Metal & Memory: New Brazilian Music for Vibraphone

Augusto Moralez (vibraphone) — Total duration: 40 minutes (no intermission)

Inventing a Repertoire in Brazil

Inventing a Repertoire names both a musical idea and a working method. For the vibraphone—an instrument still underrepresented in solo concert traditions compared to strings and piano—repertoire does not simply “appear”; it is constructed through research, collaboration, and sustained performance. In this project, Moralez treats repertoire-building as a cycle: identifying gaps in the literature; commissioning and workshopping new pieces with composers; premiering and documenting the results; and then circulating the works through concerts and lecture-recitals so they become playable, teachable, and repeatable beyond a single occasion. His ongoing artistic-research practice includes commissioning and premiering unpublished works for vibraphone in multiple settings, including solo repertoire.

This recital makes that process audible by combining new commissions written specifically for Moralez’s commissioning project with established cornerstones of the Brazilian vibraphone repertoire. The commissioned works exemplify how contemporary composers expand the instrument’s “grammar”: resonance shaped by pedal timing, harmonic clarity within four-mallet textures, the interplay of sustained halos and articulate attacks, and the vibraphone’s capacity to sing without losing its percussive identity.

New works commissioned by Augusto Moralez (selected):

Roberto Victorio (1959) — Tetragrammaton VI (2007)
César Traldi (1981) — Skyy (2016)
Arthur Rinaldi (1980) — Entre o pesar e a leveza (2023)
Iván Chiarelli (1979) — Sumaré (2024)
Samuel Peruzzolo (1980) — Solitude (2017)

Alongside these premieres and project commissions, the program also features recognized works that helped define the Brazilian solo vibraphone tradition:

Ney Rosauro (1952) — Brazilian Landscape (1998)
Edson Zampronha (1963) — Modelagem X-A (1997)