Music for Piano, Voices and Orchestra
I. ThrenodyMusic for Piano, Voices and Orchestra is dedicated to the victims of the shooting at FF UK in Prague on 21. 12. 2023 and in Klánovice on 15. 12. 2023 and their bereaved
Program note
It is beyond my imagination, the pain one must feel after losing someone truly close in an act of unprecedented, horrifying violence. Everyone loses their relatives, not however in such a brutal way. I cannot imagine the grief of those who lost children or siblings. I can be nothing but sorry.
I don’t cry a whole lot and sadness is an emotion I try to avoid, but in the light of these lamentable events, I can’t stir away from mournful thoughts. I tried to capture my feelings about this event musically because it is hard for me to express them in words.
The composition of this piece started before the tragic December events, its main theme, however, was supposed to be, by a twisted coincidence, death, brutal death. It was supposed to only be in one movement, the first one, which I called Threnody and is mainly inspired by the works of Luboš Fišer and Krzysztof Penderecki.
The second movement, this time inspired by the works of Penderecki and Arvo Pärt. Pärt’s music usually has the ability to express ideas that words can’t really express.
The third movement begins with a motif from the first movement. It is an Elegy, slow, quiet, pensive. A lover of musical romance doesn’t find much material in this movement, it’s simple, consonant. It is not supposed to make you experience music, rather it should help you think.
Sometimes in music, its absence can express the greatest emotion. The strongest for me in this movement is a passage where the piano plays 18 variations of a four-tone melody, all separated by silences. It is these moments exactly that make me shed tears.
The fourth movement is called Hymnus. In it, a full-force choir is featured and sings the prayer for the dead:
Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuam leceat eis. Te decet hymnus, Deus, in Sion, et tibi reddetur votum in Ierusalem: exaudi orationem meam, ad te omnis caro veniet. Requiem aeternam dona eis, Domine, et lux perpetuam luceat eis.
There are two themes in this movement. First in the form of a cannon, the second composed of repeating chords. As the prayer is finished, the cannon returns in its most powerful moment. Besides Pärt, Górecki is an inspiration for this movement.
My music surely doesn’t capture all the emotions that it could. I do firmly believe, however, that it can evoke an intense experience.
To recall pain can be the hardest thing for a person. These events, however, are not to be forgotten.