Rhythm, Sympathy and Human Being | CMT - Companhia de Música Teatral

At the beginning of spring, we’ll be at the University of Edinburgh with colleagues and friends, celebrating Colwyn Trevarthen’s life and work. He was a great inspiration to us and remains in our hearts.

See details of the conference here

Looking at the sky with Colwyn Trevarthen

By Helena Rodrigues

As I remember Colwyn Trevarthen, many memories naturally arise: some are like brief ‘flashes’ (a posture, a phrase, a glance, a place), others seem like narratives synchronized with his walk. In all of them, I find a special quality of movement; I now realize that much of what I learned from him walked in his footsteps.

I see us in Edinburgh, during the celebration of his eightieth birthday, stopping our walk as he drew my attention to the sky. He was showing me a group of birds moving together in a flock. He was fascinated, intrigued, amazed by that synchronized dance, full of individual and collective rhythms. And so we stood there for a good few minutes, looking at the sky, each of us flying with our own mysteries. I often return to this memory, certain that, in those brief moments of contemplation, the Sky must have changed its path.

Colwyn Trevarthen was an academic, researcher, and thinker with highly innovative ideas in the field of Psychobiology and the study of human communication. His interest in human musicality led him, along with Stephen Malloch, to create the concept of “communicative musicality.” Goleman described him as the leading expert in “protocommunication” (the study of communication in the early stages of life).

Endowed with a vast culture and knowledge, his work in the study of childhood development is a source of inspiration for various disciplinary fields. His perspectives have contributed to a path of humanization and respect regarding development in the early years of life.

Colwyn Trevarthen was a professor at the University of Edinburgh and the author of numerous publications. In Portugal, in addition to being a source of inspiration for various initiatives by Companhia de Música Teatral, he was also a consultant for the Doctoral Program in Musical Sciences at NOVA FCSH.

I met him in 2002, thanks to Professor Luís Portela, who arranged for his visit to NOVA FCSH for the 4th Symposium of the Bial Foundation, Aquém e Além do Cérebro, where Colwyn Trevarthen was a speaker. I have always been deeply grateful to both: after a simple phone call, a path was set that would go on to make a difference in the lives of many people. In other words, life continued after the vortex of those minutes of listening, spreading its echoes to other places and people.

Colwyn was passionate about the Bebé Babá project, being its unconditional fan. He would say it was a project that needed to be shared with the entire world, and he would later go on to write the foreword for the publication with the same name. From our first meeting of mutual understanding, there were many initiatives in which Colwyn was with us.

I recall, for example, an initiative at NOVA FCSH that brought together three masters: Colwyn Trevarthen, Edwin Gordon, and Manfred Clynes. Today, looking back, I realize that this unlikely meeting should have been celebrated with glory and fireworks. It wasn’t, but that special alignment of the stars must have triggered the necessary misalignments in the small spaces where Life self-regulates.

For example, in various initiatives of Opus Tutti (2011-2014) and GermInArte (2015-2018), in which Colwyn Trevarthen’s contributions were present: conferences, writings, debates, consultancy, and training sessions. Or in brief conversations in the magnificent and revealing garden of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, an institution that supported these projects. Those were privileged years of experimentation and innovation. One of the results in which we went the furthest was the immersive training in art for childhood, which has since continued its unique path. Without a doubt, Colwyn Trevarthen’s inspiration is present in the model created. For this reason, the publication Florir a Sul – Para cuidar de todas as infâncias —which provides a general overview of the work of Companhia de Música Teatral in the field of adult training, detailing the most recent immersive training laboratories promoted by Cineteatro Louletano—was dedicated to him.

At the end of July 2025, it was publicly presented after the performance for families and babies that culminated that summer’s course and artistic residency. There were red carnations, and a spontaneous choir of voices of all ages sang the melody of Grândola Vila Morena. I believe that, on that day, the mystery of birds flying together was almost deciphered.

Being present at the Rhythm, Sympathy, and Human Being Conference — at the Reid Concert Hall of the University of Edinburgh on March 21, 2025 — is a privilege. Because this event celebrates the life and work of Colwyn Trevarthen, bringing together family, friends, and colleagues. Throughout his life, in various ways, Colwyn sought to connect people from diverse professional fields, whom he believed, for some reason, should meet one another. It is significant that, after his passing, he continues to bring us together. We are together because he had a relationship with each of us, and there is a sense of belonging that unites us in his work, in his legacy. Just like the birds that flew together on that late afternoon when Colwyn gazed at the sky, there is an invisibility that binds us. A presence, therefore.

And so, the mystery of the birds’ choral flight is explained.

Thank you, Colwyn, thank you all.

Dedicated to Colwyn Trevarthen

Book Flowering South — Caring for Children

ZYG – Experimentar

Jardim Interior (Inner Garden) – Thank you to Colwyn Trevarthen

Colwyn Trevarthen:

1. Consultant and honorary mentor for the immersive training art for childhood

The birth of a baby is the arrival of a person seeking relationships with friends, expecting to see, hear, and hold an embrace of life with affectionate companions, ready for sympathy in every pulse and tone of movement, and for sharing stories in a theatre of playful, melodious adventure. This is the message of Companhia de Música Teatral, and of GermInArte.

Historial: Jardim Interior #2015; Caleidoscópio #2016; Dabo Domo #2017; Jardim Interior #2019; ZygZag&Zoom#2020; i.lab Mil Pássaros #2021; i.lab Mil Pássaros #2022; i.lab Mil Pássaros #2023; i.lab Mil Pássaros #2024

Filmography of immersive training: Jardim Interior; Caleidoscópio; Dabo Domo; Voar da ponta dos dedos

2. Publications

Rodrigues, Helena; Rodrigues, Paulo M.; Correia, Jorge. 2008. Communicative musicality as creative participation: From early childhood to advanced performance. In Communicative Musicality – Exploring the Basis of Human Companionship, ed. Malloch, S. & Trevarthen, C., 585 – 610. ISBN: 978-0-19-856628-1. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rodrigues, H. M., & Rodrigues P. M (2017). Collective musicality: Stories of healing from Companhia de Musica Teatral and other musical projects. In Daniel, S. and Trevarthen, C. (Eds.) Rhythms of Relating in Children’s Therapies: Connecting Creatively with Vulnerable Children. London: Jessica Kingsley, pp. 294-310.

Trevarthen, C. (2016). Prefácio para Opus Tutti. In Ecos de Opus Tutti, ed. Helena Rodrigues, Paulo Ferreira Rodrigues e Paulo Maria Rodrigues, Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 5-10.

Trevarthen, C. (2018). A child is born with a human spirit, seeking joy in companionship, In Ecos de GermInArte, ed. Helena Rodrigues, Paulo Ferreira Rodrigues e Paulo Maria Rodrigues, Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, 346-371.