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Programme Note

Composer note:

I am touched most by the mysterious spiritualization of the Georgian tradition of folk music. In my opinion, the masterworks of the many-voiced folk music could only have been created as a result of joint artistic effort by highly gifted people. The more I admire this unknown genius, the more I realize that I have no right to tamper with its creations. The material in Magnum Ignotum has been rendered in a very simple manner and serves only one purpose: to evoke a state of mind in which humbleness lodges itself in the soul in anticipation of divine singing. The tape consists of four parts: a chant by a high priest, an authentic recording from the thirties of a three-voiced improvisation by West Georgian greybeards, a mix of natural and artificial tone colors, and a Georgian hymn sung by the vocal ensemble Rustawi. All this music is full of that mysterious spirit that I shall never be able to grasp.

--Giya Kancheli