Slovene Folk Metamorphoses is a thematic and stylistic interweaving of simple Slovenian folk melodies with postmodern, virtuosic piano sequences. The composition is stylistically polar, yet consistent within this polarity. Formally a suite, but condensed into a single monolithic movement. Its conceptual approach merges the rational and the irrational. Easily listenable folk tunes, each presented in its own conventional pianistic style (representing our home, relaxation, peace, refuge, gentle longing, our “zen”), transition into dissonance—our doubts, reflections, restlessness, pain, blurred images of the future and the past, nocturnal apparitions, intellectualism—only to always return home again, to the “core,” the starting environment where our cultural journey began: the folk song.
The title “Metamorphoses” arises from the compositional process of constant stylistic transformation. This is not about aesthetic conformism, but a deliberate distancing from a mono-stylistic approach with the motto “a hundred people, a hundred wonders.” Slovenian Folk Metamorphoses intentionally leans on aesthetic pluralism, as the composition is designed in such a way that potentially every listener will find a voice they agree with—and perhaps one they don’t. A common trait of large groups of people, especially a nation, is that they structure themselves into smaller groups, for instance, by political beliefs or intellectual and spiritual capacities. Metamorphoses addresses this stratification and these opposing forces by encouraging the search for a common ground, where all these groups ultimately unite into a whole. Whether such unification of differences is consistent or not—whether it is good, meaningful, and appropriate—is a question for a nation born from the same folk songs.
Composed for Statehood Day, the piece speaks to all who know Slovenian folk music and at the same time sense the echoes of winding and mysterious paths of their interactive, chaotic thoughts, through which they repeatedly return home, to their peace. To their memory—from which no one can be banished.