You recently wrote an opera.
PMC: A Requiem for Inês de Castro.
How did this opportunity surface?
PMC: In a very funny history and only learned long after writing the Requiem. It was through the soundtrack for a game, one of the tracks was inexplicably used in the soap opera "Passione", my composition teacher Eurico Carrapatoso, (it is thanks to him that I know what I know in terms of composition and is probably he is the best teacher I had ever), sent several emails making known this odd situation and one of the people who saw those missives liked my music, he is also a composer and a year later the classical orchestra of Coimbra under the artistic direction of conductor Artur Maria Pinho asked him if could name anyone who be able to write a Requiem for Inês de Castro for chorus and orchestra and he thought I was the right person, despite having written a song for a games. But that is a perfect example, I do not write for games in a more simplified way, I compose for an orchestra and chorus, I do not look at a game as a smaller project, I take it with the utmost seriousness, and people realize that there are technical and was from that fortuity event the conductor heard my music and contacted me. I wrote the Requiem for orchestra, chorus, soprano and baritone, altogether one hundred elements.
It was the first time that you had a concert of this magnitude?
PMC: Yeah, it was my first concert work and it seems there was a wide acceptance.
What you brought to this work in terms of composition?
PMC: The Requiem is very complex in terms of mental process. For each pace, I imagined a scene, a situation.
You image in musical terms the death of Inês?
PMC: Yes, each course is a concrete situation, at first, Dom Pedro faces the death of Inês, his amazement and soon after his revolt, there is a chorus of angels, and there is even an image associated with each pace, very simplified.
How did you felt when you heard for the first time something that came from your head to a music sheet?
PMC: It was a very funny situation, I already expect it, obviously. I knew it would be so, but there is a special liking in seeing people dedicating themselves to the fullest in terms of interpretation, it was fantastic.
Let's talk about music in national terms, do you think composers are appreciates, the young like you in Portugal?
PMC: The values are very low, not worth thinking about, I even think it is impossible to equate a full time career in composition for concerts. For media composer you must work hard and have some luck too, because otherwise it is very difficult. Portugal is not big enough to have a market or money. Now, a Portuguese working in composition requires a greater risk, but one must think that we are competing for a project with the rest of the world, for example, I will make a presentation against the best of Denmark, Great Britain etc...in the perspective of the employer, i.e., we are competing with people who are really dedicated himself body and soul to achieve the project. We are always in competition which is good. Unlike other situations as a musician, for example, that I am not being assessed at the moment, because it depends on your taste. When composing for a game I am being assessed in terms of my ability and creativity and I am evaluated by composers who know how to do it, but do not have time for certain projects, they are audio directors of these companies and contrary to what you might think they do not choose friends, or sympathies, they elect the best and those projects involve a lot of money and if not so is not worth it. My first project for play station 3, arose because the English composers were not getting the job done, were fired and I went in. We cannot waste a moment, one has to be the most perfectionists.
Could you survive only on music if you could? And leave the civil engineering?
PMC: I will not like it. I love to do both. During the day I do engineering, I am a civil engineer is a dream I had as a child. And I also like to be a musician. Engineering is good because it clears my head, it's a different world. At night I have a space of three hours to compose, of course I not have 10 projects in a year, and I have 3 and do it with a lot of heart.
In terms of composition there is a project you would like to do, you have in the drawer?
PMC: I have one that I am developing with a Dutch friend, who recently worked for Sony and I will write with him a draft electronic music will be a mix of Massive Attack and our influences of orchestra music. We really want to make a CD that a year from now has to be on the street. It will be different, is not a work to be a musical hit, but is a niche market. Now is coming up shortly the soundtrack for "Alcatraz", an adventure game that looks like an interactive movie. And I am also involved in a project of composition for jazz with singer Maria José Leal.
Do you have a preference in terms of orchestra to play your music?
PMC: No, for me there is no favorite, but would make me happy is that the classic orchestra of Madeira will play the Requiem of Inês de Castro, because it's my first work and wanted to show it in Madeira. The conductor Rui Massena opened the door for this hypothesis, but we'll see.
And you dream of hearing your music in a great hall? The Scala of Milan, or Albert Hall?
PMC: No, there are big music halls today. Sure I enjoyed playing at La Scala, was super fantastic, now, and is not easy to get there. What interests me is that people listen and enjoy the music in the minimum conditions. What matters is the attitude of the musicians playing it, the commitment and musicianship when they play like that the audience feel the music completely different.
