Horizons (2013) for symphony orchestra

Commissioned by the “Gaida” festival, “Horizons” was premiered on October 18th, 2013 in Vilnius by the Lithuanian State Symphony Orchestra, conductor Mārtiņš Ozoliņš.

Composed at Blue Dragonfly Studio for which I am eternally grateful to my Mother, Edita and Kostas. This piece is dedicated to them.


“Horizons” is revolving around the principle of several parallel stories evolving simultaneously as if reflecting fragmented states of consciousness that are so typical in current times and also expressed in various artistic forms. Examples that inspired me the most were the movies “Cloud Atlas” and “The Hours” and a book by Italo Calvino “If on a winter’s night a traveler”. 

Fragments of the multilayered narrative in “Horizons” emerge to the foreground one after the other without necessarily being obviously interrelated or having a consequential transition between them. They comprise a static layer, shown every time from a different perspective by nearing or furthering the musical object while retaining a stable harmonic point of reference or a dynamic layer featuring repetitive accelerating rhythms and frequent changes of elements. Throughout the piece, the listener undergoes a constant shift from one story to another, from one musical world to another, thus attempting to disintegrate the experience of a predictably logical sequence and to disrupt the linearity of time.


Horizons

Performed at Gaida festival by "Jauna Muzika" choir, conductor Vaclovas Augustinas.

The Blue Of Distance (2010)

Driving Force (2004) 
For trombone, tenor saxophone and accordion. 
Commissioned by GAIDA festival (Lithuania).
Performed by Mike Svoboda (trombone), Liudas Mockūnas (tenor saxophone) and Raimondas Sviackevičius (accordion)

Driving Force

For piano and string orchestra.

Premiered on October 21st, 2017 at "Gaida" festival in Vilnius, Lithuania. Performers: Gabrielius Alekna (piano) and Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra, conductor Robertas Šervenikas

Mostly used in the context of visual art, chiaroscuro (it. chiaro – light, scuro- dark) is a word that encompasses both - darkness and light and thus profoundly reflects the very essence of our existence. Visual artists throughout the ages were fascinated by light, which can only be made visible through a violent contrast. In this piece I was exploring darkness and light through sounds in varied proportions and their relation to one another. Every part of the trilogy focuses on a particular aspect of this relationship, encompassing a large scale of gradations from the light of darkness to the darkness of light. The in-between states of shadows are created through a timbral use of string instruments woven into a textural density of micro-gestural movements. In Part I "Tunnel" both states of light are clearly juxtaposed with a subtle gradual transition from darkness into a stark light. Part II "Meteors" resides entirely in the dark with randomly illuminating streaks of light. Part III "Darkness of Light" brings us to the presence of light with ever-present shadows of darkness.

Chiaroscuro Trilogy (2017)

Premiere performances by Volti on May 4th, 2018 at Noe Valley Ministry in San Francisco, CA and May 6th, 2018 at BAMPFA (in Berkeley, CA)

Chant des Voyelles (2018)
Incantation of Vowels

Commissioned by Volti, Robert Geary, Artistic Director

Continuously living in two languages - my native Lithuanian and English, I had an unresolved ambiguity about the choice of language for the text. I realized that whichever I was going to use - it would be a translation of some sort, either for me or for the listeners and singers. I was aiming for something more direct, a communication that goes beyond words and supersedes them. That's how I came to vowels thinking how they are almost the very first sounds we make when we attempt to speak as babies.

In the autumn of 2017, I was at a creative residency at the Pocantico Center, which is located at the Rockefeller estate Kykuit near New York City. There among a rich collection of outdoor sculptures, I encountered a work by the cubist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz called "Chant des Voyelles". It was titled after an Egyptian prayer composed only of vowels that was designed to subdue the forces of nature. Further research showed that many ancient traditions (Egyptians, Greeks and Tibetans) ascribed sacred, mystical and healing powers and significance to vowels. The details might vary in different traditions, yet it is clear that something miraculous happens through the very act of prolonged repetition of certain vowels - whether in the form of a mantra or prayer or as a self-healing ritual. Also each vowel in elongation stimulates an appearance of particular overtones of the natural harmonic series. I wanted to experiment with subtly shifting, sometimes barely audible clouds of overtones resulting from the sustaining of certain vowels in multiple voices. I worked with vowels dedicating an entire section to one single vowel and then also mixing them up in various densities. I have yet to find out together with the singers and listeners what effects these vowels might have.

Chant Des Voyelles

Part III of the piece "In Search Of Lost Beauty"

for cello, violin, piano and electronics.

Performed by the ensemble FortVio: Indrė Baikštytė (piano), Ingrida Rupaitė-Petrikienė (violin) and Povilas Jacunskas (cello).

Ephemeral

Winter 
Spring 8:49
Summer 17:05
Autumn 25:10
Sielunmaisema translated from Finnish means a "soul-landscape, a particular place that a person carries deep in the heart and returns to often in memory.“ It can be described as a landscape that "hits you in the center of your chest, the one you that immediately feels like home." According to the linguist Viktorija Daujotytė "a perceived landscape becomes a soul-landscape or an image and language of consciousness. Landscape is a language formed by a specific place and its people, it is primal poetry preserving the oldest intertwining between nature and language."

Soul-landscape is related to questions of identity and place which resonate with two parallel cultural identities that I carry within - my native Lithuanian and later acquired American. My physical home keeps changing and the only thing that remains is music. In this case, the piece itself becomes an ideal soul-landscape reflecting a native environment as seen through the prism of four seasons.

How many summers does one need to live through to capture the very essence of it? Memory is inherently participating in the creation of a soul-landscape and there is nostalgia for the past as well as for the changing landscape due to global warming.  What is remembered and deeply engraved in our mind often doesn't correspond with reality any longer. Only memories hold those freezing cold winters with -30 C temperatures or a gradual transition from summer to autumn.

Sielunmaisema (2019)

Part II "Blue" of the piece "In Search Of Lost Beauty..." (2016) for piano, violin, cello, electronics and video. Concept and music by Žibuoklė Martinaitytė.

Performed by the FortVio: Indrė Baikštytė (piano), Ingrida Rupaitė-Petrikienė (violin) and Povilas Jacunskas (cello)

Blue

Commissioned by Lithuanian Radio on the occasion of “Vilnius - Culture Capital of Europe 2009”. Premiered by Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (conductor Juozas Domarkas) on September 26th, 2009 in Vilnius.
“A Thousand Doors To The World” is a personal reflection and musical offering to the city of Vilnius, Lithuania where I lived most of my life.
The sources of inspiration for this piece were found in the literary and historical texts about Vilnius, in old photographs from the 19th century and old maps where places in the city were depicted which no longer exist. The title of the piece is a line from Moshe Kulbak’s poem “Vilnius”. Three sections of the piece flow into each other without interruption and each of them has its own contextual world of meanings/subtexts/contexts revealed through various quotations about Vilnius. 

Part I     City of Semantic Misapprehensions (quote from Czeslaw Milosz) 
Part II    Lost City (quote from Vladas Drėma) 
Part III   A Thousand Doors To The World (quote from Moshe Kulbak)


A Thousand Doors to the World (2009)

concert recording of October 17th, 2020 at the festival "Muzikos ruduo" in Vilnius, Lithuania.
Ensemble Synaesthesis, conductor Karolis Variakojis

Solastalgia (2020)
for clarinet, piano, violin, viola and cello

Solastalgia has its origins in the concepts of “solace” and “desolation”. The meaning of solace is connected to the alleviation of distress or to the provision of comfort or consolation in the face of distressing events. Desolation is related to abandonment and loneliness. The suffix -algia has connotations of pain or suffering. Hence, solastalgia is a form of “homesickness” like that experienced with traditionally defined nostalgia, except that the victim has not left their home or home environment. Solastalgia, simply put, is “the homesickness you have when you are still at home”. This term is related to the anguish caused by environmental changes and global warming. It acquired some new meanings throughout the time of the global pandemic where we all have been experiencing a lack of solace and longing for life itself as we've known it.
The concept of nostalgia is one of the essential components that has been threaded through my work and solastalgia conveys yet another gradation, another layer of it.

Zibuokle Martinaityte

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