Kokoro
for female choir a cappella (2007)“My choral work ‘Kokoro’ deals with encounters that move our hearts. As my starting point, I chose two passages from the Japanese novel Kokoro (1914) by Sôseki Natsume. I assigned the text to different voices, each with different syllables and notes which are sung at the same time to compose subtle and finely nuanced sound moments and moods. It is an additive composition in which poetic and finely contoured tones are successively unfolded.
The composition has five sections: The introduction, the first passage of the text, the middle section, the second passage of the text, and the final section. In the introduction, middle and final sections I divided the Japanese word ‘Kokoro’, meaning heart, among all the choral parts as a text to create a thematically and musically harmonious thread that runs throughout the entire composition.”
(Gabriele Proy, Programme for the World Premiere on 7 December 2007, MPHIL Munich Philharmonic)
“A man who was by nature incapable of not loving; but a man who could not wholeheartedly accept the love of another – such a one was Sensei.”
(Kokoro. Translated by Edwin Maclellan. Dover Publications Inc.,
Mineola New York Page 9)
“You asked me to spread out my past like a picture...I refused you and postponed the granting of your wish to another day. Now, I myself am about to cut open my own heart and drench your face with my blood. And I shall be satisfied if, when my heart stops beating, a new life lodges itself in your breast.
(Kokoro. Translated by Edwin Maclellan. Dover Publications Inc.,
Mineola New York Page 100)
The choral composition “Kokoro” by Gabriele Proy was commissioned by the Munich Philharmonic Choir and had its world premiere on 7 December 2007 at the Allerheiligenhofkirche at the Residence in Munich with the Philharmonic Choir conducted by Prof. Andreas Herrmann.
Gabriele Proy was awarded the Composition Prize of the Austrian Ministry for Education, Art and Culture 2006 for “Kokoro”. The work is dedicated to the soprano Eva Prockl, the Munich Philharmonic Choir and its director Professor Andreas Herrmann.
Concert performances and radio broadcasts of the composition “Kokoro” (selection):
03 21 2015 Presentation of the documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, art house cinema „Stadtkino“, Vienna Kuenstlerhaus, Austria
07 11 2014 Radio ORF OE1 “Zeit-Ton”, Presentation by Irene Suchy, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation
03 04 2014 Television, ORF 3, documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Austria (16:45)
03 02 2014 Television, ORF 3, documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Austria (23:35)
03 02 2014 Television, ORF 3, documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Austria (10:00)
03 01 2014 Television, ORF 3, documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Austria (20:15)
05 16 2013 Lecture “Poetische Klangraeume”, Recording of the World Premiere with the Munich Philharmonic Choir in 2007, University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, Austria
03 08 2013 Presentation of the documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Austrian Federal Ministry of European and International Affairs, Vienna, Austria
10 18 2012 Composer’s Portrait: Gabriele Proy, Recording of the World Premiere with the Munich Philharmonic Choir in 2007, Austrian Society for Music, Vienna, Austria
03 09 2012 Radio ORF OE1 “Zeit-Ton extended”, Recording of the World Premiere with the Munich Philharmonic Choir in 2007, Presentation by Irene Suchy, Austrian Broadcasting Corporation
03 06 2011 Television, 3sat/ORF TV, documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Germany/Austria/Switzerland
03 05 2011 Television, Planet TV, documentary film “The Dawn of Women’s Right” by Walter Wehmeyer, Music by Gabriele Proy, Germany/Austria
06 02 2009 Composer’s Portrait, Recording of the World Premiere with the Munich Philharmonic Choir in 2007, Austrian Society for Music, Vienna, Austria
12 07 2007 World Premiere of “Kokoro”, Munich Philharmonic Choir, Eva Prockl (soprano solo), Andreas Herrmann (conductor), Allerheiligenhofkirche at the Residence in Munich, Germany
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