Peter Kerkelov is one of the most interesting Bulgarian composers today. His biography shows breadth and depth of music engagements, a solid level of achieved mastery of his art, an international recognition, a line of continuous unfolding, a vision. . .. I firstly got to know of him through his words via a couple of brilliant interviews he has had with Maria (Manya) Popova, one of the most astute Bulgarian critics and a devoted propagator of new music. These texts showcase Kerkelov’s plans, thoughts and ideas, but I also sensed in them his desire to share, his pleasure of talking and thinking about music and philosophy. And so I started paying attention and when in January 2023 I saw that the Sofia Philharmonic is going to premiere Kerkelov’s latest work, duermevela, I bought a ticket.
I remember walking toward Bulgaria Hall that evening feeling excitement. I was going to hear someone’s new work of art. What kind of music it will be? Will it be commenting on the Bulgarian condicio humana? Will it be totally abstract? What will be the musical language? What articulation of reality it will offer, what kind of reality? Will I get it?
duermevela impressed me and provoked a desire to know more. I got in touch with Kerkelov and invited him for a conversation, he graciously accepted. Our talk touches on a variety of (mostly) musical topics, trying to establish some common ground. As two people who don’t know each other we don’t always catch the other person’s thinking, but we are continuously trying and in this effort we do, indeed, manage to establish that “music is about everything else”. To the extent to which we “think together” our conversation dynamics reminded me of David Bohm’s idea of dialogue as a
free flow of meaning between people in communication in the sense of a stream that flows between banks, where “banks” are understood as representing the … points of view of the participants.
Perhaps our talk would make most sense after listening to Kerkelov’s music, you can find duermevela here.
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Mira