Cantus Pannonicus

It was always complicated when it came to translating my works. So I decided to set to music a Hungarian author who wrote in the European language par excellence, Latin. I choose Janus Pannonius, the most important poet of the Hungarian Renaissance and one of the best-known figures of humanist poetry in Europe…

I set five of Janus Pannonius poems to music in the form of a cantata for soprano soloist, mixed choir and orchestra and gave it the title “Cantus Pannonicus”, a praise to the province of Pannonia and to the god Mars so that he spares this country.

For the instrumentation, I wanted to recall the music of the Renaissance: this is why, in the orchestra, the strings are represented only by cellos and double basses, the usual violins and violas being replaced by a harp, a harpsichord, a piano, a guitar and a mandolin. The percussions are also present in number. — Ferenc Farkas