Lili Boulanger: Pie Jesu

Lili Boulanger: Pie Jesu

played by Charles University Orchestra, sung by A. Mišoňová

Daniel Pitín: Soumrak v lese | Twilight in the Forest Inkorporace: exhibition in Vyšehrad Gallery, Prague (2. 9. - 3. 10. 2021)

Hildegard von Bingen: O Ignee Spiritus

Hildegard von Bingen (ca. 1098–1179) was a Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher and scientist. Her spirituality was based on the idea of umbra viventis lucis (the reflection of the living Light).

This piece also contains some beautiful light imagery, for example in the line et eius lucerna est desiderium (and desire is its [=the soul’s] lamp), in which the first syllable of the word lucerna is sung on the highest note of the phrase, creating a shining effect in the melody as well.

I will show this to the next person who tells me that the conductor is not so important because he just “waves his hands in front of the orchestra”.

"The World Will Go Vegan Without Realising It"

Bohumil Hrabal: Bambini di Praga 1947

“there are stains which cannot be cleaned without disrupting the structure of the fabric”

This quote demonstrates Hrabal’s art of aestheticization of banal phrases. The phrase is a a quote from an advertisement for a laundry detergent, but he gives it a completely different context and revives latent meanings in it, thus allowing it to come alive.