home(m),
version with flute, clarinet, violin, violoncello and piano.
deCompagnie and Michiel Delanghe.
do lume que pesa,
for alto flute, bass clarinet, violin, violoncello, piano and electronics.
Sound'Ar-te Electric Ensemble
and Pedro Carneiro.
This PhD thesis reflects on my artistic, academic and personal path as a composer. This project is framed within the larger concept of culture, tradition, and identity, and also considers the specific context of Portuguese national identity. This research delves into the ways in which my hometown traditions serve as roots, informing my journey as a composer and allowing me to unravel my identity. The research process allowed me to redefine my own stylistic language and create a unique voice that reflects my experiences and heritage. The artistic outcomes of this project (5 new pieces and reflections on them) will enrich the understanding of this genre of practice and composition techniques.
As Hobsbawm (2000) uses ‘tradition’ to describe a set of ritualised practices with a symbolic function, implying continuity with the past, in this project, by ‘traditional culture’ is meant a number of regular and ritualised practices that became part of a society/culture. These empirically accepted cultural aspects are passed down by previous generations, or the society around them, usually in non-written form. ‘Traditional elements’ are those present in the culture previously explained. They can be musical elements such as melodies, rhythms or resulting sounds (either produced by typical instruments or objects used in traditional labours or events), but also rites, religious celebrations or the elements present in those events. I have been using, since the beginning of the project, the term "traditional elements" to define what I have been using in my music. I decided on this term to keep it clear that it was never my idea to use only melodies, harmonies, rhythms or musical instruments from the Portuguese tradition. So I decided to open the range of possibilities in this way.
With this project, I intend to find my own compositional identity and reflect on how to re-invent and translate the use of elements from three collective traditions[1] in Braga (“Queima do Home”, Holy Week and St. John’s Festival) into new pieces, deliberately exploring the artistic potential of these elements, embedded in a theoretical, contemporary framework. The three festivities were chosen due to the relevance they have in my identity, and also due to the importance they have for the city of Braga. These are three distinct events but they represent a temporal progression that occurs every year, “cycles that are repeated in community calendars”, and that is, to some extent, linked to the ‘normal’ life of “archaic” human living (or human festivity)[2]. The excitement of Carnival, preceding the penitence of Lent and the sorrow and hope of the resurrection (rebirth) of Easter and the celebration of life of summer (summer solstice, St. John’s). These celebrations are certainly linked to the cycles of the moon and sun and the confrontation between life and death.
Although the majority of my ancestors were not born in Braga, it was there that my family settled. My maternal grandparents emigrated in the 1960s, and my father’s family, despite being from another municipality in Minho, Amares, more precisely from Bouro Santa Maria, already had a connection to the city of Braga, visiting it regularly, either for work or leisure. When my parents got married, they stayed in Braga, where I was born and grew up until I was 18 years old.
With approximately 54km2 of total area and a population of 193 349[3], Braga is the third biggest city in Portugal. Located in the Minho region, north of Portugal, this is a dynamic city, still developing socially from the ‘rural ambience’ mostly present until the 1990’s. The city has greatly developed since the 1970s, mainly after the creation of the University of Minho, where many young people from other parts of the country went to study, ending up living in the city.
Braga has an extremely relevant historical past for Portugal. Its history predates the Roman Empire, where it was called Bracara Augusta, which can still be found in the Roman ruins scattered around the city. From the 10th century onwards, Braga was an important catholic centre, and for this reason, it is also linked to the birth of Portugal. Already in the 18th century, there was an important rejuvenation of the city, where, through the work of the architects André Soares and Carlos Amarante, several buildings (such as the Town Hall, the public library and the Sanctuary of Bom Jesus do Monte) throughout the city were built or altered following the Baroque style. This historical past is still very present in the city's annual calendar of celebrations. Braga has events that celebrate the past and the history of the city, for example, the “Braga Romana” events, as well as traditions that go back to different times of the city’s development, inserted for example in the St. John of Braga and in the Holy Week.
In a context of liquid social organizations (Bauman 2007), this project intends to contribute to the sustainability of local heritage and musical cultures (Schippers & Grant 2016). The sonic environment and music of the previously mentioned events, which I will document during my research, will be used as a source in a complex dynamic relation between the present and the past (Hall 1996). This research is also formulated within the postmodern approach “from-roots-to-routes” (Hall) and the concept of rhizomatic identity, building my own musical language along with the development of my (artistic) identity.
Artistically speaking, this research extends what was done by composers in the last centuries. Brahms (Swafford, 1999), Takemitsu (Burt, 2006) and Henderickx (Meyer, 2017), among many others, used elements from traditional cultures in their pieces. Regarding the elements of Portuguese (traditional) culture, a considerable number of Portuguese composers (e.g. Lopes-Graça, Lapa, Carrapatoso) use traditional melodies, rhythms and harmonies and “extra-musical aspects” in their compositional process (Gama, 2016).
It is worth mentioning Joana Gama’s research on “Estudos interpretativo sobre música portuguesa contemporânea para piano: O caso particular da música evocativa de elementos culturais portugueses”[4], where the pianist focused mainly on the interpretation of pieces for piano solo written by Portuguese composers, presenting works with “extra-musical aspects that inspired [the composers] in the composition process” (2016:215). Gama claims that “in a more or less intense way, with more or less profound relations at the level of composition, there are composers who, whether in their works for solo piano, or in works for other instruments or ensembles, are inspired by distinct elements of Portuguese culture. In these cases, the music associates itself to external elements and in this way summons to the listening literary, geographical, landscape, musical and/or ethnographic references” (Gama, 2016).
While Joana Gama’s work is centred on the interpretation of pieces by Portuguese composers (Vasques Dias, Lopes-Graça, among others), showing how these aspects of culture are incorporated/used by each composer, and how this investigation of the primary source influences musical interpretation, my work is focused on the composition of pieces that incorporate traditional elements. My aim is to continue exploring the creative potentiality of these elements as done before, but set within a theoretical, contemporary and current framework of Sound Studies (“acoustemology”, Feld, and “hearing cultures”, Erlmann). My research follows thess artistic ideas, although the artistic point of view differs.
Another relevant research is “Ensaios sobre cantos - Portfolio of Musical Compositions Influenced by Traditional music from the Azores” developed by Angela da Ponte. Here, the composer focuses on the use of “traditional tunes and soundscapes recorded between 1952 and 1960” and the connection between Viola da Terra (a traditional guitar from the Azores) and western orchestral instruments. In this project, I try to have a new look at the traditional elements, developing the perspective used by composers of previous generations, exploring not only the melodies, harmonies and rhythms of traditional Portuguese music but also exploring events with a centuries-old tradition as an object of a sound and artistic search with a great influence of society. Although I consider the elements of traditional music (melodies, rhythms and harmonies) a very interesting raw material for the creation of new works and that, certainly, will influence me in future creations, I try to have a more detailed look at the events’ elements. These events must be understood in a sonic framework, in which space, environment and other factors interact in the construction of tradition. Therefore, more than using traditional Portuguese music as an influence, in this project I tried to use the sound of different traditions, the sound of celebrations and the sound of people seen from my perspective.
A connection between my artistic approach and the sound studies is established, not only with acoustemology (Feld 1982), but also with landscape (Wishart uses the term ‘convolution’, imposing “the acoustic characteristics of any pre-analysed sound environment upon given a sound object”, 1986:45) and hearing culture (Erlmann 2004). In fact, I believe that “a more sensitised ear” is essential to the composer’s ear, being, in this way, “possible to conceptualise new ways of knowing a culture” (Ibid.:3), attending, reflexively, to the cultural, environmental, and aesthetics of that knowledge production (Sterne 2012:3).
This project is divided in two parts. Having the notion that art is influenced by culture, society, people and their history, I decided to investigate and present in the first part of this project several concepts that emerged during the course of this project: as Culture (R. Williams, P. Gielen), Identity (Hall, Fukuyama, Cools, Grossberg and Lima), several parameters of Portuguese culture (Lourenço, Real, Sobral, Calafate, Melo, Rosas), Braga's festivities (Ferreira, Sardinha) and the Elements of traditional music from Minho (Lopes-Graça, Sardinha, Veiga de Oliveira and Azevedo). This step was crucial for my artistic growth, as I believe it is essential to (re)discover a culture or tradition in order to better understand and amplify the elements that define it. Indeed, I find the disclosure, preservation, recording and study of the traditional elements very important in order to understand and explain the specific nature of a (traditional) culture. In the last few years, I have also realised there is a lack of available information about these traditions and events, especially written in English. Additionally, it is important for me to present and preserve a less well-known part of Portuguese culture, avoiding the general misconception of Fado as a national representation of my culture.
The first part of this project was instrumental in helping me develop a deeper understanding of the specific words, concepts, and theories that form the foundation of my self-analysis. By immersing myself in this background research, I was able to gain valuable insights that informed the subsequent stages of the project. Some readers may wonder why this first part is necessary or relevant, but its importance will become clear in the second part of the project.
In the second part, I demonstrate how these concepts are present in my identity as an artist. This second part is also divided in two sections. First, an autognosis of my own work and identity is offered to the reader. Considering that this is an artistic work, it was crucial to present a (personal) reflection on my artistic identity, and the views that emerged during the progress of this research, in order to fulfil all the goals planned at the beginning. Certainly, this will offer a different perspective on my artistic views, as well as the development achieved during the course of this project. This reflection helped me to understand my choices throughout the composition processes.
The pieces included in this project were composed between 2017 and 2021. Each new piece was a reaction to the previous compositions, reflecting a changing approach to traditional elements. Thus, each piece demonstrates the development of this project and its composition process can be analysed from the following stages: attempt, discovery, error and solution. As part of the composition process, I carried out an individual research, in loco, observing the various events present in the celebrations that I used as inspiration. This led to a deeper understanding of the traditional elements and how they could be incorporated into my compositions.
These were presented in concerts and extensively discussed, namely during the Seminar "The traditional in new art music - Portuguese traditional elements as an influence for new compositions" held at the Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen (Gele Zaal) on 17 November 2021.
There were also recordings of conversations (shared in video format, on my youtube channel) with different artists, about their influences and objects that inspire them. These conversations were significant in shaping my writing, organising the texts, and refining the ideas presented in this work.
This subject was chosen not only because of my personal connection but also - and perhaps most importantly - because I sincerely believe that it is and can be an interesting source of inspiration for me as a composer. The link between Portuguese traditional music and my creative process started in a research on Bouro Santa Maria’s (Amares, Braga) musical heritage (2011) and it has been developing in the last years in artistic researches about ‘Elements of Portuguese Traditional Music in Contemporary Composition’ (Master degree, 2014) and ‘The Influence of Traditional Culture in New Art Music Composition’ (Starting Grant, 2016), both performed at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and supported by the Composition and Analysis department, chaired by W. Henderickx and L. Van Hove, from which several pieces (e.g. “dream is my reality”) resulted.
With this project, I hope to influence other artists to create within this field. It is aimed at encouraging them to search for new and broader perspectives when using traditional elements, valuing and integrating those elements as a step to understand a society with special attention to sound and space. My aspiration is that this can be done by other artistic researchers in relation to other cultures or specific traditional activities. I hope to influence them to explore and develop the study of the (re)use of traditional elements in art created by them, fostering the search for new perspectives. This project also aims to draw attention to the value of those elements for the understanding of a culture.