Amithāba is the principal Budhha in Pure Land Buddhism, who is known as Amitāyus. Amithāba means “Infinite Light” or “Infinite Life” in Sanskrit.

The structure of Amithāba is based on a textile weave, where each voice has its own repetition. Throughout the piece, the change of each repetition depends on theimprovisation of singers who can use the “techniques” of the oldest singing style known as Drupha Darbar, which uses sounds and syllables rather than words. I am using the scale of Indian Sāranga raga, which expresses no pathos, but only tenderness. 

Over the course of the work, the role of the interweaving-repetitive patterns is to create the sound of the abstract, which goes beyond boundaries and is limitless.

The work was commissioned by the Melos - New Vocal Music Collective and premiered by the Melos - New Vocal Music Collective (Justina Leinartaitė, Karolina Macytė, Gabrielė Bilevičiūtė, Gabija Adamonytė, Karolina Ramonė, Ūla Marija Barbora Zemeckytė, Augustė Andrijauskaitė, Evita Rudžionytė ir Juta Pranulytė) and the Cello Club (Povilas Jacunskas, Domas Jakštas, Arnas Kmieliauskas, Evaldas Petkus ir Rokas Vaitkevičius) in 2022.

Amithāba

Profile photo by © Martynas Aleksa

Each composition is based on the transformation of the various textile patterns or weaves into musical language. The methodology of mapping is concluded in PhD thesis at Durham University.  Textile patterns reflects distinct motions and atmosphere due its different structure and description. Indian ragas serves for the structure of harmony in order to construct a close relationship between sounds and textile patterns. Every Indian ragas has its own time, duration, specific mode of pitches as the textile patterns, which reflect various cultures and weaving methods.

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