Mythology Symphony
INSTRUMENTATION
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
YEARS COMPOSED
2007-2013
3333 4331 harp, piano, timpani, 3 perc, strings
YEARS COMPOSED
2007-2013
I. Becoming Medusa
II. Penelope Waits
III. The Lovely Sirens
IV. The Fates of Man
V. Pandora Undone
AUDIO
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
Chicago College of the Performing Arts Orchestra; Alondra de la Parra, conductor
-
ORDERING SCORES, PERUSALS, & PROGRAMMING OPTIONS
ORDERING SCORES • ONLINE PERUSAL
Theodore Presser Company
https://www.presser.com/416-41616-mythology-symphony.html
To view perusal, click on Score and Parts tab, then click on Preview below the window.
PROGRAMMING OPTIONS
All movements in the Mythology Symphony can be performed either together (as the Symphony) or individually. Movements I, III, IV, and V are for full orchestra, and movement II is for chamber orchestra. -
PROGRAM NOTES FOR ALL MOVEMENTS
I. Becoming Medusa
Most of us are familiar with the legend of Medusa as a hideous Gorgon with scales for skin, snakes for hair, and a gaze that turns to stone anyone who dares look into her eyes. Our first encounter of Medusa usually finds her on a deserted island with her two sisters just as Perseus arrives to cut off Medusa’s head. But what about Medusa’s origins? Several stories portray Medusa as a strikingly beautiful woman whose features were hideously transformed by the goddess Athena after she seduced the god Poseidon in Athena’s temple. For its great dramatic appeal, it is this story of Medusa that I chose to set to music. Musically, Medusa is represented by a solo violin. When she first appears as a lovely woman (following a dissonant introduction indicating her final state), she is accompanied by harp, and her music is very lyrical. After Medusa is transformed, dissonance surrounds her: strings, woodwinds, and percussion represent the snakes on her head as they twist and turn around each other, while her piercing eyes are depicted by the discordant interval of a minor second. In between, we hear her sultry seduction of Poseidon and Athena’s furious reaction.
II. Penelope Waits
This quiet movement represents Queen Penelope, the faithful wife of Odysseus, as she patiently waits twenty years for her husband's return from fighting the Trojan Wars. Penelope herself is represented as an oboe. She is accompanied by a chamber orchestra (rather than the entire ensemble) as she keeps at bay the suitors who wish to marry her and inherit her riches.
III. The Lovely Sirens
The Sirens were sea nymphs, usually pictured as part woman and part bird, who lived on a secluded island surrounded by rocks. Their enchanting song was irresistible to passing sailors, who were lured to their deaths as their ships were destroyed upon the rocks. The Lovely Sirens presents three ideas: the Sirens’ beautiful song, an unfortunate group of sailors whose course takes them near the island, and the disaster that befalls the sailors. The sailors’ peril is represented by the Morse code S.O.S. signal (three dots, three dashes, and three dots—represented musically by short and long rhythms). The S.O.S. signal grows increasingly more insistent and distressed as it becomes obvious that the sailors, smitten with the voices of the Sirens, are headed for their demise.
IV. The Fates of Man
The three Sisters of Fate were minor goddesses who served as personifications of man’s inescapable destiny. Each Sister had a particular task: Klotho spun the thread of life; Lakhesis measured the thread; and Atropos cut the thread. While a man’s actions affected various aspects of his life, the length of his mortality was predetermined. The Fates of Man portrays a man who realizes he is nearing the end of his life. He appeals to the three Sisters to give him control over his own destiny, but as they have already measured and cut his thread, they deny his request. The movement ends with the man slowly dying away.
V. Pandora Undone
This movement is, in turns, both lighthearted and serious. The music depicts a young, naïve Pandora who, while dancing around her house, spies a mysterious box. She tries to resist opening it, but her curiosity ultimately gets the best of her. When she cracks the lid open and looks inside, all evils escape into the world. Dismayed by what she has done, she looks inside the box once more. She discovers hope still in the box and releases it to temper the escaped evils and assuage mankind's new burden.
-S.G. -
COMMISSIONER INFORMATION
The Mythology Symphony was progressively commissioned by several organizations:
I. Becoming Medusa • Detroit Symphony
II. Penelope Waits • Chicago College of Performing Arts Orchestra
III. The Lovely Sirens • Albany Symphony
IV. The Fates of Man • Albany Symphony
V. Pandora Undone • Chicago College of Performing Arts Orchestra