Researcher
Music | Ethnomusicology | Organology | Design
Searching & (re)searching
Gonçalo has witnessed first-hand the complete revival process of local bagpipes in Portugal.
He has spent the last 20 years researching, playing, teaching and building bagpipes as well as maintaining a professional bagpipe making workshop.
Being a piper-musician, a designer-architect and a bagpipe maker, he is in a unique position to promote the bridging of knowledge between Art, Design, History, and Science.
Gonçalo holds a Masters in Architecture and is currently a Music Doctoral candidate at the Sibelius Academy – University of the Arts Helsinki.
Finland
Sweden, Estonia, Latvia, have managed to bring back alive their own piping traditions.
Why hasn’t Finland done the same yet?
Forgotten Bagpipes
University of the Arts Helsinki – Sibelius Academy
The Redesign of the Säkkipilli in Finland
Gonçalo is questioning the prevailing idea that there is no bagpipe tradition in Finland.
Based on the archaeological remains of an actual Säkkipilli (circa 1400) unburied at Turku and from observing the positive signs of young performers in the Finnish folk music scene, he believes there IS a forgotten tradition, and a strong modern desire to play Säkkipilli in Finland – People just need a working instrument!
By redesigning and producing a new bagpipe, his research will create the much-needed opening for the re-birth of a piping culture in Finland.
A Laboratory in Helsinki
Gonçalo has moved from Portugal to Finland (along with all his bagpipe making tools and machines) and has been accepted at the Sibelius Academy to conduct practice-based doctoral research. He will survey all available evidence of the Säkkipilli and its piping culture. This effort will result in a comprehensive archive aimed at preserving the Finnish tradition. However, it is the praxis of actually producing high-quality Säkkipillit (for the needs of the professional musician) that constitutes the core of his research.
The Finnd’it initiative
www.Finndit.org
To open his doctoral research to the citizens, Gonçalo has created the “Finnd’it initiative” where citizens and institutions may help and keep track of the latest finds.
This movement is support by fellow Finnish musicians like Petri Prauda, Patrik Weckman, Markus Rantanen but also by neighboring bagpipes researchers of Estonia and Latvia, keen on visiting Sibelius-Akatemia regularly to meet Gonçalo and share the knowledge.
In short, the Finn’d it initiative aims at supporting the surveying of all evidence of the presence of the Säkkipilli and bringing international awareness to piping in Finland.
More About Gonçalo’s researches
A Cruz_Blog about Cross-fields
#Art | #Music | #Design | #Bagpipes
on-going
Gonçalo is involved
in other cross-field researches,
either as personal or team endeavors.
Get In Touch
Gonçalo is keen on sharing experiences and collaborating with people around the globe
Address
Helsinki – Finland
Call
+358 45 251 87 27
Info@GoncaloCruz.com