The Spectral Waltzer

for ensemble

for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, trumpet, trombone, percussion, piano, accordion, violin 1, violin 2, viola, violoncello, contrabasss

"It is interesting with what naturalness we approach the terms "classical" and "avant-garde", with what uncompromising we can distinguish them from each other in meaning. At the same time, these characteristics coexist in musical (and other artistic) works side by side with such a commonplace and organic interconnection that we are no longer able to distinguish so clearly.

We compose avant-garde music for classical instruments, we deal with musical history (and the present) in our work, we look for a contemporary language that would not be a simple negation of the past, which is not even possible. These and other questions occurred to me when composing a composition for the top Austrian ensemble Klangforum Wien – a bearer of tradition and at the same time a pioneer of contemporary music.

I've worked with the waltz genre before. Two Mephistophelian waltzes appeared in the score of my composition "To the Xylophony of Obscene Over Consciousness in Agony" for a chamber ensemble (2018).

In the spring 2022 in Switzerland, I worked on three "Spectral Waltzers 1.-3." for piano, organ or any other keyboard instrument ad lib. Because in Poschiavo, where I stayed, a few hundred years ago there were witch trials (there is even a museum for this), I also called these little waltzes "The Witch Waltzers 1.-3"."

František Chaloupka

Festival Pražské jaro / Prague Offspring / Prague Spring Festival 2023

https://festival.cz/en/koncerty/?categories=prague-offspring-en