Novosel, Filip & Mia Elezović: ENCOUNTERS

The CD Encounters mainly presents new compositions written for the tambura, i.e. brac solo or brac and piano, performed by Filip Novosel and Mia Elezović. This CD is another example of the gradual change in the perception of the tambura as an exclusively traditional instrument, and the integration of instruments that were until recently considered ‘traditional’ into classical (contemporary) music which began happening several years ago in Croatia. For example, the 2022 Music Panel in Osijek was dedicated to the tambura idiom in contemporary music, where a number of composers, sometimes for the first time, faced the challenge of writing for this instrument. This CD contains numerous solutions on how to harmonize the sound of seemingly such different instruments, tambura and piano, or shows different approaches in highlighting their diversity, occasionally even flirting with the folk idiom. All of this can be heard in the compositions of Croatian composers, (almost all of) whose compositions were written as part of the Encounters project, which involved facing new challenges brought about by the use of specific instruments: tambura and piano.

The edition's editor is Srđana Vrsalović, and the author of the essay in the program booklet is musicologist Helena Skljarov (32 pages; Croatian / English).