Agapé - Svatopluk Havelka
Svatopluk Havelka's (1925 - 2009) compositional style, in spite of several discernible successive phases, always retained its unique character that was marked for its melodic vigour, typically "Havelkian" colourful instrumentation, and its transparent and yet original compositional structure.
Initially, he drew upon the music tradition of the 1st half of the 20th century, and already in the early works a clear influence of Moravian and Silesian modal melodics is palpable. As of the 1960s he started to absorb the then up-to-date impulses of the global music development, especially elements of aleatorics and timbre music. In contrast to other world-known innovators, however, Havelka never went as far as to abandon radically the existing compositional principles.
Agape is Love, a chamber cantata based on the Greek text of the 13th chapter of Paul the Apostle's First Epistle to the Corinthians from 1998 belongs to a free cycle of vocal-instrumental compositions based on Greek biblical texts. The author worked on the cycle from 1993 (Pareneze for soprano, piano and 2 percussionists) up to the first years of this century (Alpha and Omega - 2002). The cantata Agape is Love clearly and distinctly represents Havelka's late compositional style. Its character is to a large extent determined, quite typically of Havelka, by the modal melodics and frequent melismatic setting of the text.
Other compositions by Svatopluk Havelka published in Czech Radio:
Hymnos
Parénéze
Symphony No. 1
The Signs of Times
instrumentationsoprano solo, vno, vla, vcl, pftedescriptionscore, partpubl.NoR 187price280,- CZK