Rūta Vitkauskaitė

Programme Note

PA comes from a shortening of the word LIEPA, which in Lithuanian means linden tree. Generally, trees in Lithuania have very strong spiritual meanings, coming from pagan times. In particular, liepa is the tree which embodies spirits of the deceased. In old times, it was believed that after your loved one dies, if you find the linden tree which hosts its spirit, and cut a branch from it, and make an archaic folk instrument kanklės, the instrument will ‘sing’ to you with the voice of your loved one. A friend one mine knew one very old woman who still did that at a very old age, but I think she might have been the last one, and the tradition is probably now extinct. This particular piece was written for the oldest liepa tree in Vilnius, which still stood strong at 350 years old, in the park nearby where I spent my childhood. The association is not very literal, but the music in a way imitates trees’ branches, trunk and roots, and the continuous life force that is flowing up and down the tree. I called in PA, because the piece has a strong rhythm and is quite dancy, and PA is something that for me stands between the dancy rhythm and a symbol of linden. Very unfortunately, my piece might have been the last work that was written while the tree still stood alive – a rare tornado in Vilnius in July of 2023 hit the old tree and snapped it in two, releasing all the spirits that possibly gathered there over three and a half centuries…

The piece was initially commissioned by wonderful Lithuanian violinist Rasa Vosyliūtė for their upcoming release, which unfortunately did not come to light. Some time later, inpired by amazing violinist Sadie Field, I created a second edition of the piece, which is now the only version I prefer. Funded by ‘Socialinis kultūros fondas’, LATGA.