Ante Knešaurek: Sonare, for guitar

Conceived in the spirit of diary-like musical reflections shaped into interconnected cycles closely linked to lived experiences, states of mind, and personal creative processes, Sonare emerged as a deeply introspective piece. Ante Knešaurek’s meditative work, composed for guitarist Krešimir Bedek, came to life in Bedek’s performance on his album Klišej (tr. Cliché), published by Cantus in 2025.

The title Sonare (Lat. ‘to produce sound’; ‘to sound’), as the composer explains, “in its transitive sense means to resonate or to make something resound. This piece is conceived as a big bow; that is, like a very elastic sonic membrane through which the situations from the nucleus of the major seventh interval arise; and which I play throughout the composition in the manner of stylistic figures. Thus, there first appear apocope, litotes, anaclasis, ellipsis, anadiplosis, and symploce, before the work culminates in a fugato cast in an entirely new grammatical and semantic form. Occasional short breaks of the triad fifth chord are only the level of the chorus leader commentary, while the fugato is a comment in the sense of a large anaclasis at the level of the whole chorus.” In his search for sonority and the expressive possibilities it offers – both through this piece’s contrasting musical material and through the technical and timbral capacities of the instrument – Knešaurek explores the artist’s most intimate moments during the creative process, placing particular emphasis on the emotions that arise and must be confronted, “from elation to despondency, from happiness to indifference and a sense of helplessness.”

(Bojana Plećaš Kalebota, translated by Mia Pleša)

HDS, Cantus, 2026.
Edition numbers: Can. ‭409-3824
ISMN 979-0-801363-82-4