Trust in Heart (2016-18) – Slavomír Hořínka (Czech Republic)
My inspiration came from experience in the French village Taizé.
I stood directly below a relatively low bell tower with five great bells during their ringing. The sound pressure was, for me, at the threshold of pain. I experienced the sound literally as haptic. I suddenly realized that my attention jumps completely uncontrolled between the various cuts of the rich sound spectrum of the bells, focusing on the beat of waves or wandering between the chosen frequencies.
What I see as crucial regarding the theme of your project is the change of listening (or generally perceiving) perspective. If I would paraphrase master Eckhardt: The ear through which I hear God is the same ear through which God hears me. If we experience the world deeply with our senses (especially hearing), we cannot stay indifferent to its wailing.
For the listener I am trying to create retrograde experience – gradual transition of focus from the piano sound into the sound of bells. This change of perspective of space (immersion) I am trying to recreate for performer in the piece through change of measuring of the time. (In our lives, time and space are bound like flesh and soul.) In one moment there is a change in measuring of musical time – it is from that moment determined by performers breathing.
This quote also appears in the score:
Si la confiance du cœur était au commencement de tout…
frère Roger Schutz
Ann adds: I love the mystical quality of this piece.
Slavomír Hořínka is composer who works and lives in Prague (Czech Republic) with his wife and four children. He is composing music focused primary on reducing of means and transparence of structure. As material he often uses melodic line, harmony or rhythm derived from sound analysis or music without copyright (plainchant, ethnic music etc.). In his most recent works, he has explored early instruments and the spatial aspect of music.
Slavomír Hořínka is associate professor at composition department of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU). He graduated as a violinist from the Pardubice Conservatoire (Czech Republic). Following that he studied composition at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts with Ivan Kurz (1999–2004). In 2008, he graduated with a PhD in composition under the guidance of Hanuš Bartoň. His compositions have been performed by the Czech Philharmonic, the BERG Orchestra, the Bennewitz Quartet, Cappella Mariana, Tiburtina Ensemble, Solamente naturali and others on major stages both at home and abroad.
Ann DuHamel 