Mundus invisibilis (The Invisible World) part I for string quartet

Sinfonietta Riga string quartet

Kristiāna Šīrante (first violin)
Agnese Kanniņa-Liepiņa (second violin)
Artūrs Gailis (viola)
Kārlis Klotiņš (cello)

The compositional idea of the string quartet ‘’Mundus invisibilis’’ (The Invisible World) was conceived by observing the various forms of fungal mycelium and translating the spatial image of its branched underground network into time. The nuclei of fungal cells which move freely through the whole mycelium appear in this composition as pulses or pulse structures of various types and lengths. From them, a number of audible macrostructures or bodies of sound are born that one can imagine as fungi themselves. The electronic track consists mainly of percussive impulses of damped strings and their reverberations in the piano body. 
The 18th century botanist Carl Linnaeus called the world of microorganisms invisible to the human eye, including fungi and their spores, ‘’Mundus invisibilis’’. Before him, ‘’Mundus invisibilis’’ described the intangible, evasive realm inhabited by souls and spirits. In my worldview, there is a similarity and connection between the two, which I explore in this piece. It may well be that the world of spirits is interwoven and connected by threads even finer than those of the already elusive mycelium network.

Image: the ink drawing by Ilze Paklone

/Mundus invisibilis/ part I for string quartet 2020

Anna is a Latvian composer working in the areas of chamber music, opera, music for choir, instrumental solo pieces and electroacoustic musi. Fascinated by the most intricate properties of sound, she approaches it as a live organism that embodies a musical form in itself. Her work is often created in close collaboration with musicians, exploring the finest timbral, textural and technical possibilities of each instrument that eventually lead to meticulously designed sonoric architectures. Inspired by the mysteries of nature, she steps with it into a conversation through her music, colliding disciplined rationality and scientific research with feminine intuition and sensitive plasticity.
In 2019 her Tree Opera. Windthrow for eight voices, chamber ensemble and electronic track was premiered in Finland by the Grammy Award winning Latvia Radio Choir, chamber ensemble and Swedish Paetzold contrabass recorder player Anna Petrini. Anna is currently working on a composition for symphonic orchestra and large choir Carmen Sibyllae (Song of the Sibyl), based on Virgil’s 4th Eclogue, anticipated premiere in 2021.

/Mundus invisibilis/ part I for string quartet 2020

Anna Fišere (Composer)