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Antropofagia (2004)
for e-guitar and 16 musicans

Leibo Kampela (In Memoriam ...)
Dedicated to the e-guitar player Wiek Hijmans
Homage to Pierre Boulez

Arthur Kampela

Electric guitar

fl/picc.; oboe / E. horn; clar. / bass clar.; basson / contrabasson; french horn; trumpet; trombone; percussion; piano; harp; guitar; mandolin; violin; viola; cello; contrabass


35 min

The title Antropofagia (meaning the consumption of human flesh, i.e. cannibalism) is derived from the modernist movement that happened in Brazil in 1922. The underlying concept of such movement by the Brazilians intellectuals of the time was to ‘digest’ the cultural remains of Euro-centric culture in order to spill (or vomit) it back, this time transformed or as they wished, reinvigorated by a new cultural paradigm. Understood as an intellectual defense to the bombardment of imported cultural mannerisms, the movement of the ‘week of 22’ (as it is known) was in true searching for its own (modernist/Brazilian) identity. To accomplish such task they started to look at the symbols of culture taken for granted, re(de)vising ways to think their notions and concepts afresh.
Antropofagia is built in one continuous movement. From the beginning the musicians are employing their voices and pebbles as if ‘reaching’ for their instrument, as if ‘inventing’ their own way into what suppose to be a piece. The intention here is to bring the perceptual output to the idea of grain, white noise, as a pre-instrumental polarity. Important as well is the notion that each musician is a flexible sonic entity not having necessarily a fixed instrumental role. Slowly, this entropic beginning starts to present more organized and recognizable patterns developing higher compositional strategies. This underlying cosmo(a)gony of form and content reveals the subjacent battle that happens between motoric/ergonomic instrumental constraints and the surface of pitch and noises interactions.
Arthur Kampela


World premiere: Stuttgart 20. 07. 2006

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