Gheorghi Arnaoudov

"Bulgarian composer Gheorghi Arnaoudov has forged a profound body of work deeply rooted in minimalism and, at the same time, creating an intensely imaginative, vibrating sound world that constantly defies convention. His vital use of a variety of literary sources, aesthetic ideas, and collaborations with other art forms distinguish his music in today’s European concert culture..." -Eric Salzman, "A genuinely surprising and beautiful disc..." –Barnaby Rayfield, Fanfare, New York "...Stillness and medieval-tinged mystery..." Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International

BLACHERNAE.
THE VEIL OF OUR LADY

This piece was written in late 2011. It is a reflection and echo of my encounter with the icon of St. Mother of God of Blachernae. The word reflection is too weak to describe my intoxication and numbness at the sight of the icon hanging on the wall of a smal modest church in Istanbul.

This icon is considered to be the first Hodegetria (Showing the Way) and according to some traditions it was personally painted by the hand of the St. Luke – the Apostle, Evangelist, Physician and Icon Painter himself. Other traditions hold that the icon was made in the 7th century. The Mother of God is depicted using encaustic painting, a rare and specific type of painting technique. According to sacred traditions, the pigments and wax in this icon are mixed with the ashes of fallen Christian martyrs.

I created Blachernae as a contemplation of that sacred space in which, on October 1, 910 - according to the testimony of St. Andrew the Fool - among the gathered and already desperate of the Saracen siege believers , the Holy Virgin descended from heaven. Surrounded by Angels and Saints, She knelt in the midst of the Church before the icon and, weeping, prayed for hours for the salvation of the whole world, and then spread over all Her majestic and fearful veil.

Contemplation and immersion in the light of a space that instantly gives rise to hymns, gives rise to powerful layers of colors and sounds, merging with the shed tears. They can still be heard in the drops of the sacred spring on the south side of the temple. Tears that seem to continue to pray for our salvation.

""The composition is short (10 minutes), but extremely intense, condensed in its impact... It goes in a monody logic, again with sparing intervals, again a fifth motif is heard, distributed in different timbres with micro-motifs that "work" in depth, not in an external layered effect. It is precisely in this way that it is pushed up, thickened in this next, but different hymn of Arnaudov. Because in a sense he is a hymn "singer". With his music, he achieves a hymnic confirmation of the abstract for many transcendence of the energies of the cycles of time. In the "becoming" of the composition, its mastery breathes both in the proportions between detail and whole, and in the intense compactness of the form, which seems to visibly define a mobile sound space. And strong creative participation by the Sofia Philharmonic and its conductor!!"
-Ekaterina Docheva, Iconic Sound. Kultura - Issue 3 (2930), 27 January 2012;

"The composer builds clear musical images and messages that can also be traced in the graphic writing of the score: delicate chants ¦ achieved through a transparent imitation technique spread throughout the orchestra in a wide register, giving the impression of a vibrating sonority, and powerful sound layers-spots, which build a giant monody (in the words of the composer) woven from a mosaic of fine details, of sound nuances.
In the finale (Example No. 3), the main sound complex of four tones (now a second higher: F1 -G1 -G2 -E1 ) loses its materiality, sinking into silence and eternity. This graphicness of the score visualizes the sound relief in question, made up of scattered and compacted sound spots: the drops of the spring are also the tears of the Virgin Mary."
-Elisaveta Valchinova-Chendova, Sound complexes or visualized images and messages. "Blachernae" by Georgi Arnaudov.
New ideas in musicology 2012. - ISSN 1313-8049;

World premiere: 12.01.2012 Sofia Philharmonic. Conductor - Martin Pantellev.

12.01.2012 Booklet: 12.01.2012 Concert Booklet.

Concert performances:
-Sofia Philharmonic. Information about „Blachernae. The Veil of Our Lady“

Information and publications in the media and scientific press:
-In honor of the Virgin of Blacherna. Published on 12.01.2012

-World premiere of "Vl„Blachernae. The Veil of Our Lady“. Published on 12.01.2012

-Gheorghi Arnaoudov „Blachernae. The Veil of Our Lady“ is a mosaic that gives different colors and lights to the sound. Published on 18.01.2012

-Silvia Choleva. "Blachernae" by Gheorghi Arnaoudov - numbness, contemplation and resonance. Published on 01.10.2021

- Three virtuosos with a concert for the 30th anniversary of the New Bulgarian University. - Standard. Published on 10.06.2022

-Sofia Philharmonic. Gheorghi Arnaoudov „Blachernae. The Veil of Our Lady“ - 16.06.2022

For the Press (PDF)...