Madeira 木| Água 水 | Terra 土 | Metal 金 | Fogo 火

During the last few months, Rui Souza, the musical director of Teatro da Didascália, composed and performed five concerts, evoking, at the same time, one of the five elements of Wu Xing’s Theory – wood, water, earth, metal and fire.

In December, we presented the final concert of the MATER project: the symbiosis of all these concerts, elements and inspirations in a single piece performed by all the musicians involved in the project since its first performance, in June, with MATER MADEIRA.

As in Wu Xing’s own theory, this concert can have two contradictory characteristics: if on the one hand it can be catastrophic, on the other hand it can be appeasing, silent and harmonious.

As is questioned in that same theory, the purpose of these compositions is to try to understand how fire controls wood, water controls fire or earth controls water, i.e., how the five elements are related and contaminated.

The oldest, pre-Socratic theory of eternal return tells us that fire will destroy everything and that everything will happen again in exactly the same way. This concert, with the participation of all musicians, aims to bring exactly that energy: from destruction to harmony, from chaos to organization …

This concert will therefore be intense for its sound mass and for the disconcerting compositions which, at the same time, are expected to bring a certain peace to each one of those present.

Because MATER is this, a reunion of the human being with the being itself. A discovery of who we are and what may be forgotten in us.