2024 . . . wind ensemble (7:10) TC-138
My first of five visits to the ancient Moravian city of Brno was in 1991, shortly after the Velvet Revolution liberated Czechoslovakia and shortly before it became the Czech Republic. The old (“staré”) center of the city is a cobble-stoned plaza with tram tracks running across, surrounded by Austrian-era buildings. There you could often find a Moravian folk music group performing, fall kiosk vendors serving fermented cider, or a holiday bazaar in the snow. Local lore says the plaza and nearby green market are the center of Brno, the central city of old Czechoslovakia, itself in the center of the European continent. With a medieval castle and twin-spire cathedral, Brno was also the beloved home of Leoš Janáček, the great early modern Moravian composer, whose music provided the themes for the ostinato variation textures of this new soundscape.
Thomas Clark - composer / digital artist 