Пјеније - Pyeniye - Chant

Jonah Kartman, violin and and Stefan Kartman, cello.
American premiere at the Faculty Artist Concert Series, DePaul University Gannon Hall, May 1, 2022.
PROGRAM NOTES:
Melodiousness of the sacred christian incantation inspired the sonorous idea of this composition. Many motives of the Chant derived from Orthodox sacred singing tradition, like an echo of monodic medeival chants. Chanting between two instruments is colored with the very specific melisma of mysterious Byzantine past which is gradually transforming into contemporary musical structure.
Free flowing rhythm is another element from the medeival church incantation in which we feel the rhythm only as a result of imaginary liturgic texts. The «absence» of the metric feeling in the first section of the «Chant» is accompanied by the drone, which is not just one sustained tone, but rather a pulsating «voice» with resonating vibrations defined by rhythmic modulations. The rhythm will be established as ostinato appears in the middle section of the piece. In the melodious epilogue of two instruments we will recognize the beginning motives one more time, however this dialogue will be in the new modality of the lowest register of the violin and cello duo.
Пјеније/Chant (Pyenye) was commissioned by award winning cellist Nemanja Stankovic for the project «New Serbian Music for Cello» and the CD Traces. The concert was scheduled to be presented in March of 2020, but due to the pandemic, it premiered in 2021 at the Cultural Centre in Paris.