Penumbra

For the past two or three years, my compositional projects have been gravitating around the same metaphorical center. My creative efforts are driven by – or aimed towards – frameworks which make reference to three generative elements:

• The idea of something to be referred to or ascribed as the core of any deployment which may cause a sense of thingness. The thing may relate directly to the musical material, however here it is dealt as the starting point of the network of extra-musical (or not) references that will nourish the chosen materials.
• The idea of dynamic development, that is, of properties that will describe a change over time assigned to the aforementioned thing or even apart from it. These properties may have the function of distinguish a thing before suggesting a musical action, once such characterization might imply an action by itself.
• The idea of different stimuli which may not serve to the purpose of characterization or development. Indeed, such element might incite a far-fetched abstraction (or perhaps reverie) to move as a force of ambiguity or contradiction in the work’s context. Here, it is approached as a visual stimulus making reference to luminosity or disguise.

The way I explore these elements usually comes at the earliest stages of the compositional process, perhaps even before knowing the exact instrumentation. Isolated words, sentences, associations and metaphors are primary developments before deciding upon harmony/timbre or form. Penumbra represents my initial developments around the aforementioned elements. The thing to be referred is represented by threads of Rock and Heavy Metal music discourse approached from personal experiences with the genre. The suggestion towards Rock music begins with the instrumentation resembling a Power Trio format in which the traditional electric guitar, bass guitar and drums lineup is revisited in the form of voice, electric guitar and percussion. Straightforwardness becomes a goal for the musical surface, the materials and melodic lines are gently manipulated highlighting the timbre element and its suggestiveness, headed especially by the electric guitar.

Regarding the piece’s materials, there’s an idea of contradictory arguments for “sharp, yet free” versus “loose, yet strict” situations. That is, the senza misura sections are written aiming for clearer directionality whereas the strictly measured sections tend to aim for a lyrical and suspensive flow. Such arguments lead to a formal organization balanced on a looseness-tightness polarization. The initial gestures and the conclusive section of the piece are examples of these arguments, in which the ending in particular explores a suspensive pace through the bass drum’s pulsation.

Penumbra also explores “moods” that are sharply interrupted by short breaks or incisive cuts to the piece’s linearity carrying also the footprint of materials explored in longer situations yet compressed to very short occurrences.

Regarding the piece’s title, it refers to the visual stimulus of transitory luminosity and to the gradual absence of light, which is to say, the higher abstraction in the piece’s environment. The “penumbra” suggestive power also inspired the choice of the text fragments, all of which exploring the narrative of the night as a leading thematic element (and also its thingness) surrounded by other related elements and contexts of occultism, the sinister, fear, grief and solitude. This thematic environment traces back to the Rock/Heavy Metal context in which such themes are appellant and fruitful. The authors chosen (Augusto dos Anjos, Florbela Espanca, Álvaro de Campos and Ezra Pound) are of Brazilian, Portuguese and American origin, connected to early 20^th century literary movements, with the exception of Walt Whitman who is also featured, despite being from an older generation.

Texts:

O pavor e a angústia andam dançando…
Um sino grita endechas de poentes…
Na meia-noite d´hoje, soluçando,
Que presságios sinistros e dolentes!…

Tenho medo da noite!… Padre nosso
Que estais no céu… O que minh´alma teme!
Tenho medo da noite!… Que alvoroço
Anda nesta alma enquanto o sino geme!

O Pavor e a Angústia (1-8), Florbela Espanca

Ficam brilhando com fulgor sinistro
Dentro da treva onímoda e complexa
Os olhos fundos dos que estão com medo!

A Noite (12-14), Augusto dos Anjos

Nesta noite em que não durmo, e o sossego me cerca
Como uma verdade de que não partilho,
E lá fora o luar, como a esperança que não tenho, é invisível p’ra mim

Na Noite Terrível (41-43), Álvaro de Campos (Fernando Pessoa).

This is thy hour O Soul, thy free flight into the wordless,
Away from books, away from art, the day erased, the lesson
done,
Thee fully forth emerging, silent, gazing, pondering the
themes thou lovest best,
Night, sleep, death and the stars.!

A Clear Midnight, Walt Whitman

O Dieu, purifiez nos cceurs!
Purifiez nos coeurs !
[…]
O God of the night,
What great sorrow
Cometh unto us,
That thou thus repayest us
Before the time of its coming?

Night Litany (1-2; 14-18), Ezra Pound

At last, it was essential to my compositional plan to seek a “lounge-like” ambience which would provoke an intimate (or perhaps unpretentious) connection to the audience also emphasized by the self-effacing stage repositioning of the musicians. This overall “mood” is another strategy to explore the straightforwardness of the referential genre of Rock music and its own format or performance setting. Accordingly, the venue of each performance has a strong influence in the musical result and impact, smaller halls and closer stages work in favor of the compositional ideas.