- A Czech composer has produced a series of chart-topping
symphonies and musical poems inspired by his passion for mushrooms.
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- Vaclav Halek, 66, who has been picking mushrooms since
he was a child, has set to music almost every known mushroom growing in
the region.
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- His latest compositions are compiled in a Musical Atlas
of Mushrooms, a CD and accompanying book which is a hit with consumers
in the run-up to Christmas.
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- Mr Halek, a gentle, rotund man, says he is happiest when
wandering with a basket through the woods of Bohemia.
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- Taking a stroll this week through the marshlands of Klanovice,
a forest on the eastern edge of Prague, Mr Halek focussed his sights on
a flame-coloured bouquet of flammulina velutipes, or velvet shank, mushrooms
blooming out of an elm stump. He put his mind to turning them to music.
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- Bending his head towards the mushroom cluster, he scratched
his chin, took a deep breath and began excitedly to scribble notes.
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- "It's a spiritual moment for me," he said minutes
later, his eyes full of tears, his paper covered in crochets and treble
clefs. "I tune into the mushroom, studying its shape, smell and colour
and then I hear its individual music."
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- Then he hums the nostalgic andante piece Mushrooms for
cello he was inspired to write before stooping to pick the mushrooms.
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- Two elegant lyrical pieces for the pale-yellow false
chanterelle (for clarinette), and the winter trumpet (violin) follow before
Mr Halek decides the cold has got the better of his arthritic limbs.
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- At home, the composer, whose mushroom-inspired music
has been used in Czech films, performs his works on a grand piano.
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- Mr Halek's hobby might find little resonance in countries
like Britain where mushroom picking is not common.
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- But the Czech Republic's mushroom experts have hailed
the compositions as an appropriate tribute to their passion which has inspired
some of the country's finest art, music and cuisine.
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- © Copyright of Telegraph Group Limited 2003.
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