Jan Dobiáš: Rozdvojení téhož I Doodles, PMP Ensemble, R. Dahinden

JAN DOBIÁŠ: ROZDVOJENÍ TÉHOŽ (SPLITTING THE SAME IN TWO)
(World premiere)

Prague Music Performance
March 24 2024
DOX+

Doodles
PMP Ensemble
Roland Dahinden – conductor

The whole idea behind the composition „Splitting the Same in Two“ was to bring together the Prague gay choir Doodles and the PMP Ensemble in one single work, an idea as ambitious as planning a joint performance between Marta Kubišová and the Ensemble Intercontemporain. This postmodern combination of heterogeneous, even opposing elements was reflected in the work‘s concept. Jan Dobiáš works with explicit or latent male homosexual themes. The texts are coupled with music that does not belong to the time period. This, and their mutual proximity, puts them in a new context. The title of the musical piece is inspired by Plato‘s idea presented in his Symposion. Originally there were meant to be three kinds of beings – male, female, and hermaphrodite. Zeus split them in two, creating three kinds of couples – heterosexual, male homosexual, and female homosexual. Each half of these pairings then yearns to return to the other. Shakespeare is rapped to, medieval Greek liturgical text is paired with music inspired by contemporary Baltic composers. The soloists‘ texts are sequenced from the most recent to the oldest, their musical inspirations are reversed chronologically (the words of the Czechoslovak legionary combined with ancient Greek micro-interval modes, etc.). Novelty or distinctiveness (definitions of these terms vary) is not sought in the compositional tools themselves, but in their arrangement and juxtaposition.

Director: © Marek Bouda