Composer’s note

“Don Branko’s poems trace the distant horizons of his thought, ranging from warm birthday greetings to reflections on the spiritual mystery of the world. Within this broad arc, a special place is occupied by poems that emerge from Don Branko’s understanding of music as, in his own words, that beneath which sound conceals itself. Don Branko begins with music in constructing his poetic arc. By returning his verses to music, I close this arc into a circle. My selection deliberately draws on a wide range of poetic units; some are rounded and reflective, some recitative in tone, and some concise in form.
The cycle opens with Étude No. 3, which transforms from the noise of war into a children’s song – a modest hero. This is followed by a sequence stemming from a poem devoted to the experience of Beethoven’s music, which I evoke through both explicit and more subtle quotations. Yet we experience music even more intensely when we perform it ourselves; this is evidenced in the poem Bjelinom prsta crnu dirku grlim [With the Whiteness of a Finger I Embrace the Black Key], in which Don Branko, from the very first tone struck on the piano, embarks on an unimaginable journey toward the divine order hidden within the world’s chaos. The final poem, Toccata, begins with a quotation from Bach’s Toccata in D minor and develops from it, through Don Branko’s words, into a concluding celebration of the tones of life in a renewed harmony.”

Mladen Tarbuk