State: Lisboa
Country: PT
Signup Date: 3/10/2009
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[19 Mar 2009 | Thursday]
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Pilgrimage through the Meditherranios
The Portuguese guitar – an instrument traditionally played by men since its creation in the 18th century, probably derived from the English cittern, and made popular in modern times by its association to a particular music gender, Fado, in both its kinds from both Coimbra and Lisbon – finds in Luísa Amaro an amazingly brave protagonist: as an interpreter, she was the first woman who dared to record this major and emblematic instrument of the Portuguese music; as a composer, she rehearsed in it all the richness of new sound profiles, associating it with unexpected musical horizons.In “Meditherranios”, Luísa Amaro develops a very typical musical theory concerning the Portuguese guitar, joining her to the guitolão – a baritone guitar of which remain only two exemplars in the world, designed by Master Carlos Paredes and developed by Gilberto Grácio, heir of an illustrious family of guitar constructors – from clarinets to oriental percussion. In this search for ancestral sortileges, which is at the same time a journey of research and creation through the deepest itineraries from the past, we recall the complex cultural miscegenation which Portugal experienced in the course of its history, where Jewish and Muslim influences have crossed one another, arising from that great Mediterranean sea, which in ancient times brought peoples together and was a medium for a suis generis civilization. If the guitolão suggests to us the memory of the Arab lute, if the clarinet takes us to a journey from the Balkans to Turkey, if the percussion transports us to the Middle East, the Portuguese guitar returns us to the exact spot where Luísa Amaro was born, created and reinvented: The Portuguese guitar. Therefore, in this adventure of peregrination by her recreated “Meditherranios”, in this fusion of sounds and of faraway places, the lyricism fully assumes the voice of nostalgia – the memory that there was a time and place where music could have been like that. And the introduction of the piano in its composition, played by Mário Laginha, does little more than prove that these rhythms, deriving from the deepness of history, are after all more alive and interpellant than ever. LUÍSA AMAROPortuguese GuitarLuísa Amaro studied Classic Guitar in the National Music School of Lisbon, with the Professor Lopes e Silva, continuing her studies in Barcelona in 1983 with the Argentinean guitar player Maria Luisa Anido. In the following year she begins to play with the Master Carlos Paredes (1925-2004), who she accompanies with classical guitar in hundreds of concerts around the world, interrupting that activity on December 1993. Meanwhile, in 1989 she attended the International Guitar Course in Castres (France), with the Argentinean guitar player Roberto Aussel.Since 1996, Luisa Amaro has dedicated herself to the Portuguese Guitar as a composer. In her never ending search for new soundscapes and a different repertoire to an instrument loaded of symbolic tradition, the project In-Canto was born, defying the Portuguese guitar with different beats and rhythms.From the numerous concerts performed all around the country, and besides the many performances with the introduction to the work “Canção para Carlos Paredes”, from 2004, the following stand out: Performance with the Academic Orchestra of Oporto, under the direction of the maestro António Saiote (2001); music for “Devaneios Flutuantes”, ballet of Ana Rita Barata e Pedro Sena Nunes (2001-2002); Jubilee concert for the Patriarch Cardinal of Lisbon (2003); concert in Eça de Queiroz Circle (2005); participation in the Lisbon Festival and in the MED Fesival of Loulé and the concert of the inauguration of the Islamic Festival of Mértola (2007).ANTÓNIO EUSTÁQUIOGuitolãoAntónio Miguel Raimundo Eustáquio was born in Portalegre on the 2nd of June 1961. He attended the Regional Conservatory of Castelo Branco, where he studied Musical Education, Piano, Composition, Music and Acoustics History. He carried on with his training in Paris, studying Ancient Music with Henri Agnel. After conclusion of his military service, in which he incorporated the Army Light Orchestra, he studied guitar in the Academy of Music Amateurs in Lisbon.António Eustáquio is a founding member of the Quaterto do Sol (The Sun Quartett), for whom he recorded a CD. The former founded the Quarteto Sons do Tempo (Sounds of Time Quartett), playing the Portuguese Guitar, and composing for this formation the work “Suite das Folhas” (Leafs Suite). He was yet the founder of the “Camerata Lusitana”, an instrumental group that proposes the use of the Portuguese Guitar in the performance of a music repertoire from the Baroque period, with which he recorded two CD's (Vivaldi and Bach in Portuguese Guitar). Presently he interprets a new Portuguese instrument – the guitolão – with which he recorded a DVD, as part of a promotional support for the Town of Marvão; still with the Guitolão, he formed a Duo with the double bass player Carlos Barretto. He is part of the project In-Canto with Luísa Amaro.GONÇALO LOPESClarinet Gonçalo Lopes was born in 1970 in Seattle, in the United States of America. He made a course of Interiors Design in the IADE until 1994, when he initiated his studies of Clarinet in the Academy of Music Amateurs. With a brief training in the Hot Club Music School in Portugal, he began to participate in different workshops inside and outside the country, namely the Workshop of Popular Music in Sarajevo (1998) and the workshop with Adam Lane has a part of the JACC Ensemble, an initiative of Jazz ao Centro (Jazz to the Centre) in 2005. In 1996 he was awarded with the 1st Prize in Contest of Young Creators of Europe and the Mediterranean, with the group Pablibutsone, becoming the Portuguese representation in Turin in the following year. He is part of the group Macacos das Ruas (Street Monkeys), in the city of Évora, having worked with Portuguese directors in several theater plays and participating in projects of Jazz, dance, street music and new circus, performing music for silent films since 1999. He is also part of the Quarteto Interlunio (Interlunio Quartett), directed by Ricardo Freitas. He recently formed the Alf@rroba Duo with Jozé Oliveira.BALTAZAR MOLINAOriental Percussion Baltazar Molina initiated his musical studies of the Portuguese Guitar in 1996, having found in 1998 the darbuka, a cylindrical percussion traditionally used in countries like Egypt, Turkey, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Greece and some regions of the Balkans. The darbuka became then his main instrument, together with a strong passion by the «egyption way» of feeling Arab music. I truth, this way helped him to develop his own manner of expressing feelings through music. Along this road many were the encounters with different peoples, situations and musical projects that helped him to keep the flame of his passion alive and bright, always in a crescendo of an evolutional process. MÁRIO LAGINHA
PianoHis “house” is the jazz, but he refuses to shut himself inside it. In his music we can find a little of everything, for it does not close the doors to almost anything. Mário Laginha searches in several places for the matter with which he builds his own musical universe. In Mário Laginha’s opinion, creating music is also an act of sharing. And he has been doing it along with strong music personalities: Maria João, Bernardo Sassetti e Pedro Burmester. In the three duos it is evident their creativity, a great rhythmic solidity, an enormous harmonic and melodic richness.He created the Mário Laginha Trio along with the counter bass player Bernardo Moreira and the drummer Alexandre Frazão, with whom he has just edited the album “Espaço”, where he connects his music with the universe of architecture. In his already wide discography, he still has solo works (the awarded “Canções e Fugas”), quintets and yet duos with Maria João, Bernardo Sassetti and Pedro Burmester.He has played and recorded with excepcional musicians, such as Wayne Shorter, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Trilok Gurtu, Gilberto Gil, Lenine, Ralph Towner, Manu Katché, Dino Saluzzi, Julian Argüelles, Django Bates.With an enormous versatility and domain over the composition, he has wrote for several formations, such as the Radio Hamburg Big Band, the Metropolitan Orchestra of Lisbon, the Philharmonic Orchestra of Hannover, the Remix Ensemble, the Percussion Group Drumming, the National Orchestra of Oporto and the Symphonic Orchestra of Brussels. He also composes for cinema, dance and theatre. ________________________________________________________
The Instrument of Destiny
In the tone of the Portuguese Guitar a strange destiny was incarnated: gone from the rest of Europe, it endured with proud tenacity in Lusitan soil, untill it reckoned the most intimate strings and the most subtle vibrations. Its voice – for it is a voice indeed - touches the heart from the very first note; its resonance brings movement to feelings which seemed forgotten; into her flow the emotions which words cannot grasp. Something ancient and noble lies within the tone of this instrument, with seemingly humble origins and which has found in Fado its ideal habitat.
However, if such instrument is the very essence of Fado, it lives also beyond it. The musicians, who knew how to exalt its extraordinary expressive potential, demonstrated it by revealing an original and fascinating new universe of sound. Among them stands Luísa Amaro. Having artistically grown with Carlos Paredes, she assimilated an unlimited interest in sound as a creative exercise of worldwide exploration. With great sensibility and extreme delicacy she built an intimate dialogue with the musical cultures of the Near East. She recognized the breathing of its universal dimensions, challenging the matter of its sound and interpreting its essence through a work of translation crafted over an extremely sober web of tones.
The unique personality of the Portuguese guitar is brought to the foreground by the elegant and discrete presence of both clarinet and percussion, bearing the complicity of a second string instrument that is its natural extension, the Guitolão. Such instrument, built ex-novo by Gilberto Grácio, is a product of the imagination of Carlos Paredes, who wished to widen the spectre of the Portuguese Guitar in order to venture beyond the concrete limits imposed by its structure.
This subtle and constant unsettlement, so intrinsically and elegantly lusitan, reflects itself throughout the work of Luísa Amaro by evoking a Moorish Portugal, like an expression of an insinuating nostalgia. Something remote in time and space, and yet, so close of becoming the cause for a fable of sound. If longing was a sound, it would find its voice in her instrument
Paolo Scarnecchia
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MeditherraniosThis CD reunites nine compositions of Luísa Amaro, from which eight are played by the composer with her Portuguese guitar, along with a guitolão, alto and bass clarinet and several percussion instruments of the Middle East. The pianist Mário Laginha also collaborates in one of the compositions. The first work of Luísa Amaro as soloist and composer, the pieces included in this album reveal a great artistic and interpretative maturity. The music recalls the imaginary of a Mediterranean where multiple influences intersect each other and where the past acquaintance of various cultures and religions inspire hope for a future in dialogue. Nevertheless, the crossroads and musical dialogues cross every compositions included in the album. The lyricism of the Coimbra song and of the Coimbra guitar cross each other and establish a dialogue with one another, as a support and lead instrument, the legacy of Carlos Paredes , whom the composer accompanied for many years. Also present are the creativity and subtlety of the melodic and rhythmic courses, of the adornment and of the approach to the improvisation in the Arabic lute, typical of the Middle East erudite music. The inspiration of the Middle East music is present in several compositions. Kalipha (track 4) and Mouriscas (track 8) stand out. The first one, whose structure seems the one from waslah (a sequence of instrumental and vocal compositions, alternated with improvisation), begins with one introduction which recalls the taqsim (instrumental improvisation) in the lute; it is followed by several melodic sections alternated with improvisation. The second begins with a rhythmic standard executed by daff (frame drum) and is composed by improvisations shaped in the taqsim. Also a highlight, Mediterrâneos (track 7) is a composition in which Mário Laginha collaborates, which enriches the composer’s piece of work with new musical ideas and sonorous textures. The pieces included in the album are performed with lyricism, subtlety and great expressiveness. The guitar and the instruments which accompany her are in perfect sintony, producing a sonorous texture of great clarity and where the several tones complement each other. The technical dominion of Luísa Amaro prevails, which is entirely placed at the service of expressiveness. One of the rare female guitar players and composers, Luísa Amaro is to be congratulated for this work, which surely will contribute to a wider vision of the Mediterrâneos.
Salwa El-Shawan Castelo-Branco ________________________________________________________
Creating new transgressionsThis album emerges from a will to open a new cycle, to create a different sound, with new stories to tell. It gave me great pleasure to feel the pulse of the instruments with its tones, its vibrations, its blows and ravishments.It was not easy to free myself from the usual and traditional way of playing the Portuguese guitar and to plunge in the quest to seek new directions, to create other melodies, to find different harmonies, to infringe old habits, to find common points between cultures and to reach the fullness with the complete endeavour of each one of the musicians. The collective themes are much bigger than the simple sum of the parts. It was a hard road, sinuous, full of lives, where I let myself go from past experiences, resumed paths and followed the impulse of building my own piece of work. A new cycle was born crushed in a flow of emotions, intents, doubts, convictions and spiced with some inspiration, some talent and a growth of trust. With much effort, light was born.In the beginning, it seemed hard: it was necessary to choose the persons, the instruments, the music, the sound that should guide us…, as it went on, the enthusiasm spread to all of us. The difficulties vanished, the music flowed, the complicity lulled the musicians, the project became true – it’s fine like this. I like it!I would like to thank everyone who helped me to get this far: Alexandre Bateiras, Américo Cardoso, André Gomes, Ana Baião, Ana Salvado, Armando Gouveia, Fernando Couceiro, Ana Júlia, Elvira Nereu, Eduardo Lemos, Fausto Marsol, Francisca Mota, Fernando Alvim, Gabriel Gomes, Glória, Graça Sá-Fernandes, Gilberto Grácio, Isabel M. Rato, Igeménia, Isabel Pinto, Ivone, João Tudella, Jorge Mourinha, José Boeiro, Kilas, Maria Beatriz, Maria José Costa Félix, Maria de Lurdes, Olga Carneiro, Patinhas, Paula Raposo, Paulo Garrido, Pedro Ayres de Magalhães, Pedro Gomes, Pedro Sena Nunes, Pedro Sousa Uva, Rosarinho Alvim, Rui Lopes Graça, Rui Simão, Té, Tomás Oliveira Marques, Zé Matos.I would like to thank the trust and the friendship that they always gave me, always believing that I would make it: António Pinheiro da Silva, sound manager; Luís Gomes, my editor, production and graphics manager; the extraordinary and unique musicians António Eustáquio, Baltazar Molina e Gonçalo Lopes. To Mário Langinha for his wonderful participation. To my mother, who made me like this…And finally, my recognition and profound friendship to the Convent of Cardães (Sisters Augusta and Ana Maria) where we always practiced and to the Choir of Santo Amaro de Oeiras where we recorded this album.Luísa Amaro________________________________________________________ Egiptania, LusitaniaEgiptania, dark land, land of the holy death and the infinite life. The creative talent of Luisa Amaro returns us the legend in all its mystery. Her magic guitar reverberates in damp flowers of light in that mystical universe which the clarinets and the oriental percussion summons.It is the glitters of soft pearls, the bitten bosoms of odalisques, gardens submersed by the dream, smiles between waves of sun. It is the Musings, it is the Chrysalis, we hear the guitolão with its suggestions of lute and the white wind assails the scene in which the beautiful women surrender, amongst mirrors and jars of wine that seems like blood, to the desire that from the shadow lurks upon them, ravenous eyes questioning the secret of such bodies.Waterfalls of sound vibrate through the pages of memory and other canvas, other spaces, invite us to take look. The Kalipha is gone, behold Lusitania, the Jogral, the full moon over in this side of life. The oracles of the breeze announce a love that dresses in gold the sadness of the flesh. But once again everything changes. And suddenly we have the Mouriscas, the splendor from the guitar of Luisa Amaro, the yearned unspeakable. And the Garden of the Mermaid, unifying, sweetening opposite longings, opening a glade of paradise.The sparkling water runs in the walls of the house of dreams. We touch the untouchable. A serene joy descends upon us and brings a trail of stars, clarity of peace.It is miracle of the great musical creation. From the music given to us by Luisa Amaro.Urbano Tavares Rodrigues
4:25
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