"Antropofagia," for Electric Guitar and Large Chamber Ensemble.
Dedicated to electric guitarist Wiek Hijmans
Hommage to Pierre Boulez
Leibo Kampela, (do meu coração, in Memoriam...)
Premiered by the Kammerensemble Neue musik Berlin, Titus Engel conducting
World Music Days 2006 (ISCM), Stuttgart

The title "Antropofagia" (meaning the consumption of human flesh, i.e. cannibalism) is derived from the modernist movement that happened in Brazil in 1922. The underlying concept of such movement by the Brazilians intellectuals of the time was to "digest" the cultural remains of Euro-centric culture in order to spill (or vomit) it back, this time transformed or as they wished, reinvigorated by a new cultural paradigm. Understood as an intellectual defense to the bombardment of imported cultural mannerisms, the movement of the "week of '22" (as it is known) was in true searching for its own (modernist/Brazilian) identity. To accomplish such task they started to look at the the symbols of culture taken for granted, re(de)vising ways to think their notions and concepts afresh.

My work "Antropofagia," intends to attach similar ethos to the underlying fabric of compositional tools, questioning from the start, their usage, form, and function. First, with the electric guitar - that polymorphous instrument - as the piece's soloist. Its capacity to be an extension and differ from, itself while affirming its own identity points already to the deconstructed concept that underlies the compositional act. I take as my first compositional insight the fact that the instruments are mere sonic objects, without preliminary history and work them from "scratch." The traditional aspect is but one side of their (sonic) possibilities. As a referent to the cultural characters of the "week of '22," the guitar can also be seen as my "Macunaíma" (devised as "a hero without character" by Mario de Andrade in his poly(a)morphous romance of the epoch).

"Antropofagia" is built in one continuous movement. From the beginning the musicians are employing their voices and pebbles as if "reaching" for their instruments, as if "inventing" their own way into what suppose to be a piece. The intention here is to bring the perceptual output to the idea of grain, white noise, as a pre-instrumental polarity. Important as well is the notion that each musician is a flexible sonic entity not having necessarily a fixed instrumental role. Slowly, this entropic beginning starts to present more organized and recognizable patterns developing higher compositional strategies. This underlying cosmo(a)gony of form and content reveals the subjacent battle that happens between motoric /ergonomic instrumental constraints and the surface of pitch and noises interactions. The Ensemble mirroring the distorted sonic 'emissions' of the electric guitar "spills or vomits" back its materials from a 'cauldron' of extended-techniques. My piece is but a residue, a trace of the inherited notion of thematic transparency. By the end, soloist and ensemble return to the initial gesture -- a white-noise 'carnival' that washes away when consumed by it's own vortex.
(listen to it loud !!) ©Arthur Kampela 2006-8. All Rights Reserved! Not for sale.

Arthur Kampela, Composer (less info)