Rūta Vitkauskaitė

Programme Note

“Imper” is my invented word. It is inevitably associated with “imperial,” a title through which I wanted to express something majestic – like a mountain rising from the horizon or an ancient cathedral towering above the modern city. I wrote it over several different periods during a year when I was in very different states of mind. There is a very meditative introduction, deliberately extended over a long enough period of time for the listener to get into a contemplative mood. When this state of mind is reached, the slow but consistent introduction of the “majestic” begins. Finally, the piece ends with a new turn into something even more archaic, accompanied by audio quotes of a woman singing a healing spell from an unknown African tribe.