CODAX | for ensemble with soprano – Carlos Lopes, 2024
Veronique De Raedemaeker – violin
Maria Portela Larisch – soprano
Paulo Fernandes and Carlos Correia – baroque trumpet
Sketch351
Teresa Costa – flute
Daniel Martins – trombone
Alice Andreani – cello
Inês Lopes – piano
Gonçalo Martins – percussion
Carlos Lopes on Codax:
Codax is a puzzle. It examines absence, distance, and the ever-persistent movement of sea waves, linked together through 13th century Galician-Portuguese poetry and using lighting, stage movement and acoustic spatialization. It is a performative piece for soprano and ensemble structured as a big sound arch, paying tribute to the monolithic qualities of spectral music, particularly in Gérard Grisey and Kaija Saariaho’s work.
Six music modules are uninterruptedly played, from empty to whole and back to emptiness – a solo violin starts the performance; a soprano moves carefully in the hall and guides us through the piece; two baroque trumpets play ancient fanfares off-stage; an ensemble slowly emerges and finally fills the room; as soon as the stage is full, the process slowly reverses until only the soprano remains.
Martim Codax was a 13th century troubadour from Galicia, famed for his 7 cantigas d’amigo (“friend songs”), the only known example of the genre where the original melody survived. *
As a genre of medieval lyric poetry, what makes the cantiga d’amigo special is its focus on the world of female-voiced communication. Women artistic representation was barely existent in the middle ages (and often forbidden), so minstrels challenged the norm by writing about love and longing from the perspective of a woman.
The subversive charm of Codax’s songs and their beautiful simplicity compelled me to use them. Water is the theme that bonds all texts and music together, the wavering grace of the original melodies hinting at wave-like movement. The yearning in the poems, however, addresses absence and uncertainty – a conflict between the ominous darkness undermining the subject’s hope and the bright shimmering sea that she faces daily, wishing for the return of her lover.
IT ROSE BEHIND THE RIVER for ensemble and video –
Nuno Lobo, 2023
In It Rose Behind The River, the melodies were created through close collaboration with the instrumentalists, shaped by their interpretations of their characters and their lines in the script. The composer works as a director, while the musicians perform as actors. At the same time, the music has the task to set the right mood for the narrative (similar to a soundtrack), while giving space for the musical dialogues to lead.
Through a fable-like libretto, we imagined a world where everyone tries to run away from adulthood. Our main characters are two children, Renn and Elena, that depart on a journey towards a mysterious light on the horizon – a light said to be the only way to escape growing up. Along their way, they encounter different creatures and learn the stories each one has to tell.
The music, composed by Nuno Lobo, is the result of a close collaboration with ensemble Sketch351. The instrumentalists become “the singers” that are giving voice to a character: The piccolo is Elena (girl), the trombone is Renn (boy), the melodica is Mr. Larva, the bass drum is Mr. River, the kazoo is Mr. Shadow and the cello is Mr. Tree.
Each of them has guidelines on how to impersonate these characters, with some freedom to interpret the text. The music also sets the mood for the narrative (like a soundtrack), while giving space for the (musical) dialogues.
Alongside the music, Pedro Lobo’s hand-drawn illustrations animate the personalities and give a simple visual trigger for the imagination. The illustrations help to project the “childlike” atmosphere that our story contains.
These drawings are mixed with digital renders of lights, to set the mood for the different moments of the narrative.
