At his solo concert, the Split-based composer and professor of composition at the Academy of Arts will present his latest work – Rig Veda X.129 for soloists, chamber ensembles, electronics and video. This is a cycle of compositions inspired by the famous "hymn of creation" from the ancient Indian collection of hymns (Rig Veda). Over three and a half thousand years old and preserved in an archaic version of Sanskrit, the Rig Veda collection is one of the four canonical texts of the Hindu religion (Rig Veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Athar Veda). However, the 129th hymn from the tenth book of the Rig Veda (hence the designation X.129) stands out from this whole in many ways, and is considered the oldest preserved expression of skeptical reflection on the world — the very beginning of philosophy. This exceptionally significant text has been translated into modern languages ​​literally hundreds of times, so that there are even four (!) Croatian translations. As the basis for my composition and the accompanying video, I nevertheless used a particularly successful, poetically very inspiring English translation made by David Maclagan.

The premiere will feature the S/UMAS ensemble and soloists Vid Veljak on cello and Ivana Bandalo on bass clarinet, while the composer will control the electronics and video.

Rig Veda X. 129

(Composite translation: Ježić, Veljačić, Vodinelić)

Neither non-being nor being exists then,
neither the climate nor the firmament.
What was hidden? — Where? Under whose cover?
Was it water, bottomlessly deep?

There was no death or immortality then,
There was no sign by night or day.
Breathe breathlessly, with your own strength One.
There was nothing else left.

Darkness was hidden by darkness at first,
and everything had an unrecognizable flow.
Then, by the power of its Flame, One is born –
It was still empty, enveloped in emptiness.

At first around him Desire silk,
which was the original seed of Mind.
Poets, plunging into the heart with thought,
They revealed the thread of being in non-being.

Their thread is stretched across.
Was there anything below or above?
They were the fertilisers, they were the powers:
Motivation below, self-giving above.

Who knows the truth, who can tell us,
Where is it born from, where does this creature come from?
The gods came after creation,
So who knows how it happened?

What did the creature evolve from?
Whether to launch it or not
The one who watches in the highest heaven?
He probably knows. Or doesn't He know either?

Ivan Božičević - biography

Composer, organist, pianist, arranger and jazz musician. He has composed five symphonic compositions, as well as numerous chamber, solo, choral and electronic works. He is interested in different genres (baroque, electronic, jazz and world music) and the possibilities of their mutual interpenetration. In recent years, the organ has been at the center of his creative efforts – numerous works for organ with electronics and for computer-controlled organ, created in an effort to modernize the repertoire of the “queen of instruments” and truly bring it into the twenty-first century.

His works have been performed and recorded throughout Europe and the USA, have been published on 19 sound carriers and printed by several American publishers (Walton Music, EC Schirmer, Abundant Silence), and in German SchottHis sixth CD was released last year. Summer in the World (music for harpsichord) published by Cantus. The albums previously released were LP Duo plays Božičević (music for two pianos, Universal Music, 2021), The Hut of the Phantom Dwelling (music for solo piano, 2019), The Moonpiper (music for solo organ, 2018), both published by the American company Editions Lilac. In 2017, Božičević's original album of chamber music was also released by Cantus, while the album of jazz music Under the sea, above the air released in 2005 by Best Music.

Božičević was born in 1961 in Belgrade, where he graduated from the Faculty of Music and received a master's degree in composition (class A. Obradović). He studied at the Summer Courses of New Music in Darmstadt in 1982 and 1984. At the Hochschule für Musik in Frankfurt, he graduated in organ with E. Krapp (1988), and studied early music in Salamanca with G. Bovet and M. Torrent (1988 and 1990). From 1992 to 2001, he worked as an assistant professor at the FMU Belgrade and the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. In 2002, he came to Split, where he first worked as an independent artist. Since 2017, he has been working at the music theory department of the Academy of Arts in Split as a professor of composition.

In addition to recognition in Serbia and Croatia (Hristić Award, Silver Medal of the University of Arts in Belgrade, Golden Cathedral of Cro Patria, awards of the Croatian Cultural Assembly), Božičević is the recipient of numerous international composition awards - ArtsLink Fellowship Award, Garth Newel Composition Award, Third Millenium Ensemble Award, Asylum Saxophone Quartet Prize, AGO/ECS Publishing Prize, , Random Access music Award, ICA Award, Ithaca College Jazz Composition Competition Prize (USA), John Clare Society Award, Invitation to Composers Project (Great Britain), Trio Anima Mundi Prize (Australia), prizes at competitions of the Prague Philharmonic Choir (Czech Republic), the "Sofia Soloists" ensemble (Bulgaria), and the "Ciudad de Orihuela" orchestra (Spain). His organ works, which have won competitions, are particularly noteworthy: AGO/Marilyn Mason Award (USA, for the work Moonpiper), Cristobal Halffter Award (Spain, for the work Summer Triptych), European Organ Composition Competition (Luxembourg, for the work Organic Steelworks) and just won AGO/Pogorzelski-Yankee Award (for a work yet to be written).

The concert is part of the Behind the Scenes audience development program, in collaboration with the Croatian Composers' Association.

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