Prostý prostor / Simple Space

(2006)

for cello and one harmonic instrument

to Magdalena to Anssi Karttunen and Magnus Lindberg to play and to Kaija, Hannele and Kari as a thank you

first performance

Magnus Lindberg - piano

Anssi Karttunen - violoncello

30/9/2006 » Musica Strasbourg, Strasbourg

durata » 8′

When my son Jakub was born 4 years ago, I wrote in the first days and weeks – in this flight of joy about giving the new life – orchestral songs Writing Your Eyes on the poems of the young Czech poet and my friend Petr Borkovec. When Magdalena was born as the second child this joy was not smaller – but it was the second joy of that kind and you can never write twice the same piece, the same mood, the same emotion. But I had to write a piece also for her and I was looking during more than one year for something which would be special, only for her and for no one else. And I found it – surprisingly enough – in Porvoo. When I saw the church burnt down everything got connected. I imagined the stupid kids who did it, who would be stigmatized by this act for their whole lives and who would always miss a part of free space in their minds blocked by this youth action. And there was the city of Porvoo that missed the roof – it missed the noble space between the two high walls, it missed a part of identity space. That’s why the piece is called Simple Space – this is what I wish to the always very energetic and experimenting Magdalena: the simple space of life that should be never violated by such an irreversible act and that will never disturb the inner space of anyone else. Even more, the Czech version of the title is Prostý prostor – „simple“ and „space“ have in my language the same etymological root.