2016, rev. 2024
Delphi Songs
SONG CYCLE
SOPRANO, PREPARED PIANO, HARP/S AND SINGING BOWLS (three performers)
or
SOPRANO, SINGING BOWLS AND (NON-PREPARED) PIANO
(two performers)
‘A powerful rendering of a woman’s power in both quiet moments and total rage. When van Os sang “Words that called down the lighting…” and flung charges against the interior rot of a falling empire, a real thunderstorm shook Brooklyn.’
- Lana Norris, I Care If You Listen
Delphi Songs is a song cycle about prophecies and endings. It draws its inspiration from the last recorded words of the last-ever Oracle of Delphi: an Oracle that foresaw its own ending. With the rise of Christianity came the closure of the temples and the end of a spiritual tradition that had flourished for over a thousand years.
I wanted to think about this sense of divine authority, and to convey something of the ancient, volatile prophetic voice uttered by exclusively female priestesses, who wielded a considerable and surprising amount of power in antiquity.
In the ancient world, Plutarch called the Oracles obsolete, and today’s scientists regularly speculate whether the Pythia (priestesses) were intoxicated by gas formations in the rocks, causing their visions. Both ancient and modern voices recognise this sense of the sacred becoming mortal, and this piece tries to feel through the impact of that.
Delphi Songs is a collection of four musical episodes, each exploring this through different perspectives. It uses texts from 480 BC to 2015.
Delphi Songs was originally composed for soprano, two singing bowls, lever harp, pedal harp and prepared piano. A version for soprano, piano and singing bowls is also available.
COMPOSER/CURATOR / Meta Cohen
TEXT / Evan Bryson (2015), W.B. Yeats (1908), Prophecies spoken by the Oracle of Delphi (pre-Apolline period, 480 BC and 395 AD)
WORK DETAILS:
DURATION:
18:30 minutes (4 movements)
DIFFICULTY:
advanced
SCORE:
available
VERSION FOR SOPRANO, TWO SINGING BOWLS
AND PIANO (NON-PREPARED)
Two performers - the soprano and pianist play the singing bowls at various points
Watch a performance of the soprano and piano version at ChamberQUEER Festival,
New York, 2024:
PERFORMERS / Elizabeth van Os (soprano) and Coady Green (piano)
VERSION FOR SOPRANO, TWO SINGING BOWLS, HARP/s (pedal and lever) AND PREPARED PIANO
Three performers:
Soprano
Harpist (pedal and lever harp in varying movements)
Pianist
All performers play the singing bowls at various points
Listen to a performance of the soprano, harp and prepared piano version:
PERFORMERS / Claire Burrell-McDonald (soprano), Josephine Gibson (piano) and Rowan Phemister (harp)
MOVEMENT DESCRIPTIONS
1. THE DEPARTURE
Text: W.B. Yeats
The first movement hints at the sense of ending. Its text speaks of a moment of departure with a strong sense of awe and loss. Although not written about the Oracle of Delphi, much of the poem brings to mind the Pythia – certainly, the reverence of powerful words applies to the prophecies given by the oracle.
The soprano is accompanied only by a handheld singing bowl: the image of the lone priestess. The music is designed with gaps, pauses and interjections to allow the singer to find moments of introspection within it.
Text: Prophecies spoken by the Oracle of Delphi (480 BCE and pre-Apolline period)
The second movement establishes the Oracle for what it was – a mystical institution. Two Oracular prophecies from different eras are placed in dialogue – their words separated by centuries, but both shadowed by an image of ‘turning away’. This movement explores the powerful and enigmatic presence of the Pythia, with a quiet current of foreboding running underneath.
2. TWO PROPHECIES
Text: Evan Bryson
The third movement is about the horror of watching something once eternal begin to rot. Set to the most modern of the texts, it explores the apocalyptic element of the Oracle’s end: the collapse of something big beyond comprehension. This ruin is mirrored in images of bodily and natural decay and putrefaction. Threaded through is a visceral sense of body horror, inspired by the image of (possibly poisonous) vision- inducing gases seeping in and through the body.
3. HOLY PLACES FALLING
4. IT IS FINISHED
Text: The last recorded words of the Oracle of Delphi (395 AD)
The fourth and final movement is set to the last prophecy – ethereal, otherworldly and presented with a sense of slight disbelief.
P E R F O R M A N C E S
-
ChamberQUEER Constellations
USA PREMIERE
14 June 2024
Coady Green and Elizabeth Van Os
(soprano and piano version)
MITU580, New York, USA -
Explorations
WORLD/AUSTRALIAN PREMIERE
August 2016
Claire Burrell-MacDonald, Josephine Gibson and Rowan Phemister
(soprano, harp and prepared piano version)
Verbrugghen Hall, Sydney, Australia