Jiří Plocek will present his new book “Song as a Symbol”

7 February 2023, 1:00
Jiří Plocek will present his new book “Song as a Symbol”

Jiří Plocek will be presenting his new book Píseň jako simbol (Song as a Symbol – In the Footsteps of a Phenomenon of Human Culture), published last December by Galén, at the Academia bookstore in Brno.

Song – like its mother music – is ubiquitous and culture-making. Let us try to imagine a world in which song or music is absent, a world in which one cannot even whistle a simple melody or tap out a simple rhythm. It is not possible. And if we do, then we are getting outside our world. Outside the human world. A song entertains us, pleases us, encourages us, heals us. It connects us through tradition to the past, but it also opens up the future, new spaces of the human spirit. It is a prophet of change. We are so surrounded by song that we are often unaware of what it means to us. What does it symbolize? What does it say about us? The sound of a song is a symbol of a living person. The author of this book has attempted to capture the song from different angles as a living phenomenon that co-creates our lives. He has connected the more general reflection with everyday reality. He used his career as an active musician (Poutníci, Teagrass, Plocek & Šuranská), music publisher and producer (Gnosis Brno), radio editor (Czech Radio Brno) and publicist. The author’s countless encounters with specific people and situations, as well as with echoes of the past and contemporary resonant song, have contributed significantly to the final form of the book. The book Song as Symbol is the first part of the journalistic output of the author’s broader project Song of the Soul.

The discussion with the author’s autograph session is scheduled for Tuesday, 14 February 2023 at 17:00 in the Literary Café (Academia Bookstore, 13 Svoboda Square).

Photo by Jiří Sláma

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