Commemorative Book dedicated to Miso Music Portugal
To mark the 40th anniversary of the Miso Ensemble and Miso Music Portugal (1985-2025), the book Sentem Sem Som Cem Sons Sempre was released last December...
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Unlike other pieces on this album, which were composed as a direct commission from Drumming, Fractal has a longer history. Originally written in 2007, it was one of Miguel Duarte Oliveira's first compositions as a student at the Escola Superior de Música e Artes do Espetáculo (ESMAE-Porto). Rehearsed at the time by fellow percussionists (some of whom are now members of Drumming and participants in this recording), the piece was never premiered. It is now being released in 2021 in a slightly different version: instead of being written for two marimbas, each played by two musicians, it has now been transcribed (and reorchestrated) for four marimbas. In addition, the composer has added a more meditative conclusion, in contrast to the rest of the piece, which is more rhythmic.
The title Fractal places this piece in a tradition of relatively recent compositions that allude to this mathematical form (characterized by the replication of the same structure at different levels). Oliveira's use of the fractal is closer to Ligeti than to Xenakis—two of the composers who also used this model. Oliveira's statement that his piece “aims to create a sound result similar to the hypnotic and meditative effect that the image of a fractal conveys to us visually” is close to a statement by Ligeti, who said he did not seek “a direct mathematical translation [of the fractal] in his music, unlike Xenakis. The influence is poetic.”
Fractal is based on a seven-note motif that, throughout the piece, appears superimposed in multiple versions (complete or incomplete) and at different speeds. The repetition and slow, gradual evolution of this motif reveals the influence of minimalist composers such as Reich, Glass, and Riley, a common influence in Oliveira's work. Similar musical processes can be found, for example, in Bonsai (2008), for solo piccolo, and in Bridge (2008), for piano and bass drum, in this case in a more atonal harmonic environment. Moreover, his music reveals a certain eclecticism, which the composer himself associates with a postmodern aesthetic.
