ARTIST: Marcus Alessi Bittencourt
TITLE: Rabo de Arriya
LENGTH: 5:23
DATE: 2004
DESCRIPTION
Here, I thought of sharing with you a little bit of the
folk traditions of my beloved Brazil. Rabo-de-Arraia (2004)
comes from several memories of watching Capoeira circles ("rodas
de capoeira"). With more than 400 years of history, Capoeira
is a true piece of Brazilian culture. More than simply a martial
art, it is a dance, a sport, a game, a powerful musical event.
If I was ever to film a Capoeira circle, with its dancer-fighters
spinning around and around against an ever-changing backdrop
of drummers and Berimbau players, I would most likely use several
cameras, so one's eye would be everywhere: acrobatic eyes. But
I only have microphones. And computers! It is curious to note
that he whole ensemble of Capoeira musicians in this piece was
actually recreated by computer algorithms programmed to improvise
according to traditional styles. It is an automatic Capoeira-loom,
perhaps?
BIO/STATEMENT
Marcus Bittencourt is a Brazilian composer and pianist based
in the USA. He studied music with composers such as Willy Correa
de Oliveira and Tristan Murail, and he is best described as
an Experimental musician, for he is a practitioner of a type
of music which lives outside known traditions. Because of this,
his music is marked by an extremely varied palette of musical
sound materials and techniques, which reflect his intense investigation
in the domains of form, polyrhythm and simultaneities, timbre,
sound spatial perspective, microtonality, and orchestration
of sound objects. Prolific both as an instrumental and an electroacoustic
composer, his list of compositions includes works for orchestra,
chamber ensembles, choir, solo instruments (specially the piano),
operas, as well as several electroacoustic works. Marcus Bittencourt
has been performing widely as a pianist, conductor, and sound-projectionist,
often taking those tasks simultaneously, as in the case of his
several piano performances with live electronics. His music
has been played throughout the United States, Europe, and Brazil,
and it is available through the Electric Music Collective label:
www.emcollective.org
Among the awards he has received are the first prize at the
Projeto Nascente V (1996), a seven year scholarship at Columbia
University, and a residency at the Centro Studi Ligure of the
Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy. His academic credentials
include a Baccalaureate in Piano Performance from the Universidade
de Sao Paulo, Brazil, and Master's and Doctoral degrees in Music
Composition from Columbia University in the City of New York.
He has taught Music at Columbia University and at Lehman College
of CUNY, and he currently teaches Composition, Theory, and Computer
Music at the College of William and Mary in Virginia (USA).
Since 2000, he runs his own highly experimental studio for Musique
Concrete, the Zoologico.
CONTACT
Marcus A. Bittencourt
Williamsburg, VA
alessi AT music.columbia.edu
mabitt.people.wm.edu
