Questionnaire/Interview
Part 1 . Roots & Education
How did music begin for you and where do you identify your musical roots? Which paths led you to composition?
Eduardo Patriarca: I don’t have direct music roots. Although connected with different arts my family didn’t have strong aspirations in music.
When I was in kindergarten, at the time situated at the Colégio de Nossa Senhora da Esperança in Porto, there were music lessons, and one day I asked my mother to have piano lessons. I could have been more or less three or four years old at the time.
Composition emerged quite naturally. Once I had a piano I felt a stronger urge to explore it than to perform the repertoire. So I was following this direction between small songs, until a first experience for piano and tape. The certainties arose later, at the age of thirteen or fourteen, when I was António Pinho Vargas’ and later Jorge Peixinho’s student.
Which moments from your music education do you find the most important?
EP: All the moments of sheer music education were of great importance. Many of them actually happened outside the classes. There are diverse conversations “over coffee” that have been more noteworthy than the entire lessons, and at many times they’ve involved the same people. Others have been the auditions of determined works, that is, the impact that they’ve caused.
I remember exceptional lessons with Cândido Lima, normally quite specific, on a determined topic, for example when he introduced me to Murail’s and Grisey’s music, or to Luigi Nono’s string quartet. Similarly, at a completely “outsider” class, Álvaro Salazar gathered composition students to talk about Ligeti. I must confess that if his music had already fascinated me before, there I was taken to the maximum of perception and understanding. Likewise some classes with Christopher Bochmann were fundamental for the analysis and understanding of determined works.
I have been also marked fundamentally by the audition of The Rite of Spring. It changed my whole perception of music, just as, thanks to Fernando C. Lapa, Bartók’s String Quartets and Stockhausen’s Gesang der Jünglinge did.
I have never considered the academic structures as a fundamental factor for my music education.
Nevertheless at the age of fourteen during my ninth school year, the first contact with António Pinho Vargas and then at the age of nineteen with Jorge Peixinho, turned out to be fundamental elements for my choices as composer. Later the seminars with Emmanuel Nunes at the Gulbenkian Foundation, particularly the first one with the analysis of Quodlibet, Minnesang and Einspielung I, provided certain changes of perspective, fundamental for my writing.
Part 2 . Influence & Aesthetics
Which references do you assume in your compositional practice? Which works from the history of music and the present time have been the most important to you?
EP: I assume references within all the music that I’ve heard, some of them more obvious than the other ones. Either in different ways or in different aspects of my process, medieval works have been sharing space with some lighter aspects of the 20th century. Passing obviously through the works of the repertoire…
I think that the references change at every moment, when taking into account the aspects to which a determined importance is given. The roles that each reference assumes in the creative process aren’t constant. As I have already mentioned, The Rite of Spring was the work that marked me the most, and whose role was fundamental in my stylistic development. However during the years other works have had equally important roles. In the works from the past various Chansons by Josquin de Près, the 5th Book of Madrigals by Monteverdi, the Notre-Dame Mass by Machaut, Beethoven’s 8th Symphony, Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage, almost the whole Satie, Debussy’s Péleas et Mélisande, with a great opening of perception, Music for Strings Percussion and Celesta by Bartók, etc.
From a certain time I can mention various works by John Cage, between the strictly musical ones and the texts, and among the more recent ones there are undoubtedly four works; CDE by Jorge Peixinho, L’amour de loin by Kaija Saariaho, L’Esprit des dunes by Tristan Murail and Vortex Temporum by Gérard Grisey.
The dichotomy occupation – vocation can define the composers’ artistic/professional approach. Where on the scale between the emotional (inspiration and vocation) and the pragmatic/rational (calculation and occupation) do you find your way of working and your stance as composer?
EP: As always it depends on the works and the time where they belong. My work has already been entirely calculation and occupation. Subsequently I have been passing more and more to the emotional side, although maintaining the global ideas of the latter approach.
The first pieces were truly emotional. They set out from an improvisation and a personal taste, consequence of emotional auditions and references. Little by little the technique and the need to create structures and determinations, took me to processes based on calculation, either within formal organization or the used techniques. I have never been keen adept of serial music but I have already passed through it, and some works from the 1989 and 1990 are its examples, particularly the 5 Pieces for Piano from 1990. Yet still, even here I felt the need of an emotional employment when it comes to the timbral aspect.
The process entirely based on calculation was subsequent. I believe that it was important allowing me to create essential works. However I have felt, and continue to feel when listening to these works, that they lack the merely artistic side. Their rigour hasn’t always made me feel satisfied.
Nowadays I feel much closer to the inspired/emotional side, especially since the major part of the used techniques is accurately rooted and elaborated with great fluency. Nevertheless it doesn’t exclude the rational creation or the rational use of various elements.
Are there any extra-musical sources, which influence your work significantly?
EP: There are various sources. Frequently I refer to my work as meditations on fractals and spectrums, and I think it resumes this question quite fairly. From the Buddhist inspiration, taken from the meditations and some attitudes of the Zen philosophy, to the use of fractals, both at the mathematical as well as at a merely poetic level – these are the factors that distinguish my work and are involved in the technical and creative processes.
In the context of western art music do you feel close to any school or aesthetics from the past or present?
EP: I feel a connection with the spectral school; not only because of the emotional relation with some of the works, but also with the great part of this aesthetics’ guidelines; and not at the most profound level of the original foundation of the spectral “school”, but in the final results. What interests me is the manipulation within a sound per se, transforming it in the unique and exclusive element of creation, as the definition of determined processes that characterize the harmonic and formal structure.
That is why probably the post-spectral approach of Kaija Saariaho and Philippe Hurel, as well as Grisey’s last works mark me aesthetically more than the “treaty-works” such as Les Espaces Acoustiques or Mémoire/Érosion.
Are there any influences of non-western cultures in your music?
EP: The cultures associated with Buddhism make part of my music, either due to emotional aspects or, in some cases, due to aesthetic or even technical properties – sometimes with direct references as in Haikus para Morgana, other times within the poetic idea as in Xiaoling para David, and still for the philosophy like in 3 Mantras e Meditação or Ensō.
Part 3 . Language & Compositional Practice
How can you characterize your music language when taking into account the techniques developed in composition in the 20th and 21st centuries? Do you have any music genre or style of preference?
EP: My language is a mixture of influences, although mostly based on the spectral techniques. I have never encountered an aesthetics that alone would define my thought, what I think is indeed common to everyone. Habitually a determined aesthetics is a result of someone’s needs, which by nature aren’t exactly mine. We shall have points of convergence, but also sufficient differences in order not to fall into the same stylistic requirements. I take the aesthetics of a determined group as a musicological exercise, a form of fitting various elements into a unique one.
We have preferences and affinities, but also sufficient divergences in order not to belong to an exclusive group, what indeed presently seems to me a quite common path.
Could you describe the process behind your compositional practice? Do you compose from an embryo-idea or after having elaborated the global form?
EP: Every moment constitutes a specific case implying different ways of working. There is a constant element in the organization of the form, aspect with which I am particularly concerned. It is the concept of return and support.
The base of a piece can be constituted equally by a text or a harmonic element, or even an image. Afterwards the other elements emerge together with the consequent manipulations. These determine the global formal structure and thus they begin to be truly elaborated. Rarely is the initial scheme maintained faithfully. There are almost always adaptations derived from the manipulations on the diverse elements. Actually all the structures end up being embryonic, since the systematic relations between them determine the possible developments.
The form generates the elements as well as their transformations and these ones, when manipulated, produce the formal elements.
In the context of your compositional practice how could you define the connection (or opposition) between the calculation/reasoning/scientific processes (for example connected with acoustic phenomena) and the approach more turned towards the emotion (the so-called “creative impulses”)?
EP: All the elements are fundamental. Obviously, there are some techniques that determine the unraveling of the structures, or which at least appear with sufficient frequency to become determining in the discourse. Nevertheless the “creative impulses” serve to advance with the merely technical aspects.
Frequently I resort to the idea of cycles and their superposition. These end up having a very structured and calculated line of thought, and many times they can be the base element upon which others will be developing. And they are, yes, much more emotional and derived from particular fundamental moments, as second plan results of what is happening. Which one of them has importance? It depends on various aspects.
What is your relation with the new technologies and how do they influence your way of composing and your music language?
EP: I use new technologies quite irregularly. At some times I have felt more the need to use them, at others less. For example within a work with electronics its role can be modified throughout the process of writing. I have already used electronics in different formats, rarely with real time manipulations, more in the “tape” format, either continuous or divided throughout the execution.
At one point I used programmes supporting the manipulation on the material, but more as a way to spare time than to create new elements.
The development is normally well structured, that is the material and the idea of the final result of my works. In this sense the use of computer tools constitutes yet another element adapted to the final result and not on the contrary. Just as in any other case the electronics tunes in with the creative process, having the same role as the non-computer tools, generating similar situations, and being able to determine formal structures or paths in the development of the composition.
The technological tool that can influence more my material or structures is the spectral analysis. Frequently it is the initial step for composition.
What is the importance of spatial and timbral aspects in your music?
EP: During the 1990s the spatialization was in a certain way a recurrent need in my practice and research. Later it turned into a second plan concern, taking place exclusively within my present work with electronics.
For the spatialization to gain importance, the acoustic instruments turned out to be more and more difficult to manage. There are always difficulties either when it comes to space or the correct realization. The electronics as such allows me to do it instrumentally and without big problems, simply as the support of the notion of polycycle.
The timbre, particularly with respect to spectralism, is fundamental in my music. The sometimes quite subtle timbral differences between spectral analyses of the same frequency with diverse origins constitute the focus of my harmonic manipulations, and thus create cohesive or contrasting harmonic fields, consequently structuring the music material. For example, in the new cycle Rituals the pieces 1 to 3 use the same basic elements, when it comes to the electronics and generating frequencies. Yet at every moment the analysis of the superimposition of these frequencies produced by a given instrument together with the electronics, create the melodic and harmonic structures. This transforms completely each of the pieces, the relation of ones with the others, as well as their relation with the electronics.
What is the importance of experimentation in your music?
EP: Just like spatialization, it has been more due to the didactical resources in my path than to the intrinsic need of its use.
Obviously there is always a certain dose of experimentalism; there are always new processes and less usual resources, which characterize every piece in my catalogue. They serve essentially as manipulations of the controlled parameters. However, it isn’t an aspect that I discard. There are various ideas resorting to the unconventional uses of instruments, but as always, it is only in the course of the creative process that they gain, or not, sufficient importance in order to be applied.
Which works do you consider turning points in your career?
EP: During the years we create empathy with different works and give dissimilar importance to each one of them. Nevertheless there are some, which by their origin gain a life of their own in the definition of our aesthetics.
Some of them remain isolated during some time with this role, other rapidly give in or accumulate place with the others. The first important point was Self for piano and electronics in 2004, precisely in the determination of the cycles and the different superimpositions. Later in successive years: 2011 Ensō for orchestra; 2012 Processione for string quartet; 2013 Canções de Lemúria for voice and piano; and 2014 A propos d’un son for viola and electronics. These works gathered important turnarounds. Although they are quite different one from another in essential points of perception, they maintain and collect similar techniques and aesthetics. I believe that the last one joins the developments that every previous one brought, thus establishing a precise level. Other pieces, sometimes satellites of these ones, take on the same techniques, not developing them but merely using them; thence their lack of power to make a turning point in the writing.
Part 4 . Portuguese Music
What do you think of the present situation of Portuguese music? What distinguishes Portuguese music on the international panorama?
EP: On the one hand we are growing, with various young composers whose works can be heard. We have young performers more and more interested in Portuguese music, and the structures to defend, publish and promote our music. However… we have lost almost the whole institutional support, and the little that is given only spoils the mockery. Unfortunately the people with honest artistic interests who could work in these institutions don’t get along with financial interests, and, likewise, the latter ones don’t align with the former ones.
We are always raising the issue of the crisis and of what happens to the support for culture during these phases. However what we often forget is that presently the major crisis has to do with values, and this one is combined with the difficult financial situation. There is no such thing as lack of support, which is simply distributed in an extremely bad way. We, artists, aren’t seen as financial resources, creating currencies. Generally, the less one thinks the better.
In consequence and since the support is null, the role of the young generations that make our situation better will be taken away quite easily from them. What is worth is the determination and resistance that they shall have.
It doesn’t seem to me that internationally we distinguish ourselves for the better or worse. We have exactly the same competences as any other foreign musician. That is what globalization is about. The access is equal. Eventually we have a different necessity resulting from years of dead end and without the access to anything. Yet it has been at least partially overcome. It seems to me that yes, what underestimates us are the institutions, and frequently of Portuguese origin. Normally we praise what comes from the outside and we forget about what is here, even though it possesses equal capacities.
Is there any transversal aspect in Portuguese contemporary music?
EP: I think there is no such aspect. Although there are, naturally, some aesthetic confluences, it seems to me that they don’t create schools or aesthetic niches.
How could you define the composers’ role nowadays?
EP: I think that the role hasn’t changed. What actually changed are the interests. The composer continues to write about what he feels and perceives, releasing ideas in his/her own understanding, raising questions in the domain of perception – each one in a more or less particular manner.
According to your experience what are the differences between the music environment in Portugal and in other parts of the world?
EP: My last contacts with foreign composers and performers make me realize that there aren’t great differences. There are always the sons of the state and the bastards. In the case of the former ones, as I have already mentioned, the more they represent the political and economic interests the more required support they obtain, while the latter ones keep on begging.
In this respect in France an original structure has been created, Tempóra. I am its member and it serves precisely to support, within its possibilities, the musicians who are outside the great centres. I recall that one of the complaints has had to do with the differentiation between Paris and the rest of the cities (the structure’s headquarters are in Bordeaux). And even the Parisians complain on the form of the support’s distribution.
Presently this structure joins musicians with the same problems from all over the world.
The value crisis is global; it isn’t particular to this or that country. The truth is that the economically powerful have also dominated the culture. They impinge on it.
Part 5 . Present & Future
What are your current and future projects? Could you highlight one of your more recent works, presenting the context of its creation as well as the singularity of its language and the techniques used?
EP: Presently I am working on the Rituals cycle, composed of seven pieces with different instrumental sets, where the last one accumulates the whole instrumentation.
They are pieces using as inspiration a Tibetan mantra divided into four parts. The first one serves for the pieces number 1 for flute, 2 for bass clarinet and 3 for cello. The second part serves for the piece number 4 for flute, clarinet and cello; the third one for the pieces, number 5 for viola and 6 for percussion; and finally the mantra’s fourth part gives structure to the piece number 7 for flute, clarinet, viola, cello and percussion.
The mantra is worked with the use of electronics and superimposed in every piece with canticles from different traditions and also including merely electronic manipulations. What happens is that every moment is analysed spectrally, creating differentiated structures, due to the base sound, not only from the instrument but also from the form of attack. On the other hand, the way of execution, with more or less “noise” determines the formal points of tensions and relaxation.
In practical terms this cycle derives from the technical and aesthetic applications of the previously referred works, but with a stronger connection to A propos d’un son.
The future shall bring the conclusion of other cycles. The Canções de Lemúria belongs to a cycle that finishes with the opera Requiem para Mū and presently, unfortunately without the opera, they make part of a project that will go to Brazil. Equally Ensō makes part of a cycle of orchestral works, concertos or not, based on the ideologies of the Zen philosophy and the Buddhist practice, being followed immediately by Koan for flute and orchestra. The rest remain ideas on paper, schemes without deadline.
How do you see the future of art music?
EP: Art continues to have the same role. And music continues to share with the rest of the arts the ideological and social functions of the time where it belongs. History determines this role, what doesn’t cease to worry me, since the values are lower and lower and the needs accompany the tendency.
We are in a moment where everyone believes to deserve the limelight and in any area. One sings because one wants to be a singer, and actually this pop phenomenon has dozens of followers. People appear and disappear with an incredible velocity, and they don’t leave any trace…
Curiously other arts such as literature, painting, dance or acting (in the most diverse aspects) took their stance in the domain of contemporaneity, with new visions of the classics and the change of their patterns. Curiously the main “actors” of these arts move away art music from the present domain. Frequently one resorts to the classical works form the past to accompany the interventions of the present. Recurrently one questions the contemporary music creation, referring to the absence of “harmony” and “melody”. It seems to me that we ourselves don’t defend it sufficiently. The metric, harmonic and melodic patterns of a Camões poem don’t exist in a poem by Valter Hugo Mãe. There are transformations of the process; there is evolution of the language in the adaptation to the time where it is inserted. One discusses and assumes the validity of less daring texts. Obviously there is also commercial literature but it doesn’t obscure art literature, whereas contemporary art music is completely obliterated by the amalgam of existing commercialization; and as I said, with the support of the rest of the arts.
Thus the future of art music worries me to a certain extent.
Eduardo Luís Patriarca, July 2015
© MIC.PT
