Jacek Sykulski

The peace meditation

'The Peace meditation' is an entirely tonal piece in A minor, avoiding any modernistic or superficial effects. It nevertheless makes a great impression. The work is entirely textless. The male voices hold a pedal note A throughout the piece, above which a solo soprano melody unfolds an archaic-sounding motif in peaceful quarter and eighth note movement. The frequent repetitions are always spun anew. This melody also appears transposed up a third, intensified, and then - with the only accidental in the piece - the B flat is placed dissonantly against the pedal note. Sykulski wrote the piece in 2001 shortly after the 9/11 attacks and performed it for the first time with the Poznań Adam Mickiewicz University Academic Chor, also at 'Ground Zero' before a deeply moved American audience, the work expressing the sorrow of so many people rendered silent and dumbfounded.