Entrevista a Ângela Lopes / Interview with Ângela Lopes
2005/May/31
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Education and influences: stages and turning points
I think that
the notion of “I want to compose! I’m going to compose!” came a little late. It
wasn’t very early because there was a time when I was studying music in
parallel with my general education… at that time when all young people have
difficulty in knowing what options they will take in life.
Something
which influenced me was, obviously, my decision to go to the Superior School of
Music in Oporto. As for people… the teacher Cândido Lima was the person who
influenced me immensely, not only for his work in itself, which I got to know,
but also as a man who knew how to transmit what it is to be a composer. This
influenced me and helped me immensely in my education and in trying to
understand what I wanted, who I was, and what I was writing, because I think
that composition was this for me… a discovery! I didn’t just get up and say
“I’m going to compose. And I’m going to compose in this or that way”! Because I
should confess, it was a virtually unknown world for me. Therefore it was
fascinating!
And I can
say that there was quite an influential moment in terms of Contemporary Music
or music of the 20th century which was the first major concert I went to, quite
a number of years ago in the Coliseum: Prometeu by Luigi Nono. Although I admire him, he’s
not exactly the composer I most relate to, but I ended up by going twice. I
remember that everyone was lefting the hall but I went to the first performance
and to the second. For the whole time I thought it was extremely beautiful and
I was enchanted by those nuances, those pianissimos,
almost inaudible… I was stunned!
I remember
also the first sensation I had, for example, with Messiaen which I heard on CD,
from the Quatuor pour la Fin du Temps. I thought
it was marvellous! And in fact, that is what I was missing… I had had a more
classical education, shall we say… I speak of the classics, of the romantics,
of the truly classical classics, of the Baroque period… And this period was
impressive in terms of my discovery of the 20th century, of seeking composers
like Stockhausen or Berio. For me it was all one great discovery. It is obvious
that some touched me more, like this first experience with Luigi Nono’s work
and which was very influential for me. I remember first discovering Messiaen
and other impressive works I started to listen to, like Jonchaies
which stuck in my memory… like the Rite of Spring
which I also heard in the Coliseum, conducted by Boulez. There are things which
in fact have made their mark on me, and when I hear them I say: “Ah, so good, I
want to be a composer, I want to write music like that too!”. And it seems that
we have more energy and we say that we also want to do interesting things…
Obviously this is relative; I have short works, really very short, some more
interesting, other less so, on a journey of discovery. For example, some of the
first pieces I have are connected to certain authors and composers. They are
not exactly clichés or copies, but they would be more part of a journey within
the aesthetics of Messiaen or Stravinsky. Lately, I have tried something more
personal. I have tried to look for
something which is more my own but I think that this is part of the natural
journey.
I can’t fail to mention that the works of my teacher Cândido Lima
influenced me quite a lot. And what is curious about it, is that I feel this
more now than at that time, that it should be a world of discovery. This can be
seen more perhaps in these last two or three works than longer ago.
I think that
my first pieces were very painful. I probably shouldn’t say it, but it is true!
I would spend hours on end looking at the paper… It was a tough time. However,
I think that I managed to understand one thing: and that is that I couldn’t use
everything I wanted and just place it “inside” the work. Or rather, I had the
notion that things had to work in a coherent manner, even if it wasn’t so for
the listener. Today it’s less painful, I no longer suffer so much. I know that
I’m going to suffer for a little while but I no longer suffer beforehand… I’m
much calmer now, shall we say. I think that I am more serene and I hope to be
even more so. And I also have more confidence.
The first
piece I can present as being a genuine piece is from 1995. What I had done
prior to that are exercises. This piece is one of those first pieces which are
accompanied by a tutor from the discipline, my teacher Cândido Lima; which is
very important as obviously this gives us fundamental guidelines. Therefore, I
cannot say that I did it by myself because it has the “hand” of someone who was
guiding us along the way. Both Trítonos and Scherzando
are almost stylistic pieces, a little within the
Messiaen approach and the other a little Stravinskyish. They are therefore two
quite different pieces, they don’t have anything to do with each other. One has
more to do with the search for sonorities, mainly with the piano, melodic
lines, with counterpoint. And the other, is perhaps more rhythmic, more based
on certain ostinatos, with a completely different
harmony. Their worlds are very far apart. And I think that later on, in a way,
I searched along this path. With Partita I tried a
completely different world. It came closer to Xenakis’ aesthetics with a world
full of scales. And meanwhile I also went after what I thought could be my own,
more personal path.
And
there are two important landmarks so far. The first was with Canção de Izis. Up to this time I had many doubts and was asking myself to what point
I would be able and if I was doing something, that is, if I was managing to
compose or if I was composing anything really interesting. It was my personal
acid test, shall we say… and it isn’t necessarily to do with who is listening
but rather with myself.
After
Canção de Izis, the other important
moment came much later, in September of 2004, when I wrote a work for the Santa
Maria da Feira International Music Festival; the proposal was to write a work
with voice, but the instrumentation was up to me. As we were in a place full of
Medieval History, I looked for a medieval text for the songs and opted for two
conventional texts, general songs, one by King D. Sancho I, and the other was
anonymous. It is for soprano, clarinet, piano, violin and violoncello. Of the
last ones I have done, I think that Duas Cantigas de Amigo is the piece which frankly makes me the happiest.