Paulo Costa Lima

Paulo Costa Lima is a Brazilian composer and music theorist, a member of the Brazilian Academy of Music (created by Villa-Lobos in 1945), whose main interest has been the vivid interaction between composition and culture, including the political aspects of it, namely, composition as a way of resisting colonization, against the "waste of experience" - the traditional circuit in which ideas (theory) are produced elsewhere and absorbed by the South. Born in Salvador-Bahia in 1954, he has always cultivated an interest in Afro-Brazilian musical heritage. He is also a member of the Academia de Letras da Bahia (created in 1917), a founder-member of the Academia de Ciências da Bahia (created in 2011) and a recognized researcher by the CNPq, the National Council for Research (since 2003). In 2015 he was indicated as first prize winner of the Bienal de Música Brasileira Contemporânea, after a consultation involving 120 Brazilian composers and conductors. He has published books and articles on subjects such as the theory and pedagogy of musical composition, analysis and history of Brazilian contemporary music, analysis of Brazilian popular songs, and the possible dialogue between music, psychoanalysis and cultural semantics. His works have received more than 500 performances in more than 20 countries in important concert halls such as Konzerthaus Berlin, Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, Benaroya Hall, De Rode Pomp, Sala Cecilia Meireles, Sala São Paulo, Teatro Castro Alves and Reitoria da UFBA. In 2001 The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians included an article dedicated to his work, written by Gerard Béhague. He has received along the last decades more than twenty prizes and commissions.
Life and career.
He belongs to the second generation of the movement initiated by the ‘Group of Composers of Bahia’ that was formed in 1966, launching a one-line manifesto “In principle, we are against all and every asserted principle”. This manifesto also implies that all suggestions are valid and acceptable, and this inclusivity reflects the cultural diversity and relativity of Bahia - a society created by the encounter and conflict of three civilizations (European, African and Native American). Since 1992 his compositional interests addressed the rhythmic tradition of Afro-Bahian candomblé, creating universes of hybridization and contradiction, non-sequitur and humor, involving Afro-Bahian and Avant-Garde contexts and ideas. Writing about the Atotô do L'homme armé op. 39, a representative piece written in 1993, Ilza Nogueira states that "what can be observed is a procedure of fusion of the appropriated elements (the melodic line and the rhythmic pattern), which compromises their identities and displaces them from their original signifying contexts".
After studying composition with Lindembergue Cardoso and Ernst Widmer in Brazil, and Ben Johnston and Herbert Brün at the University of Illinois, USA, in the 70's, he became a professor at the Universidade Federal da Bahia, and held several positions such as Director of the Music School (1988–1992) and Assistant Provost (1996–2002). Two doctoral degrees: one devoted to the pedagogy of music composition, leading to the Copene Prize 1999 and to the publication of a book. the other to the analysis of octatonic strategies in the output of Ernst Widmer, leading to the publication of an article in "Latin American Music Review". Most important prizes and commissions: Vitae Foundation (1995), American Composers Orchestra (1996), Secretary of Culture-Bahia (2009) and Ministry of Culture-Funarte (2012, 2014 and 2016). Some recent important events: premiere with UFRJ Orchestra (Bahia Concerto op. 98), premiere with Orquestra Sinfônica de São Paulo (Cabinda: We are black op. 104, 16.04.2015), premiere with Neojibá Orchestra (Seven arrows op. 102, 10.10.2015), Teatro Municipal (Rio de Janeiro), the III FMCB (performance of 15 works, 16 to 19.03.16), a Festival held at Campinas University, dedicated to his life and work, premiere at the Festival für Neue Musik - Essen/Germany (Cauíza for 10 percussionists, 22.10.2017), and also in five other cities in the Düsseldorf area. He has mentored a new generation of Brazilian composers such as Guilherme Bertissolo, Paulo Rios Filho, Alex Pochat, Tulio Augusto, Vinicius Amaro, Paulo Cesar Santana and Danniel Ferraz.
In recent years he has proposed the notion of compositionality – the attributes of that which is composed – involving at least five dimensions: i) the ‘invention of worlds’ (i.e. universes of meaning); ii) the ‘commitment to critique’, in the sense that composition requires the construction of interpretation; iii) ‘reciprocity’ or playing with identities - the fact that the designer creates the design as much as the design creates the designer, see Laske (1991); iv) the continuous interaction between theory and practice, there is no such a thing as compositional practice, or theory-free composition; v) and a ‘field of choices’, the place in which all these perspectives manifest themselves as potential freedom. These same instances also take part of the analytical process, which he also classifies as creative thinking, not only the traditional conception of reducing the whole to its constituent parts, but also, and spetially, the challenge of identifying (i.e. composing) synthesis that respond to the top-down analytical work.
From 2005 to 2008 participated of the political life of the city of Salvador as President of the Fundação Gregório de Mattos (2003–2008), the cultural office of the city. His administration designed new formats for popular participation such as the Program Mestres Populares da Cultura, which led to the identification and recognition of elderly people with wide knowledge of ethnic-popular traditions, being considered an important contribution to cultural policies and management in Bahia. For him, teaching, writing (texts and music) and management activities are unified by the compositional challenges they involve, closely connected to the political needs of present times. Two examples: in 2005 he organized a cultural manifestation involving 456 capoeira performers, walking and dancing on the streets of Salvador, in order to celebrate the anniversary of the city, but also the adoption of specific cultural policies, by the Ministry of Culture, for this important Bahian and Brazilian cultural activity; in 2001 he was the general Coordinator of a huge program of cultural activities in Salvador, as part of the SBPC Congress (Brazilian Society for the Progress of Science) Sociedade Brasileira para o Progresso da Ciência, reinforcing the ideal of proximity between arts and sciences. In 2015, the National Foundation for the Arts (FUNARTE-Ministry of Culture) consulted around 120 Brazilian composers and conductors in order to prepare a list of 30 commissions for the XXIth Biennial of Brazilian Contemporary Music. He obtained the highest number of indications, being classified as the first prize, a clear demonstration of his national prestige and reputation.
In 1976 he married Ana Margarida de Almeida Cerqueira Lima (violinist and also Professor of the School of Music - UFBA) and had two sons - Cláudio and Maurício.
References.
Notes
References