Filipe PIRES
“Canto Ecuménico”

“Canto Ecuménico” (1979)
The choice of a religious theme is a pretext for an approximate comparison of authentic traditional music from different cultural areas in many different styles. The similarities and differences are presented in the form of collages and quotations, connected and superimposed on the sequences of sonorous material, vocal and instrumental, drawn exclusively from the musicians.
The most important musical material in this work is drawn from a great variety of countries. Some parts are fragments of Australian Aboriginal rites, joined with rain spirits and mixed with sonorous sounds taken from a funeral ceremony of the ethnic Somba from the North of Benim. Included also, are Buddhist ceremonies from Tibet and Japan, orthodox Christian songs from Armenia and Syria, Islamic rites from Morocco, Syria and Yugoslavia. The jews of Morocco, Yemen and Tunisia are also quoted.
From a formal point of view, the grand lines of the composition come together in a single block, in the middle of which are evolved distinct sections.
“Litania” (1972)
This work was composed while studying with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales, formerly ORTF in Paris. The improvised instrument parts are controlled in the process of the montage. The origin of the principal sound consists of sheets of iron, and metal wires. They are joined at their respective extremities. To produce sounds they are plucked, struck or rubbed, obtaining an extensive range and variety of vibrations. On the other side, the technique is to catch and put in relief a grand number of profiles of variations, ressonances, and multiple details and structures of sound.
Other objects to make sounds, elaborated for manipulation, are inserted into the discourse, upon which there are opposite characters, regular and punctual, that stop and start themselves under a repetitive form.
“Homo Sapiens” (1972)
The human voice, used as the symbol of earth and creation, constitutes the earth of this work. It is the phonetic frame in the context which evolves the sorrow of the movement, and for the elaboration and the fusion of various elements of sound.
Homo Sapiens is a revision of the first part of the ballet Nam Ban, composed in 1970, commissioned by the Portuguese Secretariat for the Exhibition of Osaka. The present version was composed while studying with the Groupe de Recherches Musicales in Paris.
200 copies.