Small Ensemble Guitar,Low Voice,Medium Voice - Level 4 - Digital Download SKU: A0.533911 Composed by David Warin Solomons. Concert,Contemporary,Standards. Score and parts. 19 pages. Musik Fabrik Music Publishing #3066951. Published by Musik Fabrik Music Publishing (A0.533911). Concert Note:The Five Poems of Melissanthi, in the English translation of Diana Maynard,comprise a complete vocal cycle of five poems set to music as a posthumoustribute by the composer to the Athenian poet Melissanthi (1910-1991),in the manner of the old tombeaux of the Baroque era, atradition also used by many composers of the first half of the 20th century.This composer confirms, with reference to his own experience of Melissanthi'spoetry these five from among her many poems have made a such a great impacton my composing that I felt the need to dedicate these musical pages to her.The evocative poetic expressions of Melissanthi, whose real name wasEve Chougia-Skandalaki, and the mysterious atmospheres invokedby David Solomons' music introduce the listener to an ethereal andmetaphysical dimension, allowing us a glimpse into the unknown and the intangible.A recurring theme, which unites the five lyrics by an invisible thread, isan incessant fluctuation between the real and the unreal, between the knownand the unknown and between reality and unreality.The inevitable abandonment of the mind to the seductive charms of thesurreal creates an extraordinary parallelism with lines from a great poet of the past…così tra questa/immensità s'annega il pensier mio:/e il naufragar m'è dolcein questo mare[…so in this/immensity my thoughts drown:/ and to be shipwrecked is sweetfor me in this sea.](Giacomo Leopardi, L'Infinito, 1819).Both the performance and the enjoyment of the Five Poems thereforerequire particular emotional involvement, in an overall picture where everysingle note is a tiny but essential constituent of a larger and more complexmusical architecture. The harmonic structure of the five compositions presentsa substantial homogenity of formulation even within the various rhythmicalsolutions selected, with their repeated returns to themes and chords.This creates an indissoluble unity, such that it would spoil the completenessof the whole cycle of compositions if it were broken.Alessandro BalsiminiTranslation by David W. Solomons
