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The Pursuit of Transcendental Organness in Modern Lithuanian Music
Bibliographic Description: Jūratė Landsbergytė-Becher, „Transcendentinio vargoniškumo siekis modernioje lietuvių muzikoje“, @eitis (lt), 2017, t. 1 008, ISSN 2424-421X.
Previous Edition: Jūratė Landsbergytė, „Transcendentinio vargoniškumo siekis modernioje lietuvių muzikoje“, Menotyra, 2009, t. 16, nr. 1–2, p. 62–72, ISSN 1392-1002.
Institutional Affiliation: Kultūros, filosofijos ir meno institutas.
Summary. As Lithuanian music started acquiring more modern features, the organ has gained in importance – it became an instrument of symbolic images that expresses the world in its entirety and is able of penetrating other spheres. Therefore, Lithuanian composers of the 20th century are closely related to the organ as they pursue the aims of not only regeneration of creation but also of restoration of historical values, national rebirth and spiritual awakening. The organ raises the creative process up to a necessary level – it opens the insight of universality, highlights the signs of space and time infinity, the feeling of transcendental resurrection. The organ’s peculiarity and transcendence are notions close to each other: the opening of spiritual space in organ sounds through meditation, prayer or empathy of nature has good opportunities for expression. The Lithuanian modernism of the organ is just based on such images as the elements of nature, cosmos and eternity.
The most important Lithuanian composers in this sense would be M. K. Čiurlionis, V. Bacevičius and B. Kutavičius. Čiurlionis aspired to the sound of universality by his art and music works, therefore, his organ peculiarity is as if the sign of his entire creation. The sonorous language of space and leitmotif symbols of his compositions for piano makes them more intense in depth and height, expands the scale of sound and often requires additional possibilities of writing down and is not only technically but also mentally imagined as that of the organ. One more very important fact is that the colors of the sound of Čiurlionis’ pictures and religious music impressed O. Messiaen, as his disciples testify (A. Rössler).
Meanwhile V. Bacevičius, who was a piano player and a radical modernist of the middle of the age, took up organ creation as an experimental sound bong and turning-point breathing of infinity, and performed his compositions himself in his organ concert. As a progressive author inspired by ideas, he attached special importance to the unusual possibilities of the instrument, and this was undoubtedly shown by his last opus of the organ outburst of 1934, namely “Jūros Poema” op. 26 (Poem of the Sea).
Later on, his organ creation line welled out into cosmic music – structural symbolism of the spirit of the universe (he created his own philosophy of cosmic spirit) – “Kosmoso spinduliai” (“Cosmic Rays,” New York, 1963).
However, the organ became a very important instrument in Soviet years when the religious music was prohibited. The organ could be used as a concert instrument, therefore, creative ideas could make their way by metaphors and symbols for creation of which the organ with its sound reflecting the creation of the world and the power of other time dimensions was also very suitable. This bong as the primeval vibration of nature, nation and world existence was heard by Bronius Kutavičius. His compositions (the trio “Prutena – užpustytas kaimas” (Prutena – buried village) for violin, organ and bells (1976), the oratory “Paskutinės pagonių apeigos” (The last Pagan Rites) for choir, soloist, organ and horns (1978), words by S. Geda) made a real breakthrough in the world of ideas and showed “a miracle” of intonation cell developmental possibilities that might impact the development of society, too. The process of history and creation with the participation of organ sound, which was the aim of the composer wishing to shake up and awaken the consciousness became the unity. The similar glimpses of process features with respect to Kutavičius and Čiurlionis manifest themselves in the sonata “Ad Patres” for organ (1984) under M. K. Čiurlionis’ cycle of pictures “Laidotuvių simfonija” (Funeral symphony, 1903). Its first version by B. Kutavičius for two organists speaks of the aspiration to expand the sonorous space of the organ and to use the instrument’s possibilities in a double way. The organ peculiarity here is based on ostinato as well as on the form of time infinity liked by Čiurlionis. It is obvious that the organ was a tool to express ideas of special importance in Lithuanian modernism.
