René Staar

Balkan Mosaïk op. 26/I.bis/a

A compilation of nine miniatures written for the first volume of a violin school (op. 26 I), and which exists in a total of five different versions. From a "Dance of Koldunian warlocks" to a "Night music of the Smyrnian smugglers" to "Dracula’s love dance," this compilation also reflects our own Central Western European ideas about the Balkans. Each of these versions is individually elaborated in its own way. They present variants of the material of the selected violin duets, differ in length and content, sometimes considerably, and undergo harmonic metamorphoses, formal rearrangements, complex contrapuntal progressions and rhythmically structural clarifications. The two septet versions (a and a’) of the work differ in the substitution of an instrument (one version uses the harp, the other the piano), as well as the resulting elaboration that is deliberately handled differently according to the inherent characteristics of each particular instrument. Both septet versions were written for Tibor Kovacs's ensemble The Philharmonics.