The origin of the project
The “Prata da Casa” project had its origin in mid-2009, when, motivated by the realization that there was a significant, almost intriguing, number of works for recorders created by composers related to UFRGS, I decided to try to gather all these works into a single collection. Behind this finding, were my interest and engagement in the creation and dissemination of Brazilian music for recorder, both as a recorder player and as a professor of recorder at UFRGS. The idea of a research project was taking shape and gained confidence with the data presented in the doctoral thesis of Daniele Cruz Barros, recorder player and professor at Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, who conducted the most extensive and thorough study already performed on the Brazilian repertoire for recorder, entitled “The Recorder in the 20th Century: the example of Brazil” (2007). According to Daniele Barros, 70% of the Brazilian repertoire for recorder, written from the 1990s on, was made in Rio Grande do Sul, especially at UFRGS. This was the impetus that was lacking for Prata da Casa come to life. How not to feel challenged to know this repertoire in its entirety? How not to be interested in knowing the motivations of the composers and the conditions that allowed the emergence of so many works?
We know that the Brazilian repertoire for recorder is very recent and has been developing along with the trajectory of the instrument in Brazil, mainly from the second half of the twentieth century. However this repertoire still represents a very small portion of what is heard in concert halls. According to Franco and Landim (2006) this fact is due to the “poor or almost non-existent dissemination of these works, influenced by the lack of instrumentalists interested in this repertoire, the absence of edited works, the little interest from publishers, the lack of recordings by instrumentalists and the lack of knowledge on the part of students and the teachers”. These conditions make the music community, and, therefore, the general public, unaware of that repertoire, which ends up getting lost in time. In general, the works are executed only on their debut, in local level and for a reduced public, without reaching the broader audience of recorder or even the general public. As well as the works that circulate mainly in the environment in which they were created, the same happens with recorded CDs and DVDs and the few scores edited. In this sense, besides the already mentioned work of Daniele Cruz Barros, also deserve to be highlighted other published works such as the ones from Betiza Landim and Daniele Carrijo (Duo Brazil) and Paula Callegari (Universidade Federal de Uberlândia), who seek to make public the information about Brazilian repertoire for recorder.
The trajectory of the project
In the beginning, the project was presented as a relatively short process, focused on locating, identifying and cataloguing the compositions for recorder, which would result in the creation of a data bank, in order to contribute to the dissemination and circulation of this repertoire, as well as to the preservation of the musical heritage of UFRGS and to the encouragement to create new pieces. Among the composers, we find teachers and former teachers of the Music Department, students and former students of Music, all gathered in a musical and organic integration of Extension, Graduation and Post-Graduation. The title of the project arose inspired by the composers. After all, in what concerns the recorder, they were our “prata da casa”.
In its first phase, which began in 2009, the project counted on Aline Güntzel, my recorder student at UFRGS and scholar of Scientific Initiation, and aimed to survey the existing works, made together with recorder players and composers, in their private collections. The oldest work found was “Ventos Incertos/Uncertain Winds” (1970), by Bruno Kiefer, and from it we could observe a growing increase in the composition of new pieces, mainly from the 1990s, confirming what we observe worldwide: that historically, the creation of works occurred mostly through the interaction between composers and performers. Since the 1970s, when Isolde Frank introduced the teaching of recorder in the Music Department at UFRGS, this has been characterized as having solid foundations, focusing in the training of recorder players and recorder teachers with extensive knowledge of the repertoire, including therein, the contemporary production for the instrument. We also realized that many of the pieces contained acknowledgments, mostly to recorder players, reinforcing the idea that composers write their parts for a demand of musicians, forming a partnership with the performers. From there came one of the first conclusions of the research, that the degree in recorder at UFRGS has contributed to make the university a production centre of works for this instrument.
Once completed the survey, which showed 52 pieces for recorder, technical specifications of the works were drawn out and they contain information about each piece in a clear and standardized way, with the intention of later, making it available on the project page. Insofar as they were getting ready, the completed forms were sent to the composers to review, correct and add comments, if necessary. The technical specification, as the most important element of the entire project, deserves a more detailed description, as we shall see in Part I.
In parallel to the technical specifications, we considered the need to define a system of cataloguing the works, with the purpose of organizing the collection available. We chose to adopt the criterion of instrumentation for its objectivity and because we understood that the most interested ones in the collection, would be recorder players and recorder teachers. Using as reference the system adopted by publishers of musical scores, widely known by recorder players, we came to four major categories: recorders(s) a cappella, chamber music with other instruments, recorders(s) and orchestra, and recorders and electroacoustic media. Always thinking about the agility of the query, the first two categories were subdivided into several sub-categories, as seen below.
In 2010, with the review process of the files in progress, carried out by the composers, we started to see the whole collection, trying to trace its trajectory. From this observation and reflection about the work as a whole, and as a closing of this first phase of the project, resulted the work entitled “Prata da Casa – Works for recorder written by composers connected to UFRGS,” which was presented by Aline Güntzel and Lucia Carpena in the IV National Recorder Meeting, in Recife, and published in the proceedings of the meeting, in 2011. The IV Meeting was promoted by UFPE and coordinated by Daniele Cruz Barros.
As a natural offshoot of the project, the dissemination of Prata da Casa’s repertoire by means of concerts was also part of the research and it happened at the same time as the IV National Recorder Meeting. Entitled “New paths for recorder”, it approached the new trajectories for the instrument, exploring the contemporary repertoire and the Brazilian concert music for recorder. The concert was conducted by Flautarium – Recorder Ensemble from UFRGS, integrated at the time by Aline Güntzel, Cybele Pereira, Greizi Kirst and Vladimir Soares, coordinated by Lucia Carpena. In the concert, the group performed three pieces from the Prata da Casa’s collection: “Desvendando a luz/Uncovering the light” (2002), by Martin Heuser; “Poemas da Terra/Poems of the Earth” (1976), by Bruno Kiefer, and “Variações sobre a Daphne de Van Eyck/Variations on Daphne by Van Eyck” (1998), by Felipe Adami. Also included, were a representative piece of Brazilian nationalist repertoire of recorder, “Moacaretá” (1974), by Sergio Vasconcellos Corrêa, two Brazilian popular songs, “Rosa/Rose”, by Pixinguinha, and “Sware/Jura”, by Sinhô, besides a piece of Choro² by Zequinha de Abreu, “Pintinhos no terreiro/Chicks in the yard”. Completing the program, a piece representing the music from southern Brazil, “Mercedita” by Ramon Sixto Ríos, was performed. In this concert, we realized the public’s interest for music composed in southern Brazil and the comments indicated a pleasant surprise for the quality and diversity of the repertoire presented.
Having completed the first major phase of the project – locating, identifying and cataloguing the 52 works composed between 1970 and 2010, we could then start the study of a specific focus of the repertoire, the one concerning the works for recorder and keyboard instruments (harpsichord or piano). The ten compositions studied revealed the prevalence of recorder and piano format, reflecting the trend of the twentieth century repertoire. The use of harpsichord is still discrete but growing. There are atonal, neo-classical compositions, using expanded, minimalist techniques and inspired by the rhythms and modes of traditional Brazilian music, in a variety of influences that contribute to the richness of the repertoire of our instrument. This specific study resulted in the article “The works for recorder and keyboard instruments from the Prata da Casa Project – Works for recorder written by composers connected to UFRGS,” published in the Ensaio magazine, by the Conservatory of Tatuí, in August 2013.
In parallel to the aforementioned specific study, the project continued with its original proposal: to make available its data bank. And the best way found for this, was to create a website, to ensure the free and easy access that the virtual environment provides. Besides releasing the collection, we also wanted the files to be downloaded and printed from the site by the users, so that they would have their own catalogue at home. This was undoubtedly the major focus of 2012 and 2013, and it was necessary that a scholar in the field of Computer Science joined the team, to format the page. Fábio Magalhães began working in mid-2012 and, along with Aline Güntzel, started the process of developing the page, discussing issues such as branding, practicality of use, the amount of information to be conveyed. This task showed to be complex in all means; in 2013 the scholar Fábio Magalhães left the project and was replaced by Marcelo Paz Gonçalves, also a student of Computer Science. Alongside the creation of the site, Marilene Andrade, an artist and administrative employee at UFRGS, began to create the logo design, which would give visual identity to all the materials related to the project and would be placed as a watermark in all files available on the website, with the possibility of downloading and printing them. In the same year, 2013, scholarship student Letícia Arnold joined the project. She, who was my recorder student at UFRGS, replaced Aline Güntzel, who had graduated and started the Masters in recorder in Germany. With Letícia and Marcelo in the team, we were able to complete the complex process of construction that was in progress and launch the site in the Hall of Scientific Initiation, reaching our ultimate goal: using the virtual environment to promote the collection of works composed for recorder at UFRGS. It was all there in www.ufrgs.br/pratadacasa!
But the idea of a paper-book- catalogue was still part of our dreams and took started to become real in 2014, when the Pro-rectory of Research at UFRGS approved the request for the printed version of the material. Rodrigo Soares Paim, student of Visual Arts at UFRGS, joined the team and together with Letícia, we begin to create the structure of the book. We intended to unite in one volume the work files and other information to supplement the universe of Prata da Casa, such as the biographies of the composers, the discography and bibliography available on the repertoire found. At this point, there were already 62 classified pieces, demonstrating that Prata was alive and dynamic. To be the “sponsors” of this phase of the project, we invited the recorder player and researcher Daniele Cruz Barros and composer Fernando Lewis de Mattos to write the introductory texts, in which the reader could better understand what the Prata da Casa is and what its collection represents.
Whither goes the Prata da Casa?
As we could see, the project has had multiple ways of dissemination, such as concerts, presentations at Halls of Scientific Initiation of UFRGS and recorder meetings in Brazil, besides the webpage, speeches at meetings of composers and published articles. This book-catalogue comes to add on this multiplicity of ways and had its origin, as well as others, in my curiosity for all the works written for recorder at UFRGS. Having completed this first work cycle, of prospection and dissemination, we understand that a natural continuation of the initial project would be to investigate the agents of this repertoire: the composers and recorder players. To the composers, it will be very exciting, indeed, to ask about their scholastics; to understand their relationship with the recorder and the motivation for the composition of works for this instrument. To the recorder players who premiered the works, many of them with works dedicated to them, we would like to know more about their engagement with Brazilian music, the importance of the performer-composer relationship in the creation of new works. Many are the unanswered questions and many others will come whenever we pore over the collection of Prata da Casa. Time will show us in which order they will be answered.
I wish that by making public this significant number of works, written in a span of time of about 45 years, this book-catalogue serves as a basis for future research in the field of recorders and Brazilian music. And yet, that recorder players and composers feel encouraged to give voice to these works, playing them in their recitals, and to create so many more, that will make the Prata da Casa a living, dynamic and ever-expanding collection.
¹ “Prata da Casa” is a Portuguese idiomatic expression used to refer to home-grown talents.
² Choro (pronounced “shoh-roh”, [ˈʃoɾu], "cry" or "lament"), popularly called chorinho, is a Brazilian popular and instrumental music genre that has more than 130 years of existence. A Choro Ensemble is called “Regional,” and a musician, composer or instrumentalist is called “Chorão” (or weeper). In spite of its name, this kind of music has, in general, a very vibrant and cheerful beat, characterized by the virtuosity and improvisation of its participants. Choro represents the most typical Brazilian instrumental formation, as well as the longest-standing musical organized group within the Brazilian popular music. Available on: < http://www.choromusic.com/o-que- e-o- choro_in.htm>. Access in: Aug. 23 rd , 2014.