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International Alliance for Women in Music

We have all heard the phrase: “It’s the journey, not the destination, that counts.” This is the view of the British composer Lydia Kakabadse (b. 1955), and is the ba­sis for her artistic ethic in her CD Ithaka. She maintains that journeys enhance our lives with the “richness of wisdom, expe­rience and knowledge” (liner notes). The CD opens with a seven-part choral suite titled Odyssey. Listeners who expect a synoptical quick trip through the 24 books of Homer’s tome might be surprised at the suite’s format: each movement is based on a historical period of Greek culture and uses a representative text from the era.

Movement 1 (Archaic, approx. 750­480 BC) begins with the opening lines of the Odyssey, which give a brief overview of the long narrative that is to come. Paired with this text is the somewhat titillating passage from Book 6 (vv. 110-139), where, thanks to the contrivances of the goddess Athena, Od­ysseus washes up on the shores of Scheria, land of the Phaeacians, naked except for a few fig leaves, and frightens some maidens who are playing ball in the sea. An unac­companied soprano sings “Ah” while a trio of male voices eerily introduce the first few lines of Homer’s text in Greek. To depict ancient times, the vocal part is monophonic, with occasional harp glissandos, which be­come more active as Odysseus (sung by a tenor) bemoans his fate. The movement re­flects the period when the city-states were still in inchoate form and the people were nomadic wandering tribes.

Movement 2 (Classical, 480-323 BC) is choral and presents three texts: 1) Pindar’s ode to the grandeur of the Olympic games, set in the dramatic dithyramb style of the period with a con fuoco rhythmic strumming on the harp; 2) Aeschylus’ tale of the hapless Prometheus, who stole fire for the benefit of humanity but was subse­quently punished by the gods. A solo tenor sympathetically channels Prometheus, chained to a “crag at the edge of the world,” as the female chorus, representing the daughters of Oceanus, calmly come to his aid; 3) Sophocles’ Antigone, lines 44-75, a vibrant dialogue between Antigone and her sister, Ismene, about burying their brother, Polyneices, punishable by death under King Creon’s decree. The harp is featured in this movement, and the text shows three uses of fire: Torch/Triumph, Trial by Fire, and Extinguishment.

Movement 3 (Hellenistic, 323-146 BC) covers the period when the great Greek philosophers emerged; sadly, it was also the last era of independence, sand­wiched between the death of Alexander the Great and the sacking of Corinth by Rome. This hilarious, tongue-in-cheek setting of Constantine Cavafy’s Beckettian poem Waiting for the barbarian features a hap­py tune, blissfully supported by the harp. The ironic text relates the anxieties of the Greek people, who get dressed up, ready­ing themselves for the barbarians, who do not arrive. The movement opens with the choristers shouting: “What are we waiting for?” Kakabadse makes effective use of echo techniques and antiphonal passages between the male and female choruses. Terrified, the people sing to calm them­selves, and, unfortunately, the destructive Roman barbarians eventually do arrive.

Movement 4 (Roman, 146 BC-331 AD) reflects the period of Roman rule, and the music is an austere setting of the Kyrie eleison, featuring a cappella choral chant­ing and alternating solo and choral sections written in parallel octaves and open fifths.

Movement 5 (Byzantine, 331-1453) presents arrangements of two kontakion (thematic hymns) in the homophonic, unaccompanied style of the period. The lovely, richly-harmonized Hymn to the De­fender Mother of God is an arrangement of the beloved sixth-century hymn. The more musically reserved, suppliant Kontakion on the Nativity of Christ was originally penned by a famous Byzantine hymnographer, St. Romanos the Melodist.

Movement 6 (Post-Byzantine, 1453­1821) depicts the poem Erotocritos by the seventeenth-century poet Vitzentzos Kornaros. The two lovers, Aretousa and Erotocritos, are represented by solo and ensem­ble male and female voices. The lovers, separated by economic class, lament their longing in Sections 1 and 2, and The Poet, in Section 3, narrates that they must settle for fulfillment in the ephemeral, rather than in the real world. Kornaros was a leading figure of the Cretan Renaissance, a period where the arts, particularly literature and painting, thrived.

Movement 7 (Modern, 1821-present) opens with the Greek national anthem, Hymn to Liberty, sung in Greek and then in English. C. P. Cavafy’s short epic poem Ithaka encapsulates a journey and its pur­pose in a few brief lines that tell us we should not shirk danger (Cyclops, Laistrygonians, Circe) on our journey, but should welcome it as a meaningful experience. Thus does Kakabadse fulfill her musical mission.

The second section of the CD presents nine art songs, sung effectively by mezzo-soprano Clare McCaldin and accompanied gracefully by pianist Paul Turner. The texts reflect nostalgia for hearth and home and do­mestic dioramas. Themes of poverty, ineq­uity, and spiritual wealth, as well as real and figurative events of traveling and religious devotion, are featured. The musical settings range from darkly austere to sprightly with motifs based on jazz and parlor music.