Solo

NowState (2018)
for piano
Commissioned by Park Lane Group
Premiered by Phillip Leslie at Purcell Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall, on 18 January 2019
programme notes
Available from BabelScores

A Walk in the Countryside (2016)
for flute
ca 5′
Commissioned by Ensemble Recherche (Germany)
Premiered by Martin Fahlenbock, on 10 June 2016, in Freiburg
Available from BabelScores | first page
programme notes | performances

Transformação (2009)
for trumpet
ca 3′
RTP/Antena 2 (Portugal) commission. Premiered at Prémio Jovens Músicos 2010
Available online at AvA

Estudo (2009)
for double bass
ca 3′
Not premiered yet
Available at LOAD.CD

Derivação (2008)
for piano
ca 10′
First Prize on the Third International Composition Competition of Póvoa de Varzim, Portugal
Available online at AvA
Recording available through iTunes

Tríptico (2006)
for clarinet
ca 12′
Available online at AvA.
First page

NowState

NowState is a series of three short pieces for solo piano, commissioned by the Park Lane Group and first performed in the Park Lane Group Young Artists Concert at Purcell Room (Queen Elizabeth Hall) on 18 January 2019. The concert was part of the SoundState festival and pianist Phillip Leslie gave the premiere.

I. Aporia

The piece's's title comes from the Greek word aporia, meaning difficulty, perplexity. From aporos, impassable. From a- + poros, passage.

II. As we turn into machines

This piece is an exercise over the idea of turning a human being into a machine; the idea of mechanization and fusion between man and machine. The musical world builds on slow harmonic transformation and there is a sense of constrained freedom. There is also a sense of inevitability, of gradually coming back to what defines something; an inescapable gravitation.

III. Digital (tribute to Steve Reich)

This title alludes to the very coordinated movement of the pianist's fingers (the word digital can refer to fingers) but also to the characteristics of the digital world. Musically, I tried to explore the idea of turning the piano into a synthesizer.

November, 2018

A Walk in the Countryside

This piece started as I imagined experiencing a surrounding countryside landscape. A landscape is, in many ways, the negation of a narrative: it is typically action-free. But because experience (being) involves time, even landscapes imply that events follow each other. The sounds can therefore exist independently or in relation with one another, thus creating an interplay between event and memory. As the piece progresses, evocative sounds gradually turn into musical gestures.

March, 2016

6 November 2017 | Vancouver, Canada | ISCM World New Music Days | performer: Mark McGregor

10 June 2016 | Freiburg, Germany | Morat Institut | performer: Martin Fahlenbock (world premiere)