It’s a special thing, being overwhelmed by the feeling that the music you are listening to somehow always must have been here, and always will be. This was what hit me tonight as I turned on the radio – the purity of the intervals and melodies falling naturally together in ‚O Ecclesia‘ by Hildegard von Bingen, by herself described as the “music of the universe”. This suitable description became an important link to our talk with composer Konstantia Gourzi shortly before the concert. We discussed how, in the second we categorize music, we indirectly also make the concept of it narrower.
We then played with the thought that, maybe, there is no such thing as “old” or “new”, “classical” or “romantic”; maybe it is all just simply music. As I was aware that Gourzis piece ‚messages between the trees‘ was going to be premiered directly after ‚O Ecclesia‘, I was waiting for the moment of a clear change. Instead, I was left in complete fascination, accompanied by the insisting ostinato and the gradually more contrasting melody, sparklingly interpreted by Nils Mönkemeyer on viola. Unconsciously aware that the intervals and harmonies were no longer from the middle age, it took me till the very last note to realize I had just heard both pieces, not as two, but as one great experience of music, written with a 1000 year time gap.