related works
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
fl(pic) cl trb perc el.g vl vc cb pf-solo
7 out of 49 : for a free number of instruments and soundtrack / Dmitri Kourliandski
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
instruments tape
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
pf perc tape
The Arrest : for ensemble, soundtrack and videotext / Yannis Kyriakides
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players) with multimedia
Scoring:
vln pf g-elec mar cl/cl-b db soundtrack
composition
Paramyth : for clarinet, piano, violin and live electronics / Yannis Kyriakides
Other authors:
Kyriakides, Yannis
(Composer)
Description:
The 'Bluebeard' tale appears in many variations around the world, the central theme revolving around a bride who having recently married is subsequently tempted to discover a horrific secret behind the forbidden door. The most well known example is of course Bela Bartok's opera Duke Bluebeard's Castle, which takes it source from the French 17th cenruty writer Charles Perraut. The fatal dangers of feminine curiosity have of course had other sources, Eve, Pandora, Psyche and Lot's wife are all examples of mythical women whose curiosity exacted dire consequenses. What is perculiar in the bluebeard legend and what makes it an intruiging tale, is that the motive is never clear why Bluebeard entrust the bride with the key that will reveal his horrific past.
I was surprised to stumble on a Cypriot variation of this in a collection of oral folklore recordings made in Cyprus by the Peloponnesian Folklore Foundation. Under the title of 'To Parymithi tou Vasilea' (The King's Tale), a recording made in the late 70's of a woman from Potami, Athinoula Christou Kyriakou, tells the story of a king who under bizarre circumstances marries his daughter to satan, who takes her to his underground castle where she enters the 100th 'forbidden' room to find dead bodies and half eaten carcasses of animals.
I have no idea how this variation of the story with its strange twists came to be told by this woman from Potami, there seem to be both mythological and Christian resonances in it. The tale follows the classic patterns of narrative, having discovered the room, she is subsequently saved by seven brothers, one of whom she marries in the end; they live happily ever after.
In the composition, I use the recording of her speaking voice, stretching out the vowels with computer synthesis until it seems that she is singing the story. The instruments accompany, amplify and elaborate this telling. Towards the middle of the piece her voice almost becomes frozen, the speed of delivery slows down to zero, at the point of the narrative where she opens the secret door. In my interpretation of the story I leave them just after this point where to comfort the young bride after this revelation, the devil dresses up in her father's and mother's clothes. It's an incomplete story but I found it a touching moment to leave the narrative unclosed, for musical purposes at least we do not need the cavalry to come to the rescue.