Skiagrafies IV: AIAS
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano

Composed by Stratis Minakakis
Performed by VICE at the VIPA Festival in Auditorium Ateneo Musical del Puerto, Valencia, Spain on July 8, 2023.

Performed by VICE -- Valencia International Contemporary Ensemble
Gregor Schulenburg, flute
Luis Fernandez Castelló, clarinet
Georgia Privitera, violin
Mariel Roberts, cello
Anna D’Errico, piano
Stratis MInakakis, conductor

Skiagrafies IV (VICE Performance)

Escuchando (2021)
A madrigal of shadows for four voices

Composed by Stratis Minakakis
Conducted by Holly Druckman
Performed by Carduus (Rose Heyele, Jeannette Lee, Caroline Nielson, Tyler Bouque)
Video by Marsia Alexander-Clarke

“Escuchando: a madrigal of shadows for four voices” is conceived as incidental music to the video art work “...escuchando...” by visual artist Marsia Alexander-Clarke. The artist describes her idiom with the concept of “video as mark”, borrowing a common term used in drawing and painting. Such marks most notably include narrow luminous slivers set against a dark background. Often these slivers function as the outer frames of highly filtered images of real life, particularly relating to the intricate play of light on plants. Marks are used as primary compositional motives in what the artist describes as a “visual narrative which develops sequentially, like a silent, visual fugue.” In this respect, one experiences marks in a dual way: as crevices through which we can gauge glimpses of our perception of the world, and as pure forms, autonomous abstract entities masterfully assembled and arranged in time.

The composition “Escuchando: a madrigal of shadows for four voices” is conceived as an aural and intellectual counterpoint to Alexander-Clarke’s homonymous work. I engage with the idea of aural marks as perceptual crevices into a world of indistinct memories and as pure sonic objects in an abstract form. Slivers of embodied sounds consisting of minute gradations of breath emerge from islands of long silences, gradually giving way to fragile sung lines, assembled and arranged in response to the artist’s idea of a “silent, visual fugue.”

“Escuchando: a madrigal of shadows for four voices” can be performed live in tandem with a screening of “...escuchando...” or as a stand-alone work.

Escuchando was composed for Holly Druckman and Carduus, and was recorded the work on October 1, 2021.

Escuchando for vocal quartet

For Felipe M. (2021) for solo baritone saxophone

Composed by Stratis Minakakis
Performed by Don-Paul Kahl on March 29, 2023 in Jordan Hall, Boston, MA.

Program Notes
“For Felipe M.” is a love song to ephemeral things. 

It is composed of material that engages the margins of auditory perception: islands of fragile sound between pockets of silence, quasi-subliminal signals that disappear in the distance, streams of seemingly interminable melodies, and static sounds of delicate polarities. These four sound types are arranged in an idiomatic “Lieder Ohne Worte” form composed of seven epigrammatic Verses and two extended Stanzas. If there is one common thread that permeates the nature of this material, it is the predilection for minuscule gradations, particularly evident in the nano-microtonal melodies and delicate nuances of breath tones, both of which the result of painstaking collaboration with saxophonist Don-Paul Kahl. By drawing attention to such esoteric nuances, the work aims to create an intimate space between performer and listener, inviting the latter to an inward journey of what the poet C.P. Cavafy calls “indistinct sensations.” 

Felipe M. was a rescue cat that left too soon due to congenital heart disease. He was one of the most empathic, kind, and generous beings who, in the six short months of his life with us, blessed Dolores, Catalina, and Stratis with unconditional love and happiness.

For Felipe M. (Live Performance)

Pietà (2011)
for Alto/tenor recorder, B-flat clarinet, violin, viola, cello 

Composed by Stratis Minakakis

Pietà

Monteverdi Responsories (2008/rev.2014) for saxophone quartet and choir
Performed by The Crossing Choir; directed by Donald Nally and PRISM Quartet

Program Notes
The idea for creating Monteverdi Responsories was conceived in response to Claudio Monteverdi’s Piagn’e Sospira from the Fourth Book of Madrigals. Monteverdi’s text comes from an excerpt of Torquato Tasso’s Jerusalem Delivered, and describes a lover who ‘cries and sighs’ (piagn’e sospira) as she carves on the bark of a tree a beloved name ‘in a thousand fashions’ (segno l’amato nome in mille guise). Monteverdi’s setting of piagn’e sospira is one of the most captivating moments in madrigal literature. It consists of two gestures, forming a metaphorical musical sigh: an ascending chromatic line on ‘cried’ (piagn’e), balanced by a descending leap on ‘sighed’ (sospira). The outer tones of the second gesture engulf the tones of the first gesture, while the latter fill in every chromatic step in-between the outer tones of the second gesture. This extraordinarily powerful yet disarmingly simple musical material is recast ‘in a thousand fashions’ in Monteverdi Responsories, which is to be performed immediately after ‘Piagn’e Sospira’ without pause. Monteverdi’s original material is decontextualized and its pertinent qualities become malleable: the distorted sospiro gesture that initiates the piece is a characteristic example of such recasting.. The text of Monteverdi Responsories is a poem by 20th century Greek poet Yiannis Ritsos from the collection Mikre Suita se Kokkino Meizon (Little Suite in Red Major).

Monteverdi Responsories

Aner Gar Oy Stenaktos B' (2014) for solo voice
Sophoclean shards for solo soprano

Composed by Stratis Minakakis
Performed by Adrienne Arditti

Program Notes

151019 Composers Series       

Aner Gar Oy Stenaktos B'

Post-Echoi (2009) for piano concertante, flute, B-flat clarinet, 2 violins, viola, cello, double bass

Program Notes
Post-Echoi was originally commissioned by Theodore Antoniou to commemorate Lukas Foss. The work takes as a point of departure one of Foss’ most significant works from his experimental period, Echoi (1963). The characteristic first chord in the beginning of the second movement of Echoi constitutes the thematic nucleus of Post-Echoi. As in Foss’ work, the piano has the principal role in Post-Echoi. The relationship between the two works also extends to elements of texture: the accompanying ensemble frequently functions as a distorted mirror of the piano. Nevertheless, the mode of development and transformation of the material follows a completely personal path. The latter is characterized by contrapuntal networks that unfold around fixed points in register and polyrhythmic structures and arranged in complex rhythmic canons. Post-Echoi, as most of my works, balances between extremes, exploring sharp contrasts between stasis and movement, dynamic levels and timbral combinations.

Post-Echoi

Chroies Beta

Ta Entos (2005) for saxophone quartet
"Those Within"

Program Notes
One of the strongest memories of my musical development occurred during my early childhood. My father, also a musician, and I were walking through our orange grove outside Sparta. As a sudden gust of wind blew, we heard a fascinating faint sound, produced by the vibration of a taut string used to tie two branches from different trees together. Several years later, the distant memory of that undulating microtonal melody became the basis for my saxophone quartet “TA ENTOS,” “Those Inside” in Greek, commissioned by the PRISM saxophone quartet in New York. Throughout the piece’s development, the melody is subjected to a series of perturbations that create a dynamic interchange of expanding and contracting transformations, until the final, fragile point of rest. The title of the piece reflects its literally introspective character: every new gesture or idea is nestled in the generative melodic line and develops in concentric circles that continuously reveal new facets and establish new associations within it. 

This work was commissioned in 2005 by the PRISM Saxophone Quartet.

Ta Entos

Ex Tempore

Contrafactum: “the substitution of one text for another without substantial change to the music.” (from New Grove Dictionary on Music and Musicians)

Contrafactum refers to the state of consciousness that Milan Kundera describes in Immortality as the “marvelous swinging between wakefulness and sleep.” In Contrafactum one finds oneself in state of drowsiness in an unfamiliar place. Initially, all surrounding objects are barely discernible: one senses only their presence through shadows of tones and faint pulsations. As time progresses, their shape, volume, and texture become increasingly tangible, conjuring memories and a sense of déjà vu. How did we arrive here? Have we been here before? The three movements of Contrafactum propose three different, perhaps counterfactual narratives that answer these questions.

02 Minakakis - Contrafactum, II Lo Stesso Tempo

01 Minakakis - Contrafactum, I Adagio Ma Fliente

"Crossings’ Epigrams" is an elegy on things irretrievably lost. Once again, I turned to Ancient Greek literature because it expresses something about the human condition that resonates deeply within me. Three text fragment are interwoven throughout the three short movements that comprise "Crossings’ Epigrams": the moment where Odysseus tries to grasp the fleeting vision of his mother, which escapes like a ‘shadow’, or a ‘dream’ (Homer, Odyssey, Book 11); the lines uttered to Antigone by the exhausted old Oedipus as they arrive in Athens, where they plan to seek refuge (Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus); Hecuba's lament over the fall of Troy and collapse of the House of Priam (Euripides, The Trojan Women). Epigram I is a fantasy on the words ‘shadow’ and ‘dream’ of the Homeric text. Epigram II interlaces Odysseus’ agonizing description with Oedipus’ painful realization regarding his current state. Epigram III presents Hecuba’s lament, echoed in distortion by the sea waves, transforming to a chaotic primordial cry. Shadows of the Homeric text trace an invisible but omnipresent line that connects the three Epigrams.

Crossings’ Epigrams can be performed autonomously, or in conjunction with Crossings. In the second case, Epigrams I and II are performed as a unit before Crossings; Epigram III is performed immediately after the conclusion of Crossings.

Crossings Epigrams (excerpt from Epigram II)

The word “diaploys” in Greek means sailing through. Diaploys is the third in a family of works that relate to Odysseus’ sea voyages towards home. As in the case of Apoploys I, Diaploys is a commentary on verses 78-80 from the 13th book of the Odyssey: as the Phaiakians “rowed vigorously’’ towards Ithaka, Odysseus is overcome by a sweet, deep slumber, “very akin to death”. The work is conceived as a series of escalating waves, tracing a tense, fragile line and its shadows throughout the piece.

Diaploys was composed for the Days of Percussion 2013 International Percussion Competition organized by the Greek Chapter of the Percussive Arts Society, which took place in September 4-8 in Athenaeum Conservatory, Athens.

Diaploys

Skiagrafies (Greek for shadow etchings) is a cycle of works that looks at color through the perspective of shadows. Skiagrafies I, which was premiered at the Kimmel Center in June of 2016, was commissioned by the PRISM quartet and the Partch Ensemble. Skiagrafies II, scored for flute and piano resonance, was written for flutist Orlando Cela. Skiagrafies III, was composed for New England Conservatory’s Wind Ensemble and dedicated to Charles Peltz and Boyang Yu.

While each work of the cycle is conceived as an autonomous organism, they all stem from the same pursuit: exploring the musical dimensions of shadows. This is done in two primary ways: first, in the exploration of minute gradations of sound parameters such as pitch, timbre, and dynamics; second, in the reflections and refractions of the same sound object across the different timbres of the instrument or the ensemble. A third, perhaps more metaphorical concept of shadows in ‘Skiagrafies’ is related to the way in which memory is engaged: each piece grows by continuously recalling and recasting distorted copies of previous material, effectively creating a veil of shadows upon shadows of the initial archetypal gesture. Time does not flow linearly, but in concentric circles, dynamic development giving way to introspective, dream-like contemplation of minute sonic spaces.

170202 NECWE

Skiagrafies III

Nina Dante, soprano; Dalia Chin, flute

Cassandra fragments was inspired by Euripides’ Trojan Women, the poet’s fiercest condemnation of the brutalities of war. After the fall of Troy, Cassandra, the Trojan princess, is betrothed to Agamemnon, the victor, to become his concubine. Through her prophetic gift, she foresees Agamemnon’s death upon their return to Argos, his homeland, as well as her own demise. In an ecstatic delirium, she sings praises to Hymen, god of marriage, knowing that her sacrifice will be the catalyst for the ultimate destruction of her tormentor and the house of Atreas.

Cassandra Fragments

The word “apoploys” in Greek means sailing forth. Apoploys II is the second in a family of works that relate to Odysseus’ sea voyages towards home. The text here comes from the eleventh Book of the Odyssey, also known as “Nekuia”: Odysseus departs from the island of Circe to visit the underworld in order to receive an oracle from Teiresias regarding his return home, to Ithaca. In this “journey of a different kind”, Odysseus encounters, among others, the spirit of his mother who had died while he was away in the siege of Troy. After the end of their conversation, he tries three times to clasp her ghost, but she disappears “like a shadow or a dream”. Apoploys II is a reenactment of this moment, a fantasy on the subject of absence.

In Apoploys II, as in many of my works, I search for the primordial voice. A voice deeply rooted in the body, a voice that utters our innermost emotions without the filter of stylization, as in Western opera. Like Iannis Xenakis, whose “Kassandra” was strongly influenced by Noh Theater, I found in Noh chant a sound whose depth, in my imagination, connects to the ethos of the Ancient Greek text.

Ryoko Ayoki, Noh Chant; Daniel Agi, flutes; Rie Watanabe, percussion.

Apoploys II

Stratis Minakakis is a composer and conductor whose creative work engages issues of memory, cultural identity, and art as social testimony; it also explores the rich possibilities engendered by the interaction between arts and sciences. He teaches at New England Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts. For more information, please visit https://www.stratisminakakis.info.

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