Last September, Jonathan Silva, a PhD researcher at INET-md at DeCA, together with Manuel Brásio (i2ADS, FBAUP), presented the paper titled “Nemesis: Conciliating Opposites and Questioning Traditional Roles in Musical Creation” at the Transplanted Roots: Percussion Research Symposium, held in Porto. The full article was published online in the Proceedings of the 2025 Transplanted Roots: Percussion Research Symposium.
This article discusses a musical co-creation process conducted by three composers in collaboration with an instrumentalist within a theatrical performance where music holds equal importance to text and dramaturgy.
The developed methodology particularly highlights the importance of clearly and objectively describing sonic objects and gestures. To achieve this, it draws on theories of listening and sonic description proposed by Pierre Schaeffer and Denis Smalley, as well as Walter Thompson’s practice of soundpainting. These approaches underscore the linguistic challenge inherent in communicating musical ideas.