Arizona Friends of Chamber Music
Commissioning program

SYLVIE BODOROVA

Quintet for Harp and Strings ("Mysterium Druidum")
(Audio from "Firedance" CD, with Kateřina Englichová and Wihan Quartet)

Premiered by Kateřina Englichová, Harp Jennifer Frautschi, Violin, Ik-Hwan Bae, Violin Nicole Divall, Viola, Felix Wang, Cello March 2003. Premiere available on our Festival CD collection Commissioned by AFCM. Sponsored by: Bob and Connie Foster.

Composer's website: http://www.bodorova.cz/en/index.php

Sylvie Bodorova on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvie_Bodorov%C3%A1

Performances: Many chamber performances, TV and radio performances, by Katerina Englichová and many different Quartets (Wihan, Haas, Kaprálová, Epoque, etc.)
Many orchestral performances by different orchestras (Symfonický orchestr Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic Orchestra Košice - Slovakia, Zlín Czech Republic asw).

CD: Arco Diva recording "Fire Dance", with Katerina Englichová and the Wihan Quartet, Live from the Gustav Mahler Festival 2009

Published: Arco Diva Management www.arcodiva.cz <http://www.arcodiva.cz>

Also an orchestral version (2003).

Ms. Bodorova studied composition at the Janacek Academy in Brno, the Academy of Music in Prague, and the Academia Chigiana. Since the 1980s her works have been performed worldwide and as far as the Antarctic, where her elegy for guitar, Homage to Columbus, was performed in 1997. She has won several competition prizes (Mannheim, Czech Radio Prague) and received numerous commissions, the latest from the Warwick Festival for her Terezin Ghetto Requiem. She belongs to the prestigious Czech composer group Quattro.

The composer writes: In the 18th century a huge Celtic gold treasure was discovered at Podmokly, near Pilsen, in the Czech Republic. Today we can still easily discern the characteristic wrinkles in the beautiful landscape of the woods around the castle of Krivoklat, testifying to the remains of Celtic settlements, the oppida. My studio is near the place where the treasure was found, and so I often wonder how much else has survived from that ancient culture.

The Celts lived here almost up to the 6th century AD. To this day they still fascinate many with their myths and cults. We learn most about them from the writings of Julius Caesar who has described their way of life and social hierarchy. The "all-knowing" Druids were an elite who ran things, including religious cults, and who acted as judges and decision makers. To become a Druid necessitated decades of preparation, special aptitudes and deep education. Although the Celts knew the Greek alphabet, the wisdom of the Druids was never allowed to be written down; it was passed only by aural tradition. That is perhaps why it is couched in so many mysteries and legends.. The secrets of the place I know so well have led me to write my Mysterium Druidum. The choice of harp here is not incidental-the Celts knew this instrument and used it, albeit in a different form.

The first movement, Fagus mysticus (Mystery beech), symbolizes Celtic belief in the power of trees. These cult trees represented a source of knowledge and security, and the Celts used tree murder as a symbol of the defeat of enemies.

The cradle of the Celts was found in Central Europe, one of their oldest settlements having been the oppidum Vindobona, where Vienna lies today.

Daemones ignis (Demons of fire) relates to the Celts' close affinity with nature-their respect, reverence, and interpretations of it.