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PHD – 05/12/2017

PHD doctoral thesis Improvisation and e Interpretation on Nivaldo Ornelas authorial work.

05/12/2017

02:00 PM

Sala Villa-Lobos – UNIRIO – Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro. Centro de Letras e Artes –Av. Pasteur, 436 -fundos – Urca

 

This doctoral dissertation examines Nivaldo Ornelas’s improvised music, chamber music, and their interpretation. Because Ornelas’s work occupies the realms of both popular and classical music, the literature on these terms, which are often construed as dichotomous, is reviewed. Historically, it has been challenging to define what exactly constitutes “popular” and “classical” music, as these have been understood in contradictory ways over time. Six interpretations of Ornelas’s first classical piece, Noturno para flauta e piano (Nocturne for flute and piano), as performed by six duos from different interpretive schools, were submitted to musical and comparative analyses. Grounded in texts by such philosophers and musicologists as Sloboda (2007), Bowen (2010), Abdo (2000), and Cook (2006), it is argued that this piece is open to multiple valid and coherent interpretations. All of Ornelas’s improvisations from his own releases were identified and 30 were transcribed to form the corpus. Of these, three solos representative of distinct phases were analyzed. Based on the corpus, the characteristics of Ornelas’s improvisations were catalogued and compared with the characteristics of his chamber music. Benson (2003), Nettl (1974, 1998), Bailey (1992), Berliner (1994), and Berkowitz (2010) were my theoretical references in an exploration of the concept of improvisation and its relation to composition. Explanatory tables of concepts and techniques in improvisation were then created, each exemplified by excerpts from solos by Ornelas. Lastly, to ascertain the level of consciousness that can be displayed during the act of improvisation, an experiment was conducted in which three soloists played over chord changes unknown to them, extracted from Ornelas’s music; these solos were then transcribed and subjected to melodic analysis. It is argued that consciousness was somehow at work in all takes. It is further argued that the interpretation of any musical piece is polysemantic and that there are more common points than contrasts between improvisation and composition. Finally, the conclusion is reached that Ornelas is a hybrid composer, who combines elements in his popular and classical works.