Composition and Capoeira: dynamics of composition between music and movement

Guilherme Bertissolo – [email protected]

This dissertation focuses on the complex interaction between music and movement, and specially its uses and functions in the creation of compositional processes, taking as reference a context in which it is not possible to establish a clear distinction between them: the Capoeira Regional. The combination of field work and a critique of existing literature on the interaction between music and movement led to the proposition of four concepts which are not mutually exclusive: Ciclicity, Sharpness, Circularity and Surpriseness.

In the first chapter several theoretical avenues are discussed concerning the relationship between music and movement, with especial emphasis on conceptual metaphors and image schema based on bodily experience. Chapter two describes the imersion into the context of Capoeira Regional and presents a series of dialogues with its personae and ideas. Chapter three focuses on the construction of the four concepts and the multiple possibilities they offer as keys to the understanding and exploration of the interface music and movement. Chapter four emphasizes the compositional processes and their articulation in two series of compositions which offer themselves as result and response to the whole experience. A succint description of their construction is offered, highlighting specific points of interaction.