The title Sympatheticality evokes fellow-feeling and, more particularly, a sympathy of sound. A viola d’amore has sympathetic  strings. They resonate with the notes played on the instrument,  lending its tone a distinctive halo. In this work, the entire ensemble takes on the role of such strings, becoming the viola’s sympathetic system.

In biological terms, the sympathetic nervous system is the part of  the nervous system that comes into play when the body is under  extreme stress, suppressing every response except those essential  to survival. The parasympathetic system, which governs states of  relaxation, does the opposite. These two opposing mechanisms  lie at the heart of the work.

The viola d’amore is an instrument rife with contradictions.  Even its name probably derives not from amore at all—“viol  of love”– but from “Moor”: the “viol of the Moors.” In place of  f-holes, it bears sound holes in the form of the flaming sword of  Islam. How telling that a symbol important to that faith should  have slipped unnoticed into European Christian Baroque music,  with the viola depicted in church frescoes crowned by an angel’s  head… To write anything but Baroque music for the instrument  may seem equally contrary to its nature, so close is the sound  of that music to its character. I have therefore tried not to work  against the viola, but to be sympathetic towards it.

The work was composed for Ensemble for New Music Tallinn  and Talvi Nurgamaa.

Wojciech Błażejczyk