Anájikon, the Angel in the Blue Garden
String quartet no. 3
op. 61, 2015
I. The Blue Rose
II. The Blue Bird
III. The Blue Moon, a. the bright side, b. turning, c. the dark side
For string quartet
Duration: 18 min.
World premiere: 12 November 2015, Kasseler Musiktage. Minguet Quartett
Album by ECM: Konstantia Gourzi/Anájikon
Edition: Universal Edition
Composer’s notes
Anájikon, the Angel in the Blue Garden is my third string quartet. It is part of a series of compositions dedicated to angels. Anájikon is the first composition in this series. Each composition in the series is composed for a different instrumentation.
Angels created as paintings or sculptures by artist friends inspired me to start this series of compositions in 2015. The music does not interpret the artwork but is close to it in terms of sound and creates a spiritual connection between the sculpture or painting and the music. Colour, form and sound are inseparable for me. Writing a composition with this “common world” in the background is for me a challenge and a gift.
The sculpture associated with the composition Anájikon, the Angel in the Blue Garden belongs to a series of sculptures by the Berlin artist Alexander Polzin that have a close association with angels.
The title Anájikon is self-invented, created through combinations of names and numbers and does not mean something existing. Each angel in this series stands in a specific-coloured garden. The garden in Anájikon corresponds to the limited space in which a contemplation of nature and a description of elements such as a rose, a bird, the moon with its light and dark side take place, as if we could observe everything up close without distance.
Everything that exists in this garden is blue. For me, the colour blue plays a strong spiritual role of its own, and the concept and dramaturgy of the piece is also based on this energy.
Anájikon, the Angel in the Blue Garden, consists of three movements, of which the third movement unfolds in three parts.
The first movement, The Blue Rose, begins with a theme led by the violin. In the middle of the movement, a new theme appears, which is taken over by all four voices in succession, as if the musical element is seeking a way to unite. The movement closes with a return to the beginning in a similar form.
In the second movement, The Blue Bird, the leading instrument is the viola, which leads the other three instruments in a musical conversation from the very beginning. On the one hand, the elements are fully composed, but the four musicians are also given the opportunity to shape the movement themselves, to interact freely with each other and to improvise with time and possible combinations of themes. For this reason, this movement sounds new every time.
The third movement, The Blue Moon, consists of three parts: the light side of the moon, the turning, the dark side of the moon. New timbres that did not appear in the first two movements appear here, developing and changing as if different viepoints were acoustically visible. The end of the movement – and the piece – sounds like a unison with four different playing styles, as if a tonal unification has taken place and as if there is a new beginning in the last bars.
Alexander Polzin, Engel I, 1990, photo: Bernd Kuhnert; Minguet Quartett, photo: Konstantia Gourzi
Press reviews
“Einen Kontrast setzte die Uraufführung von ‘Anájikon, The Angel in the Blue Garden’ der in München lehrenden griechischen Komponistin Konstantia Gourzi. Das von der Avantgarde ausgelöschte melodische Element feierte hier Auferstehung in leichter Ethno-Färbung – ‘Engelsklänge’, nicht weit entfernt von lyrisch-schöner Weltmusik.”
Hessische Niedersächsische Allgemeine, 14 November 2015
“Hiergegen wirkte ‘Anajikon, The Angel in the Blue Garden’ für Streichquartett der Griechin Konstantia Gourzi wie ein kostbares Idyll. Es erscheint anfangs eintönig. Aber dann kreist mehr und mehr schlichtes, antikisierendes Melodiewerk durch die Stimmen und enthüllt einen Zauber, eine Melancholie, welchen sich die Sinne kaum entziehen können.”
Neues Deutschland, 16 January 2016
“Laut- und klangmalerisch, mit pulsierendem Dauerton und Akkordverschiebungen im ersten Teil, einer elegischen Melodie in der Bratsche als ‘Blue Bird’ und flirrend verwobenen Glissandi in der Bratsche, chromatischen Tonverschiebungen über einem im Cello hin und her gestrichenen Dauerton im abschließenden ‘Blue Moon’ führte die Komposition die Zuhörer zur Blauen Stunde an einen zauberhaft entrückten Ort, dabei musikalisch Bezug nehmend auf eines der großen Motive der Bildenden Kunst, den ‘Hortus Conclusus’, in einer Abwandlung, nun nicht als Paradiesgarten der Jungfrau Maria, sondern als Verweilort eines einzelnen in seine Naturanschauung versunkenen Engels. Nur zögerlich löste sich nach den letzten Takten das Publikum aus seiner Verzauberung, und es gab großen Applaus für die Musiker und auch für Konstantia Gourzi.”
Augsburger Allgemeine, 22 October 2016