Luís Bittencourt
Sound, Object, Instrument: Navigating the Boundaries of Instrumentality in Experimental Musical Practices
2025-01-28 2pm Pequeno Auditório CAE, Figueira da Foz
Sinopse
As an artist-researcher working at the intersection of contemporary music, improvisation, experimental artistic practices, and percussion performance, my academic and creative pursuits are driven by questions about what defines a musical instrument and what transforms an ordinary object into one. This exploration focuses on how the perception of an object as a musical instrument influences notated, improvised, and experimental musical performances and impacts artistic creation.
In the realm of Western percussion, these inquiries are particularly relevant. Percussion is a conceptual universe where “almost any sound-producing object” (Cope 1997) and “nothing is excluded” (Tomlinson 2017). From John Cage’s declaration that “percussion music is revolution” (2011) to contemporary shifts brought by digital and automated technologies, the boundaries of instrumentality continue to evolve. How does recognizing an object as a musical instrument shape creativity and epistemology in musical performance? How does this affect our understanding of music creation, performance, and appreciation?
This lecture investigates these questions through the lens of instrumentality—defined as “a complex, culturally and temporally shaped structure of actions, knowledge, and meaning associated with things that can be used to produce sound” (Hardjowirogo 2017). It delves into how this concept informs notated, improvised, and experimental musical performances, emphasizing creative, epistemic, and social dimensions. Grounded in a practice-infused methodology, the study draws on performative-ethnographic approaches, contextual analyses, and artist-researcher interactions. By addressing the evolving affordances of acoustic, digital, and virtual instruments, the lecture explores the broader implications of these practices for cultural expression, inclusivity, innovation, and education within and beyond music.
Bio
Luís Bittencourt is a performing musician, researcher, professor, award-wining composer, music producer and science communicator. He holds a PhD and Master in Music Performance from University of Aveiro (Portugal) and Bachelor in Percussion from Federal University of Santa Maria (Brazil). As performing musician, he is considered “a master of sound experimentation” (Visão Magazine) with performances described as “a torrent of originality” (Casa da Música). As composer, he has obtained the 1st prize in the international competition “Legends of China-Confucius Arts Institute Award 2016”, and commissions from Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Lange Studios, Instagram® and Cannes Lions. A passionate and innovative researcher, Bittencourt is committed to exploring the intersections of sound, performance, and experimental creativity. He published two groundbreaking investigations in music performance, the first on the sonic affordances of water in contemporary percussion repertoire, and the second (funded by CAPES) on the instrumentality of “found” objects and digital music instruments. His pioneering research focused on specific, unexplored issues on experimentation in music performance and the redefinition of musical instruments, raising new insights and understandings about complex musical practices, setting the basis for his main contributions to the field and positioning him as a thought leader in the academic community. Bittencourt’s research were peer-reviewed as pacesetters to be followed in practice-infused research, due to the nature of the subjects and research methods applied, the mutuality among written and digital contents, and multimedia dissemination of its outputs and, above all, the knowledge generated, which derives from an articulation between his own artistic practice, theory and contextual information, and performative ethnographic fieldwork with world-renowned contemporary artists. Outputs from these investigations, achieved through peer-review processes, have been presented in important institutions and events such as the Performance Studies Network, The Transplanted Roots International Percussion Symposium, Meetings of the European Platform for Artistic Research in Music, International Summer Course for New Music Darmstadt, among other. Importantly, Bittencourt advocates for the dissemination of research work beyond the limits of academia, which he has been doing through several music performances and premieres, publishing recordings, summer courses and workshops, magazine/newspaper/TV interviews, podcasts and documentaries. His approach is based in the constant intersection of performing activities with academic inquiry, whereby theory emerges from a reflexive practice at the same time that practice is informed by theory in a feedback loop. This approach has contributed to his work as artist-researcher being classified, according to response from other researchers, as “innovative, thoroughly grounded and one of the most articulate and consequent approaches to artistic research in Portugal”.¿ Bittencourt worked as contracted researcher at University of Aveiro, and has collaborated as invited professor with universities in Austria, USA, Brazil and Portugal. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society (PAS), integrates the international editorial board of journals Shima, Per Musi and contributes regularly as scientific reviewer for the SAR conferences, Post-ip: Journal of the International Forum of Studies in Music and Dance, Brazilian Meetings of Artistic Research, and other. Currently, Bittencourt serves as a professor in the Master’s Degree in Computer Music and Sound Design at the University of Coimbra and the School of Applied Arts at the Polytechnic Institute of Castelo Branco.
Links
https://www.luisbittencourt.com
https://www.cienciavitae.pt/portal/451A-3D75-ADE6
https://www.instagram.com/luisbittencourt_/
https://www.facebook.com/luisbittencourtmusic
https://luisbittencourt.bandcamp.com/album/instrumentalities-and-audible-volitions