related works
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Mixed ensemble (2-12 players)
Scoring:
fl(pic) cl trb perc el.g vl vc cb pf-solo
Elegies : for contrabass and tape / Douglas Knehans
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Double bass
...of struggle and hope : for contrabass quartet and electronics / Idin Samimi Mofakham
Genre:
Multimedia
Subgenre:
Double bass
Scoring:
4db tape
Clarinet Sonata : for clarinet in B flat and piano / Dennis Hyams
Genre:
Chamber music
Subgenre:
Clarinet and keyboard instrument
Scoring:
cl pf
composition
Testudo : for contrabass and electronics / Yannis Kyriakides
Other authors:
Kyriakides, Yannis
(Composer)
Description:
Testudo is based on the myth of Hermes’ appropriation of the Tortoise shell in the creation of the lyre. In Sophocles’ fragmentary satyr play, Ichneutae, (The Trackers), Apollo discovers that his cattle is missing and he employs the Satyrs, lead by Silenus, to search for them. In exchange he offers them freedom from slavery. Tracking their footprints they come to a cave where they hear a sound which they have never heard before. They freeze in terror and refuse to enter the cave. The mountain nymph Cyllene explains to them that the sound is of baby Hermes tuning a ‘lyre’ an instrument he has just created using cowhide stretched over the shell of a tortoise. Since the satyrs seem to not know what ‘music’ is, this has to be explained to them.
A multichannel soundtrack which acts as the signal for the score is played through the various resonators attached to the instrument. The soundtrack is made up of sounds synthesized from tortoise recordings transformed into synthesized sound and used to animate, with the help of the player, various resonant aspects of the instrument.
The character of the piece is ferocious, primitive and playful exploring aspects of performance that bring to fore the idea of an instrument under construction, the translation of bioacoustic signals into musical signals, and ancient concepts of possession as a model of music making.