CHAPTER 5

STYX

In Greek mythology, Styx is a river that separates the Earth from the Underworld.

Circling the Underworld nine times, it forms a sacred boundary between the living and the dead. The dying are transported by Charon, the ferryman. The waters of the Styx have magical powers, rendering anyone submerged in them immortal. The Greek warrior

Achilles was said to be submerged into the waters by his mother Thetis, holding the young boy by the heel and rendering him invulnerable everywhere else.

Commissioned by the Eduard van Beinum Foundation in Holland for the celebration of the 2000 millennium, the creation of Styx was an arduous process. First, the choice of text for the requested Requiem posed a major obstacle for Kancheli: the

Canonic text was “absolutely unacceptable” to him because of its preset form, “which shackles creativity”).13 While working on a Shakespeare production with his friend

Robert Sturua, Kancheli thought of choosing the most sonorous words from his native

Georgian. The selected words were easy to pronounce and, with the eventual addition of various sites in Georgia as well as the names of relatives and friends, newly formed phrases acquired special meaning.

The name for the composition came with a suggestion of violinist Gidon Kremer.

Kancheli mentions the following: “…the thought of river separating kingdoms of living and dead didn’t even cross my mind.”14 However, the idea of writing a solo viola part came from the previously written Liturgy for Solo Viola and Orchestra. Thus, with the

13 «Канонический латинский текст был для меня абсолютно неприемлем, потому что заранее заданная форма, то есть опять-таки “оковы” . »G. Kancheli, N. Zeifas, Giia Kancheli V Dialogakh C Natalei Zeifas (Moskva: Muzika, 2005) 484. 14 «…я и не помышлял о подземной реке, разделяюшей царства живых и мертвых.»G. Kancheli, N. Zeifas, Giia Kancheli V Dialogakh C Natalei Zeifas (Moskva: Muzika, 2005) 485.

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