Nova Ars Subtilior

Flo Menezes is considered today to be the most prominent representative of new music in Brazil. Born in 1962, the composer's work has been shaped by his exposure to syncretic ways of thinking and perception, which he experienced from an early age in the everyday life of his native city of São Paulo. Indeed, absorbing, combining, and further developing different concepts from music history and philosophy is a key feature of his work, which ranges from solo pieces and chamber music to large-scale orchestral works and from electroacoustic compositions to oratorios and ballets. In a productive examination of the music of Berio, Boulez, Pousseur, and Stockhausen, among others, as well as the linguistics of Jakobson and the literature of Joyce, Menezes explains the compositional strategies of some of his major works in the essays in this volume. In addition, he unfolds his original concept of musical "maximalism": the goal is music that, on the one hand, exhibits the highest degree of complexity in terms of compositional texture and its music-historical referentiality, but at the same time radiates the greatest possible beauty, fascination, and expressiveness. The concluding conversation offers biographical highlights of a life spent between Brazil and Europe, insights into the composer's workshop, and critical reflections on the relationship between music and politics as well as on current trends in European composition.

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