Photo: Michael Wieser
Questionnaire/Interview
Part 1 . Roots & Education
1. How did music begin for you, and where do you identify your music roots?
João Castro Pinto: Given that the question unfolds in two directions, I will respond in two parts, reversing its order: first, I will refer to the musical roots, then, to the way I started in music.
To examine the musical roots of an individual implies to draw a historical-cultural and social framework that includes an analysis of the dynamic sum of the objective and subjective conditions that are at the basis of his education and cultural development. Thus, if by musical roots one understands the musical substrate that establishes the embryonic and involuntary bond with the musical phenomenon, I am inclined to answer that my roots are fixed, first of all, on the broad spectrum of western erudite tonal music. Reducing, but enriching the scope of the analysis, my roots are also related to Anglo-Saxon, Portuguese and Brazilian pop-rock (especially with that, which was produced during the eighties, of the 20th century).
Finally, and resolutely narrowing the focus of root-gauging, I can’t disconsider affinities with some expressions of Portuguese folklore and M.P.P. (Portuguese Popular Music). This is, grosso modo, the conscious context, and I emphasize conscious/pretentious, of my musical roots. However, it is important to clarify that, in my view, the musical roots mainly relate to the inaugural moment of my musical journey. My musical path developed from three cumulative and dialectical axes, which I will begin to list: 1st – that of primary formation (referring to inheritance/roots); 2nd – that of secondary education (access to music via secondary socialization); 3rd – that of musical consolidation (aesthetic sense development and autonomous research). If musical inheritance, evident in the analogy of the roots, corresponds to a cultural context that imposes itself as a stage of musical basilar formation, the second axis, that of secondary formation, is characterized by a progressive gain of freedom and consciousness, with regard to the conditions of access to music and the status of such access. In this second moment (which until very recently usually began at the end of childhood/beginning of adolescence), one passes from a stage of total passivity and receptivity to a relatively proactive phase, specified by the birth and progressive development of the interest to share the exploration of musical genres, in various social groups (friends, schoolmates, family members, etc.) and through frequent contact with the media (radio, TV, newspapers and magazines), thus helping to widen the horizon of the dominated musical territories. The third and last axis refers to the sedimentation period of adulthood, being responsible for the synthesis of the previous moments. At stake is a constantly actualized process of conscious and volitional improvement of musical forms and of the aesthetic sense, in general. This last stage is, by its nature, endless and implies a motivation directed towards the deepening of musical knowledge. Responding to the second part of the question, and now with examples, I can say that the contact with the music my parents heard (at home and on the trips we made by car) was the first stage of my musical initiation. On the one hand, this first contact included national music (the most significant Portuguese songwriters), Brazilian popular music (Tom Jobim, Vinicius de Moraes, Chico Buarque, Caetano Veloso, Maria Bethânia, etc.), international pop music and some classical/erudite music. On the other hand, having been born in 1977, I watched as a child, in the early eighties, the Portuguese boom of rock
Simultaneously, and on the international level, I had contact, albeit superficially during this phase, with genres of pop music such as: synth-pop, pop-rock and hard rock. The family influence, which crystallized in two key moments (one involuntary, referring to the roots, and another voluntary, which I’ll address later), was followed by a period of interest, albeit puerile, begun in the late 1980s, but which was fundamental to my musical training. I began to regularly listen and to record, on tape, radio programs (Lança Chamas [Flamethrower] and, later, the Som da Frente [Sound from the Front], both by António Sérgio) and to exchange music with friends, classmates and relatives. In concomitance with the start of this second moment, I began my musical studies in 1986, having had private piano lessons, and having received, for this purpose, my first instrument, a small four-octave synthesizer, the Casiotone MT-210. A few years later, in 1991, I dedicated myself to the guitar, in a self-taught way. At that time, I began to explore more intensively and sequentially various musical genres, and to create my discography. In early adolescence, I came into contact with the advent of the first generation of "Portuguese art rock" (Pop Dell’Arte, Mler ife Dada, Santa Maria, Gasolina em teu Ventre!, Mão Morta, etc.) and explored metal and punk musical genres. Then, due to having discovered my Father’s discography (for professional reasons he travelled the world and thus had an eclectic musical collection), I immersed myself in psychedelic music of the 60’s, 70’s symphonic and progressive rock, jazz and the so-called world-music. During the early 1990’s I was interested in alternative/independent rock and I was part of projects and bands that were interested in the feedback universes of the distorted and decadent guitars of bands like: Hüsker Dü, Pixies, Dinosaur Jr., Mudhoney, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Porno for Pyros, etc. Finally, in the middle of the nineties I discovered, in an unusual way, experimental electronic music, and this fact caused a pronounced deviation in my musical course.
2. Which paths led you to composition?
JCP: The composition arose naturally, as a consequence of my deep interest in experimental and electroacoustic /acousmatic music. Nevertheless, and shortly before discovering musique concrète and other similar forms of experimental music, I had heard some experimental manifestations in rock, whether in the psychadelic synths of Emerson Lake and Palmer, Yes or Tangerine Dream, or in the synthetic derivations of Can and Neu!’s krautrock, or the strange dissonances of the music of the Mothers of Invention or Henry Cow, in musical narratives far beyond from conventional rock. Still, I had no idea of electroacoustic music´s existence. In the mid-1990s, a new wave of European electronic music emerged, led by a generation of young musicians from various countries, but mainly concentrated in Vienna, Frankfurt and Berlin. From the then-created Mego (Vienna) and Mille Plateaux (Frankfurt), musicians headed a new wave of experimental electronic music and would thus provoke the emergence of one of the earliest generations of non-academic composers who consistently (producing, editing and playing), subsisted on the fringes of institutes and research centres/universities, where until then, electronic music was mostly taught and practiced. Musicians and projects like: Fennesz, Peter Rehberg, Russell Haswell, Farmers Manual, Oval, etc., were significant at the beginning of my musical path. As I progressed in discovering art music, I heard works that urged me to follow the path of composition. My first contact with “classical” electroacoustic music came from A Storm of Drones, a noteworthy collection, released in 1995 by Asphodel (Triple CD), which introduced me to reference composers such as: Francis Dhomont, Annette Vande Gorne, Robert Normandeau, Denis Smalley, Jonty Harrison, Darren Copland, Ellen Fullman, Stuart Dempster, Alan Lamb, among others. I remember that listening to this whimsical music gave me an uncanny pleasure: the sounds appeared in such combinations that transported me for internal journeys and led me to synesthetic experiences. The sonic mutations were inscribed in my mind as if they were strange and dynamic images, a sort of projections on an interior screen, a purely psychic one.
Among the electroacoustic works that were part of my musical exordium, I highlight De Natura Sonorum, by Bernard Parmegiani, which I consider to be the archetype of this musical genre to the present day. I remember hearing it in its integrity and being viscerally impressed and speechless. Never in my life had I heard anything like this, a totally experimental and innovative piece and at the same time shrouded by an atmosphere of an haunting “ultra-classicism”, featuring an unusual sonic palette, a brilliant work of handling the timbres, between the acoustic and the synthetic, and an excellent combination of textures and gestures, simply brilliant. Another piece that, almost at the same time, marked me intensely was Bye-Bye Butterfly, by Pauline Oliveros. I am still vividly struck by the memory of being utterly astonished by the sublime conjunction of synthesis, from the Hewlett-Packard oscillators, with manipulated excerpts from Puccini’s opera Madama Butterfly. Parallel to this process of discovery, and because it was opportune and the technological development allowed it, I acquired a MiniDisc recorder and a stereo microphone in 1997, and I started my first experiences with musical composition, capturing and mixing soundscapes, samples, etc. In November 1998, I had my first live solo concert, where I used three Minidisc recorders and a three-channel mixer.
Part 2 . Influences & Aesthetics
3. What references from the past and the present do you recognize in your music practice?
JCP: When one asks about evident references or influences in a musical discourse, or compositional practice, what is being done, stricto sensu, is to ask the composer for a self-framework regarding past or current aesthetics, having as horizon the context of the history of music. Safeguarding the elective attempts of certain influences, patented in the pieces by mimetic mode, what should be distinguished in this question is the following: the set of influences, to which each composer was and is subject, is unrelated to his will and manifested in the composition involuntarily, comprising a myriad of references, corresponding to everything he has heard and experienced throughout his life. This being said, I can not directly assume in my work any reference, either concerning a particular piece or a composer, since my objective as an artist is to forge a musical/sound identity and this fact impels me to distance myself as much as I can, from what already exists and I know (musically speaking) – it’s a task of the most challenging difficulty.
4. Are there any extramusical sources, which significantly influence your work?
JCP: It is common for music to be animated by sources or extramusical references, which, by chance or intentionally, determine the artistic product, that is, the compositions. It is not at once clear what, from the point of view of the realization of the artistic object, can correspond to an art that references exclusively to its theoretical and technical principles, in other words, an art confined solely to the theoretical limits that determine its operability. A musical discourse that dispenses an extramusical domain, whatever it may be, can result in a mere exercise of musical and sound parameters, resulting in a sort of study of ordering musical parameters, rather than a musical composition, through the exploration of parameters. Such a venture could perhaps correspond to a meta-work. In this context, it is reasonable to say that the arts are potentially turned outwards from themselves, being referential to external domains. Therefore, these external references constitute the eidetic material to be worked by the constitutive principles of each mode of artistic expression. The openness to the exterior and to the diverse, even if it is to a subjective idea/concept or experience of the composer, is decisive for considering the creation of the work of art, that is, if we understand the art as a means that enables the creation of communicating artistic objects (referring to something and communicating, in various ways, this “something”). As it is known, Literature often refers to History, Philosophy, Mythology, Painting or Theatre, the same happens with Cinema and Music, etc. Music becomes an artistic object pregnant with meaning, insofar as it is founded by a set of determinations that are verified within the composer, or which gain expression in him, even if transiently, and which are inscribed in the pieces through several methodologies. The creative process has, in my view, a peculiar autonomy, since the control of the creator on the latent influences in the work is not as rational/volitional as it may seem at first sight. It is clear to me that the music I compose is influenced by extramusical sources, whether they are explicit to listeners or whether I am more or less aware of what they are, and at what point in the creative process they are manifested.
5. In the context of western "art music", do you feel close to any school or aesthetics from the past or the present?
JCP: The music I compose has structural affinities with soundscape composition, experimental music, in general, and noise. Nevertheless, my compositional approach is heterodox, tending towards a broad set of references that includes the following musical genres: electroacoustic/acousmatic, electronic (academic and non-academic) and minimal. As far as acousmatic music is concerned, I have a natural predilection for French, Canadian and English schools. In the last few years I highlight the work of young English composers (Natasha Barrett, Manuella Blackburn, Diana Salazar and Adam Stanović), as some American (Andrew Babcock and Mitchell Herrmann) and Greek composers (Nikos Stavropoulos, Panayiotis Kokoras and Apostolos Loufopoulos).
6. Are there any non-Western culture influences in your music?
JCP: The subject of influences was addressed in the previous question, but I reiterate my point of view in more detail. I think it is absolutely necessary to distinguish between influence and aesthetic intentionality. The fundamental difference between these terms is in the way they are revealed in the pieces. The influences are, by nature, assimilations, impressions accumulated in the composer, unveiling themselves in the pieces in an involuntary way. The aesthetic intentionality corresponds to a mechanism that operates by selection and mimesis of ideas or pre-existing musical processes/techniques, that is, from previously internalized forms. This assertion can be countered by asking the following question: if the influences are expressed involuntarily, how can we guarantee that they do not also condition aesthetic intentionality and that, for this reason, influence and intentionality can not be easily differentiated? Although logical and legitimate, this question emphasizes an aspect that is not pertinent to the argument we presented, because the fundamental problem of this thesis is not based on the possible causal intercommunication between influence and intentionality, but on what underlies the non-volitional domain of influence and the alleged control of intentionality. Thus, I can’t assert, in my own case, what non-Western influences are clearly present in my music, this task concerns the critics or listeners. However, I can’t fail to mention that I have a deep interest in minimal music, the kind of music that, by nature, is rich in the art of orchestrating difference in sameness, and which can lead to non-ordinary states of consciousness. In this sense, my compositions exploit elements (e.g. drones), which have been observed in various musical typologies. Since ancient times, minimalism has existed in music, both in world music and in ritual and religious music (shamanism, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc.) and has known Western manifestations, especially in North America, having as exponents: La Monte Young, Terry Riley, Phill Niblock, Steve Reich, etc.
Part 3 . Language & Musical Practice
7. Do you have any musical genre/style of preference?
JCP: As I have already mentioned, my compositional practice is strictly related to a few genres of experimental music (consult question 5). As a listener I am absolutely eclectic, in the strong sense of the term – I appreciate many musical genres. However, I think it is important to distinguish between music as entertainment and music as art, although, for different reasons, I have an interest in the both dimensions. I consider that entertainment music has a strong external component, since it is naturally given to the social experience of identity and sharing, constituting itself as a kind of “soundtrack” of past experiences that are retained in the individual and/or collective memory, to which we return by reminiscence. With this assertion I do not want to mean that any kind of entertainment music is incapable of having a profound impact on the listeners, I am far from that idea. What I say is that music as art, and especially experimental music, challenges the subject from the inside, since it relates to a deep contact with the universe of the psychic and emotional experiences of the individuals and not so much to the references and experiences, residing solely in the outer sphere/world. Given its nature, experimental music does not encourage social sharing, nor does it transforms itself into memories in the same way as non-experimental music, because its structure does not easily allow for it (the introduction of extramusical sounds – practically non-existent in entertainment music; the absence of standardized rhythm, predictable structure, etc., doesn’t propitiate a similar contact). The music I compose does not serve, in my perspective, the function of entertaining. The purpose of my musical practice lies beyond the limits of the artistic discipline. The purpose here is to consider music not as an end in itself, but as a means to achieve an end that lies beyond itself, which concerns the notion of art as a tool at the service of inner liberation.
8. 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?
JCP: When composing, I start both from ideas/concepts and from the exploration of sound material (being the ideation of the first level of the composition). These are opposite processes, but they can in fact be changeable or sequential. The choice of approach depends, first and foremost, on the purpose of the piece, that is: if it is a piece composed by high recreation, and therefore “totally free”; or a specific commission or a participation in a competition based on a theme; or whether if it serves the purpose of integrating a collaborative project with a conceptual foundation, etc. On the one hand, when starting with concepts, I search through methods and techniques that allow me to give life to the ideations that I intend to see articulated in a musical discourse. On the other hand, if I start the composition by sonic experimentations, either at the moment of recording sounds (the exploration of the physical space of the samples/field recordings, the use of different typologies of mics and recording techniques, etc.), or of editing and processing of sounds, the movement is the opposite, that is, I try to synthesize an idea from the antecedent paths of experimentation. In conclusion, both methods are intended to order a flow of potentialities: the first seeks to gain material meaning from an a priori ideation; the second intends to reach conceptual unity through the critical intellection of an antecedent stage, which comprises the exploration of sound material. In any case, the musical results obtained, and in spite of the aesthetic judgments that can be made of them, always reflect the product of the use of dominated techniques with the implementation of varied and unexpected experiments, to which I subject myself whenever I compose. Thus, from my point of view, the compositional process is constitutively experimental and subjective, since it concerns a set of methodologies and decisions, corresponding to the result of a process that implies a dynamics between the contingencies evident in the sinuous paths of the creative act, the operational domain of the technique and the peculiar aesthetic idiosyncrasies/intentions of the composer. Hence, the creative act is an event that knows different moments, consisting of planning, advances, setbacks, unexpected results and, from time to time, by drastic cleavages that result in desperate aporias. I must also mention that whatever methodologies are chosen, and in the wake of Duchamp’s ideas, the act of composing always implies a mysterious dialectic between the domains of the conscious and the unconscious, will and chance, order and chaos, being precisely the phenomenological, aesthetic and spiritual experience that this act implies, viscerally witnessed by the composer, that is in some way objectified and fixed in a musical piece, and later discovered by the listeners.
9. How in your music do you determine the relation between the reasoning and the “creative impulses” or the “inspiration”?
JCP: I note that in my musical practice there is a relationship between the realms of reason and intuition. The binomials in question comprise different modes of access to being and doing, since they are conditions of the possibility to understand, reflect and organize ideas that take shape in the artistic object/musical piece. In the course of the creative process, as I have already mentioned, and in spite of any previous attempts or compositional planning, sometimes suddenly ideas emerge that are “imposed” and concretized in interesting musical results. These moments are equivalent, to the lack of a more adequate term, to a kind of intuitions, glimpses or creative raptures. These are fascinating moments, by virtue of which a suspension from the rational point of view occurs (responsible for the idea of absolute control of the compositional act) which, inexplicably, results in musical solutions apparently without effort or purpose. According to my experience, these moments usually occur by self-purposed experimentalism (e.g. replacement of sounds, from a certain section of the piece, already at an advanced stage of composition, by totally different ones, randomly silencing several channel strips previously considered essential in multitrack mixing, etc.), or by serendipity, that is, when one tries to achieve a particular musical result and is faced with another. Often this chance is the result of the exhaustive process of solving problems that are found throughout the composition, e.g. a passage between two sections, in which a gesture, texture or the attack of a sound that needs “tuning”, and that influences the morphology of the composition as a whole.
In conclusion, and despite admiring pieces that exclude, in my opinion, the transcendent role of intuition, which are composed of techniques/methodologies that seek to replicate, in musical terms, autopoietic systems (such as Stockhausen’s Klavierstück XI) through a set of “minimum” rules, in order to suppress the interventions of the composer and the interpreter of the intentionality/concretization of the piece, i.e., of its actualization/performance, I do not adopt a compositional praxis that is exclusively limited by deterministic techniques, or by chance/aleatory techniques. Applying compositional methods that are only based on rational guidelines, even when respecting techniques that guarantee their eventual overcoming in terms of actualization, can prevent, or severely condition, the moments when intuition can command the composer’s creative “decisions” (or, if applicable, also the interpreter’s). When composing, I employ techniques that attend both to determinism and chance, I do not try to eliminate my intentionality, nor affirm it in an absolute way. I try to remain conscious and open to the constant oscillation I always experience between the plans of reason and intuition, intention and reception, in order to perceive when I must “guide” the composition or to be guided by it.
10. What is your relation with the new technologies, and how do they influence your music?
JCP: The “new” technologies occupy an absolutely central place in my work, since the music I write focuses on the exploration of electrical and electronic instruments (computers, synthesizers, oscillators, recorders, etc.). Although I collaborate, live and on disc, in electroacoustic improvisation with musicians who are instrumentalists, the only instrument I currently dedicate myself to, besides the computer, is the microphone (instrument of musique concrète, par excellence). In fact, the influence of the “new” technologies in my music is absolute, or, in good rigor, one can’t even consider that they exert any degree of influence in my work, since they are the conditions of possibility of my music. I consider these technologies as current or recent, i.e., as those that exist today. When one defines the current instantiations of technology as “new”, as if they were of an absolutely superior nature to those that existed previously, one has a wrong understanding about what technology means. We should not understand technology only as the result of what we produce (objects), since the technology is not exhausted in the idea, e.g., of advanced gadgets. Technology is a word that suggests several readings, among which: the idea of tools (of objects that allow the creation of other objects), and of the set of techniques or methodologies, determining the mode of production (the know-how). However, according to Stephen J. Kleine, we must consider another meaning for the word “technology”, to understand it as denoting sociotechnical systems of use, that is, systems relating to the functions of what we do with objects that we produce. For example, we build cars and then integrate them into road systems, which in turn are governed by traffic laws. We also create energy supply systems and we use these combined systems for the purpose of extending human capacity in terms of moving in space and transporting belongings. These systems function as potencies of innate human abilities. To this extent, sociotechnical systems of use exist to accomplish tasks that we would not be able to carry out without them. In question is the key idea that comprises technology as “extension” or exponentiation of the capabilities of the human being. To understand this definition is to understand that human life on earth, with the exception of the self-regulated biological processes, is, from the beginning of time, a correlate of technology in us. Technology is not, in its essence, as Heidegger postulated, the created products, but the own ability to unveil, to create.
Finally, as far as the practice of acousmatic music is concerned, one of the problems that exist with the use of technologies can be summed up as, what I call, sonic trails or footprints. These sonic footprints consist on the sounding explicitation of processes (d.s.p. – digital signal processing) and, more seriously, of softwares that configure the transformations of the raw material of the pieces. I would point out that I have no objection to the transparency or evidence of the sound processes applied in a given composition, what I mean refers to the origin of the manipulation platform and not to the processes considered in themselves, i.e., in isolation. Nowadays, it is common to hear acousmatic pieces that lead to the immediate and involuntary identification of certain specific software processes/parameters, such as the GRM TOOLS (e.g. doppler, freeze, pitch accum, delays, comb filter, etc.) or Metasynth (image filters, central image synth). I think these footprints constitute noise (in the sense of distraction), because they compromise, to a certain extent, the experience of receiving the piece, since they encapsulate the listener (especially, whom is also a composer) in the technical environment, shifting the attention from the organic sense of the piece to the technical plane. Thus, this noise limits the acousmatic potentiality of the pieces, not considering the origin of the sounds, but, in this case, the provenance of the medium that operates the sonic and musical transformations. I think that in the compositional process of acousmatic music a wise use of technologies must prevail, favouring a balance between medium and object, idea and concretization. Technology will never be totally opaque, or disconnected from what it produces, but it should not be explicit to the point of being held hostage due to its own existence.
11. What is the importance of space and timbre in your music?
JCP: I understand space and timbre as axial aspects regarding the comprehension, characterization and composition of music - of sound and silence (not as an idea that denotes the absence of sound, since as it is known this is non-existent, but as a dynamic amplifier and active canvas). Along with time, space is an a priori condition of sound, and therefore of music. To compose is always to create a space in space, a metaphysically originated locus, but phenomenologically perceived and lived, a space determined by the interaction of energies, which are nothing more than spectral forces that interact in a dynamic that is composed space, that is – space becoming object. In fact, any piece is always, and from the outset, a composite space, an object characterized by strata of meaning, animated by the timbre(s). The timbre is, therefore, the substance of the musical space that makes possible listening to the events/sound objects. Regarding the timbre, I always find myself motivated to generate sounds with an unusual profile. The more distinct from what I have been able to materialize, or I have been able to listen, the more fascination I feel when contemplating, or processing/editing it. Space plays a critical role in the acousmatic composition, whether in stereo or multi-channel systems (8 or more channels). In this regard, I think that the request made by contests (or music festivals) for stereo reductions of originally 8-channel pieces is completely inappropriate. A stereo piece will never be an 8-channel piece, just as a stereo reduction of an 8-channel piece will never match a stereo one. The musical space in the electroacoustic/acousmatic composition is not interchangeable, because its scope is absolutely exclusive, since it concerns the organic-morphological disposition of the piece.
12. Does experimentalism play an important role in your music?
JCP: Experimentalism is axiomatic in my compositional practice. I can´t imagine an experimental music which has no exploratory compositional methods at its operative basis. Exploratory methodologies are to be found at the genesis of experimental music and, therefore, could not be absent from electroacoustic/acousmatic music. The development of electroacoustic music was traced by experimentalism, towards innovation, research, registration and structuring of new musical concepts and techniques, which eventually became institutionalized and made canonical (e.g. Schaeffer’s Traité des Objets Musicaux). In addition to the techniques I master, and which I seek to create, "ex nihilo", in each new composition, I understand sonification, not only in the current sense of the term (to translate extramusical data to music, such as stock market values, weather indicators, etc.), but in the sense of a practice that can extend to the musicalization of ideas that exist, for example, in Literature or other artistic arts/objects. It was exactly what I did in the piece Invocatio – ascribing soundimages into silence, a work that integrated the SoundWalk installation of the Música Viva Festival 2009, at CCB, in Lisbon, Portugal. Starting from readings of Goethe’s Faust, I sonically recreated the quasi-cinematic environments of various passages in the book, yet, purposely withdrawing from any mimetic intent.
13. To what extent are composition and performance complementary activities?
JCP: Since I am both a composer and performer, I consider that these activities have a complementarity that has enriched me over the years. My compositional activity is divided essentially into four strands that are interrelated in different ways, namely: 1. – the composition of electroacoustic pieces; 2. – the composition of solo performances with real-time electronics; 3. – the composition of collaborative performances with real-time electronics; 4. – instant composition (solo and/or collaborative). What unites the first three strands (let us now leave the fourth aside) is the use of similar methodologies and techniques in the analysis and preparation of musical sounds/structures. However, in the first two strands, it is a solitary work – which requires a, sometimes exhaustive, concentration and dedication – that is related to contingencies and idiosyncrasies (already referenced in previous questions), inherent in the composition and the creative act. The composition of electroacoustic pieces differs from the composition of performances, precisely because the moment of the piece’s completion implies that there is no more possibility of adding any other musical meaning (except for its interpretation by means of spatialization in multi-speaker systems, such as: the Acousmonium of the GRM or the Miso Music Portugal’s Loudspeaker Orchestra, etc.). The composition of pieces-performances requires a previous work of preparation of musical sounds and structures (often noted down in graphic scores with various indications: dynamics, pauses/sections, determination of the typology of timbres, etc.), which will only be actualized at the moment of the performance, and the final result is not, a priori, totally determined, remaining “open”, that is, virtual, until the performance occurs. The third aspect, that of collaborative pieces, gains in problematicity, but also in wealth, because at stake is the ability to combine two (or more) different points of view, frequently turning compatible totally discrepant compositional techniques and methodologies. There is also a fourth aspect, very common in total improvisation, entitled blind dates. As the name implies, in this type of concert/performance setup, musicians meet for the purpose of improvising, without having played together and often without knowing each other beforehand. In this context, the musical performance derives from the impromptu concretization, which is expressed by the free and spontaneous interaction in loco of the different musical languages of the performers, whose status can be designated as instant composition. Therefore, collaborating musically in this regime of total improvisation (i.e. non-idiomatic) involves constantly dealing with the astonishing effect of the “new” and developing a coherent process of response/appropriateness to musical impulses, phrases and gestures towards the creation of a dynamic and articulated musical piece, which corresponds to more than the mere sum of the parts/musicians that are composing it. My experiences in the field of improvisation have been translated into the deepening of the active listening, as a facilitator of the reach of my expressive presence in collaboration, and this principle has become useful, by nature, in the other compositional strands to which I dedicate myself. From the most rewarding experiences I have had in this field, I highlight the performance, by a collective of national musicians in 2008, of the game/piece by John Zorn: Cobra (conducted by Nathan Fuhr); the collaborative duo of electroacoustic improvisation with Austrian composer and performer Michael Fischer (saxophone, viola, no input mixer); the collaboration with the Vienna Improvisers Orchestra.
Part 4 . Portuguese Music
14. Try to evaluate the present situation of Portuguese music.
JCP: This question is formalized in an open way, allowing us to focus on various aspects (sociological, aesthetic, etc.). Therefore, I will only focus on the issue of the “health” of national music and the existing structures that “make it viable”, delimiting my analysis to electroacoustic/acousmatic music, and a also a bit to improvised music, since these are the areas in which I have been working more. Any art needs practical conditions to survive. In Portugal, public and private investment in culture is by no means sufficient to guarantee the consistency and quality of the national artistic production. Therefore, I do not believe that the central problem lies in the creative potential of our artists/composers, which are no worse than those from other countries. Rather, it is the absence of structures and initiatives that would allow for a wise, rational and fair management of the various artistic expressions. I am not in favour of the State’s exclusive intervention in art, since civil society must also organize, ponder and deliberate on alternative ways of overcoming obstacles. But, in fact, the State has the responsibility to guarantee the minimum functional conditions so that the art and the artists can subsist. These conditions include the adoption of measures to encourage the creation, circulation and presentation (of artists and works), such as: the creation of competitions; a national network of public spaces (such as auditoriums), which should be properly equipped and constructed for multipurpose uses; the means and funds for the presentation of works; the realization of artistic residences, festivals, etc.
The national competition that serves the purpose of subsidizing the arts, financed by the DGArtes of the Ministry of Culture in Portugal, is manifestly insufficient, if we consider the needs of our artistic community. DGArtes should set up a committee composed of capable individuals (artists, curators, cultural agents, etc.) to study the specificities of various artistic expressions and, through the conclusions drawn, to outline different forms of support for specific projects, to eliminate or reformulate those that already exist, becoming more just and less bureaucratic. For example, there should be an open service throughout the year, without deadlines and with an effective response time, to which composers or interpreters could send a CV and a formal invitation from an institution or festival, and request support for travel, staying and per diem expenses. This service would be very much appreciated, because often, even at festivals of international renown, the artist only receives a cachet, sometimes paid later, and is forced to face the remaining expenses if he can and wants to do so.
In Portugal, there are currently only three festivals that consistently disseminate electroacoustic music: Música Viva, DME – Dias de Música Electroacústica and Aveiro Síntese (which has fewer editions only 3: one in 2002, another in 2016 and the most recent one in 2018).
The fact that there are so few festivals/initiatives conditions the possibility of disseminating the work of composers, for example, with regard to commissions. However, not everything is bad news or difficulties. I must highlight the meritorious work of Miso Music Portugal, which over the last decades has provided an extraordinary service to research and art music, in collaboration with various institutions, universities, etc. Set on multiple fronts (educating, programming and releasing), Miso Music has expanded the number of its activities, now that it is holding a physical space – O’culto da Ajuda – where, in addition to harbouring concerts from other genres of experimental music, exists an annual artistic residencies program entitled LEC – Laboratory of Electroacoustic of Creation. Finally, I would like to highlight the creation of the MIC.PT – Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre, an initiative of absolute extraordinary ethic dignity that allows the preservation and dissemination of the heritage of contemporary Portuguese music, linking national music to the World. This task, in my opinion, should have been an initiative long ago undertaken and supported by the Ministry of Culture, but this only demonstrates that, despite all the difficulties and constraints, we have in Portugal people and unique initiatives that, without counterparts, are leading examples of cultural dynamism and art as a form of resistance.
15. How do you define the composer's role nowadays?
JCP: By definition, the composer is someone whose vocation is to write and eventually play the music that he has created (if he is also a performer). These are the basic tasks that have always been imputed to him. Today, as before, I believe that the composer must be a servant of art, of art with a capital A, becoming a vehicle in the midst of the complex and arduous task of awakening dormant consciousnesses. Music, as a modalization of art, is, in the path of Schopenhauer, the art of the arts, as it has a magical potentiality of transformation like no other art possesses. I reiterate that it is crucial to understand the difference between music as entertainment and music as art. Music as entertainment may have, in the most machiavellian of scenarios, the function of normalization or alienation of consciousnesses. But music as art has, in the strong sense of the term, the task of stirring and transforming the mob. Its scope is manifold and can be seen at different levels and has an impact in the political, social, economic, spiritual, etc. dimensions. Hence, the composer is a symbol of resistance and combat against cultural impoverishment and degeneration.
I have a deep admiration for composers-philosophers, those who have dared to question and contradict the prevailing postulates, proper to the tremendous weight of the cultural heritage, and which have succeeded in opposing different views/theoretical-practical conceptions about music. My position, as a composer, is modest: I will always be satisfied if, in any way, the music I make instils in the listener something as a return to himself, as a feeling of being alive and present in the moment.
16. According to your experience, what are the differences between the musical environments in Portugal and in other parts of the world?
JCP: Briefly, and as I have already mentioned, the musical medium in Portugal is small. Small in quantity, especially in terms of cultural agents/promoters, spaces and also with regard to support structures and fostering the creation of art music. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the 2000s, festivals have emerged (some of which have resulted from the formation of cultural associations) that although tangentially, disseminate experimental music, which has led to the opening of venues where experimental music can be presented. There are also more academic possibilities, as there are intermediate-level courses that include sound arts and experimental music, as well as institutes/universities open to the themes of music production with new technologies, such as the BA degree in Science and Technology of Sound, at the Lusófona University, or the PhD Program in Science and Technology of the Arts at the Portuguese Catholic University. Nevertheless, and even if we consider the state support via DGArtes (consult question 14), there are no minimum conditions in Portugal that allow a regular and consistent artistic production of electroacoustic music. Abroad, for example in Austria, where I have been presenting my work frequently since 2003, there are institutional supports that allow the internationalization of musicians/composers, a considerable offer of formal and informal spaces, as well as curators/organizers who excel at the appropriate/fair treatment of the musicians, guaranteeing cachet (regardless of the ticket selling) and staying. Therefore, what mainly distinguishes Portugal from some of the most economically developed countries is precisely the experimental music market, with regard to the opportunities offered and made available to artists.
Part 5 . Present & Future
17. 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?
JCP: I highlight one of my most recent compositions, a stereo work entitled Rugitus (electroacoustic/tape music), composed in my studio, of which I made two versions. This work was selected as part of the INA-GRM BANC D’ESSAI 2016 international competition, having been programmed in the 39th INA-GRM musical season – Multiphonies 2016/17. I spatialized the piece through the Acousmonium, in October 2016, in Paris. This work addresses three issues: 1. – the recurrence of certain electroacoustic timbres/processes in the current pieces of acousmatic music; 2. – the almost non-existent applicability of past techniques in contemporary pieces of acousmatic music; 3. – the intention of incorporating pronounced noisy sounds. Many pieces of acousmatic music nowadays seem to be valued by technical virtuosity, which tends to favour musical gestures more in their complexity and spectral causality, and less the musical potentialities of creative conjunctions of textures and timbre. Brilliant abstract sounds of granular and organic spectral profile (pseudo-aqueous sounds) wandering in stereo or 8-channel space, are common musical elements in acousmatic works. Rough, loud, “degraded”, noisy and/or clean sounds (that is, without processing) are not consensual or abundant in most pieces. For a long time no one has heard, at least extensively, techniques such as Schaeffer revealed in pieces such as Étude aux chemins de fer; or Henry in Variations pour une porte et un soupir. Rugitus is a Latin word that denotes, among other things, noises, as it evokes the idea of roaring and strident sounds. This piece was composed by organizing a series of sounds whose 3 main sources are: a door, a metal sphere and a balloon. These objects were recorded and then manipulated by a conjunction of past and present techniques. I have integrated the recent d.s.p. with the original métier of musique concrète, in particular: horizontal cut and paste, extensive use of loops, juxtaposition of sounds, variation of envelopes, speed, pitch, reversals, delays, filtering, reverberations, crescendos/diminuendos, ostinatos, etc.
Rugitus presents of low and high sound amplitude events, intense musical gestures and imbricated textures/masses of sound.
18. How do you see the future of art music?
JCP: It is undeniable that, with the democratization of technologies, evidenced by the pronounced decrease in the cost of technical means (computers, software, recorders, mics, synthesizers, etc.) and the expansion of the internet, the flourishing of social networks/peer-to-peer platforms (e.g. facebook, youtube, vimeo, bandcamp, soundcloud, soulseek, etc.), there has been an increase in the number of people doing experimental music, especially in the Western world. This is confirmed, for example, by online labels who have appeared in the last decade and who freely (or paid) make available the discs they promote. It is evident that the existence of new labels necessarily implies the appearance of more musicians/composers. Once, and it is not necessary to go back beyond the nineties (I am a witness, since my experience in experimental music began in the second half of the 90s), to have access to these genres of music required a strong interest in the study of contemporary music histrory (in an autodidact or academic way), or to know someone who could guide this curiosity, and especially in Portugal, a country that in the nineties was still characterized by a considerable cultural deficit compared to other European countries. Today, we can find on youtube a portentous source of contents that, by itself, can guarantee the basis for an initiation in electroacoustic/acousmatic music (since listening is, I believe, the first, and never finished, stage to be undertaken in this formation). From complete albums to pieces and concerts, reference works by key composers such as: Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, Xenakis, Boulez, Ligeti, Bayle, Ferrari, Nono, Dhomont, Grisey, etc. are easily found on the above platform. What in past times was costly and difficult to constitute (because of the scarce existence of shops where this music could be acquired and also because of the limited supply they had), today it has even become, in a certain point of view, dispensable. The same is to say that, in the recent past, to organize a discography was mandatory, since, with the exception of few radio programs, concerts and some publications (magazines/foreign books), it was the only means that guaranteed an initiation to the genres and sub-genres of experimental music. In 2018, with the availability of online streaming, whether through free services such as youtube, or paid services, such as spotify or tidal, the concept of possession of the musical work is “reviewed”, at least as a condition of possibility of the first contact with music. In any case, music lovers will never stop buying works, in classic vinyl and/or CD formats, this idea concerns, essentially, listeners of music in general, who now have the possibility of accessing these typologies of music in a simpler, cheaper, convenient and advantageous way. Nevertheless, it can not simply be predicted that these technological and economic developments, despite their strong social impact, will lead to a significant change in the current patterns of music consumption and production, and that, therefore, the art music, in particular, electroacoustic/acousmatic music, will know great changes in its fundamental aspects. It is necessary to consider about this respect some phenomena that can compromise the future and the development of art music:
1. – The novelty of contemporary music – we can’t forget that contemporary music, in general, is very recent, since it comprises little more than a century. The history of musique concrète, although included in a contextual continuity, in the global scenario of the historiography of contemporary music, is even more recent. This fact is corroborated by the early experiences of Schaeffer (a composer that was born in 1910), which occurred in 1948, which means that we are still three decades away from celebrating one century of its existence. Electroacoustic music, for example, has only recently become a broader practice, having definitively left sole control of educational institutions and centres around the end of the 1990s, and only then reached the public domain, becoming, in terms of resources, an effective universal possibility. The translation into software (in vst or applications) of d.s.p. architectures, formerly only existing in non-commercial systems such as Groupe de Recherches Musicales’s Syter (later transposed to GRM Tools software), or the creation of the audio extension MSP of MAX software, as well as the emergence of new and economical softwares (Metasynth, Soundhack, LiSa, Live, Logic Audio, etc.), have in particular allowed access to some of the essential tools that make up these types of music.
2. – The existence of a certain misoneism, of conservative profile, in certain academic music circles, and in the institutions in general (state and/or private) which results in a reactionary/boycott of the support of these musical typologies.
3. – The need for the deconstruction of the tonal ear. These musical typologies have as central requirements: an openness to dissonance, the musicalization of extra-musical sounds, the integration of the absence of predictable rhythmic patterns, etc. These requirements constitute barriers to an ear that is still rooted in the ancient tonal paradigm.
Despite the above, I can not predict the future of art music, but I am sure that without the viability of these musical expressions, both by the music academia and by the listeners, its survival and expansion will become impractical. Only by virtue of the integration, can the optimized conditions for the construction of a system that funds these musical expressions be created. There will only be composers, spaces, festivals, publishers, in short, market, if there is demand and promotion, outside the commercial logic of investments return, since culture doesn’t and will never have pecuniary value. However, in a speculative antithetical perspective, I should point out that, in general, great ruptures/cultural revolutions, take generations to implant the ideas that motivated their existence. In this sense, it is possible that within a century electroacoustic/acousmatic music will be as popular as Britney Spears’s music is today. Unfortunately, we will not be here to testify, but it would certainly be very interesting to foresee, if this scenario were to occur, what would art/research music correspond to.
João Castro Pinto, February 2018
© MIC.PT
