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The Czech composer Kryštof Mařatka (1972), who lives and works in Prague and Paris, is one of the emblematic figures of current musical creation. His fascination for world folk music, the birth of language in Man, prehistoric art and the spiritual question of origins and time determines his major orientations, which lead as far as the discovery of new paths of musical expression. The Báchorky - pastoral fables (2016) call for eight Czech and Moravian folk instruments in an stunning combination with the clarinet, viola and piano. Unique specimens, these folk instruments - bezovák (small idioglot-reed clarinet), kamzičí roh (fawn horn), hadrářská píštalka sopránová (soprano whistle), nosová flétna (nose flute), hadrářská píštalka altová (alto whistle), pastýřská trouba (pastoral horn), kostěná flétna (bone flute), koncovka (harmonic flute) - are part of the composer’s collection and come from the workshop of Vít and Jan Kašpařík. They give a plausible image of what rudimentary pastoral instruments could be. The work’s title refers to a genre stemming from Czech oral creativity, ‘báchorka’ designating an invented story, unrealistic and mystifying, which arouses curiosity. Kryštof Mařatka plays the piano part with the left hand and the folk instruments with the right. It is possible to resort to a pianist and a woodwind musician who will learn to play the folk instruments. In his composition, Kryštof Mařatka starts from characteristics of the folk instruments: scale and limited range, modal melodic playing method, pitches sometimes random or untempered, letting micro-intervals appear. He thus brings out their unique natural colour and plunges the listener in a universe of bewitching sonic beauty.
article posted by:Manuela Matalon Ostrolenk, Arion Music