HKO Screen - Žibuoklė Martinaitytė: Saudade

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė: Saudade

Žibuoklė Martinaitytė (b. 1973), winner of many prestigious awards, is Lithuanian and nowadays lives in New York. Fascinated by the meanings concealed within sounds, she says: “I want to ask an existentially important question and to find the answer to it with every new composition. A composition is a very particular state of mind, which transforms the composer as well as the listeners.” The idea for the piece on tonight’s programme came from the Portuguese word ‘saudade’ meaning ‘nostalgia for nostalgia’, or in Martinaitytė’s words: “a meta-nostalgia, a longing oriented toward the longing itself. As poetess Florbela Espanca put it, ‘I long for the longings I don't have.’ In my personal experience this notion of Saudade symbolises the stratum of multiple yearnings that have started layering with the ‘blue period’ – the death of my father and emigration to the USA. For the last decade this thread of longing has been woven into my life, colouring all experiences with a myriad hues of blue.”

Janne Nisonen, conductor