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Notes on the Stage Music of Jorge Peixinho: Contributions Towards a Dialogue Between Theatre and Music

2023; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 42; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/07494467.2023.2246315

1477-2256

Francisco Pessanha de Meneses,

Musicology and Musical Analysis

ABSTRACTJorge Peixinho (1940–1995) was one of the most significant Portuguese composers of the second half of the twentieth century. His work encompasses several genres but focuses, in particular, on avant-garde chamber music. Between 1964 and 1993, Peixinho collaborated with several theatre directors, composing music for their productions, as well as writing music for other genres such as performance art, ‘happenings’, and some of the most innovative mixed-media experiments in Portugal at the time. During this period, avant-garde theatre and music were two worlds that were mutually unaware of each other. Avant-garde theatrical productions sought to be in line with what was happening in Europe, but the musical accompaniment was neglected, just as it was in opera. In the Portuguese context, Jorge Peixinho’s contribution sought to fill this gap. This article seeks to contextualise Jorge Peixinho’s stage work and to compile a list of the shows for which the composer wrote music.KEYWORDS: Jorge Peixinhocontemporary Portuguese musicstage musicmusic theatreperformance artmixed media AcknowledgmentsI would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Cristina Delgado Teixeira, one of the scholars who has contributed the most to deepening our understanding of the work of Jorge Peixinho. She has done so with generosity, precision, academic rigour, and not a hint of appropriation. I am truly indebted to her. I am also grateful to the theatre director João Luiz, Peixinho’s close friend, to whom I wish to dedicate my dissertation, since without him, I probably would have been tempted to abandon my research topic and change careers.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 For more on Peixinho’s biography, see the website of the Portuguese Music Research & Information Centre: http://www.mic.pt/dispatcher?where=0&what=2&show=0&pessoa_id=142&lang=en.2 The Gulbenkian Contemporary Music Meetings (EGMC) were essential for the dissemination of contemporary Portuguese music. EGMC’s main objective was to provide the public, periodically and systematically, with a broad and diversified overview of the dominant aesthetic trends in the music of the time through listening and discussions in concerts and shows, courses, conferences, and colloquia with composers.3 For more information about the GMCL, please see: http://www.gmcl.pt/historial/.4 EGMC supported many Portuguese composers, such as: Jorge Peixinho, Constança Capdeville, Paulo Brandão, Álvaro Salazar, Luís Filipe Pires, José Lopes e Silva, Clotilde Rosa, Emmanuel Nunes, Cândido Lima, António Pinho Vargas, João Pedro Oliveira, and João Rafael, among others. Several foreign composers could also count on the FCG’s financial support. Among them, Iannis Xenakis is perhaps one of the most paradigmatic examples, having received numerous commissions from the FCG, who also premiered many of his works at these meetings. The 1950s and 1960s in Portugal were marked by a resurgence of opposition to Salazar’s Estado Novo regime and its imposition to the country’s cultural isolation. Artists like Peixinho, who were studying, developing their craft, and exploring new artistic practices, were part of this questioning. One cannot deny the impact of the Revolution on 25 April 1974, a time of ‘deep political changes and thirst for freedom’ (Pires, Magalhães, and Nogueira Citation2018, 2). Three years later, FCG launched EGMC, where these composers had the opportunity to explore their creativity with total freedom of expression and the possibility of collaborating with other artists.5 Original: O objectivo da minha música é a construção e organização de um novo e pessoal mundo sonoro. Explorei profunda e intensivamente todas as relações entre a harmonia e o timbre para construir uma espécie de rede muito densa de sons transformados. A característica principal da minha música é uma espécie de ‘atmosfera sonora onírica’, na qual surgem pequenas transformações através de artifícios contrapontísticos, filtragens harmónicas e tímbricas, etc. Dou também muita importância à ambiguidade entre a continuidade e a descontinuidade’ (author’s translation).6 Recit (1971) emerged from the music composed for Almada, um nome de guerra, while Recitativo I to IV derived from O Gebo e a Sombra (Machado et al. Citation2002, 321–405).7 The database is accessible at: https://www.ceteatro.pt/projetos/cetbase.8 João Luiz is the Theatre Director of Pé de Vento, a professional theatre company based in Porto since 1978; for more information see: https://pedevento.pt.9 These doubts are related to the fact that this work does not appear either in the catalogue (Machado et al. Citation2002) or in Peixinho’s file on CETbase. It only appears in the list of works prepared by Teixeira (Citation2006) identifying Jean Anouilh as the author. However, in Armando Caldas’ file (CETbase) the author of the text is not attributed to Jean Anouilh but to Sophocles. This is a very significant divergence. In a telephone conversation and interview with the theatre director, Armando Caldas clarified the authorship of the text and confirmed that the theatre play in question was, in fact, by Jean Anouilh—it is a modern play based on an ancient text (Pessanha de Meneses Citation2017, 38).10 This numbering is based on Machado et al. (Citation2002).11 Although the catalogue number is lower than that of O Gebo e a Sombra, the shows took place in the chronological order presented here.12 See, http://www.cetbase.pt/reports/client/Report.htm?ObjType=Espectaculo&ObjId=1237.13 Peixinho often resorted to the collage process as a compositional practice, so he adapted and created the work Situações ’66 from the stage music Diário de um Louco.14 See, http://www.cetbase.pt/reports/client/Report.htm?ObjType=Espectaculo&ObjId=3294.15 See, http://www.cetbase.pt/reports/client/Report.htm?ObjType=Espectaculo&ObjId=142.16 Original: ‘Observações: segundo o programa do Festival Internacional de Teatro de Expressão Ibérica /78 a música de introdução foi solicitada ao compositor Jorge peixinho e executada pelo Grupo de Música Contemporânea’. Author’s Translation. Available at http://www.cetbase.pt/reports/client/Report.htm?ObjType=Espectaculo&ObjId=2758.17 See the interview with Maria Teresa Rita Lopes in Pessanha de Meneses (Citation2017, 45–50).18 See Teixeira (Citation2006).19 See Martins (Citation2007, 195).20 Information obtained through telephone and in-person conversations with the director João Luiz on 30 October 2014 and 8 November 2014.Additional informationNotes on contributorsFrancisco Pessanha de MenesesFrancisco Pessanha de Meneses is a composer and musicologist. He holds a degree in Artistic Studies from the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at the University of Coimbra (2017), a postgraduate degree in European Studies (the Faculty of Law of the University of Coimbra, 2011), and a Master’s in Artistic Studies (the University of Coimbra, 2012). He is a Ph.D. candidate in Historical Musical Sciences at the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FCSH) at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, having been funded by the Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT). His dissertation is on Jorge Peixinho’s theatrical work (1964–1993). He is a researcher at the Centre for the Study of the Sociology and Aesthetics of Music (CESEM), FCSH, and Universidade NOVA de Lisboa. His research interests are in the areas of cultural criticism, Portuguese avant-garde music, and theatre and stage music. He studied composition with Karlheinz Stockhausen, Emmanuel Nunes, Annette Vande Gorne, Virgílio Melo, and Jaime Reis. He joined the Portuguese diplomatic service in 2018 and is currently posted at the Portuguese Embassy in Cape Verde.