Dossiers . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries
New Series of Digital Editions by the MIC.PT
Digital Format . Challenges and Opportunities
Presently, the development of digital media (re)defines our daily life, imposing more and more the need to rethink and reinvent the common practices concerning the act of edition/publication, either “on paper” or on any other material and format. Since its conception in 2000 and its materialization in 2006, the year of the release of the WWW.MIC.PT website, which on January 6, 2016, will be celebrating its 10th anniversary of online existence, the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre (CIIMP) has been relying on the digital format, thus reacting innately to the present time, not only to its technological context, but also in terms of economical, ecological and civilizational sustainability. It is certain that the major part of the materials available on the MIC.PT are in digital format – articles, composers’ dossiers, scores, images, audios or videos, etc. – and it is also certain that the inevitable digital brings us numerable benefits, that is: the easy and immediate access to all kinds of data related to music creation, the possibilities of cooperation in network between various music centres form the world over, and in consequence, a considerable increase when it comes to the visibility of Portuguese art and research music beyond boarders. Nevertheless, the same digital is also loaded with new challenges, for example, in the framework of what we could determine as the “paradox of continuity of digital objects” – the faster and faster digital (r)evolution means not only improvements, progress and new possibilities, but it also carries the necessity to constantly “update” the already existing materials, which, without these essential “updates”, run the risk of “falling into disuse” and disappearing. In this sense, in order to meet and give answer to this critical problem, the CIIMP collaborates actively in the project Digital SOS, coordinated by the DGLAB in the context of the Network for Common Preservation of the Digital Patrimony.
Dossiers . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries
Throughout 2015 and 2016, marking, on the one hand, the 15 years since the conception of the CIIMP/MIC.PT and, on the other, the 10 years of its effective work online for the sake of Portuguese art and research music, we have decided to release and develop the Dossiers . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries. By means of this new series of digital (in PDF format) and bilingual (Portuguese, English) editions, created from the extensive material contained in the In Focus since 2011, we intend, above all, to construct a contemporary portrait of composition in Portugal, thus promoting even more effectively and directly the activity of the numerous Portuguese contemporary composers with scores published by the MIC.PT. In this sense, the series of Dossiers . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries constitutes an “introspection” in the work of every composer, simultaneously encouraging the (re)discovery not only of their music but also of their aesthetic and philosophical reflection.
There is no doubt that this (re)discovery produces measurable results, including the introduction of music by Portuguese composers in the programmes of international events dedicated to contemporary music creation. It is precisely in this sense that the Dossiers . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries, constitute yet another tool for the MIC.PT and the composers, for whom it is also a kind of visit card, to increase the international visibility of Portuguese contemporary music.
Every Dossier, conceived and edited with the direct assistance of the composers, is constituted by the following elements: biographical note, questionnaire/interview or musicological article, catalogue of works with two orders (according to instrumentation and chronological) and discography.
At this moment, on the MIC.PT it is possible to access and download freely the following Dossiers, edited and released online since the beginning of 2015:
Dossier no. 1 . Paulo Ferreira-Lopes;
Dossier no. 2 . Sara Carvalho;
Dossier no. 3 . António Ferreira;
Dossier no. 4 . António Chagas Rosa;
Dossier no. 5 . Bruno Gabirro.
Apart from that, the following Dossiers dedicated to other various composers published by the MIC.PT, are waiting to be edited and released in the next months and throughout 2016: Patrícia Sucena de Almeida, Miguel Azguime, Christopher Bochmann, Cândido Lima, João Madureira, Pedro Rebelo, Ricardo Ribeiro, Vítor Rua e Isabel Soveral.
At the time of the MIC.PT double anniversary, 15 years since its conception and 10 years since its online release, and also for “embracing” and publishing more and more composers from various generations – presently the MIC.PT online Catalogue includes 919 works by 54 Portuguese composers, not to mention the approximately 180 active composer pages – our website constitutes a privileged space when it comes to the divulgation and dissemination of the Portuguese Music Patrimony. It is precisely in this context that the new digital editions concretized in the series of Dossiers . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries, constitute yet another step in the prosecution of our objectives.
MIC.PT Questionnaire/Interview
The central element of every Dossier . Portuguese Composers of the 20th and 21st Centuries is the MIC.PT questionnaire/interview, a “visit” to the creative universe of the composers where each one of them reveals us not only his/her music roots and inspirations, but also the qualities of his/her music language, projections for the future and concerns with regard to the art and research music in Portugal. At this precise moment when we think it is indispensable to give voice to artists and creators in order for them to share publically their concerns on the future of Portuguese music, we leave you, at the end of this October In Focus, with five opinions of the protagonists from the already published Dossiers, that is: Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Sara Carvalho, António Ferreira, António Chagas Rosa and Bruno Gabirro. These opinions are in fact answers to the same two questions from the MIC.PT questionnaire/interview:
What do you think of the present situation in Portuguese music?
How would you define the composers’ role nowadays?
Paulo Ferreira-Lopes:
Portuguese contemporary music has had very strong impulses at the beginning of this century, thanks to the personal dedication and sacrifice of two or three people in this country. This dedication is connected with the realization of festivals, events or even publications on the most current musical creation. Without meaning to omit anyone, I think that Miguel Azguime and Jamie Reis, as well as Pedro Junqueira Maia, have had a very important role in trying not to let the musical creation fade away, above all in the case of younger composers. Unfortunately these two or three activists, whose work I consider exemplary, struggle year after year with an inconceivable resistance and iniquity not only of the government but also of the state institution. These institutions compete disproportionately with the activists, but ironically without the vision for creation of a patrimony that Miguel Azguime, Jamie Reis or Pedro Maia have revealed through their actions. Unfortunately the OrchestrUtopica, which belonged to this utterly important group, has been defeated. We will try to resist collectively in order not to let it happen to the ones who at this moment and almost exclusively, allow the composers to create their works, and the audiences to enjoy contemporary music.
Without wanting to be too destructive, it seems to me that in fact the composer doesn’t have a great role in our society. Generally the composer doesn’t belong to a stereotype providing the “art merchant” with works that have a negotiable or estimable value. Last week I read a text by Vítor Rua, composer who I respect considerably, above all for the risk he constantly takes not only in his works but also in his approach. It concerns his attitude of opposition, and the lack of recognition by the society of Vítor Rua as an exemplary worker. And in fact it is true. Vítor Rua, who many times works seven days per week and who wants to work, who produces and wants to produce, who released more than 50 CDs and who has excellent achievements as artist, doesn’t see his work valorised, as our society perceives art and artistic creation merely in terms of market rules. If the object doesn’t establish the buyer’s sureness in order to confirm a certain stereotype, it can be easily rejected, because the buyer doesn’t want to take the risk.
Our society has become savage and it is the market that determines the value of any object, either related to war or art. And in this way we have more and more artists who in fact find “value” in decreasing their production, and the other ones who have much more ease in trying to respond to what the “market” accepts as viable objects for business. It is in this way that one dismantles the future without even getting there. But the situation is not very different from the one in science. Science also obeys market rules based on the logic of sustainability. In other words, if a pharmaceutical company subsidies a laboratory or a PhD scholarship to make research on a drug, it is this assumption that defines the standards and research procedures. And the governments and politicians support and applaud it, as only in this manner it is possible to control and dismantle groups of scientists and artists depending on subsidies. Once again science has to obey to the rules of market, where in fact private interests dictate what a politics for research and creation should be.
Sara Carvalho:
First we would need to define what kind of Portuguese music one has in mind. In my response I will assume that one takes into account the present situation of the so-called contemporary “classical” music, as in fact there are many types of music and many kinds of composers. In my opinion Portugal has talented composers and with lots of capacities, and one has here an enormous freedom when it comes to adopted aesthetic tendencies. This reality gives Portuguese contemporary music an enormous richness. The problem is that many composers continue not having sufficient opportunities in order to have their work presented. And this happens in spite of some institutional efforts. The truth is that the majority of opportunities that one achieves emerge from efforts and actions, almost always individual. Yet luckily there is this individual dynamics of some people, since the Portuguese government continues not giving the necessary support to driving force structures, in order to maintain Portuguese contemporary music alive.
(...) Either way, I think that it is not only the responsibility of the non-existent supports. There has always been a lack of dialogue and exchange between composers, and this results in a lack of exchange of ideas or experience, pillars that are fundamental for a climate of mutual support. Then, this is also reflected in the production of the Portuguese artistic activity.
The word composer has for me a broad definition, which can encompass various types of function, depending on the kind of music we are talking about. According to the reasoning of my previous answer, and since we remain within contemporary “classical” music, in a very generic way, I think that the way in which the composer nowadays is integrated in the society is much more individualized than in the past. I think that a composer is a mirror of his/her own environment. Therefore, his/her form of acting will be also sculpted by the environment, within an attempt to adapt the expectation and to make them “survive” inside this society where he or she is (dis)integrated. Compositionally speaking, this means that the composer will make decisions that are completely different from what he had predicted beforehand. And this can be something either quite positive, or negative. It seems to me that nowadays, as in any other profession, composers need to be flexible if they want to survive…or else, they need to have luck!
To be a composer is one of those careers that attracts a lot more men than women, and I think that it is the same, either in Portugal or in other parts of the world. However, I need to admit that in the last decade one started to hear much more of women composers, perhaps due to the efforts of some entities, as in the case of the Adkins Chiti Foundation Women in Music. But some would say that initiatives of this kind are sexist… Personally I prefer not to think in the question of genre composer/woman-composer. I think that I would prefer to talk about opportunities and in the way that these opportunities are being distributed. And in fact they are not distributed as objectively or impartially as I think they should be, but I hope that this does not have to do with the matters of sex. All around, the great occasions have always depended a lot on the acquaintances one has, and which are being created. Many times it is a question of luck, in other words, of knowing “to be in the right place at the right time”.
António Ferreira:
The two questions are connected, composers don’t live in a social vacuum and the conditions of the context determine, partly, the success of the compositional practice. If we talk about music in terms of culture, like the Portuguese one, we will have to take into account two aspects: one local, concerning the music appearing in the Portuguese society; and the other one global, concerning the music arising from the interaction of composers with a cosmopolitan environment that goes beyond geographical borders. My history is identified with the second aspect but it could have been the other way round (I could have been, who knows, a composer/performer of fado or alternative music or pop…). Looking back at the history of Portuguese music (“art” music in particular), it is perhaps possible to see a pattern, which is being repeated nowadays: the availability of private, public or state sponsoring allows excellent composers to appear. These can take advantage of the economic possibilities and the circulation of ideas. The problem is that when we are almost “there” the country suffers some kind of historical disgrace. This creates a problem of continuity – a musical culture cannot be improvised in one day nor is it created by a lawful decree. So here we are: there are, presently, excellent composers and performers. They pertain, out of necessity, to a cosmopolitan global culture: there aren’t many Portuguese “strains”, whatever this means, in their music. The continuous realization of projects, the existence of commissions, of inter-artistic projects always bumps into the lack of continuity of the country’s socioeconomic perspective.
It was Emmanuel Nunes who claimed that he hadn’t abandoned Portugal, but it had been Portugal that had abandoned him. And so it is for composers as Tomás Henriques and João Pedro Oliveira: they have left recently. For all of us who stay here the key word is “resistance”. We have to maintain alive the corpus of compositions and enrich it continuously. The music, Portuguese or any other, lives only when it is “nourished”.
(...) taking a broader view on “art music” one should also mention the special conditions, which it needs. The organizations, which allow it to exist, seem always to live at the edge of financial precipice. From an economist’s point of view, a narrow view I know, the main problem has to do with productivity. This cannot be improved, like in other industries: a concert for 15 instruments conceived in the 18th century, needs precisely 15 instruments in the 21st century. From the economic point of view, the process is then classified as inefficient and ruinous. It is true that technology advances and the increased portability of media have expanded the potential audience. But the dilemma prevails: some form of subsidy or sponsorship (state support or tax incentives) is required to maintain the activity of “art music” (and of other performative activities). It is necessary to maintain the tangible cultural capital (buildings, halls) and to encourage the intangible cultural capital (practice, ideas, values). Expensive? Perhaps, but probably much less than what is being spent in order to maintain afloat agents of certain “financialism”. Now this is truly ruinous.
António Chagas Rosa:
I think that there is no such a thing as “Portuguese music”, taking into consideration the integration of Portuguese composers within a more and more globalised context. Yes, there are Portuguese composers and their respective concerns. There are equally Portuguese composers who have an international recognition, and this is due to their own artistic merit. These are difficult times for everything that doesn’t represent the taste of large audiences, within the logic of the majority of programmers. Yet this hard and awkward evolution has something comprehensible, given the stance of many composers from the last decades, who entertained themselves composing anti-performable and anti-public music, obstructed behind some articles, which they read. Nowadays there is less space to be “anti”, with the regression of the so-called “social state”, what hasn’t been an exclusively Portuguese phenomenon (where in fact this social state has never had the same expression as in such countries as France or the Netherlands).
The composers, who I know give lessons wherever it is possible and they write at night or during weekends. Without being ironic, I think that their role is similar to the one of athletes who run because they enjoy it.
Well there are parts of the world, which are a lot worse than Portugal! Except that we have always compared ourselves with the ones that have always been in front of us in terms of culture and economy. In Portugal, the political authority continues to consider that spending money on culture means yet another expense, and not investment. The major Portuguese problem is that of never having succeeded in creating an elite, which would give value and continually support art music, beyond what it represents in terms of social events. I am afraid that I am not saying anything new: in our country it is never wrong to say that one doesn’t understand anything of music. Despite the efforts that the Portuguese kings made since the 16th century in order to create a composer’s school, for example, by means of sending scholars to Italy, the bourgeois power from the last century and a half confuses pathetic with stupid, as it is described in Os Maias (The Maias) by Eça de Queirós. Presently, after an incredible development in musical education in Portugal during the last 20 years, we have excellent young musicians who are active around Europe. In Switzerland this has already been considered as a phenomenon. Yet in the Portuguese day-to-day life this reality is almost unknown. There is oil in the backyard and no one is aware of it. There is obviously much more to be said...
Bruno Gabirro:
I am not sure if there is much to say about the situation of music in Portugal. There are certainly some interesting things that are being done and happening, people working, including positive and negative aspects like in any other part of the world. There are, however, old problems that have never been solved, and which continue to exist and have always prevented a true implantation of a healthy musical life in our country. We can invoke the importance of the São Carlos National Theatre in the past, or the true improvement of education and the value of the new generations of musicians in Portugal, and many other cases. Yet in Portugal one has never achieved a musical life with the capacity to give a real and effective contribution to the society; a life that one acknowledges and where one belongs, within a real development and integration of its interveners.
This can only be resolved through a serious discussion on what we want for music in our country; we could even not want art music and declare its uselessness for our purposes and objectives, and if anyone wanted to make it, it would be his/her personal problem. Nevertheless the musicians need to discuss the situation in terms of what they want. And this discussion should be drawn-out to the political and institutional power, at a national, local
and political-party level; they should claim very clearly what they intend to, acting together.
As the situation of composers differs in each historical period of human history, and due to the great, global changes that have been established during the last twenty years, the composer of today lives in a new situation in the way he/she is related to the society and power. Nevertheless I think that independently of his/her situation, the composer’s role has always been the same. Inside the conditions, problems and demands of every period, the work of composer is to pose questions, think, imagine and make music, and in this context to act as a force for change in the surrounding world, taking other paths and considering other possibilities.
The integral questionnaires/interviews with Paulo Ferreira-Lopes, Sara Carvalho, António Ferreira, António Chagas Rosa and Bruno Gabirro, are available in the respective Dossiers of these composers, free for download through the composers’ pages on the MIC.PT or following the links:
Dossier no. 1 . Paulo Ferreira-Lopes;
Dossier no. 2 . Sara Carvalho;
Dossier no. 3 . António Ferreira;
Dossier no. 4 . António Chagas Rosa;
Dossier no. 5 . Bruno Gabirro.
October 2015
© MIC.PT
