An Interview with Eduardo Reck Miranda
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Miriam Richter From Radios to Falmouth University Academy of Music and Theatre Arts Treliever Road, Penryn Biocomputers: An Interview Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK [email protected] with Eduardo Reck Miranda Eduardo Reck Miranda (see Figure 1) is a classi- the exception of Konserto de Muzika´ Eletroplastika´ , cally trained composer and artificial intelligence for which no recording exists. (AI) scientist with an early involvement in electro- acoustic and avant-garde pop music. He studied computer science and music in his native Brazil Coming to Composition and Improvisation and subsequently took post-graduate degrees at the University of York and the University of Edinburgh Miriam Richter: Please tell me about your history in the United Kingdom. He held academic positions in composing. Where did it all begin? at universities in Glasgow, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Eduardo Reck Miranda: Music was prominent and Bordeaux, and worked for several years at the in my upbringing. My grandfather played the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris as a sousaphone, and his brother ran a luthier’s workshop research scientist in the fields of AI, speech, and only a few blocks from home. I started taking piano evolution of language. Currently he is Professor of lessons when I was seven years old, but I must Computer Music at Plymouth University in the confess that I did not enjoy practicing. I often found UK, where he founded the Interdisciplinary Centre it more exciting to improvise and create my own for Computer Music Research (ICCMR) and is the tunes. artistic director of the Peninsula Arts Contemporary I had not considered music as a career option Music Festival. when I finished high school. I ended up going to Miranda is a composer working at the crossroads university to study computing, and soon after I of music and science. His music includes pieces for graduated I got a job as a systems analyst. However, symphonic orchestras, chamber groups, and solo I was not entirely satisfied with the way in which instruments, with and without live electronics. His my life was shaping up. I resigned after a year or works have been performed by orchestras such as so and went back to college. I studied philosophy the BBC Concert Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonicaˆ for a couple years and enrolled in a music degree de Porto Alegre, the Chamber Group of Scotland, program, which is when I began my love affair with Ten Tors Orchestra, and the Heritage Orchestra. contemporary music and composition. His compositions have been featured at contempo- Richter: Does improvisation speak to you differ- rary music festivals, including Synthese` (Bourges), ently than nonimprovised conventional composi- Ultraschall (Berlin), Nuova Consonanza (Rome), tion? Do you think that improvisation can reflect Musica´ Viva (Lisbon), Encuentros de Musica´ Con- more of an individual’s personality than conven- temporanea´ (Santiago), EarZoom (Ljubljana), Mainly tional composition? Can you give us an example Mozart (San Diego, California), and the Peninsula from your own practice? Arts Contemporary Music Festival (Plymouth, UK). Miranda: These certainly are two different lan- This interview took place at Plymouth University guages. But in the context of your question, doing on 26 February and 3 July 2017, and we communi- “my own thing” was a way to rebel against tedious cated a number of times via e-mail in between. Web Czerny piano exercises. It is difficult for a child to links to access the recordings of all compositions understand that to master a musical instrument one cited in the interview are available in Table 1, with needs to study theory, practice scales, observe finger- ing and hand positioning, and so on. Improvisation Computer Music Journal, 42:1, pp. 10–22, Spring 2018 here has more to do with impatience, childlike play- doi:10.1162/COMJ a 00448 fulness, and curiosity rather than having anything c 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology. against conventional composition. 10 Computer Music Journal Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 Figure 1. Eduardo Reck Miranda preparing the piano for the performance of Biocomputer Rhythms. done; there is no way to rewind a performance and change it. I am not comfortable with that. Experimenting with Instruments and Technology Richter: I am intrigued by the way in which the violin is played in The Turning of the Tide.How did you come up with the idea of playing the violin upside down? Miranda: This is one of those creative things that can happen without any premeditation whatsoever. In the 1980s I had been collaborating on a number of cultural projects with the visual artist, writer, and activist Elton Scartazzini in Porto Alegre, Brazil. As far as I knew, Elton did not play a musical instrument. One day I was practicing the violin and said jokingly that if he played the violin I would compose him a concerto. He laughed, grabbed my violin, and began to demonstrate how he could make sounds with the instrument in all sorts of ways. The “eureka” moment happened when he placed one end of the bow on his shoulder, as if it were the body of the instrument, and held the violin upside down with his right hand to scratch the strings on the bow. Well, he could play it after all, albeit rather unconventionally! I wrote him a multimedia piece, Konserto de Muzika´ Eletroplastika´ , which was premiered in September 1987 at the first Festival Latino- Americano de Arte e Cultura in Brazil [see Figure 2]. I subsequently composed The Turning of the Tide, I personally find nonimprovised composition for upside-down violin and electronics, which I expressively more powerful than improvisation. performed at the Fourth International Symposium However, I do use improvisation when I am compos- of Electronic Art in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in ing. For instance, the electroacoustic piece Gestures November 1993 and on a few other occasions in is an unedited recording of an improvisation session Scotland and Brazil. in the electronic music studio. And I occasionally Richter: When did you first start composing using leave a margin for improvised elements in my com- technology? What inspired you to continue along positions. For instance, there are no written scores this route? for the solo violin of The Turning of the Tide or for Miranda: Technology was also prominent in my the beatboxing part of Butterscotch Concerto. The upbringing. My father ran an electronics repair thing that I am not so interested in is music that is workshop and was a keen amateur radio operator. entirely composed on the fly, during a performance. I Before the Internet, amateur radio was a precursor prefer nonimprovised music because composing “of- of today’s social media. When I was a child I used fline” gives me more time to think, test ideas, and to spend hours fiddling with his radio receiver, so on. In live improvisation one cannot edit what is scanning for signals and listening to the waves. Richter 11 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on 02 October 2021 Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on02 October 2021 12 Table 1. Compositions by Eduardo Reck Miranda Title Year Instrumentation Availability Interlukido´ 1986 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/interludiko Vox Populis 1986 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/vox-populis Cidade Baixa 1986 Piano, clarinet, Plural. 2003. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte 389.726.04-7, compact bassoon, triangle disc. Track 13 Fraktal 1987 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/moozyca/fraktal-miranda Anatema´ 1987 Flute, clarinet, Plural. 2003. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte 389.726.04-7, compact bassoon disc. Track 5 Zenrinbau 1989 Ensemble of https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/zenrimbau berimbaus Generative Study 1990 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/gen-study Cellular Automata Study 1991 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Electroacoustic Samba I 1992 Electroacoustics Southern Cones: Music out of Africa and South America. 2000. Compact disc accompanying Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 10. Track 4 Noises 1991 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/noises The Turning of the Tide 1992 Upside down violin, https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/the-turning-of-the-tide electroacoustics Electroacoustic Samba II 1992 Electroacoustics Cultures Electroniques. 2003. Bourges, France: Mnemosyne´ Musique Media,´ 2003, compact disc. Disc 1, Track 6 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/electroacoustic-samba-ii Computer Music Journal Electroacoustic Samba III 1992 Electroacoustics Cultures Electroniques 2003. Bourges, France: Mnemosyne´ Musique Media,´ compact disc. Disc 1, Track 6 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/electroacoustic-samba-iii Electroacoustic Samba X 1993 Electroacoustics Desde el otro lado, Electroacoustic Music from Latin America. 1998. Black Rock, Connecticut: OO Discs oo45, compact disc. Track 1 Deep Resonance 1993 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Gestures 1992 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Jorge Borges takes Italo 1994 Electroacoustics https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/jorge-borges Calvino on a taxi journey in Berlin Olivine Trees 1994 Electroacoustics 2nd Brazilian Symposium on Computer Music. 1995. Canela, Brazil: Sociedade Brasiliera de Computac¸ao˜ SBC, compact disc. Track 6 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/olivine-trees Study for an Opera 1994 Electroacoustics http://www.ufrgs.br/mvs/EletroEduardoReckMiranda.html Wee Samba 1994 Electroacoustics Hope. 1998. Liverpool, UK: Audio Research Editions ARECD101, compact disc. Track 48 https://soundcloud.com/user-581604389/wee-samba Entre l’absurde et le Mystere` 1994 Chamber orchestra Plural. 2003. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Fumproarte, 389.726.04-7, compact disc. Track 14 https://soundcloud.com/ed miranda/entre-labsurde-et-le-mystere Entre o Absurdo e o Misterio´ . 1994. Porto Alegre, Brazil: Goldberg Edic¸oes˜ Musicais, score. Downloaded from http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/comj_a_00448 by guest on02 October 2021 Table 1.