The theater’s large steel doors slowly open. These are emotional moments highlighting a time in which expectation springs out of the event, especially for those who watch and listen to a Symphony Orchestra for the first time. Present are official personalities representing the State of Rio de Janeiro and the city of ‘Nova Iguaçu’, located in one of the most violent areas of this state. Within the theater’s closed spaces, sheltered, cozily seated and "well-groomed", are 450 invited guests. By and by, as the large steel doors gradually open, 4,000 more members of the community, not endowed with an official invitation, but welcome, and more than that, hoped for, have also arrived. These people, exposed to the whims of weather, standing, casually dressed but showing the respect the occasion requires, took over the most lively and busy square in the Rio’s downtown area, bearing a highly suggestive name – the Peacemaker’s Square. Also invited and expected by everyone, never denying to show up to the theater so often mentioned in the newspapers are: Bizet, Ravel, and Villa-Lobos!
The Brazilian architect, Oscar Niemeyer, still alive, though born in 1907 – yes, we are celebrating his 100th birthday this very year –, is internationally known for many important projects. Among them are the Mentouri University, in Constantine, Algeria, the seat of the French Communist Party in Paris; the headquarters of Mondadori Publishing House, Italy and, more recently, London’s Serpentine Gallery, and the Potsdam Spa in Berlin. Throughout Brazil, his work is rather extensive, as his trend-setting style, as is the country’s capital city – Brasília – for which he designed all important administrative buildings and the government palaces, as well as residential projects. However, many of his works are scattered all over the country, mainly museums and memorials, though currently several cultural centers are under construction. One of these, in which this theater belongs, was opened on September 23, 2006; and another – The People’s Theater – belonging in the so-called "Niemeyerian Way", a collection of constructions designed by this architect, had "its doors" opened on last April the Fifth. The People’s Theater holds 350 seats, while the outside plaza, bearing a no less suggestive name – The People’s Plaza – boasts a capacity to hold 10,000 standing people.
However, beyond the undeniable importance of the architect’s buildings and the meaning inherent in his 100-year-long active and creative life, will there be anything else to be "sung in prose and poetry", as goes the ancient saying? Indeed. I want to celebrate the spirit of these two last theaters, that which makes a difference between them and so many similar ones, that which brings forth the distinctive Niemeyer style, namely, his concern for the popular and the social. Both theaters boast a "revertible stage", that is, just as in the description above, they were meant to bring forth cultural manifestations at the same time to both the elite and the common folk, which are separated from one another by steel doors, that are opened in the moment the performance is about to begin.
But when I heard the news about the opening of the first theater, I had to reflect on a question that seemed fundamental to me. Which side will the symphony orchestra actually face?
This seemed absolutely relevant to me. Considering that unfortunately I was not able to be present for the opening, I had to rely on witnesses’ testimonies – the memories of those who were actually present at the aforementioned event. Searching among my working fellows and in the circle of my friends who attend world of music performances, I was lucky enough to find two participants, one each "from each side of the steel doors". I begin by quoting an official female guest, one of those who "were seated and well-groomed" and who reports: ‘There was great emotion at the opening of the steel doors. At the same time, we could watch, on a big TV screen, a group of people that was slowly growing as the great steel doors rolled open, until 4,000 or 5,000 people were shown on a broad screen. We were able to watch the real and the virtual at the same time. On the other hand, the orchestra, had their backs to the official guests. The public viewed them from the front."
The witness belonging to the "popular" side of the festivity, moved still to today, expressed herself as follows: "That which most moved me were Ravel’s and Lorenzo Fernândez’s music played as encores."[1] And this is not so hard to understand. Both scores present rhythm as their outstanding element, something that is very important to the average Brazilian citizen, particularly to Rio de Janeiro dwellers. In the Bolero, though the rhythm itself is constant, there is a crescendo of every other element, which leads to a climax that spreads like a contagion among everyone. In the Lorenzo Fernândez’s score, there is also an explanation that goes beyond the rhythm itself: this witness works in the Brazilian Conservatory of Music, founded by Lorenzo Fernândez himself, and she feels rather close to this composer’s music.
All right, harking back to the theaters themselves, here comes the query, "What have these to do with Music Therapy?"
It will be interesting to go back to the priorities shown in those two Niemeyer projects. They open up the possibility for the culture’s arrival to a "well-groomed" minority, as well as allowing a big popular mass to have access to it.
This fact leads me into thinking, like always, about the theme of Music Therapy in communities, especially in my own country.
In a paper written by the Norwegian music therapist, Brynjulf Stige, and published by Voices in 2002, we can read in the Biographical Notes that he has worked in a Music Therapy project with communities, published in 1988, when he published a book on this theme. Always concerned with the employment of Music Therapy in communities, as well as the relationship to ecological movements, Stige follows his own studies about the theoretical perspectives on both issues and writes this paper in which his discusses the roots of Music Therapy in communities and the variations it adopts in different countries, adding a survey on the international bibliography available on this subject.
He starts out by presenting those authors most concerned with this literature in the German literature, followed by the Norwegian authors and going on until he reaches North America. All along he quotes the most important authors who are concerned with the application of music therapy in the area and discusses several issues that are also related to the field. However, when he comes down to South America, Stige elegantly avoids the subject by stating that, due to his own linguistic limitations, he has no ability to "delve deeper into the South American literature". Actually, at the time of his writing, there were only a few sources written in Portuguese or Spanish and just a handful of short papers had been translated for presentation in the English language.
As of today, some South American music therapists, including some Brazilian ones, are working very hard to bring music therapy to a greater number of people, as well as for the implementation of those projects that endow communities. These initiatives are beginning to show their results through discussions on the need for music therapists’ in those spaces; debates on the efforts which have to be done to achieve this goal and on the benefits that music therapy might bring, including the increase of documentation on the potential of this theme. An assessment that focuses on who should be employed is needed so as to achieve this goal and such benefits that it might bring, thereby increasing the documentation of this theme.
All the same, I think we should try to follow what I could, even within the boundaries of music therapy, name as the "Niemeyerian Way", considering his interest in popular theaters, as well as the opening of "steel doors" for more work on the area of community music therapy, bringing forth the feasibility of communication through music to those who can avail themselves of it to "sing out" their feelings, pains, and joys and, through these, to express their own inner worlds.
[1] Oscar Lorenzo Fernândez is a well-known cultured music Brazilian composer, born in Rio de Janeiro in the year 1897 who, in 1936, founded Rio de Janeiro’s Brazilian Conservatory of Music – today, a University Center where the first Music Therapy course in Brazil was created, as far back as 1972. Lorenzo Fernândez died in 1948.
Stige, Brynjulf (2002). The Relentless Roots of Community Music Therapy. Voices: A World Forum for Music therapy. Retrieved May 23, 2007, from http://voices.no/mainissues/Voices2(3)Stige.html
Jornal O Globo do Rio de Janeiro (April 4, 2007). Edição do dia 4 de abril de 2007. [O Globo newspaper, Rio de Janeiro, April 4, 2007 issue.]
Barcellos, Lia Rejane Mendes (2007). Steel Doors!.... Voices Resources. Retrieved January 08, 2015, from http://testvoices.uib.no/community/?q=colbarcellos040607