Events | Tangents Project brings together instruments from different traditions in a series of concerts

Tangents is an artistic project dedicated to exploring the creation of music for three instruments: the recorder, the fortepiano, and the Portuguese guitar. This project will culminate in a series of concerts performed by the Borealis Ensemble, with contributions from researchers at INET-md and other collaborating artists. The concerts will be held throughout October.

What would emerge from a dialogue between musical instruments that have never crossed paths? The project Tangents, funded by the Direção-Geral das Artes (DGArtes) and promoted by the Borealis Ensemble, explores the creation of music for three instruments—the recorder, the fortepiano, and the Portuguese guitar—which, despite belonging to entirely different geographical and historical contexts, have not developed shared repertoires or performance practices. The use of these instruments is typically confined to period-specific repertoires, or in the case of the Portuguese guitar, to particular performance contexts (usually traditional music). Notably, there is a lack of contemporary classical repertoire, especially for the fortepiano and the Portuguese guitar. The "Tangents" project seeks to explore new ways of composing for, performing with, and listening to these instruments, fostering a dialogue between newly premiered works and historical heritage repertoires.

Through a guided listening session of works composed for these instruments and a discussion of their contexts, the musicians of the Borealis Ensemble—António Carrilho (recorder), Helena Marinho, researcher at INET-md (fortepiano), and Hugo Vasco Reis (Portuguese guitar)—will lead a presentation on the characteristics of these instruments and the new possibilities for combining them in concert.

The concerts will kick off in mid-October, visiting several cities across the country. One of the stops will be at the University of Aveiro, which will host a concert on October 21st at 6 pm in the CCCI Auditorium of the Department of Communication and Art (DeCA). The program includes arrangements of works by António Silva Leite and Carlos Seixas, as well as the premiere of five new pieces composed specifically for the three instruments. These works were written for the project by António Sá-Dantas, Camila Salomé Menino, Hugo Vasco Reis, Mariana Vieira, and Sara Carvalho (researcher at INET-md).

Concerts

October 12th, 6 pm, Fundação Dionísio Pinheiro e Alice Cardoso Pinheiro, Águeda
October 19th, 5 pm, Auditório do Edifício do Poder Local, Feijó, Almada
October 20th, 6 pm, Convento dos Remédios, Évora
October 21st, 6 pm, Auditório CCCI do Departamento de Comunicação e Arte da UA, Aveiro
October 27th, 5 pm, Casa de Mateus, Vila Real
October 30th, 10h30 am, Teatro Narciso Ferreira, Riba d’Ave