For this assignment, I will reanalyse the work of the Corsican ethnomusicologist, Michel Giacometti, during 1959 and 1974 in totalitarian Portugal and prove how his job didn’t just go through making an archive of all Portuguese ethnic music and folk traditions. Michel’s intentions were far ahead of that, which were maintained under the tag of abstract practices and subliminal messages.
When I first decided which theme I would research for this audio paper, I was pretty optimistic about the whole procedure. I started planning the month of October and November to make that happen. I
innocently thought that my research was going to be straightforward to make. However, the theme that I picked didn’t exist. The only information I would find was inaccessible, hidden in old academic archives, and sometimes even encrypted. The only credible information I had was belief. I believed that Michel Giacometti’s work wasn’t just a mere collection of ethnic music.
My first so far can be seen as a puzzle. If I couldn’t search things instantly, it would have to be by searching piece by piece and analysing every document I found as evidence. There was no information in English, which is concerning. Then I realise that neither in french there’s valuable documentation. Portuguese was the only language with available sources, and gladly I am Portuguese. I first started with the obvious. I read every single paper about his life and stay in Portugal. Then I began digging newspapers archives, and miraculously there were interviews about him from the 80s and 90s with actual quotes and beneficial information. Then I researched some Portuguese counties, which later did homages to Michel to see if I could get different sections, which happened four times as far as I’m concerned: twice in Setúbal, once in Cascais, and another one in Ferreira do Alentejo. The more I dived into the subject, the more I would find valuable information for my research. I began to understand how should I search this topic as a code that only specific keywords would trigger the info I needed. It wasn’t effortless to find material even under Portuguese-based searching.
I didn’t have access to all his sound archives. Publico and RTP, the national broadcast radio and television, have released all of his productions for 120 euros, with a compilation of his notes. My father owns these CD’s, but there was no way to reach him. Youtube had most of the relevant recordings I needed for the assignment, but not for the sake of the research itself. To understand his positionality in the whole story, I would have to watch and listen to his recordings and read all of his notes. I tried to listen to everything available for me, but it would take more than 24 hours to listen, and another 24 or probably more only for note-taking. I had to abandon this utopic idea and proceed with scriptwriting and audio production.
Script-writing was complicated. I had to narrow down my research into at least 1100 words (11 minutes). When I started writing, it was tempting to go back and research a couple more details about Giacometti’s notes, but time was consuming, and I had to make progress. I’ve looked at all my research and hand-picked which things should I highlight. When the script was done, it was too late to amend it. When I recorded my voice, it reached precisely 11 minutes. While editing, I managed to cut it down to 9, but that would mean I would only have 3 minutes of creative sound exploration and showcasing. Some things were inevitable not to extend, but others had to be censored from the audio paper. However, my final export was 12:59 seconds.
I had three options:
- Cut down a big chunk of information and spend a lot of time editing and making it sound appropriate for delivery.
- Cut precisely 11 minutes and explain later that there was more coming up.
- Don’t do anything and assume responsibilities.
I picked the last option because I realised I didn’t even have enough time to complete my blog posts when I checked the clock. I consider that this type of occurring are crucial for educative purposes. It was my responsibility to submit work as it should.
When I submitted my project, it didn’t mean my research’s end. I’m too attached to the subject, and I can’t simply avoid all the questions I have that need an answer. I could later realise I was wrong about Giacometti’s intentions, but I already have too much evidence about it, and I’m so close to proving my point. The realistic timing for my audio paper would be at least 1 hour, and I promise that I will be truthful to the finalisation of this research.