The permeability of three artistic disciplines and the question of the instrumental gesture both as a choreographic movement and theatrical sign: studying the guitare performance inside Arthur Kampela's Percussion Studies

• Grant number: 15/20579-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Effective date (Start): August 01, 2016
• Effective date (End): July 31, 2019
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Arts - Music
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Ferraz Mello Filho
• Grantee: Ledice Fernandes de Oliveira Weiss
• Host Institution: Escola de Comunicações e Artes (ECA). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This project aims to study the transversal relations between sound, physical and instrumental gestures inside the guitar performance of Percussion Study I, II, III, IV and V by the Brazilian composer Arthur Kampela. In order to understand the breadth of how Kampela uses the notion of instrumental gesture, we decided to adopt a "choreographic" analysis of such gestures as a scientific strategy, based on the ideas of Brazilian choreographers Angel and Klauss Vianna and of the Hungarian Rudolf von Laban, the remarkable creator of a kind of "grammar" of the movement. The study of gesture from the dance's viewpoint shall also lead us to approach theater authors such as Jerzy Grotowski and Antonin Artaud. With regards to this interdisciplinary aspect, I find it interesting to propose some exchange projects with the performing arts department at the ECA Faculty.The study of Kampela's works shall begin with the identification of the corporal and instrumental gestures, mostly a consequence of Kampela's "Extended technique". These innovative gestures shall be concretely tested on the guitar (we consider the practice, as well as the exchanges with other guitar performers, some of the most decisive procedures for our analysis), and analyzed from the point of view of the player, in order not only to identify the unusual instrumental effects, but also to relate them to the musical gestures. Thus, the analysis investigates the existence of bridges between sound, kinetic and visual elements, and the way instrumental gestures relate to sound gestures. From this, we will inquire the actual role of the performer.