Once again, it is that time of year for seniors to broadcast/perform/publish their thesis projects. In this week’s spotlight is Gabriel Furtado, whose music thesis features Latin-inspired tunes mixed with his own compositions.

Argus: Tell us a little bit about your project. What will you be doing for your presentation?
Gabriel Furtado: On Friday night I’ll be performing guitar music from Spain, Italy, Argentina, Cuba and Brazil, as well as presenting a few original compositions. The project started with the original intent of having the entire concert as a showcase of my own pieces, but I decided that I wanted to play other composers’ works that don’t get played much at Wesleyan. As it stands now things are sort of lopsided; I ended up deciding to play mostly other peoples’ compositions and just a few of my own because these pieces are just so enjoyable to perform. However, I will be recording all of the compositions in May so that I have more than just the sheet music to show of these efforts.

A: What is your thesis and why/how did you choose to make this your thesis project?
GF: The thesis as a whole has three separate parts: an analytic paper, original compositions, and a concert. However, the latter two both stem from the work I did on the paper. I chose to write on the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. He is Brazil’s most well known composer internationally and is an especially important composer for the classical guitar. I start by analyzing his different compositional periods by looking at his work for the guitar, and kind of use this as a springboard to write about the cultural influences on his music; everything from his nationalistic interpretation of folk music to Brazilian music’s debt to French impressionism. The concert prominently features his music. As for my compositions, they stem directly from Villa-Lobos’ musical language (hopefully without borrowing too much).

A: Who and/or what was your inspiration for this thesis?
GF: Well, I have a borderline obsession with Brazilian music. My father is Brazilian, but I grew up without much contact with my family back in Brazil. I do play a lot of Brazilian music and have spent a lot of time studying the history, but I think in terms of my own culture I’m simply North American. Even when I speak Portuguese it comes out all muddied up by my American accent. I think the motivation to focus on Brazil comes from a desire to reconcile this aspect of my own history. Originally I was only going to focus on the paper. I wasn’t even considering writing music until this past summer. At that time I thought that it was too late to begin studying composition, but after reading a lot of composers’ biographies I discovered a bunch—including Villa-Lobos—who didn’t start until they were in their twenties. I started writing in July of 2009 and received a lot of harsh yet constructive criticism from three friends who are composers, so I decided to make it part of my thesis.

A: How long has this journey been (to the completion of this senior thesis)? Share a few challenges and highlights you have had with this project.
GF: I’ve been explicitly working on this music since last spring, but it has taken a few years to figure out how to perform some of the pieces that I’m playing this Friday. Specifically with the Brazilian pieces, I’ve had a lot of trouble with the rhythmic nuances. The guitar rhythm of a Samba has a stuttering quality, tending to fall behind the beat, and that is hard to get just right. What compounds the problem is that classical guitar isn’t very forgiving to a lack of daily practice, so balancing the academic research for my thesis and the performance has been a juggling act. As for the compositions, I’m extremely self-conscious about the way people might receive them. I tend towards the atonal in the pieces and this turns a lot of people off. Also, a lot of the pieces come from scenes in my personal history, and I’m definitely a bit shy when it comes to sharing them. For example, one work is a musical diary of a trip I took to Spain two summers ago. I had originally gone to attend a bunch of music seminars, but instead somehow found myself going to Italy at the invitation of someone I had met at a concert in Madrid. My parents still think I spent the whole summer at music seminars. The piece is entitled “Two Weeks in Florence with Miss Peel,” so they will probably figure it out when I play it at the concert on Friday.

A: What should audiences expect when they come to see your show? What message or feelings would do you hope for them to take away?
GF: I don’t perform often, so a lot of my friends have never heard me. Basically, I’m thinking of this concert as a chance to be able to play some music for them. I mean, I would love if people come simply out of an interest in the music, but for me thinking of the show in terms of just playing some music for my friends keeps me from stumbling over the hurdles of excessive anxiety. I really just want the concert to be a nice hour of music without any pretensions. Very low key.

Be sure to check out Furtado’s senior thesis presentation on Friday, April 9th in Memorial Chapel from 7-9 p.m.