Soundscapes as a resource for musical creation: A reflection based on the discography of Egberto Gismonti
In this work, based on the discography of Brazilian instrumentalist and composer Egberto Gismonti, we investigate different perspectives on the presence and use of soundscapes as a resource for the musical creation process. Given the musician’s extensive discographic work, we defined a timeframe covering the years 1969 to 1989, a period in which the artist was at his peak in terms of volume and diversity of artistic production. For the treatment and analysis of the repertoire, we employ a theoretical framework that combines Murray Schafer’s (1977) original concept of Soundscape with Robert Hatten’s (2004) studies on musical gesture, also considering, following Ingold (2015), sound from its communicative potentialities. To identify the soundscapes within Gismonti’s repertoire, we first mapped occurrences across the 23 albums included in our sample. Analysis of the data revealed a range of applications of soundscapes as a compositional resource. These include references to natural, urban, and rural environments, highlighting the relationship between the soundscape concept and Gismonti’s work, which seems fundamentally rooted in representations of diverse spaces and cultures, particularly Brazilian ones. Among the examples analyzed, notable references include environments associated with indigenous communities and elements of the country’s popular culture. These references suggest a compilation of sound records that reflect the memory of national culture, whether in representations of indigenous rituals and ceremonies, Afro-Brazilian cultural expressions, or popular celebrations from the northeastern region of Brazil. Through the classification of occurrences, it was possible to make inferences about how these environments and spaces are represented in music, in terms of construction, sound sources, and compositional techniques. In general, in the discography, there are evidences of recorded sounds that can be understood as examples of soundscape composition. However, in this repertoire, the sonic construction of the idea of space, or place, may also arise from the interaction between recorded sounds and instrumental performance, and sometimes exclusively from instruments. Considering the multiplicity of applications observed in the discography, we aim to discuss the roles played by soundscapes within musical structures, which may contribute to an understanding of this theme in the context of creative processes in music, as well as to support future complementary research on this subject.
Keywords: soundscapes, musical creation, Egberto Gismonti
Biography
Rafael Lopes dos Santos is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Évora, Portugal. A native of Brazil, he holds a master’s degree in music from the Federal University of Paraná and a bachelor’s degree in guitar from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul. His research focuses on soundscapes, exploring creative processes, music semiotics, and cultural dynamics, particularly in the 20th and 21st centuries. Currently, he is a collaborating researcher at CESEM-NOVA FCSH, where he works on his PhD thesis. He is also part of the CESEM’s GTCC group and contributes to the project Thematic History of Music in Portugal and Brazil. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a member of the research group Context, Structuring, Influence, and Musical Style between 1850-1950, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Norton Dudeque (UFPR). As an artist, he works as a musician and composer, performing concerts and releasing phonographic productions.
Universidade de Évora, Portugal – rafaellopes.mus@gmail.com