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10
symphony Epilogue,because I did not want to more for symphonies. I had decided to write my
write more symphonies. Recently, the Orchestra First Symphony within two years of my graduaof Austrian Radio recorded my symphonic tion from the Conservatory. Where I got such
composition which surpassesall my symphonies impudence, I don't know. Maybe because at that
in its content and length. This composition is time of the Iron Curtain, Shostakovichhad lived
called Trauerfarbenes
Land. I could have called it and composed, and all of us were captivated by
the Eighth Symphony, but since I've already his music. We're lucky he was there for us,
because otherwise everything would have been
composed Epilogue,I did not want to do so.
anda much worse.
Q: Is thereany diferencebetweena 'symphony'
'largesymphoniccomposition'like Trauerfarbenes Q: What do you meanby that?
Land?
GK: I mean there was no musical information.
GK: I think there is a difference. In spite of the Shostakovich's music was the only modern
fact that the contemporary notion of symphony music available to my generation. There were
differsgreatlyfrom the conventional one in terms recordingsof his symphoniesavailable,conducted
of the form and dramaturgy,in the symphony by Ivanov. It gave me, a student in the Tbilisi
there always should be an attempt to express Conservatory, the only opportunity to
oneself completely and entirely, according to 'communicate' with the outside world. It was
the time in which this symphony is being only later that I discovered Mahler. I think it
composed. I think that any composer tries to [Shostakovich'smusic] saved us. And then 'The
express himself completely. After all, leaving Thaw' started in the 1960s, and we learned
something unsaid is a problem that stays with about the existence of Schoenberg, Webem, and
you forever. The length of the piece in itself is Berg, and the other composers, the avant-garde,
of no importance to me.
etc. This information was 'dropped' on us so
Q: And you becametiredof thatsymphoniccomplete- suddenly, all we had had before was
nessof utterance?
Shostakovich. We did not even know
GK: No, I did not get tired of that. To put it Prokofiev's early compositions.
simply: time has passed, and now I'm working Q: As you suggest,the SovietMinistryof Culture's
on different tasks which I've made for myself. higherfeesfor a symphonymighthave temptedyou
They are no less important than working in the intoworkingin thegenre.And peopletendto callyou
symphonic genre. Recently I finished a piano a 'Russiancomposer',
perhapsbecauseyou'vebeenso
for
the
Ensemble
in
and
in
an
'establishment
Seattle,
quartet
Bridge
prolific
genre' that was adopted
it premiered October 13th. In this piece, in and maintained by Russians like Prokofiev,
addition to the usual reasons for which my Miaskovsky,Shostakovich,etc. How do you, as a
music is always sorrowful, one more was added. Georgian,feel aboutthe label?
The piece could be especiallysad because I knew GK: If people consider me a Georgian composer,
I had to fly to the premiere and wouldn't be able I'm very happy with that. But I've never striven
to smoke duringthe flight.For me it was a tragedy. to demonstrate my national roots in my music.
Q: It wouldbe hardto comeup with a sequelto the I grew up on Georgian soil and listened to
Seventh,musicallyspeaking.Are yoursymphoniesto Georgian folk music from an early age, and I
be heardin sequence,the Fourthfollowingup on the absorbedinto myself all the best and worst in my
Third,the Sixth on the Fifth, and so on?
people. But the connections between my compGK: I don't think sequence plays any role at all. ositions and the music of my people are very
Q: Perhapsyourmoveawayfromthe symphonyhas indirect. That music lives inside me, as my
to do withyourgoing to the West,with new economic native language does.
commissions...?
Q: But everybodytalks about the influencesof
circumstances,
GK:My leaving Tbilisi was a spontaneous act. I Georgianfolkmusicon yourmusic...
was not going to stay in the West originally. In GK: If so, I'm very happy. I value Georgian
1991 I'd received a stipend from the German polyphonic folk music too highly to use it in my
Academy of Art, and I was planning to go back compositions, because I've always considered
to Tbilisi in 1992, but in 1992 the Civil War this music professional. The drawing up from
had started, and I'd decided to wait and see for this source scoop by scoop, as some colleagues
as long as my financial condition permitted. But of mine do, is plagiarismin some sense. But if
I was probably born under a lucky star, because someone thinks my music resembles Georgian
I've been getting one commission after another, folk music in its spirit, then I feel happy.
and that's why I'm still here. I'm visiting Tbilisi Q: Can we talk about the use of time in your
often, though. Maybe I had composed symphonies symphonies?Startingwith the Secondyou stopped
originally because the Ministry of Culture paid dividingyoursymphoniesinto movementsandseemed
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12
it comes
to me in the process of
composing.
Q: So can you describeyourselfas strivingfor something over this processof composition?Your answer
neednot describe
hearin
somethingwe cannecessarily
thefinishedproduct.
GK: I can tell you about my only wish: it is to have
felt scared, and this feeling I had never experienced before. I think that it was mostly Kurt
This content downloaded from 134.226.14.55 on Fri, 01 May 2015 23:32:47 UTC
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This content downloaded from 134.226.14.55 on Fri, 01 May 2015 23:32:47 UTC
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