Friday, March 25, 2011

Série Compositores (Composers) - Harry Crowl

(English Version Below)
Continuando a série sobre compositores, gostaria de incluir o primeiro compositor brasileiro, que se ocupa da difícil tarefa de traduzir em música o momento atual da arte brasileira e mundial.
Harry Lamott Crowl, Jr.
Compositor, musicólogo, professor. Belo Horizonte MG 06/10/1958. Estudou violino com José de Mattos e matérias teóricas na escola da Fundação Clóvis Salgado (Palácio das Artes, em Belo Horizonte. Em 1977 foi para os EUA, onde estudou viola na Westport School of Music, Westport, Conn., e composição com Charles Jones, na Juilliard School of Music.
A partir de 94, passou a residir em Curitiba PR depois de um convite da Fundação Cultural de Curitiba. Em fevereiro de 98, passou a colaborar em caráter permanente, com a Rádio Educativa do Paraná produzindo programas de música do século XX e música erudita brasileira.
Em 98, passou a interessar-se pela poesia simbolista brasileira, especialmente aquela produzida no Paraná. Este interesse foi o ponto de partida para a criação de uma série de obras sugeridas pelo universo do sul do Brasil, especialmente de Curitiba, em contraste com o mundo setecentista representado pela paisagem de Ouro Preto.
Sua música tem sido executada e transmitida frequentemente no Brasil e em vários países por grupos e orquestras, dos quais se destacam o Trio Fibonacci (Canadá), o Ensemble Recherche (Alemanha), Orchestre de Flutes Français e Ensemble 2E2M (França), Moyzes Quartet (Eslováquia), The George Crumb Trio (Áustria), Orquestras de Câmara da Rádio Romena e da Cidade de Curitiba, Orquestras Sinfônicas do Paraná, Minas Gerais e Municipal de Campinas. Foi delegado brasileiro junto à SIMC (Sociedade Internacional de Música Contemporânea), entre 2002 e 2006. Tem participado dos principais festivais dedicados à música contemporânea no Brasil, como a Bienal de Música Brasileira Contemporânea (Rio de Janeiro), Festivais Música Nova (São Paulo/Santos), ENCOMPOR (Porto Alegre), Festival Latino-Americano de Música Contemporânea (Santiago, Chile), entre vários outros. Atualmente, é Professor da Escola de Música e Belas Artes do Paraná, Diretor Artístico da Orquestra Filarmônica da Universidade Federal do Paraná e produtor de programas de rádio da Paraná Educativa FM.
Harry é um compositor de muita quailidade e que escreve muito. Ano passado tive a honra e o prazer de dirigir sua ópera, Sarapalha, baseada num conto de Guimarães Rosa. Depois da versão em inglês, temos o segundo movimento da Obra Antipodae Brasilienses , a Paisagem de Inverno, executada pela Orquestra Municipal de Campinas, dirigida pelo maestro Karl Martin.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Continuing the “Composers Series”, I’d like to introduce a brazillian composer, from the XX century -
Harry Lamott Crowl, Jr.
He is a Brazilian-American composer of classical music born in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on October 6th, 1958. First music studies in his native town. He went on to study in the US with Charles Jones, both privately and at the Juilliard School of Music. Later, he also earned a degree in English and Portuguese in Brazil. Further composition studies under Peter Sculthorpe in Dartington, England. His music is very expressive and dense with poetic, oniric, abstract, and mostly, non-linear structures. It draws on many influences including early Portuguese polyphony, Brazilian colonial religious music and 20th century musical and aesthetical trends. He is also interested in literature and visual arts in general.

Living in Curitiba, southern state of Paraná, he is currently the Artistic Director of the Federal University of Paraná’s Philharmonic Orchestra and Professor of composition and music history at the School of Music and Fine Arts of Paraná (EMBAP). His also produces and presents radio broadcasts on both classical and contemporary music for the State of Paraná Educational Radio. Harry Crowl’s production comprises all genres of instrumental and vocal music ranging from solo to orchestral, from songs to opera covering a range of more than 100 pieces and it has been performed and broadcast all over the world. As a musicologist, he discovered, compiled, edited and published some important late 18th century music by Brazilian composers of great importance to early Latin-American music.
Harry is a outstanding composer that produces very quickly. Last year, I had the honor and the pleasure of conducting his Opera Sarapalha, from the tale of Guimarães Rosa, very important Brazilian author.
Below, we have the second movement of Harry’s Antipodae Brasilienses , a Paisagem de Inverno (Winter’s Landscape), performed by the Campinas Municipal Orchestra, with Karl Martin conducting.
Enjoy!







Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Ronald (da Gaita) Silva - English Version


Ronald Silva (Curitiba, March 27, 1940 - Curitiba, June the  5th, 2008)

This is a post in honor to the great harmonica player Ronald Silva, Ronald "da Gaita"( Popular name to call the instrument).
He was the founder of the "Orquestra Harmonicas de Curitiba", the first orchestra to promote the instrument, and later on founder the "Troupe da Gaita", group that he played and promoted until he passed away. He began to play the harmonica very young, alone, listening to old records from "Edu da Gaita", a very famous harmonica player of the 1950's.

My contact with Ronald began in 2000, and since the first moment, we became close friends. Through him, I start to study Radamés Gnatalli's Harmonica Concerto, one of the great masterworks to feature the instrument. The Concerto has a very interesting history: The full score simply disappeared, and with Ronald's assistance, it was reconstructed from a piano sketch and the 1950's recording. The work was conducted by Lutero Rodrigues, at the time conductor of the Curitiba Chamber Orchestra.
After that I review the score once more, looking to make an even better reconstruction of the masterpiece. This work brought me even closer to Ronald, and then I could realize his geniality. He was a consultant of the Hering Harmonica Factory in Blumenau, and besides the skill of quality control and instrumental development, he used the factory's resources to actually build and create new instruments and new instrument resources from scratch. I remember him saying:
- Radames (Gnatalli) and Edu (the harmonica player to whom the concert was written) didn't even dream of an instrument with these powerful capabilities. Certainly if they had, they would use many different effects that would make this concert even better. (...)

And then, he played the harmonica as it should really be played.

Ronald was the first genius musician that I worked with. Completely self-thought, he knew by pure and natural instinct, everything that the most of us took long years at the conservatories to realize.
Many times I heard him play with such spectacular technique, beauty and sensibility that took my breath away:

- But Ronald, how did you play music like that, where did you learn? – I asked - 
- I don't know, I just feel, and think it's beautiful like that - He answered.

He had a huge fascination for the sing of the birds. I believe that He had such a level of observation and synchronicity that he was very much into the bird’s sing vibrations, and was able to reproduce this very singing in the instrument.

Unfortunately, in June the 5th, 2008, my friend passed away due to lung surgery complications. I didn’t even know that he was at the hospital, and was guest conducting abroad when I heard about his condition. I was devastated, because I couldn’t even express my condolences to the family.

Ronald is one of those persons who will be missed.


So, I want to homage him through some work that we did together. In my very beginning as a conductor, in May the 5th 2000, I conducted Ronald in Radamés Gnatalli’s Harmonica concerto.
Unfortunately it was not filmed, but we have an amateur sound recording. I apologize for the quality of the material; the orchestra was also beginning their activities.
Luckily, we may see Ronald’s extreme musicality, with a series of photos, some from the internet and some from my personal archive.

I love you, dear friend, thanks for being part of my life, and I hope we Will see each other again to play this and many other concerts.

Radamés Gnatalli – Harmonica Concerto  - III Mov.

Orquestra do Teatro Carlos Gomes de Blumenau
Ronald (da Gaita) Silva, Harmonica
Daniel Bortholossi, conductor.

A little comment – This is a whole symphony orchestra, and the harmonica is a tiny instrument that fits in the palm of the hand.

(The recording is in the post below - 
http://bortholossi.blogspot.com/2011/02/ronald-silva-1940-2008.html )