Jorge Peixinho - In Memoriam for solo guitar: a compositional and interpretative proposal

Abstract

The present communication focuses on a new compositional and interpretative proposal for solo guitar and is set in the framework of Artistic Research, as understood by Correia (2017). Therefore, itʼs characterized by the articulated juxtaposition of two interdependent components: the creation of verbalizable knowledge, through conventional methods of investigation, and the creation of non-verbalizable embodied knowledge, through creative processes specific to artistic production. This proposal takes the form of a work for solo guitar, entitled Jorge Peixinho - In Memoriam, which is intended to crystalize, focus, develop and amplify guitar writing characteristics of Jorge Peixinho (1940- 1995). The composition and interpretation of this work stem from the observation of a range of techniques, effects, gestures and structures present in Peixinhoʼs guitar works. During the 20th centuryʼs second half, shaping the avant-garde musical movement in Portugal, the composer develops and utilizes an array of characteristic elements, which are now explored in a systematic way, with influence taken from the concept of affordances from Gibson (1979) and from its application to music, as proposed by Reybrouck (2005). There is a search for possibilities of development, fusion, fertilization, proliferation, interweaving and incorporation of these particularities in a 21st centuryʼs composition and performance. Jorge Peixinhoʼs works catalogue, elaborated by Delgado, Machado, and Machado (2002), was consulted as the main source for the identification of 21 guitar works composed through 24 years (1971-1994). Through the consultation of the available sources on Jorge Peixinho and the undertaking of interviews to a group of people that met the composer, data was collected concerning the aesthetic and the practices of his contemporaneity, namely within Grupo de Música Contemporânea de Lisboa. With the gathering of Jorge Peixinhoʼs manuscripts and ensuing analysis and hands-on exploration with the guitar, there were identified recurrent and characteristic elements on Peixinhoʼs guitar writing. This proposal is intended to contribute for the development of a 21st century contemporary guitar, rooted on the recent history that precedes it, alongside with the divulgation of the barely known guitar role in Jorge Peixinhoʼs works, as well as pay a deserved and heartfelt tribute to the composer.