Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble: fifteen years of contemporary music
In Portugal, musical ensembles play a pivotal role in the creation and dissemination of contemporary classical music, as well as in its internationalisation. Information regarding their activities is dispersed across a multitude of documentary sources, including concert programmes, social networks, websites (such as mic.pt and DGARTES) and radio programmes. Nevertheless, research into these groups is insufficient, underscoring the necessity for studies on their historical development that facilitate the preservation of documentation and, subsequently, collective memory.
This article examines the historical trajectory of the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble, a musical group established in 2007 in the context of Miso Music Portugal, an initiative spearheaded by Paula and Miguel Azguime based in Lisbon.
The methodology adopted includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis. Firstly, documentary sources were subjected to analysis in order to gather information on the ensemble’s activities, including details about the concerts, premieres of musical works, artistic residencies, pedagogical activities and recordings. Furthermore, the countries in which these activities take place and the composers whose works have been performed were identified. The objectivity and interpretation of these sources is ensured through the use of SPSS software, which facilitates the analysis of both numeric and categorical variables (e.g., Multiple Correspondence Analyse).
However, there are issues that have motivated each stage of the group’s history for which the analysis of documentary sources is insufficient. So, a semi-structured interview was conducted with Miguel Azguime, the group’s artistic director and co-founder. The interview provided insights into the group’s background, motivations for its foundation, instrumental structure and selection criteria for repertoire. This qualitative data was analysed using MAXQDA software, which facilitates rigorous coding and consistent treatment of the data.
The results of the analyses were then triangulated, thereby demonstrating the Sond’Ar-te Electric Ensemble’s contribution to the dynamism and diversity of the Portuguese music scene between 2007 and 2022. These results also contribute to the comprehensive study of the history of contemporary music in which the instrumentalists are included.
Keywords: Portuguese music, 21st century music, cultural heritage, music history
Biography
Maria Inês Pires is a PhD candidate in Historical Musical Studies at NOVA University Lisbon. She completed her bachelor’s degree in saxophone and her master’s degree in music pedagogy at ESART, in the saxophone class of Professor Carlos Canhoto. She studied at PESMD Bordeaux Nouvelle-Aquitaine, in the saxophone and contemporary chamber music class of Marie-Bernadette Charrier. She won the Best Performer Award in the CRCB Competition (2014), the second prize in the Cabral National Competition (2014) and she was a finalist in the Vitor Santos International Saxophone Competition (2014). Pires participated in the 17th and 18th World Saxophone Congress in Strasbourg and Zagreb. She premiered pieces by young Portuguese composers at the Monaco Electroacoustique Festival (2017, 2019). She has attended masterclasses with Jean-Marie Londeix, Claude Delangle, Vincent David, Lars Mlekusch, Marcus Weiss and Andrés Gomis. Pires was a lecturer at EIMAD in 2022 and at NCMM in 2021 and 2023, and she has published in “Research and Teaching in Design and Music” (2022), Nova Contemporary Music Journal (2023) and International Journal of Music Science, Technolgy and Art (2023).
NOVA University of Lisbon, Portugal – inespiresax@gmail.com