CHRISTOPHER BOCHMANN:
'Pinho Vargas, António',
Grove Music Online
http://www.grovemusic.com/shared/views/article.html?section=music.48528
Pinho Vargas, António
(b Vila Nova de Gaia, 15 Aug 1951). Portuguese composer and jazz pianist. He studied piano at the Oporto Conservatory and took a degree in history at the University of Oporto. As a jazz pianist he has performed in many countries with his group as well as making six CDs (1974–96), for which he has three times won the Prémio de Imprensa Sete de Ouro for the best instrumental record of the year. His interest in contemporary classical composition came a little later, and he went to study with Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory (graduated 1990). In 1991 he was appointed a teacher at the Escola Superior de Música in Lisbon. He has been musical advisor to the Casa Serralves, Oporto (since 1994), and the Centro Cultural de Belém, Lisbon (1996–9). He was awarded the Comenda da Ordem do Infante D. Henrique in 1995.
Showing many influences, his music ranges from an unequivocal atonal language to neo-tonal passages. The structural starting-points in his music are usually of great simplicity and clarity. Recently, his rhythmic language has become more audibly striated and his harmony more tonally orientated. His second opera, Os dias levantados, written for the 25th anniversary of the 1974 revolution, is typical of the present more eclectic phase.
Works
(selective list)
Dramatic:
Hamlet (incid music, W. Shakespeare), 1987;
Tempos difíceis (film score), 1988;
A bailarina do mar (dance score), 1990;
Aqui na terra (film score), 1993;
Edipo, tragédia do saber (chbr op, after P. Paixão), 1995–6;
Richard II (incid music, Shakespeare), 1995;
Cinco dias, cinco noites (film score), 1996;
Os dias levantados (op, 2, M. Gusmão), 1997–8
Orch: Geometral, 22 insts, 1988;
Mechanical String Toys, str, 1992;
Acting Out, pf, perc, orch, 1998;
A impaciência de Mahler, 1999
Vocal: 9 Songs (A.R. Rosa), 1v, pf, 1995
Chbr and solo inst: 3 Fragments, cl, 1987;
Mirrors, pf, 1989;
Estudo/Figura, 8 insts, 1990; Poetica dell'estinsione, fl, str qt, 1992;
Monodia – quasi un requiem, str qt, 1993;
Nocturno/Diurno, str sextet, 1994;
3 quadros para Almada, 10 insts, 1994;
La luna – quatro fases, gui, 1996; 3 versos de Caeiro, 12 insts, 1997
Selected jazz recordings:
Outros lugares (1983);
Cores e aromas (1985);
As folhas novas mudam de cor (1987);
Os jogos do mundo (1989);
Selos e borboletas (1991);
A luz e a escuridão (1996);
As mâos (1998) [collection]
CHRISTOPHER BOCHMANN
http://www.oup.com/"Oxford University Press 2007 |
