Quimera

Ricardo Alves – [email protected]
  

When I received the invitation from MAB (“Música de Agora na Bahia” project) to compose a work for a concert to celebrate the centenary of Hans-Joachim Koellreutter’s birth, I decided that my homage would be of a conceptual nature. That is, instead of working with serial/dodecaphonic procedures, the piece would be structured under the central idea of ??the existence of a hypothetical “Row-Man” – a character whose life would be stuck to a repetition cycle of which he cannot get away. This story, therefore, seeks to portray the inner conflict of the protagonist by having resigned himself to the reality he created.

The narrative was implemented compositionally in the friction between different plans and independent musical forces, each one seeking to approach with a certain psychological instance of the character: his discourse (lyrics), his wishes (intellect) and his feelings. These musical/psychological strata follow in constant interaction, sometimes dissociating, sometimes antagonizing and sometimes complementing each other, but rarely harmonizing each other – as John Lennon would say –, “Isn’t he a bit like you and me?.”