In focus

João Pedro Oliveira

Photo: Rubner de Abreu

Questionnaire/Interview

Part 1 . Roots & Education

How did music begin for you, and where do you identify your music roots?

João Pedro Oliveira: I began studying piano at the age of 13, but I had been interested in music before. My parents also played the piano and had an excellent record collection with classical music, which I listened to frequently. Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky are the ones I recall more clearly.
Furthermore, I used to make a lot of sound experiences, using a very basic record player owned by my brother, which had a loose plate. I could play the records “backwards”, accelerate them progressively, play at a very low speed, etc., almost like a “DJ from the 1960s”. At that time I was fascinated with the results that I could get from those experiences. I think it was an anticipation of my interest in electronic music.
When I began studying piano, my main goal was to be part of an experimental rock band, buy a synthesiser and be able to use it for sound experimentation. But, at that time the Minimoog synthesiser cost more or less the equivalent of six months of my father's salary, so that wish wasn’t fulfilled during that period of my life.
As I was advancing with piano studies, and later when I discovered the literature for the organ, my interests diverged from rock music, towards classical and contemporary composers. Nevertheless, my fascination with sound synthesis and transformation returned when I studied in the USA.

Which paths led you to composition?

JPO: Initially, when I was studying the piano, I made some very naïve experiences – I was probably 14 or 15 years old. Little by little, within the discovery of 20^th Century music, at the Contemporary Music Encounters organized by Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and other concerts, as well as reading several books on the subject, I began to develop more sensibility towards composition. Listening to works such as Gesang der Jünglinge, Kontakte and even In C, was fundamental for my education.
While studying organ, Messiaen's work also stimulated me considerably (my first works were strongly influenced by this composer). So, I was combining the pleasure of organ playing with a deeper interest in composition. Composition was fully established as my main professional goal when I decided to study in the United States.

Which moments from your musical education do you find the most important?

JPO: Several teachers and composers supported me in my pursuit. To them I owe a lot, especially in my initial education. The seminars with Emmanuel Nunes at Gulbenkian Foundation were important; Christopher Bochmann taught me the basic principles of 20^th century composition techniques; I also participated in several courses and seminars, etc.
Nevertheless, looking backwards in time, I think the most important moments were the organ studies with professor Sibertin-Blanc. In a cultural environment where the interest for contemporary music in conservatoires and music schools was very little (or even non-existent), Sibertin-Blanc always stimulated his students to perform 20^th century works, side by side with the organ repertoire classics. I frequently recall concepts, conversations and examples learned or discussed with this teacher, which still serve as models and stimulate ideas in my daily composition and teaching practice.
Later, while studying in the USA, I received a great impulse that lead to a better understanding of composition techniques and their aesthetic implications. I was fortunate to have Bülent Arel as my main teacher. He was one of the pioneers of the Columbia-Princeton electronic music studios, and at that time he was teaching at Stony Brook University. Studying composition and electronic music with him, during my Master’s and PhD Degrees, led to the most important developments in my learning path.

Part 2 . Influences & Aesthetics

Which references from the past and the present do you find important in your music practice?

JPO: There are many and quite diverse. For example, major part of the constructive thinking I use in musical gesture and phrasing, as well as the control of tension and relaxation, come from my analysis (and fascination) of the works by Beethoven and Brahms. The techniques I use to create interaction between acoustic instruments and electronics (present in the majority of my works) derive directly from the models proposed by Beethoven in his Violin and Piano Sonatas.
In the construction of a composition, I also have a certain tendency to stretch the moments of tension, as much as possible. This is influenced by a certain type of rock music from the 1970s, as well as some Indian music practices, such as the raga. Works such as L’Accordéon du Diable (accordion and electronics, from 2006), Angel Rock (bass clarinet, marimba, electronics, from 2011), Burning Silver (flute, guitar, electronics, from 2014), Heavy Metals (bassoon, electronics, from 2015) or Tension-deformation (flute, violin, cello, piano, from 2017), are examples of this tendency.
In electronic music I recognize influences of composers such as Francis Dhomont and Mario Mary.
Finally, when it comes to timbre construction, some solutions proposed by Jonathan Harvey or Helmut Lachenmann interest me a lot. However I don't assume a direct influence by these composers.

In your opinion what can music discourse express and/or mean?

JPO: The question of the music discourse's meaning doesn't interest me very much. But the induction of emotion through music, yes – it is a constant part in my musical thought. Independently of the metaphors we can invent to represent or symbolize the communication between music and the listener; I believe music is useless if it can't motivate emotions. Every listener is different, therefore emotion can be triggered by diverse factors: architecture of the work, sonority, produced tension, suggested imagery, etc. A “total” work can have the potential to provoke emotion through several (if not all) of these (and many other) aspects. Obviously, we can speak of positive and negative emotions. Certain works can cause reactions of anxiety, solitude; or joy and pleasure, etc. I aspire that my works can stimulate positive emotions in the listeners. An aesthetic experience approaching the sublime is the maximum exponent of human interaction with art, and it can eventually represent a glimpse of a true mystical experience. If one day I can manage to provoke such emotions in the listeners, I will consider myself a happy and fulfilled composer.

Are there any extramusical sources, which influence your work in a significant way?

JPO: Yes. I find a lot of inspiration mostly in painting, literature, architecture, but there are other artistic (or scientific) areas that occasionally influence me. For example, in painting, I am fascinated with the engravings by Dürer, particularly the ones revolving around the Apocalypse. Despite being static on paper, their construction incites a dynamic, almost sparkling, visual reading. They communicate enormous quantities of information, requiring from the viewer a lot of attention, or even multiple readings. My work Íris (for violin, cello, clarinet, piano and electronics, from 2000) is inspired in one of Dürer's engravings. It follows the same structure as the image, and the corresponding biblical text.
In literature, the Bible has been an inspiration for a substantial part of my works. Pieces, such as Espiral de Luz (for string quartet, from 2005), or the cycle of acousmatic works based on representations of the four elements – fire, earth, water, air – in the Old Testament (Et Ignis Involvens, ‘Âphâr, Hydatos, Neshamah), are related to specific verses from the Bible. I also wrote a cycle of works (still unfinished) based on the idea of “revelation” (translation of the Greek word “apocalypse”). This cycle is based on several prophecies and other texts related with the book of Revelation in the New Testament.
Other works, such as Timshel (instrumental ensemble and electronics, from 2007), Peregrinação (string quartet, from 1995), Labirinto (string quartet and electronics, from 2001), A Escada Estreita (flute and electronics, from 1999), Maelström (cimbalom and electronics, from 2006) are inspired in texts by Steinbeck, Fernão Mendes Pinto, Mário de Sá-Carneiro, Antero de Quental and Edgar Alan Poe.
Time Spell (clarinet and electronics, from 2004) is inspired in a film; works such as Rust, Burning Silver, Magma, Titanium or Heavy Metals, as the titles suggest, are inspired by elements of Nature.
Being a composer who also studied architecture, and having a special interest in spatial displacement of sound, a great part of my works is somehow related with the architectural space (proportions, distances, paths), as well as its “manipulation” through music.

In the context of western art music, do you feel close to any school or aesthetics from the past or the present?

JPO: None particularly. I am interested in all of them, without any hierarchical distinction. Every work, composer, style or school, has the potential to propose technical and aesthetic aspects that may interest other composers, and serve as an impulse (or model) for composition. In a society where barriers of physical and cultural distance have been diluted (or even vanished), due to the easiness of communication, it is very simple and stimulating to search everywhere for ideas that awaken our creative thinking.

Are there any non-Western culture influences in your music?

JPO: Yes. I have already mentioned the importance of the control of tension, as it happens in the Indian raga, which I try to use in many of my works. But I am also interested in many other musical cultures. In my catalogue there is a work titled Le Voyage des Sons (for instrumental ensemble and electronics, from 1998/2000), based on Tibetan, Indian and Pakistani music. Chroma (for piano, percussion and electronics, from 2014) and also some sections of Titanium (for piano 4 hands and two toy pianos, also from 2014) are strongly influenced by gamelan music from Java and Bali. And, in many other works, there are occasional ideas deriving from my interest in other musical cultures.

How do you understand “avant-garde” and what, in your opinion, can be today considered as avant-garde?

JPO: That word had a very strong semantics during a specific period of time in recent history. I believe that nowadays the meaning has unfolded in many directions. If the idea of avant-garde means something being ahead of the present, or pointing out new technical and aesthetic possibilities, nowadays there are many composers that can be (or not) considered avant-garde.
Personally, taking into consideration the present social and cultural context, I prefer to substitute this concept with the idea of identity. A composer acquires and communicates his, or her own identity, when his or her work incorporates something that makes it distinct from all the others, potentially allowing his, or her recognition and assimilation as unique. It is not necessarily a matter of musical language or compositional technique (although they can be an important factor), but the way one develops the musical discourse, implying contours, details, processes of creation or transformation. Copland or Britten, two composers I immensely admire, most of the times worked within tonality, but they incorporated a unique way of composing, which distinguishes them from others. That is identity.
Obviously we can look at this subject from two perspectives: the composer can project his own identity, only for him/herself, in the sense that he/she has the right to affirm: “this is what I do, so this is my identity”. On the other hand, what I find more interesting has to do with the esthesis of the communication process – the way, in which the listener interprets the musical discourse. For example, while listening to the radio, we can eventually distinguish that we are listening to Beethoven and not Brahms, even if we don’t know the specific works being played at the moment. We identify the traces defining the composer's identity. In other words, if somebody listens to my works, and is able to identify them as examples of my way of composing, then I will have achieved a musical identity. This is what interests me the most.
Obviously this subject is complex, specially taking into account the idea of a “school” with basic principles projected on all composers. At the end of the 17th century, for example, it is quite difficult to differentiate among Couperin, Clérambault or Grigny. Even today, some studios or institutions have their own sonority, which many times surpasses the sonority of the composer.

Part 3 . Language & Musical Practice

Characterize your music language under the perspective of the techniques/aesthetics developed in the 20^th and 21^st century musical creation, on the one hand, and on the other, taking into account your personal experience and your path from the beginning until now.

JPO: I have some difficulty in doing this, due to the proximity I have with my own work. That analysis belongs to domain of musicologists and theorists, and I believe that it will be more efficient when made by them. Nevertheless, I am quite interested in the notion of poles of attraction in music. Working with intervals helps me to develop this idea, at the same time making it distinctive from the usual tonal or modal attraction. I hierarchize the intervals used in a composition. That way, I can have a “tonic interval” that helps to define important moments, sections, or even cadences; and the other secondary intervals alternate with it, in order to establish different levels of tension, or hierarchical shifts, inside the work's structure. The first experiences I made resulted in the cycle Integrais I to IV (respectively for violin, clarinet, horn and saxophone, composed in 1996 and 1997). In those pieces I established the basis for this type of technical and compositional thought. As time went by, I modified and improved this process, and it is present in practically all my works. There are cases, such as Abyssus Ascendens ad Aeternum Splendorem (for piano, orchestra and electronics, from 2005), where the chosen “tonic interval” (a major third), is spread throughout the entire piece, projecting an almost tonal sonority. In other works like Mosaic (for piano, toy piano and electronics, from 2010) the tonic interval is a perfect fourth, yet its compositional manipulation makes the harmonic/melodic structure of the piece much closer to atonality.
In the case of mixed music, I have been attempting to create a type of musical interaction between instruments and electronics that is very personal. This has to do with interaction at several levels: the morphological level affects the moment-by-moment relationship between the instrumental and electronic sounds; the syntactic level points out to the relations that can be constructed within the musical gesture and phrase; the semantic level gives a musical meaning to the progression of sounds.

Do you have any genre/style of preference?

JPO: No.

When it comes to your creative practice, do you develop your music from an embryo-idea, or after having elaborated a global form? In other words, do move from the micro towards the macro-form or is it the other way round? How is this process developed?

JPO: It changes from composition to composition, and from context to context. Many times, I employ pre-compositional schemes. Other times, I begin with an initial idea that is further developed, and the structure appears while elaborating around the initial material. Or, I create pre-compositional schemes that are partially or totally altered during the process of composition. I usually follow a dialectical perspective, independently of having pre-established schemes, or not. I compose an excerpt, evaluate the result and attempt the continuation of this excerpt. Once this stage is finished, again I evaluate everything done, and propose a new continuation. Sometimes, in the middle of composing, an excerpt or section that was already composed, becomes redundant, or obsolete, and needs to be redone or replaced. In other words, the work is constructed from the relations established between: 1) everything that has been composed, or pre-composed; 2) what is being composed at the moment; 3) what is being anticipated to become composed. For example, the work Labirinto (string quartet and electronics, from 2001) had six substantially different beginnings during the process of composition, before reaching the final solution. Some of these beginnings were used in other moments of the piece, and others were abandoned, as they didn't serve my purposes anymore. It is almost like mounting a “puzzle”, where all the parts need to fit correctly, and to collaborate efficiently towards the work's overall image.
The use of electronics also affects this process considerably. Electronic sounds are not necessarily centred on pitches, or make use of a written score, and they possess a spectromorphological “life” that is very special (quite different from instrumental sounds). That forces me to frequently substitute the pre-compositional idea of “scheme” or “structure”, with the idea of “model” as being a simplified representation of a more complex reality. This idea allows a great freedom in the process of composition.

How in your music do you determine the relation between the reasoning and the “creative impulses” or the “inspiration”?

JPO: I am not very interested in the traditional “nineteenth century” meaning of the word “inspiration”. A composition can be motivated by a text, an image, a physical space, etc. Yet its essence – the creative thought – is too complex to be reduced to the idea of “emerging from nothing”. The Brazilian writer Machado de Assis wrote a short story, where this subject is masterfully described: O Cônego ou Metafísica do Estilo (The Priest or the Metaphysics of Style). I transcribe a very interesting excerpt that proposes a literary representation of the human mind, in the moment of searching for the creative impulse:
“A vast, unknown world […] embryos and ruins. Groups of ideas self-deducting like syllogisms are lost in the turmoil of reminiscences […] Other ideas, pregnant with more ideas, crawl heavily, sustained by other virgin ideas. Things and people amalgamate […] rags of exhausted sensations, here we find a fear, there a liking, beyond an annoyance with things that arrived one at a time, and now lie in the great, indescribable and obscure whole”.
So, while searching for a creative idea, these reminiscences, embryos, ruins, sensations, of which Assis writes, in a certain way represent the totality of the materials available in our mind. Perhaps everything has already been done; and our memories (individual and collective) provide us with the reminiscences of this whole, which (according to Assis) is an amalgam of our past and present experiences. They merge and transform into images, sounds, sensations, which are materialized in the moment of the “eureka”, when another creative impulse takes place. But this is only the beginning. The creator needs to discover how to shape this idea, how to bring it to life, and how to present it. All of this is part of the dialectical process I mentioned in the previous answer. So, reasoning, creative impulses, inspiration, intuition, research, materialization, are not separate, or fighting, or opposing entities, in the construction of the creative thought. They belong to a very complex whole, which is a unique gift of all creators.

What is your relation with the new technologies and how do they influence your music?

JPO: Technology is always present in my work. Nevertheless, it is nothing more than a tool. I don’t want it to have any influence in the aesthetics of a composition, or in compositional thought. However, depending on its state of development, it can allow the realization of ideas that probably wouldn't be possible before. The double echappement on Pleyel pianos allowed Liszt, and other composers of that time, to create compositional solutions that before would not be possible to perform on the instrument. In the same way, computer technology allows the composer to do things that in the 1980s were impossible or unpractical.
Technology should serve and depend on the musical idea, never the opposite. If not, one risks diving into a “technological fetishism”: the technological solution for the compositional problem becomes more important than the problem itself, or the musical result.
As I am an assiduous and convicted user of technology, I have also developed a constant mistrust (or even a suspicion) regarding its function and implications in the creative process.

Define your relation between music and science and how the latter one is possibly manifested in your creation.

JPO: Many times, a composer draws from other fields of knowledge ideas and concepts that influence (or at least stimulate) his or her work and creative thought. As aforementioned, many of my works draw creative stimuli from religion, or other arts. Frequently, science is also present in these influences.
At a certain moment I was interested in fractals, and how to use them in music. Tessares (for orchestra, from 1991), or Pirâmides de Cristal (for piano, from 1993), are based on structures deriving from fractal theory. The cycle Integrais (Integrals), as the title indicates, has a conceptual relation (although not technical or structural) with the mathematical notion.
More recently I have become interested in model theory, and processes influenced by fuzzy logic. This has to do with a certain type of flexibility that I want to have in my creation process, even within a framework of logical and structured thought. Pieces such as Maelström or L’Accordéon du Diable (respectively for cimbalom and electronics, and accordion and electronics, both from 2006), use methods for the construction of gestures, phrases and segments, which are conceptually anchored in fuzzy logic. And a lot my mixed pieces are grounded on model theory.

What is the importance of space and timbre in your music?

JPO: As I frequently work with electronic music, space and timbre are fundamental in my compositional thought.
When it comes to space, an idea that interests me has to do with gesture in music and its possible meanings – a kind of gestural semiotics and its consequences in the musical discourse. This interest in gesture, from a sonic point of view (changes of energy, musical or extra-musical meanings, etc.) can be extrapolated into space manipulation. It can be a physical movement of the performer triggering a sound displacement in space, by means of the electronic manipulation; or a musical gesture that unfolds in the space, adding a new chain of meanings to its interpretation by the listener.
Timbre is also fundamental in my thinking. I have been interested in the relations between the instrumental and electronic sounds – how they can influence each other; or how one of them can instigate ideas that may be applied to other. A lot of my work with timbre in acousmatic music has served to stimulate new ideas in instrumental music, particularly in compositions for orchestra.

Does experimentalism play an important role in your music?

JPO: I think I am more a classic than an experimentalist. I prefer to associate musical and compositional thinking to the resolution of a problem I pose myself, for example: inventing a new structure for a piece; discovering a new type of interaction between instruments and electronics; use an instrument in an interesting way that is not a replica of what has already been done, etc. I believe this is a very classical way of thinking – we can find it, for example, in Beethoven and how he keeps transforming the musical form as he evolves towards his last works.
I think one of the fundamentals of experimentalism is to create problems, without the need of solving them afterwards. This does not fascinate or stimulate me. I am more inclined towards a free, but rigorous thinking, conscious of its limitations, consequences and challenges.

Which of your works constitute turning points in your career?

JPO: There are several. Perhaps the most important is Le Voyage des Sons, composed between 1998 and 2000. Nowadays I do not consider it to be one of my most interesting works, musically speaking. But, in that piece I experimented for the first time with a certain type of interaction between instrumental and electronic sounds, which became the basis for a great part of my following compositions. After, came other works such as A Escada Estreita (for flute and electronics, from 1999), Íris (for violin, cello, clarinet, piano and electronics, from 2000) and In Tempore (for piano and electronics, also from 2000), where I consolidated the interaction technique initiated in Le Voyage des Sons, which I still use.
In 2005 I composed two pieces, which also represent another turning point. In Et Ignis Involvens (acousmatic) and Espiral de Luz (string quartet) I tried to connect the instrumental and electronic writing. Et Ignis Involvens attempts to incorporate in the electronics a type of sonority, gesture, and phrase construction derived from instrumental writing. Espiral de Luz does the opposite, as it tries to use certain extended techniques in the instruments, in order to build a type of sound that is almost “electronic”. This possibility of permutation of characteristics between these two substantially different media (instruments/electronics), has interested me a lot in the recent years.
Finally, in 2013, my first work with video (Hydatos), can also be considered an important turning point. Since then, working sound together with image has often become part of my creative process.

To what extent composition and performance are for you complementary activities?

JPO: I haven't been performing the organ for almost 15 years. Yet, when I was playing organ concerts, the alternation between composing and performing was quite stimulating. Certain compositional problems and solutions were unveiled whilst being in direct contact with music (practicing and performing). And many solutions proposed by the composers whose works I performed (classical and contemporary), served as models and stimuli for my own music.
Mentioning the relation between composer and performer, I consider the latter one to be my privileged interlocutor. I have never written any solo or chamber music using special techniques, or a complex writing, without having it evaluated and tested by the performers. My work at university simplifies a lot this process, as my colleagues are usually available to collaborate and help.
Unfortunately, it is not possible to do this when composing orchestral works. Because of that, many of my orchestral compositions were subsequently revised, in order to solve some problems which became apparent in the first performances.

Part 4 . Portuguese Music

What in your opinion distinguishes Portuguese music within the global perspective?

JPO: Very little, or even nothing, as I believe. The idea of school, or national (or nationalistic) style, has become diluted with the current easiness of communication. In the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, when I was a student, the access to music made outside Portugal was very limited. This encouraged the predominance of a “school”, circulating around the masters, with whom the students were communicating. Nowadays we have access to almost every music, of any style, or culture. So the “school” has a different function than it had in the past. I believe the composer's individuality (the identity as already mentioned), has become more and more prominent defining the composer in History, past, present and future. And many times it is constructed from innumerable influences coming from everywhere.

In your opinion is it possible to identify any transversal aspect in Portuguese contemporary music?

JPO: For the same reasons mentioned in the previous answer, I have difficulties in pinpointing such transversality. Maybe it exists, who knows, future will tell... History has particular (many times unpredictable) ways of reading the past, often depending on whom is making the (right or wrong) interpretation...

According to your experience, what are the differences between the musical environment in Portugal and in other parts of the world?

JPO: As I haven't lived in Portugal for some years, my perspective can be a little out-of-date. But from what I can still observe, I think that there aren't many differences between the musical environment in Portugal and other parts of the world… except perhaps the quantity of money invested in culture, which in a certain way determines the level of “satisfaction” of the professionals in the area.
As everywhere, it has qualities, problems, virtues and flaws. There will always be composers who only use his/hers works to gain recognition in the society; others use their political or social connections in favour of their own promotion, independently of the quality of their work; others choose to have a more shy posture, composing for a small circle of colleagues and friends; still others choose administration and organisation; and so on...
The institutions are also varied. Some opt for an exempt and neutral posture, accepting all kinds of proposals; other choose their protégé composers and promote them; still other drift a little in all directions, depending on whom is directing them and their personal tastes.
As one of my colleagues says ironically, perhaps the phone numbers recorded in one’s mobile phone determines the cultural politics of a country. I think this is common everywhere in the world.

Part 5 . Present & Future

What are your present and future projects?

JPO: In the recent years I have been interested in image synthesis, using similar techniques as in electronic music. I added video to some of my acousmatic or instrumental works, adding a new dimension to them. I have also composed new works with instruments or electronics and image. In near future I want to improve my techniques in this area (3D image synthesis, video-mapping and possibly virtual reality).
I continue to have interest in interaction between instruments and electronics and in the “transposition” of sonic ideas derived from acousmatic composition, into the instrumental writing.
As for composition projects, I have an idea for a multimedia opera based on Daniel's prophecies from the Old Testament - this would be the seventh and last work of my “revelation” cycle. Even though I have contacted several institutions, till the moment I haven't had support to compose it.

Could you highlight one of your more recent projects, present the context of its creation as well as the particularities of the language and techniques used?

JPO: I can highlight the videos made for my acousmatic works based on representations of the four elements in the Old Testament, aforementioned. These videos were composed between 2013 and 2016 and served as purpose to develop image manipulation and synthesis techniques. I tried to imagine in the images (abstract and figurative), visual (almost synesthetic) correspondents for the electronic sounds, and at the same time building a narrative that would put together the formal and gestural ideas of music and images. The technique of image manipulation and transformation is, in many aspects, similar to sound manipulation. So, the compositional thought has followed parallel paths in the two media, each of them incorporating certain particularities that can influence creative aspects in the other.

How do you see the future of art music?

JPO: I believe there is a growing tendency to associate and integrate music with other arts. In the future this tendency will increase. Multidisciplinary projects, combining various expressions, in many cases resulting of teamwork, have become the centre of interest for many institutions. I believe that the composer will have in such multidisciplinary projects, a great and fruitful field for exploration.
I also believe that the concept of “concert music”, meant to be appreciated in a concert hall, will slowly dilute, or at least will be confronted with other interesting alternatives.
The multisensory experience “predicted” by Aldous Huxley is becoming a reality. And it is possible to experience it at home, without the need to access other spaces. I believe that composers from next generations will witness a big change in the paradigms of artistic creation: why, how, to whom and by whom it is done.