So I submit compositions for competitions, and a very interesting one came up that I’d love some input on.
Basically, the call is for choral scores (SATB) based on mythology and legend. I can’t plagiarize any text, so it can’t be anything modern (like LOTR or Star Wars). I have some ideas of my own (Greek mythologies mostly), but I’d love some input from the Dopers.
Religious text should be fine as long as the selection committee doesn’t find it insulting that I call their particular god a mythological being. So, I figure some Old Testament texts or parables from the New Testament should be fine. I also know very little about Hindu myths and legends, but I’d love a good one to work off of.
Oh, and there’s no reason the myth/legend has to be in writing (although it makes my job easier). The legend of Johnny Appleseed would be appropriate. So would the legend of Jack The Ripper.
Here’s a legend I was reading about recently that I thought was interesting:
There was a lady named Niobe who had seven sons and seven daughters. She figured that this put her way ahead of the goddess Latona, who only had two children – Diana and Apollo. So, she went around and told people not to put up a temple to Latona. How she managed to forget to add “also, I’m a fucking genius, apparently” because of course Latona found out what Niobe had been saying and sent Diana and Apollo to give her the works.
Apollo found and shot Niobe’s sons full of arrows – some while they were at the horse races, some at the gymnasium wrestling, some kneeling in horror over the bodies of their freshly killed brothers.
So, they had a funeral. Niobe was just devastated, of course, by her loss. All the daughters were there, everybody pulling out their hair and ripping their clothes in the typical manner of ancient mourners. But Niobe brightened up, because – and this is the part where somebody should have come up behind her with a blunt object and brained her before she spoke – because having still seven beautiful daughters, she was still better than Latona.
Mythology does not record whether any of the daughters had a chance to scream “Bitch, are you crazy” before Diana mowed them down with arrows from the sky. But that’s how I read between the lines.
This has some great possibilities within the SATB context. Sopranos = Daughters, Altos = Mom, Tenors = Sons, Bass = Apollo. It’s definitely got inspiration to it.
I didn’t consider them until now, but I grew up watching reruns of Rocky and Bullwinkle. How about them grapes?
Might be a good allegory for global climate change…
It’s not exactly clear to me what you’re looking for. Do you want an out-of-copyright text you can use, or are you planning on taking the story and writing your own text?
If the former, there are plenty of old translations you can use, many conveniently already in verse form. Look at Chapman’s Homer, or Pope’s translsation, or old ttranslations of Hesiod or the Aeneid or Metamorphoses.
As for my personal favorite, it’s the story of Perseus and Medusa, for reasons that many will find obvious.
What’s SATB?
Pandoa’s box is another good idea I hadn’t thought of. The Maui legend is also very interesting; I’ll have to do some more research on that.
Either option is open to me. Once I pick a myth/legend, I’ll have to work around it. Since a lot of my options are translations from another language, I’ll likely have some leeway.
I suppose my job is made easier if there is already a text to work off of, but I’m really more concerned with the subject matter. Creating text for an oral story isn’t all that difficult and in some ways gives me more flexibility.
I always was a fan of Perseus. The Greeks have such a colorful tradition.
It’s the standard way to write for choral groups, going back to Bach (or farther even). It can also be used to describe any type of 4-part music.
S = Soprano
A = Alto
T = Tenor
B = Bass (or sometimes Baritone)
You’ll occasionally find more obscure combinations like SAAT or AATB, but that’s usually for quartets (not full choir). Many female choirs are SSAA and many male choirs are TTBB.
For me, myths that rely more on narrative would not be as interesting for a choral arrangement as those which are more descriptive/contemplative. The best example I can think of is the myth of Endymion; John Keats got a lot of mileage out of that thin legend…
Thanks, CJJ. I agree that descriptive/contemplative myths are easier to work with for choral arrangements, especially given the repetitive lyrical nature of most choral works. That being said, there’s no reason why I can’t take a piece of a narrative and contemplate it myself.
I was familiar with the first line of that Keats poem, but had never read the whole thing. I find it intriguing that he wasn’t entirely happy with the finished product. If I choose the poem to work off of, I may juxtapose his Ode on a Grecian Urn, which has a very similar theme.
Perseus and Medusa have been the subject of numerous operas (including swhat has been claimed as the first opera). In fact, there are plenty of myth-based operas and (I think) oratorios. You could update one of those.
One story that hasn’t gotten its share of attention is Beowulf. Beowulf hasn’t been appreciated until the last 200 years or so, and wasn’t really popular as a subject until the last quarter of the 20th century until now. There’s been an explosion of Beowulf stiff recently – half a dozen movies and seven operas, all since 1970.List of adaptations of Beowulf - Wikipedia I’m sure there’s room for more interpretation.
I’ve made my choice of subject matter, and although it wasn’t stated in this thread it was related. The Keats epic had me searching for more poetry based on myth (unfortunately, Endymion was far too lengthy to approach). Eventually I happened upon a myth from childhood which I still hold dear: the phoenix. The combination of the two (poetry and the phoenix) led me to Shakespeare’s The Phoenix And The Turtle.
Thank you all for your input! I know it may have seemed in vain, but I assure you this thread has greatly shaped my thought process in approaching the composition.