PSALM XIII - for orchestra. strings - by Djuro Zivkovic

Psalm XIII is composed in three days in the late May 2014 as the final part of Patterns of intuition, an arts-based research project hosted by the University of Music and Performing Arts in Graz and funded by the Austrian Science Fund. Psalm XIII is originally composed as a string quartet, which was premiered by Das Klangforum Wien Streichquartett. It was therafter orchestrated for (symphonic) string orchestra and premiered by Alabama Symphony Orchestra in September 2014 under Rune Bergmann.

The composition is built on the single melody line, a chant – as a singer in church, synagogue or mosque; and the single pedal tone called ison, a kind of repetitive sound that should be played as a mantra-background, imitating church bells, sitar or nasal singing. My intention was to develop music out of this simple genome and to find the entire new creation.