Comments on “Caravela” and “Aos olhos de meu Pai”

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Reviewer 1’s Comments

Relevance to Symposium Theme

If this instrument and its tradition are in need of revival, it would make for an interesting challenge to deductive and inductive processes. The premise that this Baritone Electric Portuguese guitar is in need [of] revival might raise the [question] of its identity as… endangered… The inductive-intuitive processes arriving at possible hypotheses as equilibrium [work] as a concept but what about the actual soundscape; challenging a Portuguese guitar vs and Electric guitar vs a hybrid of both sounds? Much of this ménage à trois is fuel for research, not only in organology but also in psycho-acoustics as well as live/d auto-ethnography. In the present text, little is offered in terms of exegesis of practice.

How Well The Piece Works

Having listened to the two pieces, Caravela and Aos olhos de meu Pai (tr. In the eyes of my Father), there is immediacy of references to the ‘fundamental; chord progressions which enable the text to speak, hence a conjugal relationship of mutual benefit. the difference here is that Pedro is dealing with a wordless rhetoric, a hybrid instrument (…somewhat removed from its context) and a musical genre and style which would have benefited from an agglomeration of text, instrument and soundscape. The Portuguese guitar draws much of its timbral appeal (much like the harpsichord in the 17 ^th  & 18^th century Art music period in Europe) with the melodic embellishments in the soprano registers. Pedro seeks a Baritone timbre… and performs and improvises with a soprano register also intuitively. This, to me, results in an impoverished (if not a somewhat work-in-progress) rendition of what could potentially (with sufficient exegesis of practice) [provide a] better-nourished articulation of a research question in and through performative discourse and discursive strategies and tactics.

Reviewer 2’s Comments

The video submitted is a live performance of two works by Pedro Duarte, performed on, as what is described by the performer as, a “hybrid instrument, half way (sic) from an acoustic baritone cittern and an electric guitar”. In the description of the work, there is the problematic claim that development of the Portuguese guitar has become stagnant. This is just not true. Recent developments by luthiers include the addition of a cutaway in the body similar to acoustic guitars that inherited this design from electric guitars. Furthermore, to call electrification by electromagnetic pickups—technology from the mid-1920s—”developing into the 21st century”, is a bit of a stretch. Having said this, the gap in the organology spotted by the researcher is a valid gap in knowledge and any steps taken to explore that gap can be considered a valid contribution. The resulting demonstration of this instrument through the compositions captured on this video submission allows other researchers to engage with this primary research.

SZT’s Question

My question for you is triggered by the response of one of the peer reviewers who was intrigued by your motivation for this project. Give that we are talking about the contrast of the top down and the bottom up, from which direction did the stimulus come in your project? Was it from a set of repertoire that you wanted to hear in a different sound world or was it from a kind of instrumental meta-sound that you wanted to find repertoire for?