Call for Scores

In spring 1996 and again in 1998 the ensemble sent a Call for Scores to composers in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, France and Sweden. The rules: the music should be connected with the place where you live or which you like; its feeling should be regional rather than national – not folklore but a Central European feeling; and it should last under five minutes. About twenty composers of all generations answered: Ilja Zeljenka, Vladimír Bokes (a waltz he wrote at thirteen), Ľudovít Rajter (Foxtrot, Tango, Valse lente – Beim Heurigen), Juraj Hatrík, Ladislav Kupkovič, Pavol Šimai, Iris Szeghy, Martin Burlas, Peter Machajdík, Martin Čorej, Tomáš Boroš, Ján Boleslav Kladivo, Martin Hrivňanský, Roman Takáč, Gabriela Némethová, Ján Gruberus, Peter Graham, Martin Smolka, Hilary Jeffery, Frédéric Inigo, Daniel Matej, later Christopher Fox and Marian Lejava.

The first results were heard on 8 June 1997 at the Mirbach Palace, Call for Scores ’98 there on 17 May 1998 and at the New Slovak Music festival on 20 November 1998. About half of the pieces were played once or twice in concert; the others became permanent repertoire – the criterion being whether a piece had “the feeling of Požoň” and was not too uncomfortable for the café listener.