Commissioned by Signal and Shara Worden


  • 2perc.dmkit/hp.egtr.ebass/str (min 3.3.3.3.1); laptop
  • Mezzo Soprano
  • 1 hr

Programme Note

Related works:
   Penelope (for voice and chamber orchestra)
   Penelope (for voice and large ensemble)
   Penelope (for voice and septet)
   Penelope (for voice and sextet)

Songs can be rented and performed individually.

Songs:
1. The Stranger with the Face of a Man I Loved
2. This Is What You're Like
3. The Honeyed Fruit
4. The Lotus Eaters
5. Nausicaa
6. Circe and the Hanged Man
7. I Died of Waiting
8. Home
9. Dead Friend
10. Calypso
11. And Then You Shall Be Lost Indeed
12. Open Hands
13. Baby Teeth, Bones, and Bullets
14. As He Looks Out to Sea



Notes:
Penelope is a 60-minute song cycle for female voice, chamber orchestra, and electronics, based on texts by playwright Ellen McLaughlin. It is also the name of the music-theater piece I co-wrote with Ellen in 2007, commissioned by the J. Paul Getty Center, from which the song cycle was derived (that version of the music found here.) Penelope the song cycle loosely tells the story of the theater work: A woman’s husband appears at her door after an absence of 20 years, suffering from brain damage. A veteran of a modern war, he doesn’t know who he is and she doesn’t know who he’s become. While they wait together for his return to himself, she reads him The Odyssey, and in the journey of that book, she finds a way into her former husband’s memory.

Media

Penelope: The Stranger with the Face of a Man I Loved
Penelope: This Is What You're Like
Penelope: The Honeyed Fruit
Penelope: The Lotus Eaters
Penelope: Nausicaa
Penelope: Circe and the Hanged Man
Penelope: I Died of Waiting
Penelope: Home
Penelope: Dead Friend
Penelope: Calypso
Penelope: And Then You Shall Be Lost Indeed
Penelope: Open Hands
Penelope: Baby Teeth, Bones, and Bullets
Penelope: As He Looks Out to Sea
The Lotus Eaters

Scores

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