Gaman (我慢) - Portal do Município de Vila Nova de Famalicão - Portugal

Arnoso Santa Eulália | Arnoso Monastery - 18h00

Free admission | With Eduardo Patriarca (composition and electronics), Sofia Igreja (1st violin), Mafalda Martins (2nd violin), Marta Monteiro (viola), Inês Alheiro (cello) // Work for string quartet and electronics (pre-recorded and in real time).

Gaman is a Japanese term originating in Zen Buddhism that means ‘to endure the seemingly unbearable with patience and dignity.’ The term is usually translated as ‘perseverance,’ ‘patience,’ or ‘tolerance.’ In this context, the work follows an acoustic structure, performed by the string quartet, which derives from Eastern reminiscences and is a continuum that gradually transforms itself, resorting to more or less evident transformations, whether in pitch, timbre or even duration. This continuum is broken by electronics, which represent the ‘noises’ that surround us and regularly distract us from concentration and focus. To what extent can we understand that the continuum remains? To what extent can we avoid being dragged away by external ‘noise’?

In our daily lives, we are constantly attracted by this ‘noise’, by the opinions and intentions that come at us from all sides. We are bombarded with everything that is imposed on us and often go along with these changes in the flow of our thoughts and beliefs. Gaman is an exercise in focus, which leads us to question our attention span, our perseverance in maintaining our beliefs and our tolerance for what arises outside ourselves. It is a reflection of our current reality (as, indeed, any work of art should be), a point of reflection and questioning. Gaman will be performed by students from two Specialised Artistic Education schools, the Conservatory of Music, Theatre and Dance of Vila do Conde and the Professional School of Music of Espinho. The composer will be in charge of the electronics.
Note: the composer and the festival would like to thank the two schools and their teachers for all the support given to these students in performing the work.