In Focus: José Luís Ferreira (1973-2018)
INTRODUCTION
"For me it's essential to understand, how the sonic phenomenon works. It's the «substance» with which we need to cope initially, when we write «the» first note in the score (…)" [1] – said José Luís Ferreira, composer, teacher and performer, in the interview given to the MIC.PT in November 2013. His precocious disappearance in February 2018 has situated him in the company of many other composers from the history of music, whose passing away in the peak of their creative capacities has created gaps in the historical continuum, raising questions to which one will probably never find the right answers: “what would the next piece by … have been? which aesthetic direction would … have taken?
Henry Purcell (died at the age of 36), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (at the age of 35), Fryderyk Chopin (39), Franz Schubert (31), Cornelius Cardew (45), Claude Vivier (35), Enrique X. Macías (37), José Luís Ferreira (at the age of 44), … – a significant part of the path of these and various other composers, whose life was prematurely interrupted, will forever remain unknown, being in the best case a combination of speculations. This is the reason why it's so important to keep the legacy – which they so generously left us – alive.
José Luís Ferreira was born in Lisbon, having grown up with the music by Beethoven and the fado of Amália Rodrigues. "Perhaps it's a strange connection, but it was what my mother used to listen to. Since very young I've learnt by heart and «air-conducted» Beethoven's symphonies and «endured» the fado (longing) of Amália's fados… My musical education began through the «act of listening»” and I owe this to my Mother (… and to Beethoven). I became a musician thanks to my Mother – she gave me a lot and also «opened different doors» when I was growing up. Composition came later..." [2] – said José Luís Ferreira in 2013, the year when he celebrated his 40th anniversary.
This initial period, with concerts at the Gulbenkian Foundation and lessons at the Academia de Amadores de Música in Lisbon (including Analysis and Composition Techniques with Pedro M. Rocha), was followed by the studies at the ESML – Music College of Lisbon, where José Luís Ferreira worked with Christopher Bochmann, António de Sousa Dias and António Pinho Vargas. In parallel to the Composition Course, he attended seminars and workshops with diverse composers, such as Emmanuel Nunes, Jean-Claude Risset, John Chowning, Per Anders Nilsson and Trevor Wishart, among many others. “Pedro M. Rocha opened to me the «doors» of composition. At the ESML I had the privileged contact with such teachers as Christopher Bochmann, who taught me the fundamental aspects of composition techniques and planted the foundations in order to acquire a «métier»; with António de Sousa Dias came electroacoustic music…; and with António Pinho Vargas the «whys» (…) and the formal control.” [3]
In his practice of composition José Luís Ferreira has drawn references form diverse composers, such as Gérard Grisey, Salvatore Sciarrino and Helmut Lachenmann, yet whose departure point in music has always been the sound. "There's a work by Gérard Grisey, which I don't let myself listen to very often because of the so-called «anxiety of influence» (Harold Bloom). The work is Vortex Temporum. It has three movements – the second one is dedicated to Salvatore Sciarrino and the third to Helmut Lachenmann. Mentioning this work is only a way of presenting these three composers, who have been my references and they could not have been more diverse…" [4]
José Luís Ferreira has developed the essence of his musical grammar in direct connection with technology and computer music. In the framework of these two domains he has carried out a persistent and restless research (including research on aesthetics), thus asserting his creative freedom. He has always shared the results of his findings among his students in a pedagogical context, for example, at the Mixed Music Laboratory at the ESML. "Without any doubt, he has contributed to the advance of his own time“ [5] – said the composer and poet Miguel Azguime at the Round Table dedicated to José Luís Ferreira and broadcast last February, in two parts, in the framework of the Música Hoje (Music Today) radio programme on the RTP – Antena 2 (Portuguese National Radio). "Zé used to spend hours at school. His enthusiasm was contagious and the Mixed Music Lab had an interesting presence and participation of students" [6] – remembered the composer Carlos Caires in the same radio programme, Música Hoje. "Zé's challenge was to put us at ease with our sounds and instruments. At the beginning the students felt uncomfortable... During the improvisations he manipulated and reacted to the sound" [7] – described the saxophonist Philippe Trovão, José Luís Ferreira's ex-student. It was in the framework of the Mixed Music Lab (among various other contexts, in which José Luís Ferreira used to work, for example with the Miso Music Portugal or the MPMP Ensemble), that the composer put into practice the main premises of his Doctoral Thesis, in which he has defended the position of the performer (in Portuguese José Luís Ferreira uses the uncommon term “performador”), in the field of electronic music. According to José Luís Ferreira, the performer (“performador”) isn't merely an executer, but rather the "musician whose primary objective is the sonic realization of a score" [8]. "The role of the performer («performador») is to play with the musicians. And this magical play only happens with others" [9] – emphasized Carlos Caires (Música Hoje).
José Luís Ferreira has never liked to talk about his own music, and he also declared it in the MIC.PT interview: "I do not write explanations or programme notes because they always condition the work's fruition. I don't want, nor do I have the right to impose my vision on others… Actually, «the whys» don't have to be shared openly, but only through the work. It is for the «Is» to discover the «whys»…" [10]
The MIC.PT has decided to remember José Luís Ferreira through the words of some of his friends, students, teachers and collaborators, who have been challenged to respond to a Questionnaire about the composer. Some of them admitted that it hadn't been an easy task. "Everything seemed to me too little or somewhat exaggerated and, being true that I've always liked to provoke Zé, and he to provoke me, that was something just between us, two longtime friends" [11] – said the composer Bruno Gabirro.
All of the participants in the Questionnaire had a unique relation with José Luís Ferreira... or perhaps it would be more adequate to stay in the present, saying that they "have" it, as sometimes the physical absence of somebody makes his or her "spiritual" and intellectual presence even stronger. Thus, José Luís Ferreira continues "living" with the various people who had the privilege to know him.
QUESTIONNAIRE
The participants who have responded to the Questionnaire are: António de Sousa Dias (composer, multimedia artist and teacher), Bruno Gabirro (composer), Carlos Marecos (composer and teacher), Eduardo Luís Patriarca (composer), Jan Wierzba (conductor), Miguel Azguime(composer, performer and poet), Philippe Trovão (saxophonist) and Ricardo Guerreiro (composer and performer).
PAST
How did José Luís Ferreira discover music and what led him to composition? (you can answer according to the facts or simply speculate...)
Carlos Marecos: I don't have all the information, but I think that he probably was a bassist working in a different context, still before getting closer to classical / contemporary music.
Jan Wierzba: Through his Mum who always wanted to play the piano, although it was out of her reach. She was absolutely in love with Beethoven and it's highly possible that she projected her taste and some ambitions on José Luís. Now speculating... I think that what led him to composition were some features of his personality: insatiable curiosity, creativity and the need to express himself, apart from the taste for alternative music which he grew up listening.
Miguel Azguime: José Luís Ferreira found his way to music, because it was inevitable! As all artists and creators, he has done it in different ways, passing through diverse music languages and genres in search for his own path.
Ricardo Guerreiro: As soon as Zé started studying Analysis and Composition Techniques (ATC) at the Academia de Amadores de Música, with Pedro M. Rocha, immediately the exercises became for him very captivating challenges. The time was divided between studying double bass and composition. As time went by, the interest towards composition was increasing and taking more and more time of his life. I remember very clearly that from a certain moment, perhaps in the beginning of the third and last year of the ATC, it was obvious for the both of us that we would try to enter the Composition Course at the ESML (Music College of Lisbon), despite having been instrumentalists and performers praised by the teachers. But, to make things short, what seemed to engage us more and more was the logic of music creation.
LANGUAGE AND AESTHETICS
Describe José Luís Ferreira's music, using only seven words or expressions.
António de Sousa Dias: I would say that José Luís Ferreira's music is up-to-date, fresh, surprising, challenging, provocative, experimental, motivating.
Carlos Marecos: Lively, with pulse, theatrical, miscellaneous, up-to-date, sometimes ironic, technological.
Jan Wierzba: System, scheme, improvisation, romantic (not in the sense of romantic music but literally), narrative, adventurous, rock and roll.
Miguel Azguime: Intense, rigorous, elaborated, up-to-date, restless, imaginative, beautiful.
Philippe Trovão: Beautiful, challenging, up-to-date, inspiring, different, intelligent, expressive.
Ricardo Guerreiro: Organic, inspired, inventive, rhythmic, sectioned, challenging, varied.
How can you characterize José Luís Ferreira's music language (using more than seven expressions)?
Jan Wierzba: Above all José Luís Ferreira was a person who loved stories – to live and to get to know them. The adventurous component constructing the stories, is frequently very present in José's creative output, constantly leading him to find new solutions, innovate and to break the rules.
Ricardo Guerreiro: Open to novelty, courageous, free, spiritual, informed, dialoguing with the music by other composers, communicative, inventive and expressive.
Can you identify any transversal aspect in José Luís Ferreira's music?
António de Sousa Dias: The systematic experimentalism. José Luís Ferreira has always been experimenting.
Carlos Marecos: The use of electronics as a tool, and the use of regular pulsation in terms of writing.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: Coherence.
Jan Wierzba: The search for new sonic worlds, normally through the use of electronics.
Miguel Azguime: The work on the musical language itself, without prejudice and in a profound way.
Ricardo Guerreiro: I have the idea that Zé's music has always been very well received by the musicians who perform it. It's written very intelligently and the musicians have pleasure in working on / with it.
Which references from the musical past and present did José Luís Ferreira have as composer?
Carlos Marecos: Helmut Lachenmann, among many others...
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: He has always drawn from music as a whole. It doesn't seem to me that he divided it in the present or the past, but rather treated it as a continuum of information.
Jan Wierzba: Actually we had so many conversations about different composers that I don't recall any clear references. He loved Bach, Gustav Mahler, Claude Vivier, György Ligeti, Luigi Nono... and surprisingly, he was fan of soundtracks and composers such as John Williams and Hans Zimmer, for example, who frequently were his car travel companions.
Ricardo Guerreiro: Beethoven and Stravinsky. Music defined with energy and rhythm. The Rite of Spring has always been very special for both of us. We were sitting right next to Pierre Boulez conducting this work at the Coliseu, as if it were a rock concert. We followed intensely every second of it. Another piece that has always made him very enthusiastic is De Natura Sonorum by Bernard Parmegiani. We also went together and with enthusiasm to some less standard and more "fusion" jazz concerts. It was in the 1990s. More recently, Zé has seemed to be mainly focused on getting deeper into studying the great classics, perhaps because it was what he had to prepare for his lessons. It was something he did with great engagement and happy dedication.
Systematic or impulsive? How would you describe José Luís Ferreira's way of working?
António de Sousa Dias: It was a balance between the two. I would say that José Luís Ferreira used to have systematic impulses, yet his impulses encompassed systematic aspects.
Carlos Marecos: More impulsive than systematic.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: Mystery. I've never known his method well enough to be able to describe it, nor do I think it's interesting for me to know, as the result has surpassed any method. And in this result I have always found the following two situations – system and impulse. Isn't all the music by the great always like this?
Jan Wierzba: Definitely the two. Majorly systematic and impulsive in key moments. Or else, impulsive in the first moment of creation and then systematic until the end.
Miguel Azguime: The two things: José Luís Ferreira's music is precisely a dialectic between these two processes.
Philippe Trovão: Both. When I was his student we had many lessons on the Csound, during which his enthusiasm took control as he was writing lines and lines of code. He was discovering something of what he had never thought before. These situations used to reach the point when nobody was able to understand what he was doing, and he was simply having fun. In this sense, his enthusiasm made him impulsive, but always in the good sense. On the other hand, and because I had the opportunity to compose and work with him on the Max / MSP, I came to understand that he was extremely organized and systematic. All of his patches have always been very neat and all the information he used to give us at lessons or through the internet was thoroughly organized. During the lessons of Music Analysis he also stood out for being very systematic in the way he was passing the knowledge.
Ricardo Guerreiro: Systematically impulsive. I would prefer to say intuitive, for example. Normally Zé would start working and the ideas were appearing and conducting the process. He had fun with his own ideas, while writing music. I had the chance to see it a couple of times. I had the opportunity to be by his side when he was writing / inventing music. And the more he got surprised with his own ideas, the more and with less reservation he shared his emotions and interest.
Why, in your opinion, José Luís Ferreira composed music?
António de Sousa Dias: By nature. José Luís Ferreira was entirely a musician and creator, so writing music was for him something natural.
Carlos Marecos: Due to a natural, artistic need.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: It was his discourse, his way of being. In essence, he was composing because he was a musician and a creator.
Miguel Azguime: Because it was his way of staying alive.
Ricardo Guerreiro: On many occasions, it seemed a gesture close to improvising on an instrument. When he set off to writing music, he was actually already making it.
Chose one work by José Luís Ferreira – why is this piece important to you and, in your opinion, what is its importance in the composer's creative output?
António de Sousa Dias: Among many works, I should mention Le bruit d’une tête qui frappe contre les murs d’une très petite celulle. It's a short piece from 2000 and entirely sythesized in Csound. One of the relevant aspects of this work resides in the articulation, which José Luís Ferreira creates between the techniques of production and the strategies of perception, putting into play methods of synthesis confronted with the typo-morphological aspects of the sound.
Bruno Gabirro: Le bruit d’une tête qui frappe contre le murs d’une très petite celule. I was in Vila do Conde attending a violin Master Class and José Luís Ferreira invited me to go to Porto where a piece of his was to be premiered by the Loudspeaker Orchestra at the Música Viva Festival. So I went. The following year I enrolled in the Composition Course at the Music College of Lisbon. What I then saw, heard and lived in the company of Zé Luís was determining for my decision. And it's a beautiful piece, winner at the Música Viva 2001 Composition Competition. Its jury member was Jean-Claude Risset what Zé Luís used to stress with pride, typical for somebody who felt to have achieved something important and to have taken a new direction.
Carlos Marecos: S(w)ynthesis (2004-07) for saxophone quartet and live electronics. The work – I'm not sure if the choice of the title also points at it – actually carries out the synthesis between a rich instrumental language and the language of the electronics.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: For me it makes sense to chose two works (without actually being aware of their importance in the composer's path): (un)Broken (2001) was for me the "board" I found immediately in his passing away, because it broke without actually never breaking, because it doesn't exist without ceasing to be. I can't explain it. Le bruit d’une tête qui frappe contre les murs d’une très petite cellule, for the humour, for having been probably my first contact with his music.
Jan Wierzba: Avant (2010-11). Because we recorded it with the MPMP Ensemble for a CD which is still to be released, where José was performing with us at two concerts. It was the third version of the piece, made specifically for these concerts and recording. It's dear to me because I participated in it, and for José it was a working process with some very close friends involved in the construction of the piece and its recording: Tatiana Rosa, Daniel Bolito, Miguel Costa, Isa Antunes, Catarina Távora, Philippe Marques, Duarte Martins and Luís Delgado.
Miguel Azguime: Avant (2010-11) – on the one hand I have a personal connection with this piece because I was involved in its origin. But above all for me it's a fundamental piece in his production, because here José Luís Ferreira wanted to lead to the end his inquiry / research on the relations between the "acoustic" and "electronic" instruments. It was an attempt to fully integrate these two universes.
Ricardo Guerreiro: Still as composition student, Zé wrote a piece for voices (speech and noises), based on the excerpts of Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis. The piece was performed at the ESML by his colleagues and me. It originated in a challenge posed by professor Christopher Bochmann – he wanted Zé to create something fresh, freer and different form anything that he had done before. For me this piece is important in his path, as it was the first time that I saw in him something that would turn into his feature. I've always thought that since this challenge posed by professor Bochmann, Zé has applied this approach naturally in his whole musical output. He has discovered his "free freedom".
SPECULATION
If he hadn't been composer / musician, who would José Luís Ferreira's have been?
António de Sousa Dias: Definitely an artist. It was inevitable.
Carlos Marecos: A sound technician or airplane pilot.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: Who he already was, a Human Being. It's where the best of him has always been.
Philippe Trovão: José Luís was extremely intelligent and he came to attend an engineering course at one of Lisbon universities. So I think that most probably he would have been an engineer. Also knowing that he was quite concerned with various environmental issues, he could have followed an environmentally related area / discipline.
Jan Wierzba: An illustrator / writer of comic books and a scientist.
How would José Luís Ferreira's music have been without the existence of electronic tools and new technologies?
António de Sousa Dias: His music would have always been fresh and surprising. José Luís Ferreira was a born experimenter, with a great enthusiasm for life and with enormous curiosity and capacity for taking risks.
Carlos Marecos: It would have been similar, but without electronics.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: It would have been the same. José Luís Ferreira's capacity to create has transcended the technology, which was just another tool, another element. If it hadn't existed, it would have never existed anyway. It simply wouldn't have been one of his means / tools.
Miguel Azguime: I think it would have been the same music, with the same type of writing, but lacking the instruments to fulfill his musical dream.
How would José Luís Ferreira's next piece have been? Which aesthetic direction would he have taken as composer?
Carlos Marecos: Within the genre of mixed music, deepening on the relation between the acoustic instruments and the electronics.
Miguel Azguime: I think that the next piece would have been born from the same circumstances, that is, just as the major part of the music that he composed. To my mind José Luís Ferreira was in the phase of full affirmation of his long-term research. So he wouldn't have been re-questioning his aesthetics, but rather re-affirming it.
Philippe Trovão: I would have liked his next piece to be for saxophone and live electronics. And I would have liked to perform it. When it comes to the aesthetics I'm not certain, but I think that José would have continued the work from his Doctoral Thesis. It would have meant working on forms of interaction between a performer and the electronics of a work. José has always explained that there are basically two types of electronics: deferred time electronics (for example tape) and live electronics. Both of them can bring constraints in a piece. The first one because, when the performer is playing with a recording he or she is inevitably tied to it, giving little possibility to the work's different interpretations. In the second situation the problem is when the technological progresses is simply too fast, putting into risk the sustainability of the technologies. It's extremely tiring to keep reviewing the programmes and arranging solutions for hardware or software, which has become useless or isn't supported anymore. Since very early José has understood this problem and he dedicated a lot of energy to it, since he also was a computer music performer. Thus, I believe that he would have continued the work in progress to find a way to get rid of these constraints, allowing for a greater union between the performer of flesh and blood, and the machine. Here I can mention for example the Ohn System, which he was developing and which made a recording (tape) follow the performer, instead of being the other way round. It could make a difference in how electroacoustic music works are composed and executed, letting the musicians perform with their maximum potential.
PORTUGUESE MUSIC
How would Portuguese music have been if José Luís Ferreria hadn't appeared?
António de Sousa Dias: Definitely poorer. José Luís Ferreira is one of these composers who by means of his stance and work contributed to put Portuguese music into the 21st century, in terms of thought, attitude and the employed means.
Carlos Marecos: It would have been less rich and less diverse.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca: Mandatorily poorer...
Jan Wierzba: In general, without José Luís music would have been much poorer. He had confidence in his own reasoning, believing that his path had future at the level of output, as well as the means he searched to use and develop (connected with electronic music). His perseverance traced new paths for others.
Philippe Trovão: José Luís left a beautiful legacy. He has influenced people to dedicate themselves to electroacoustic music. These people are today giving concerts, promoting a musical current, sometimes difficult, among more and more listeners around the country. Without his work electroacoustic music wouldn't have progressed as it did in the last years; today this music wouldn't have been so present in the programmes of concert halls, and not so many people would have wanted to perform this genre. In general, Portuguese music would have been largely what it already has been, with the exception of Portuguese electroacoustic music – this one would have definitely been poorer.
PEDAGOGY
What was José Luís Ferreira's approach as pedagogue / teacher?
António de Sousa Dias: His approach was to always listen. He was restless, open to experience, always looking towards the future in the present, always encouraging, motivating and working with the new (and not so new) generations to go further.
Carlos Marecos: He was a teacher who employed a research methodology based on practice and the contact of music with the audience.
Philippe Trovão: I believe that José Luís Ferreira wanted to change mentalities. Both with the Lab for Mixed Music and with his composition and synthesis students, he wanted to take electroacoustic music further and to more people. At the lessons he constantly shared his enthusiasm and this created an attraction towards his words. He was a teacher who challenged students to go further and to overcome their limitations, confronting them and putting them in uncomfortable situations. He was always available and helped his pupils in everything that was necessary. During the composition lessons he insisted to meet and understand the students' ideas, completing them with more information or suggesting a path that hadn't been thought before. He was an accessible and open professor, who wanted to break barriers through adapting himself to any situation.
What is José Luís Ferreira's contribution for the teaching of composition / music in Portugal?
António de Sousa Dias: José Luís Ferreira has had various domains where his contribution is effective and verifiable. Apart from his work in the context of Electroacoustic Music, at the ESML, one should emphasize the motivation, which he transmitted to young composers and musicians in the framework of a contemporary approach to music, for example at the Lab for Mixed Music at the ESML. José Luís Ferreira was in the origin of the Production and New Technologies programme approved for professional schools. His presence at the Licence degree in Multimedia Art (University of Lisbon, Faculty of Fine Arts) made also a relevant contribution for the Practices of the Sound course.
Carlos Marecos: Above all, when it comes to the dissemination and teaching of electronic and mixed music, to improvising with these means and also more generally to composition and music analysis.
Jan Wierzba: It was the most important in the opening of some mentalities and tracing some paths, both for composers and young performers, who increasingly searched for him as mentor within their main interests.
Miguel Azguime: What I know of José Luís Ferreira as pedagogue is the musical result of his students, which I could see and hear. Here I've recognized his broad vision for understanding of what music is today as well as a historical and avant-garde perspective, which he knew how to transmit, encouraging research and innovation.
Philippe Trovão: I think that one of José Luís Ferreira's major contributions as teacher was the influence he had on many people, who after having contact with him, started listening to and performing electroacoustic music. His activity at the Lab for Mixed Music at the Music College of Lisbon was to provide the performers with different approaches to music, of which they hadn't thought before. In Lisbon he ended up creating a group of people who nowadays dedicate themselves almost entirely to electroacoustic music, being spread around the world. It's as if one created a movement in favour of this musical current. And the reach of his influence has gone even further. I can say with all certainty that he changed the path of many people, with whom he had contact. I believe that his major contribution for music education lies precisely in the influence he had on other people, opening new doors so that the music he was dedicated to with such passion, could disseminate and reach more places.
March 2019
© MIC.PT
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1 MIC.PT Interview to José Luís Ferreira to José Luís Ferreira, published in the MIC.PT In Focus section in November 2013.
2 ibidem
3 ibidem
4 ibidem
5 These two Música Hoje radio programmes, with the participation of José Luís Ferreira's friends, students, teachers and collaborators – António de Sousa Dias, Carlos Caires, Miguel Azguime, Philippe Trovão e Pedro Boléo (moderator of the Round Table) – were broadcast on February 8 and 22 on the Antena 2, and are available through the RTP – Play.
6 Música Hoje from February 8 and 22; radio programme produced for the Antena 2 by the MIC.PT / Miso Music Portugal; available on the RTP – Play.
7 ibidem
8 Doctoral Thesis by José Luís Ferreira: Mixed Music and Dynamic Relation Systems; supervisor: António de Sousa Dias; March 2014, Universidade Católica Portuguesa; p. 49.
9 Música Hoje from February 8 and 22; radio programme produced for the Antena 2 by the MIC.PT / Miso Music Portugal; available on the RTP – Play.
10 MIC.PT Interview to José Luís Ferreira to José Luís Ferreira, published in the MIC.PT In Focus section in November 2013.
11 Bruno Gabirro's e-mail sent to the MIC.PT; February 1, 2019, Lisbon.
