Description

Šumava is a vast protected landscape in southwestern Czechia, in the Bohemian Forest.
This composition is set in a fictional narrative — one that could plausibly have unfolded during the era of the Iron Curtain.
During the Cold War, many displaced persons visited the Moldaublick lookout tower in Austria, near the Czech border. From there, they could look far into their former homeland.
In the story, a bird from Czechia begins flying back and forth across the border. After a time, an Austrian bird joins it. The two meet and spend a while in flight between the countries, before parting again and returning to their respective lands.
In the piece, each guitar occupies its own harmonic field, embodying a bird. At first, these fields are shaped by traditional fingerpicked passages. Gradually, the harmonic regions of the prime guitar and the terz guitar (sounding a minor third higher) blend into a freely atonal sound world, interlocking ever more tightly and forming a harmonically complex atmosphere that evokes the sweeping view from the lookout tower over the Vltava.