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Kvinterna:
Medieval Inspiration
Mittelalterliche Inspiration
F1 0095-2
Total time - 64:47 |
- The Creator 5:43
- Chaos 1:13
- Earth 2:25
- Water 3:51
- Air 3:10
- Fire 3:52
- Mercury 4:41
- Sulphur (fragment) 0:59
- The PhilosophersÔ Stone 4:20
- Elohenu welohe (psalm) 5:19
- On das do mar 5:58
- A que por muy gran (fragment) 7:48
- Como poden 3:25
- A Virgen Santa Maria 3:00
- La rosa enflorece 3:14
- Cuando el rey Nimrod 5:19
- Shofar 0:23
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Presse- und Medieninformation
One of the main areas of interest of the members of
Kvinterna is music of thirteenth and fourtheenth-century Christian and
Jewish Europe. Apart from medieval Spanish songs such as "Cuando el rey
Nimrod" or "La rosa enflorece", its repertoire also includes Bohemian
music and music of the royal court, particularly that which was
contemporary during the reign of Emperor Charles IV. Kvinterna performs
music inspired by medieval alchemy.
An important part of all its performances is
improvisation by its members, who also compose and then perform their
own compositions. They use copies of period instruments and various
'ethnic' instruments, and often non-European, oriental influences,
ornamentation, and rhythmic models appear in their music. Their aim in
interpretation is to revive the inspirational multicultural environment
of a former age. The ensemble renewed its activity in 1994 and since
that time regularly performs at home and abroad.
It takes part in various festivals of ancient and also
alternative music. Kvinterna's concerts often have a theatrical quality,
where the music is reinforced by movement and light. It collaborates
with radio and television, and recently took part in the making of an
American documentary film about alchemy in Bohemia. Previous recordings
by Kvinterna include Dvorska hudba doby Karla IV (Music of the Court
from the Time of Charles IV), used in the film Magister Theodoricus,
which was part of the 1998 National Gallery exhibition of the same name
in Prague, and Ritualy stredoveku (Rituals of the Middle Ages).
KVINTERNA: Hana Blochova - vocal, portative
organ; Milan Bilek - percussion; Pavel Polasek - bombarde (shawn),
recorders, shofar, santur, vocal; Premysl Vacek - lute; Petr Vyoral -
treble fiddle, kvinterna;
guests: Dan Dlouhy - percussion (1 - 7, 9, 10, 16);
Petr Filak - "ud" arabian lute (11 - 13); Lubomir Holzer - percussion
(6, 8, 11 - 14), vocal (13); Michal Sodja - didjeridu (6, 8),
shakuhachi, jew's harp (11,12); Libor Stetkar - vocal (13); Milos
Valenta - alto fiddle (11, 13, 14).
Alchemy is the hermetic art, teaching about the
spiritual life of matter, its development, and transformation. It is
philosophy and mysticism. From the beginning it was called Music. It
demonstrates that matter, from its inception, through the Spirit, by
necessity heads towards perfection. The first creative principle of the
existence of matter in creation, according to the medieval alchemists,
is the 'Black Madonna'. The first substance, prima materia, of the
symbolic colour black, is the primitive matter created by God, and is
called Chaos.
All matter arose from this through the interaction of
the four elements and three principles. The first differentiation of
primitive matter led to two contrary alchemistical principles - symbolic
Mercury and Sulphur. In alchemy, transformation into the first spiritual
state is called the stage of Mercury and takes places symbolically as
dissolution. It is understood as the feminine principle and its colour
is white. The concluding part, namely, mystic death, is a necessary
condition of the initiation of the Spirit on the path to the preparation
of the Great Work. The alchemistical stage of Sulphur represents the
masculine principle and the synthesis of matter. Its colour, red,
represents the element of fire, symbolizing power, the apostleship, the
supremacy of Spirit over matter. Medieval Christian alchemy links it
with the blood of the crucified Christ and with the apocalyptic stage of
Christianity. The final apocalyptic transformation was the gate that had
to be passed through to enter the final stage of the Great Work, namely,
the preparation of the Philosophers' Stone. Both principles - Mercury
and Sulphur - are connected or divided by a third principle - the
harmonizing energy of the salt of the Stone. They are the effect of
contrary forces in Nature, and in the Middle Ages were depicted as
warring female and male figures with the attributes of both principles.
This recording came about only as the result of
broader circumstances. The music is therefore not an artificial
creation, but a statement in time. The elaboration of my philosophical
and musical conception is the result of collaboration between all
members of the group Kvinterna and its guests. We developed the proposed
musical themes on the basis of our own improvisation, our experience of
interpretation as a group, and astrological predestination. The
composers of the supporting melodies of the parts of Materia prima for
the individual elements are Petr Vyoral (Earth, fidula, the earth sign
Taurus), Pavel Polasek (Water, santur, the water sign Pisces), Premysl
Vacek (Air, lute, the air sign Gemini). The 'ethnic' instruments of
Michal Sodja (didgeridoo, the fire sign Aries) create the archetypal
basis of the 'Fire' and 'Sulphur' parts. A role equally expressive and
in some parts dominant is played here by the rhythmic element, which not
only has the function of creating rhythms and imitating sounds, but
often also evokes the atmosphere of the broader space of the work. The
creative completion of other parts of Materia prima - 'Chaos' and 'Fire'
- is an example of the compositional contribution of Dan Dlouhy (drums,
the water sign Pisces) in colloboration with Milan Bilek (drums, the
water sign Cancer). 'Mercury', representing the feminine principle,
dissolution, is my variation on the late fourteenth-century song in
praise of the Blessed Virgin Mary, 'O Virgo splendens', from the convent
in Montserrat, Catalonia, and is interpreted with a multi-dimensional
musical layering. The canon for two voices, supported by the special
sound of regular beating on a metal kettle, creates the melodic and
rhythmic base, taking place in real time, over which, with the effective
sound-imitation of gongs and other metal percussion instruments, the
dialogue of the bombard (a bass shawm) and woman's voice soars.
'Sulphur' (synthesis, the masculine principle ) is a commemorative
fragment on the work of the percussionist Lubom'r Holzer, and has here a
system-creating function. 'Stone' uses the acoustic spreading of aliquot
tones of singing, of Tibetan bowls, and of the banging of gongs, in the
chapter house of a monastery against the musical background of a
parlando of a magical Latin text; in terms of content it relates to the
emergence of the Philosophers' Stone and spiritual gold. The
introductory Sephardic song 'Criador', comes from thirteenth-century
Spain, and is dedicated to the Creator and the celebration of His work,
as is the case with the closing psalm, 'E lohenu Welohe'. This
alchemistic musical cycle, inspired by Christian and Jewish philosophy
and also by the music of medieval Spain with demonstrable influences of
the Orient, is joined by Spanish music of the period - the 'cantigas',
which come mainly from the thirteenth century. 'On das do mar', 'A que
por', and 'Como poden' are from the anthology Cantigas de amigo; the
song 'A virgen Santa Mar'a' comes from the Marian songs known as
Cantigas de Santa Mar'a. The songs of the Sephardic Jews, 'La rosa
enflorece' and 'Quando el rey Nimrod' originated in old Spain. The
interpretation of original work, just like passages of new musical
improvisation, is influenced by the encounter of various cultures, which
for us is a re-discovered source of inspiration.
Hana Blochova
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