Discussions about the preparation of the One Music programme were held primarily between the artistic directors of both ensembles – Miloš Valent from Solamente naturali and Bjarte Eike from Barokksolisten, Norway, both online and in person during their further joint artistic meetings in London, Gothenburg, etc. from the beginning of the project in December 2021. The discussions were based on individual artistic meetings of the other members of the ensembles on the topic of the music of the One music programme. Since the beginning of this year, these discussions have also included composers Jon Balke from Norway and Michal Paľko and Daniel Matej from Slovakia. They were mainly focused on the preparation of musical compositions based on the themes of traditional music of ethnic minorities (Roma, Jews, Sami, Vikings), which will complete the structure of the One music programme. An important element of the One music programme will be the processed outputs from research in Slovak and Norwegian music archives, e.g. Trnava, Tønsberg, which have been carried out by the leaders of both ensembles and composers since the beginning of the project.
Meetings and consultations with composers have taken place live or online, where a wider selection and research of music from Slovak, Nordic and other archives is being conducted, from which together we select inspirations for the creation of the programme as a whole and the composition of the pieces in the One Music project. Each of the composers has a different intention and approach in selecting individual early tunes from the period between the 16th and 19th centuries.
Composer Daniel Matej focuses on rare collections preserved in our cultural space when selecting dances and songs for his compositions (two rare ones are available in the original in the Literary Archive of the Slovak National Library in Martin – the Uhrovec Collection 1720 and the Anna Szirmay Keczer Collection).
Other collections, both known and newly discovered, from which we make a jigsaw puzzle for the programme, map our ancient history, many of them, such as the AE collection from the Evangelical Library in Kežmarok or dances found in the State Archives in Trnava, are often discovered directly when visiting archives in cities in Slovakia.
Composer Michal Paľko has chosen to create his composition within One music old extinct tunes of the rich Jewish culture, which he acquires very patiently from the archives of Slovakia, Poland, Ukraine and Israel. In conjunction with Jewish culture, the area of old Roma culture, which will form a significant part of Solamente naturali’s repertoire, is still open to him, because in the collections we have discovered the oldest records of Roma melodies (Cajoni Codex from Transylvania), which date back to the 17th century.
As the third composer involved in the construction of the whole concept of the project is Jon Balke, a Norwegian multi-genre musician and composer. His compositions are based on idiomatic Nordic traditional music preserved so far more than written, oral tradition. He will interweave these melodies into a mosaic with his own ideas.
These consultations are the most important part in the construction of the whole program, as the pieces will be organically linked to each other with other free improvisations by both ensembles, which is also the main idea behind the One Music project – the old notes as a puzzle for the listeners, in different perspectives, wording and playfulness.
