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Aeolian Furies (1992) |
solo accordion - c. 8'
Commissioned by Guy Klucevsek with funds provided by a Composer Consortium Commissioning Program, by Meet the Composer and The National Endowment for the Arts, USA.
First performance: 28 February, 1993, The Snug Harbor Cultural Center, New York. Guy Klucevsek, accordion.
The Furies, or Erinyes, as they were called in ancient Greek, were three fleet footed figures in Greek and Roman mythology who pursued and punished earthly evildoers. They were inexorable and unrelenting, but just. It seems that not even the Sun could transgress his orbit without The Furies overtaking and punishing him (or so it was claimed by Heraclitus). In the same mythology Aeolus was King of the Four Winds and viceroy of the gods. The aeolian harp in which strings are gently played by the wind, and the aeolian scale which is A to A on the keyboard are derived from his name.
Aeolian Furies exploits the accordion's unique hurricane mechanics in a whirlwind of aeolian scales played with punishing fury.
Notes © 1992 Stephen Montague