The Goddess of Žítková - Jan Vičar
„I first encountered the traditions of the Kopanice (Moravian Highlands) and the Žítková goddesses in 2004 when I created the cycle Towards the Mountains for the Czech boys and male voice choir, Boni Pueri. The unique folk formations of the Kopanice villagers can be found mostly in Josef Černík’s collections of songs. I used them later more times when composing for choirs.
The orchestral fantasy The Goddess of Žítková is freely inspired by the nature of the White Carpathians and the literary works of the priest Josef Hofer, ethnographer Jiří Jilík and writer Kateřina Tučková. However, it is not a work of folklore (with the exception of a short reference in the last part). On the contrary, it freely uses contemporary methods of composition, some of which are personal, e.g. the choice of intervals, glissando as a component of the theme, diaphony, sfumato, the method of a scattered theme, spectral harmony, the divination of tea leaves and so on. What is rather unusual in the orchestration is the use of a female voice in the third part. The 16-minute-long piece consists of four contrasting parts, entitled: Žítková, Vyškovec, Zaříkání bouře (Exorcism of the Storm) and Chabová in the score.
The composition originated in 2015 as a project of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. It was premiered on 10th December, 2015 in the Reduta in Olomouc at a season concert of the Moravian Philharmonic with the Mezzo, Barbora Martínková-Polášková as the soloist and Marek Štilec as the conductor.
Parts only for hire at nakladatelstvi@rozhlas.cz
Other compositions by Jan Vičar published in Czech Radio:
Homage to Fiddlers