionette / 2 dancers). I would also like to highlight my work in progress, “Reditus ad vitam”, which implies the performance of a soloist as well as the presence of 2 dancers, still being studied as a multidisciplinary work, taking into account the interaction between arts and musical language. Like “In Occulto”, it was also written having in mind a specific performer / pianist (Ian Pace) and in this sense a total comprehension of the work’s “style”.
