The today’s music scene, that is in the late – 20th century, is composed of inexhaustible amount of the most various tendencies. At present uncommon amount of the most different stimuli and influences affect not only creative artists, hence composers and interpreters, but even audience, hence recipients of artistic creations of them. People live quicker at present than ever before. If e.g. in the past the art styles evolved and profiled only very slowly, for many decades, hence several generations, and that without influence of parallel, alternative streams and without a more profound awareness of historical contexts, the situation today is totally different.

Thanks to easy accessibility of inexhaustible amount of information and knowledge about music, there are also streams here closed long ago, and overcome. I am thinking of the influence of perfectly worked critical editions of the past music works in their written shape and in perfect recordings, which make us familiar with expression and spiritual potential of former eras. At present we have all at our disposal. We can observe how art streams have not yet finished their development and already they are carefully studied and confronted from all sides, how their utilization is pondered. Many times we are even able to anticipate what reception will be given to them by what kind of audience, if they may be successful or if they fail, and how long they may be enjoyed by the public.

To compose under these circumstances has its advantages without doubt. A creator can draw inspiration on creative work of his colleague throughout the world, on art evolution of his predecessors and at the same time avoid various stumbling blocks. I am going to mention several of these stumbling blocks. Hitherto uncommon offer of well checked creative methods both present and past many times tempts composers to unnecessary complications of the music invoice, to overloading with many-often even imperceptible – details, phrases and meanings. From a listener is then demanded to observe all this. He is demanded to produce an enormously increased concentration when listening to contemporary music and an intentionally concentrated attention. However, the music perception taken in this way often approaches the level of an intellectually difficult performance. Above all into this category of music belong works which prefer the rational aspect of music. If the music is only based on a rational principle, the composer must take account of that the social impact will not be too wide. Most people, particularly those who join music with the sphere of mental relaxation or pleasure, will not as a rule agree with such play, they will naturally incline somewhere else. The art messages concentrate in their original sense they will reject and their perception they will simplify according to their own ideas. From the offer, perceived without a proper attention they select with one ear only what is for it easily comprehendible, cope with it with comfort, and all the rest they only patronizingly and with a considerable distance release through the other ear outside, back into space.

This approach of a music listener who takes refuge in the position to be beyond the thing, is at present a rather frequent event. Let us just recall situations when e.g. we are not only able to brilliantly communicate with guests at a party, entertain them and be a pleasant host, and at the same time perceive and comment a worthwhile, rather structurally complicated artistic work which pours out from a reproduction medium. This method of a direct, panache selection is maybe practical from the social point of view, conceals however one serious danger in itself. For in the course of time it may pass to a generalizing disparagement of the segment components significance, to their improper minimization and that even there, where there is not necessary both a selection and a filter.

For such destiny, particularly that kind of music is predetermined, which is a part of multimedia, e.g. video-clips or musically staging works, where each of the components as a rule disposes itself of a vast background of its own ideas, symbols and meanings, which all a listener simply cannot fully receive in the given time schedule and without a great effort. Now I would like – for a comparison and as an opposite pole – to mention an example from the music history – the type of the classical opera. This is fully defined only by the score, which determines to the realizators the musical means relatively and much limited form types like e.g. overture, aria, recitative. If we with these possibilities compare the arsenal of the present musically – dramatic forms, which is much wider and varied, the potential of expression means which at the same time also includes non-music parameters or parameters which link up to music, we find out that the present results are not adequate to the extension possibilities.

The method of collage from its very substance tends to a considerably extensive dimensionality inside the  musical structure. This method, too, tends to establish a global point of view, hence to have absolute mastery of everything and approach it in one breath. And it is this very property from which a danger may rise of an excessive, as a rule not deserved bird’s-eye view of the listener over the details of the work and which can lead to attitudes of disrespect and to belittle some significant esthetic and value categories.

A composition obviously must be dimensioned extensively, at least to a certain degree. It should always offer more than only what can be easily understood when listening to it for the first time, if only because the creators can see farther than other people. However, should not this advantage demonstrate kind of superiority, but a certain encouragement for a receptive listener to follow it. In this very way all works of genii affect us with their perfection and we are ready for attributing even a supernatural power to them, an extraordinary quality and power. And undoubtedly it is here, where the germ of a profound spiritual charge of creative art can be found, of a sort of mystery, which only gives the art the very sense and even places them into a direct coherence with the highest values.

One of the ways how to face the blight of information dimension excess and which could serve as an initiative to artists is a strict reduction of artistic material and its more profound contemplation by the method of detail visor.

For the first time I heard this term – detail visor – some 25 years ago from M. Ištvan, a lecturer in composition at the JAMU in Brno. Many a time I have reflected on it. It could be possible to define it perhaps in the following way: the essence of heterogenic, manifold, multi-meaning image of the contemporary world is not necessary to be reflected in an equally manifol way, because to this purpose perhaps only one, partial way is sufficient, which thanks to its pregnancy it can express the selected theme much better. It may be analogical to another artistic tendency with the same mission, that is such, which for the purpose of one composition reduces expression means to a minimum and in this way introduces the condition of strict creative limits, restraint in the selection of technique, forms, genres and the combination of them. If this way, well known namely from the works of classical composers, is to be successful, takes it for granted that the creative idea is very well thought-out in advance. If we can cope with it we will be rewarded with a style purity as well and this odds a further considerable value to it. The listener then will classify the acquired stimuli into appropriate wider contexts himself.

At this point it is still necessary to underline and appropriately appreciate importance of the authentic music invention, thus a concrete, purely musical inspiration, which occurs in the process of musical creation. That is to say, invention has, thanks to its magic, an entirely essential, unmistakable determined position. From its inner structure point of view it is usually clear, concise, truthful and above all proportionally balanced. Already if itself – with a closely indescribable, outright spiritual process – is able to take care over the correct relation of inner components of the music construction. And probably it is not by chance that this is the very reason for creators to be so profoundly concerned with spirituality, with spiritual dimension of their artistic creation.

The ways to spirituality may be different, be it entirely abstract affinity to something higher, better, generally valid and superhumanly perfect, or an inclination, confession represented by a standardized rite with a usually enormously rich, in the long history anchored cultural base.The stumbling block of the struggle for a spiritual approach to art consists in that the vagueness in this region is often misused, be it from ignorance, little effort, or straight out of spite. And that above all to convert or mist values, when e.g. unbelievers try to take up their positions in the spiritual zone, while some spiritually oriented individuals on the contrary try with their uncritical attitudes to seize spiritually even things which are completely simple, real and of material substance. However, this could make another chapter of polemics which of course also deserve an appropriate attention.