Is it possible to depict the sound of the wind while playing the cello?
Is it possible to depict the sound of the wind while playing the cello? The question was not idle, because the second movement of my “Byzantine Chants” (a sacred concerto for a solo cello) according to its title – The Monastery service/The Sound of The Wind – began from the sound of the wind, and ended with it. Together with Andrey Tchekmazov, an amazing cellist for whom the “Chants” were written, using quite rare technique of playing the cello we found this “windy sound”.
Besides that, here is the story of an eye-witness that became the basis for this chant: “The liturgy in the summer cathedral astonished me with the unusual loftiness of the monastery service; the chants being sung were ancient, lingering, wind-like. At first, when you are trying to listening in, your hearing is almost insulted by the unusual rough monotony of the harmony, the strangeness of the rhythm. But then you are so absorbed by this truly monastic, passionless chanting that everything you hear is united into one harmonious whole, focusing your attention on the very spirit of the prayer…” Before me was the uneasy task to embody the very spirit of prayer; passionless and remote, and simultaneously filled with the internal drama.