SarabaNde is a musical piece, composed by João Ceitil for the Dyce project (Discovering young Composer)  in 2020. It is associated with a competition in which 4 composers were selected to represent a specific region of Europe. João Ceitil represented the green region, which includes Portugal, Spain, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

SarabaNde together with the piece ChacoN are part of a collection of pieces in which João Ceitil intends to explore a musical form. As the name suggests, the piece SarabaNde explores the musical form “sarabande” from the Baroque period. It generally features a short motif that is repeated cyclically, and in each repetition a variation of the motif is triggered. These characteristics were used in the piece in conjunction with the process of rhythmic phasing and dilation. Each instrumental line is phased either forwards or backwards, and at certain key points the rhythmic figures are augmented proportionally.

The result is a kind of perceptual distortion, which I liken to the act of progressively dipping an image in churning water, thus creating a kind of oscillation in the perception of it. In the end, the idea is to create a subtle detachment with the original motif, but not completely. There is always the feeling that the original motif still echoes in our mind. Although in reality this is not the case.

In this recording, it is the Ensemble U: that is performing. All the ensembles associated to the Dyce project performed the four compositions of each composer. Nevertheless, only the recording of the performance of the ensemble from the same region represented by the composer can be found on the CD album, that is on sale in different music shops.

The instrumentation is violin, cello, bass clarinet, bass flute, piano, vibraphone and tubular bells.

Laminar flow is a phenomenon that can be observed in water flows. The result is a kind of optical illusion in which the flow of water appears to be frozen. Based on this phenomenon, João Ceitil has composed a musical piece in which the different instruments play small musical gestures. More specifically, arpeggios, at different beats per minute. As the piece progresses, the different beats per minute slowly converge to one beat per minute. Therefore, resulting in a complete unison. 

In turn, the instruments are picked up by microphones and sent in separate tracks to a Max-Msp patch. This patch is the granular delay that performs a pitch shift effect over fragments of sound from the different instruments. These fragments are spread over the four columns of the auditorium creating the sensation of water splashes.

To enable the performance of the piece, João Ceitil created a java program that shows the individual parts of the score on a timeline accompanied by a pulse. So each player follows the score through a laptop. All the computers are connected and synchronised through the OSC protocol.

This piece was composed for the Nieuw ensemble in 2019 and premiered at the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam. 

The instrumentation is flute, oboe, bass clarinet, mandolin, classic guitar, harp, piano, glockenspiel, vibraphone, violin, viola, cello, contrabass, and live electronic.

CMajor, is a musical piece where different rather recognisable materials establish a counterpoint with an electronic base, that only reproduces the C major scale. The way the counterpoint is established prevents the perception of the C major scale. Given that the scale is played at a very slow speed, and the musical materials that compose it are not strictly related, it creates an effect of sensory inhibition. The scale itself, a perceptually recognisable musical object, is lost in the whole.

This piece was composed in 2018 and was performed by ensemble Kluster5 at the 2018 Spring Festival @ Royal Conservatoire The Hague.

By definition, Offing is the part of the deep sea seen from the shore. From this image, João Ceitil composed this musical piece, whose aim is to recreate that perceptual effect when looking at that distant shore of the sea. There is a sort of ripple where details are lost due to the distance. There is also a lulling and relaxing effect. The result is a sonority where the different instruments blend and get lost in the mass of sound.

The structure of the piece is organised according to an Isorhythm counterpoint process. All the instruments play the same melody, either by augmenting or diminishing the rhythm.

In this piece a Max-Msp patch is used, based on ambisonic spatialisation. The different instruments are captured by microphones and sent in separate tracks. Through the Max-Msp patch, the instruments slowly travel along the eight columns of the auditorium, in a regular trajectory that follows the pulse of the music. The idea is to create an undulation that recalls the swaying of the sea. Towards the end an amplitude modulation is introduced on each instrument. Thus creating a rhythmic texture over the homogeneous texture.

This piece was composed in 2018 for the Laps Ensemble and performed at the EuroArts 2018 festival in Brussels. The instrumentation is violin, cello, trombone, bass clarinet, piano, saxophone, and two laptops running a max/msp patch.

Cubicle is an experimental piece, composed specifically for the 2018 MAZE Festival. This Festival, entitled “Games Strategies in Music”, took place at Splendor Amsterdam. The Maze Ensemble performed several pieces that establish a kind of interactivity coming from a computer game or a virtual space. The cause and effect events, derived from the narrative of the game, are then converted in real time to musical parameters.

In the case of the Cubicle piece, it is a programme that generates a form of notation at the moment itself, almost like a computer game. The musicians and the audience see a screen on which a coloured cube, made up of five by five smaller squares per side, rotates at varying speeds. At the bottom of the screen, the hand of a kind of tone clock indicates when the musicians should play which notes.

The aim of the game is to try to form vertical or horizontal lines of a single colour. For each turn, a line of different colours is randomly generated. Thereafter, the player must try to place it in order to reach the goal. The cube gives the possibility to rotate the faces as well as moving back and forward the outer square. The outer square has a pointer, that constantly moves around the cube, indicating the position and orientation of the randomly generated line.

Each instrument is associated with a single colour. Therefore, depending on where the player places the line on the cube, it will then convert to a pitch and duration.

The piece was also performed in 2021 at the Gaudeamus Festival in Utrecht.

The instrumentation is five instruments and a computer game player.

Latibule is an orchestral piece, composed in 2018 for the Residentie Orkest Den Haag. This piece was commissioned in the context of a project called “One minute Symphony”. The project included collecting interviews with randomly chosen people and establishing a conversation that lasted for one minute. From these interviews, the idea was to establish a musical connection and translate it into an orchestral piece that lasted only one minute.

For confidentiality reasons,  the content of the interviews or the names of the persons will not be revealed. However, the final result is Latibule.

According to the urban dictionary definition : It means a cosy, safe place, hidden away from everyone which is special to you. It’s the sort of place where, on frory days, you can kick off your shoes and settle down in your huffle-buffs, maybe for a bit of firkytoodling or just to relax. See also Hibernacle.
Everyone should have a latibule so that they can get away from unwelcome demands on their time.

Briefly, the piece configures various chromatic patterns in an upward direction, reflecting this need for imminent refuge. In turn, these frenetic rises will always land on a harmony of repose.

Chatoyan is a musical piece based on an optical phenomenon called Chatoyancy or cat’s eye effect. It is an optical reflectance effect seen in certain gemstones.

In João Ceitil’s interpretation, it is about observing an object from different perspectives. However, and given the properties of the material, each new perspective results in a perceptual variation. In the case of gemstones, is related to colour and light. Based on this assumption, João Ceitil decided to create a musical material, in this context a harmonised melody, and apply rotations and transpositions. It is important to mention that the harmonised melody is limited to one octave. In short, the highest note is, so to speak, rotated down an octave and then transposed to the level of the previously lowest note. The process is executed in turns. So there is a kind of infinity in the process. Also, given the way I have worked out the harmonised melody, there is a perceptual illusion. The harmony seems to go up while the melody goes down with each repetition.

For this piece a shimmer reverbera with pitch shift was created in Max-Msp. Thus giving a magnitude and spatiality to the sound. This effect is introduced slowly in a subtle way. The idea is to surprise the audience and highlight the infinite character of the piece.

The piece was composed in 2017 for Ensemble Royaal (13 violas). The ensemble was specially created for the 2017 Spring Festival @ Royal Conservatoire The Hague, and conducted by Mikhail Zemtsov.

Sough is related to murmuring, whispering, and is also defined as the sound of wind in trees or in the sea.

This piece was composed in 2017 for the Ensemble Ives together with some elements of Slagwerk’s percussion ensemble, and pipe organ.

As the name suggests, the idea is to recreate the sound of the whisper or the murmur. The piece consists of a harmonic progression, that thickens towards the end of the piece. Each instrument is picked up by microphones and processed into separate tracks by a delay effect, which in turn is modulated in its time parameter. This creates an effect called the Doppler effect, which consists of a pitch note glissando in a downward direction.

The instrumentation is violin, cello, flute, clarinet, crotales, vibraphone, pipe organ and live processing electronics.

Prana is a musical piece composed for the ClusterLAB ensemble and premiered at the Miso Music Festival in 2015.
The piece is about the act of breathing. João Ceitil tried to catalogue different forms of breathing, from relaxing breathing, nervous breathing, anxious breathing, excited breathing, etc. Then he decided to translate these breaths into musical gestures.

The instrumentation is violin, cello, clarinet, flute, tuba, piano, percussion, and live electronics. It was conducted by Carlos Marecos.

Equinócios is a musical piece composed in 2015 for the Ensemble Darcos de Lisboa.

Equinócios in English translates as Equinoxes, which is defined as the instant when the Sun, in its apparent orbit (as seen from Earth), crosses the celestial equator (the Earth’s equator projected onto the celestial sphere).

From this idea, João Ceitil composed a piece, whose structure is divided into four parts that reflect not only the periods of the Equinox but also the transition periods of the Solstice. Taking into account that these periods are beyond our perception, João Ceitil decided to develop a musical material exclusively dedicated to harmonics in string instruments. Each object that reproduces a sound contains in itself a series of harmonics. Yet, they are not directly perceived in their singularity. All musical gestures are composed only of harmonics of string instruments, and are accompanied by a piano that symbolises time. Taking into account that its musical material presents a pulse.

The instrumentation is two violins, viola, cello and piano, and it was directed by Nuno Corte-Real.

ChacoN is a musical piece based on the Chaconne form of the Baroque period. It is part of a project where João Ceitil intends to create several compositions whose goal is to use musical forms that somehow present a certain form of repetition.

This piece was composed in 2014 and received a recommendation in the 62ND INTERNATIONAL ROSTRUM OF COMPOSERS in the general category.

In this recording it is the Alter Ego ensemble performing. The instrumentation is bass flute, bass clarinet, violin, cello, piano and vibraphone.

Fantasie is a solo music piece, for clarinet in Bb, written to appear in the repertoire of the Young Musicians Award in 2014.

The recording available is a performance by the winner Horácio Ferreira in the Solo Clarinet category.

Prece Em is a musical piece composed for the Young Music Prize competition in 2013. It was selected as the winning work of the Festival and premiered the same year by the Gulbenkian Orchestra conducted by Rui Pinheiro.
The word prayer is defined as “Prayer made to God, to a saint or to a divinity to thank, praise or supplicate; prayer”. In my piece I was constantly thinking about this idea of invoking, not in a religious sense but perhaps in a more profane spiritual sense.

Quix bem is a musical piece based on a “Cantiga” composed by King Dinis (King of Portugal and Algarve), whose reign began in 1279 and ended in 1325. The Cantiga is present in the website “Cantigas Medievais Galego-Portuguesas”.

João Ceitil made an adaptation and a reinterpretation of the” Cantiga”, in 2011 for a non-conventional instrumentation (electric bass, piano, voice and electronics). In the version available the voice has been replaced by trumpet at the request of a jazz trio in an academic context.