The papyrus

A few days ago, in a Facebook group that I follow carefully, a boy posted a photo he took of a page of an ancient music manual he is studying. It was an excerpt from a Greek tragedy by Euripides, "Orestes". The piece in question, reworked by a musicologist, derives from an Egyptian papyrus found some time ago and illustrates 7 verses of the tragedy, from number 338 to number 344. I carefully observed the photo of his book. I was immediately intrigued by the metric signs of the verses and the indications underlining that some notes should be altered by a quarter tone. Then, starting from the photograph of the book, I did a search to see the original papyrus and I observed it with love, because that is a 2400-year-old work of art, dated 408 BC. I just had to get to work. The idea was to start from the melody of the choir to create a series of harmonies to accompany it. I transcribed the notes. I saw how, in certain passages, there were the interventions of a hypothetical woodwind instrument, which I noted in the score. I then respected the Greek meter of words. The harmonization was born spontaneously, without too much effort, and I'm really happy about this. Thirteen intense bars, like the text that the choir sings, which begins with a "I grieve". The full text of the 7 lines of the tragedy “Orestes” is: “I grieve, I grieve - Your mother's blood drives you wild. Great prosperity among mortals is not lasting: upsetting it like the sail of a swift sloop some higher power swamps in the rough doom-waves of fearful toils, as of the sea". These words struck me, making me think. We are all fragile, but we can know the wonders of the Universe and of life, which flows inside, around, above and below us, guided by Beauty, which is everywhere. The wisdom of those verses influenced me in choosing the sounds to write in the score. They are words about the indeterminacy of men's destiny, the similarity of the boat amidst the imperious waves of the sea is effective. Since then, since these words were consigned to a papyrus 2400 years ago, the human condition has not changed. We are all boats prey to the most terrible storms and our prosperity always seems illusory and ephemeral, and maybe it really is. With these thoughts, I composed my 13 bars of music, to honor the classical Greek world of which I feel like a child. There have been many reshuffles in the drafting, stylistic choices to be made, a formal structure to be determined, in this work of mine. In the end, the ensemble, which I formed, is composed of: a flute, an oboe, the choir, violins I, violins II, violas and cellos. I didn't find it appropriate to add anything else. It seemed to me that the ensemble worked like this. I'm satisfied. I find what I have composed beautiful and I am moved by the idea of ​​having given new life to a work of art from 408 BC. Clearly, all the decisions taken during this work of composition are personal, but I was interested in hearing what a fragment of more than two millennia ago had to say today. We are all heirs of the Greeks here in the West… The musical part is over. I won't go back to it. This composition moved slowly, between doubts and uncertainties, and in the end, I am convinced of the goodness of my work, characterized by freedom and the pursuit of good taste. No one knows how the original music of the tragedy sounded, not even musicologists, so my interpretation is free and based on the firm points of the reconstruction made by the author of the book from which this fragment was taken. It was very nice to taste the sounds written in 408 BC.! It was an immersion in the Beauty of a world that no longer exists, but has left indelible marks of a highly advanced civilization… I like my 13 measures and my Partner also found them beautiful, which filled my heart of joy, since I write for you, inspiring Muse and wonderful Woman. It is 1 minute of music, dense, rich, harmonious, as I imagine the music that accompanied the shows of ancient Greece to have been. The use of quarter tones questioned me deeply, but in the end I chose not to use them, for reasons of harmony. The music bears a subtitle: "I grieve", since this is the first verse of the 7. My minute of Greek music allows me to fly to where I have been, on an island in front of Chalkidiki, to look out again on that balcony to admire the vastness of the sea that welcomes the first ray of the sun and lights up after the dark of the night. I give this music of mine to everyone, may it be a messenger of beauty and grace. Today I'm posting a video presentation, with my music, inspired by the tragedy of Euripides, "Orestes", and graphic reworking of my partner, Bozzoli Marinella. There is the photo of the papyrus with the verses of the Greek author and a photo from NASA, "The Pillars of Creation". At the end the inscription appears: "... And from the experiences the sounds were born"...
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