DESCRIPTION:
Viracocha is the great creator god in the pre-Inca and Inca mythology. According to one Inca myth, Viracocha's first creation was a dark world inhabited by giants, which he had fashioned from stone. These creatures proved disobedient, however, and Viracocha
destroyed them. He may have turned them back to stone, or he may have swept them away in a great flood. Once they were gone, Viracocha made a second race, this time forming people from clay. He equipped them with the clothes, languages, songs, skills, and crops of different nations. Before the people spread out and populated the world, Viracocha ordered them to sink into the earth and to reappear on the surface again from lakes, caves, and hilltops. They did so, and each group of people built a shrine at the spot where they emerged.

The character of the piece is rhapsodic. The thematic ideas represent various Inca tribes as they are created by Viracocha. The music attempts to depict their fight for survival, their interaction with nature and each other, and the spiritual struggle in their relationship
with the creator god.

This work received 2nd Prize at the International Composition Competition "Festival Fiati" in Novara, Italy.

Music by Paul (Pawel) Kopetz