Meet the 2003 MTNA-Shepherd: Distinguished Composer of the Year.(Forum focus: composer commissioning)(Music Teachers National Association)(Liduino Pitombeira)(Interview)

Hello! I'd like to introduce you to Liduino Pitombeira, currently of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, who was named the 2003 MTNA-Shepherd Distinguished Composer of the Year for Brazilian Landscapes No. 1. This exciting trio was selected from among twenty-eight works entered in this year's competition and was performed at the MTNA National Conference in Kansas City. Thirty states participated. Pitombeira received a $3,000 award made possible through the generosity of Sylvia Shepherd. He is now able to submit the work to Theodore Presser Co., which has an agreement with MTNA to give special consideration for publication to the winning entry.

The judges for the competition were William Roger Price, associate professor of music (piano and composition), University of Tulsa; John Anthony Lennon, professor of composition, Emory University; and Michael Rose, associate professor of composition, Vanderbilt University. Honorable Mentions were awarded to Thomas Albert of Virginia, Jorge Martin of Vermont and Ronald Keith Parks of South Carolina.

I had many questions for Pitombeira, who is originally from Brazil and finished a Ph.D. degree in composition from Louisiana State University this April.

DW: What inspires you?

LP: I do not wait for inspiration. I compose every day and work on several pieces simultaneously. This way, if "inspiration" ceases to contribute for one piece, it becomes strong again in another one. However, as a nationalist composer, I can say that Brazilian culture, as a whole, strongly inspires my work. My music comes mostly from intuition and improvisation rather than from meticulous calculations. It is mostly based on sound rather than on abstract plans that work well on paper but could produce mediocre results when performed. If some sonority does not please me, I do not use it even if it fits some beautiful structural design that works well on paper. I also believe that intuition is millions of times faster and more efficient than reasoning, in the field of musical composition. The same mechanism works with sports: no soccer player, for example, will calculate the weight of a ball, the inertial forces, the friction, the speed of wind and the influence of the gravitational force in order to shoot a goal. He or she simply shoots based on intuition. All the calculations needed are done intuitively in a fraction of seconds. Only daily and hard work increases the craft of ...