Edition: II
Bio/Studies
Vít Zouhar(1966) composer, musicologist and senior lecturer. During his youth he was educated in music by his parents. He studied composition at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno (Ištvan) and Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz (Pagh-Paan, Pressl), and musicology at Masaryk University in Brno. At the Janáček Academy he completed his postgraduate studies. He also took part in composition courses at Accademia Chigiana in Siena (Donatoni) and in Darmstadt (Cage, Xenakis).
Career
Zouhar has composed more than fifty chamber, orchestral and electro-acoustical works, performances and sound installations. His operas Coronide (2000) and Torso (with T. Hanzlík, 2003) were staged at the National Theater Prague and Teatro Asioli Corregio and numerous festivals; Noci Dnem (2005) was commissioned by National Theater Brno. The ballett Wide Crossing (1996) was performed at Opernhaus Graz and die Theater Künstlerhaus Wien. 2009 National Theatre Prague commissioned music by Zouhar for the Julius Zeyer play Radúz and Mahulena. Zouhar’s chamber works were commissioned by various ensembles and festivals and were performed among other at Prague Spring, Schleswig-Hollstein-Musikfestival, Hörgänge Wien, New Music Festival Ostrava Days, Forfest, Mélos-Etos Bratislava, Music of our Age Budapest, International Music festival Brno, etc. His orchestral pieces were performed by Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra etc. As composer in residence he served at the IEM Graz and at the Werkstadt Graz and won various prestigious awards including honors in the Musica Nova competition, Generace competition, Scholarship of the City Graz. He works in close collaboration with DAMA DAMA percussion ensemble and Ensemble Damian. Zouhar’s works were released on various CDs. 2004 he published a book Postmodern Music? German Debate at the End of 20th Century. He reconstructed original version of Poème électronique by Edgard Varèse for IEM-CUBE and takes part on The Bohuslav Martinů Complete Edition and serves as vice-president of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation, Prague. 2008 he published together with Zdeněk Zouhar the book Dear Friend. Bohuslav Martinů’s Letters to Zdeněk Zouhar. 2001 Zouhar co-founded together with Josef Gründler program Slyšet jinak / Anders hören, oriented on new ways in music education. Since 1992 Zouhar has been teaching in the Department of Music Education at the Palacký University Olomouc and since 1995 he has been working in the Board of Directors of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation. 2003 he was elected vice-president of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation. Between 2003-2006 he worked at the Faculty of Education, Palacký University Olomouc as a vice dean.
Notes on the Musma Composition
“Knots”, a finger points, for piano solo
The piece “Knots” is based on eponymous book by R. D. Laing. Various patterns, music gestures and idioms are coupled and overlapped in that piece together, while their interactions form a piano fairly (un)known landscape. Knots, where different gestures are in touch, play a double role: the sense gets thru the changing context new means, the structure new points. Returns in the piece make connotation to three-part form as well as processed structures, and oscillation between expressive and virtuoso style with passage like material links to Franz Liszt´s piano language. The subtitle “a finger points” describes the frame before the finger touches the key and makes parallels between “pointing the key”, “pointing thru the key” by pianist, and Laing´s finale sentence in “Knots”: “The statement is pointless The finger is speechless”.
