Caminhos

Caminhos (Portuguese, “Paths”) was written, after a suggestion made by Visiting Scholar Gregory Beyer, during the course of a Berimbau Symposium he offered in the second semester of 2015 at UFMG (Federal University of Minas Gerais).
In writing this piece, I had two principal references: my study of “Íris,” the berimbau solo composition by Alexandre Lunsqui, and Beyer’s melodic/harmonic approach to berimbau performance.
The ideas of these two composers take the berimbau though different and complementary creative “paths,” demonstrating how a musical instrument, like anything else, con be seen and heard in a myriad different ways. The very malleability of music creates a vehicle through which we can transform our vision of things, sometimes in unexpected ways. – Mateus Oliveira