AvA Musical Editions

Ref. ava100513

(Speaker, Picc, 2Fl, 2 Ob, 2 Cl Sib, 2 Bsn, C Bsn,T Sax, 4 Hn F, 2 Trp C, 2 Tbn, Tb, Timp, Xyl, T B, 4 Perc, Sistro, Cel, Hp, 2 Pno, Strings)

Duration 50'

A Fábrica dos Sons is clearly an example of programmatic music. The symphonic score describes and analyzes the alternatives of a text which the listener gets to know in advance.
In A Fábrica dos Sons the aesthetics oscillates between the nostalgic atmosphere related to the circus, present in the movies of Charlot, and the controlled chaos which characterizes some of the pioneer music of our days, with the addition of themes in different tonalities, similar to the first experiences of Charles Ives in the beginning of the twentieth century.

A Fábrica de Sons hovers over the unique atmosphere of the live accompaniments in the shows of silent movies and of original music in the beginning of movies with sound. Even when the complexity level drives the piece away from the stylistic origins which inspired it, the Anglo-American “scent” of the Twenties persists. This is a characteristic of the drama in a “Chaplin and industrial style” which the hilarious text describes.
In these score there is a perfect utilization of the timber and an undeniable respect for the “physiology” of each instrumental sector (once again, thank you for the penetrating expression that combines the logic of Biology with Music, Fernando Lopes Graça). The soloistic interventions are always in the right tessitura, and allow each instrument to breathe freely and express itself in its own musical language. Great talented passages can be somewhat difficult but never impossible. The musical composition does not ask for impossible things, and searches for the effects where they present the best results.
 
The art of orchestrating, considered by many as a science, requires a deep knowledge of workshop, this is, professionalism without flaws. If, to this characteristic, we add nobility in the melodic conducting, intelligence to perform the arrangements, precision on what concerns the counterpoint, and balance of the whole, we will be in the presence of a true symphonic composer.
In these piece, António Victorino D'Almeida manages to preserve his creativity, distancing himself from the experimentalist radicalism, and the temptation of the “easy way out”. It is implied in them the enigmatic old saying in extremis, medium, attested by the subtle humour of the famous Argentine Oliverio Girondo.
 
António Victorino D'Almeida is once more related to the so-called “isms”. Owner and master of a musical experience of five decades, he does not renounce his creative freedom defended with courage in his youth and strongly developed throughout his career, where everything he has done and still does was and always will be honest, controversial, and therefore magnificent. However, there are two unquestionable aspects: the integrity of his technical training inherent to the distinguished professors who guided his studies, and his artistic fecundity, materialized in a repertoire of more than 180 pieces.
 
António Victorino D’Almeida is acknowledged not only for its multidisciplinary action as a pianist, writer, television programmes director, historian and orchestra director, but above all for being a mature composer at the height of its creativity. He is indeed an obligatory figure when it comes to analyze the evolution of Portuguese musical modernity.

Alejandro Erlich Oliva
Lisbon, May of 2004
(Translation: Odete Martins)

THE SOUND FACTORY 

I  

Let us imagine a Charlie Chaplin film. It is a film that does not exist but perhaps it could have existed or could exist in our imagination if we evoke the character and the situation created by Charlie Chaplin and give wings to our fantasy.   Charlie Chaplin worked in a factory that produced useless sounds. And the more stupid, incomprehensible, and inconsequential they were, the richer the “Big Boss”, a huge and irascible men, became.  

One day, however, the daily routine of the factory was interrupted by some very strong sounds, sounds that everyone understood, some musical phrases abominably whistled, which provoked perplexity in the workshop and indignation among the management.  

An intense search followed. The audible sounds heard throughout the factory alarmed people outrageously, challenging the industry of useless sounds – and it was discovered that the culprit was Charlie Chaplin of course. Who else could it be? And to top it all, he was laughing; he thought that the melodies liberated by the machines were amusing, and he even dared to execute a few dance steps! …  

Thus begins the story of the “Sound Factory” which the orchestra is going to tell you.   Everything begins with a tremendous clinking. Then, from far away, barely audible a saxophone can be heard. The threat of a melody spreads everywhere. And the clarinet, shameless and provocative, shows us the figure of Charlie Chaplin. 

 

II  

Charlie Chaplin is brought before the feared presence of the “Big Boss”, represented by the trombone and the tuba. But the terrible boss appears as a man prostrated by grief. With his hands on his head, he looks at the graph – always rising, rising, rising … - which shows the financial progress of the firm, points out with a dramatic gesture a very slight drop, perhaps just a tiny oscillation, there up at the very top and proclaims that he is ruined!  

Charlie Chaplin tries to tell him that it is not so bad as all that, but the “Big Boss” seems sincere, and his laments are so heart-breaking, that Charlie Chaplin offers to accompany him, faithful and true, on a vagrant’s life of destitution.  

He reminds him that the life of the poor could not have positive aspects but at least they would be bearable…A night under a bridge is not always a nightmare – in summer, of course. In the morning, the birds chirp in the trees, one breathes the air of freedom and stolen fruit from other people orchards has a special flavor.  

But, as will be noted in the beating of the drum and in the tumultuous chords of the brasses, the impassioned speech of Charlie Chaplin is interrupted by a shower of kicks and the Big Boss, true to his nature, threatens to dismiss him if he tries to humanize some sounds and jeopardize the industry! 

 

III

Feeling quite sad, and being bruised all over, Charlie Chaplin returns to work, but stops in order to listen to the saxophone of a blind man who is playing on a street corner and thinks that there are people abandoned by fate who can comfort others with sonorous melodies… 

 

IV  

Charlie Chaplin is once again a part of the hubbub of the factory, until the siren announces peace – and lunch.   But for Charlie Chaplin, there is a greater surprise: the visit of his sweetheart, Clara, the “Big Boss’s” daughter who, unbeknown to her father, reciprocates his feelings.           

And sweet Clara, whom all will recognize in a piano melody developed by the strings, informs him of a fascinating proposal.  

In effect, the “Big Boss” has just ordered from America a machine that is the last word in uselessness, the most advanced technology in the field of sound stupidity!  

But the girl intercepted the telegram in which the inventor of the machine regretted that he could not attend the ball that the industry of useless sounds organized in his honor and she proposed that Charlie Chaplin disguise himself as the American inventor, bring an old machine, capable of producing horrendous noises, to show the guests, so that they could spend the evening together, perhaps to the sound of waltzes, and that, right there, in their rapture they could begin to think about the sounds. 

 

V  

The longed-for night arrived. Adjacent to the “Big Boss’s” house, where expensive automobiles gathered, emerged industrialists, rich businessmen, bankers, political and social celebrities, all people of great fortunes, but with faces marked by terrible anxiety; the price of oil, the rising and dropping of the stock exchange, international crises… Apart from the luxury, the sumptuous clothes, the jewels, the rare furs, one can see that they are people who suffer in the heroic fight for progress in the modern world.  

But their gestures, even though they are elegant, have something of the dramatic in them: it is like a dance of ill--favored millionaires…  

But at the door of the house, beautiful and radiant, is Clara, as presented in a violin solo.   Charlie Chaplin arrives, disguised as the American inventor. He greats everyone with a haughty gesture, and hastens to open the ball, tenderly putting his arm around his sweetheart, but trying, every time he can, to kick the “Big Boss” in his posterior, as though everything were a new way of dancing the waltz.  

And after the waltz, in an atmosphere of great expectation, the demonstration of the machine follows, whose frightful sounds leave the audience ecstatic!  

But, at a certain point, Clara crosses the room. Charlie Chaplin follows her with his eyes, is momentarily distracted, humanizes the sounds and is immediately denounced as an impostor… Embittered by having to be separated from his sweetheart, Charlie Chaplin is forced to flee after having been relentlessly persecuted, and been deliberately knocked down on the floor. He, in turn, dexterously throws trays of Tarte à la crème in the faces of his persecutors. 

 

VI  

The Sound Factory is on strike.   The workers claim the right – or rather, the obligation – to produce sounds that the people can understand. The machines stop and the atmosphere is tense, threatening.  

There sounds, here and there, sad-well-known melodies, reminiscent of other encounters.   The “Big Boss” sends his emissaries, well-spoken, educated individuals, but the workers insist on their stubborn resolve and sing again and again renowned revolutionary songs.  

There is no other solution but to recur to the useful and efficacious intervention of the mounted police and its old swords. The disobedient workers try to flee as best as they can and quickly abandon the last pockets of resistance, after having received a very sound thrashing.  

But the “Big Boss” did not win the game. Clara runs away from home and joins Charlie Chaplin lighting with her presence the sadness of the strikers.   The factory machines begin their work anew, but the “Big Boss” always feels threatened by subversion and knows that there will come a day in which he will be really forced to produce sounds which will have some purpose, sounds which everyone understands.           

In the meantime, outside, Clara and the rebels dance a lively waltz of hope in which you are all invited to participate!

 

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1ºMov

CD -  A Fábrica dos Sons