Ostraka
David Hahn
About this work:
A Song Cycle for Voice and Guitar
David Hahn
Ostraka, a collection of eighteen songs for voice and guitar, was composed in the spring of 2003 after I had read Archaic Greek Poetry, translated and edited by Barbara Hughes Fowler (University of Wisconsin Press, 1992). This volume is an anthology of poems which date from Archaic Greece, centuries before the “Golden Age” of 5th-century Athens. The works are primarily short fragments that remain from lost longer pieces written by great poets such as Sappho as well as others such as Alkman and Archilochos who are less well-known today.
Here is an example of one of the poetic fragments, which is a characteristic invocation to the Muse:
Muse, thrust aside wars and sing with me
the marriages of gods, the feasts of men,
and the celebrations of the blest. -Stesichoros
I drew inspiration from the fact that, along with Homer, these works constitute some of the earliest known literature of Western culture. I was also fascinated by the idea of a fragment and of how much of the poem actually comes through when the reader knows only a few lines or even some unconnected phrases. Experiencing poetic fragments of a past civilization creates an experience filled with promise. While we do not have the whole poem, fragments promise something which our minds must fill in. We are shown a glimpse, a picture of what can only be conjecturally completed.
I selected 18 fragments which had diverse themes such as invocation to the Muse (a common way for the Greeks to begin), love, drinking, religious ritual, and sex (XII. “Grind, mill, grind”). I went about setting them for voice and guitar with the intention of making each song—most less than a minute long —underscore the tone of the poetic fragment. I utilized many different styles and techniques including Sprechstimme, Bartok pizzicati, a canon in harmonics (XVII. “A spangle of stars”), as well as a 19th-century inspired setting (XI. “Where are my roses”).
I called the resulting collection of songs Ostraka, plural of the Greek word ostrakon, meaning shards of broken pottery. In seventh and sixth-century BC Greece these were often used to write on. We derive our modern word "ostracize" from this word. The ancient practice of ostracizing played out when the citizens gathered and wrote the names of men they deemed dangerous to the state on potsherds or tiles. The man whose name turned up often enough was sent away, beyond the gates of the city. Today there seems to be a tendency to “ostracize” art, thought, and creativity from our lives. The artists, philosophers and intellectuals—those who are deemed dangerous by the powers-that-be—are often marginalized, their voices suppressed.
These songs are intended to be performed as a complete cycle, with each being given its own world of dynamic, affect, and delivery.
Ostraka premiered at the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in September 2005 with mezzo-soprano Sharon Rhinesmith and guitarist Thomas Smith.
Year composed: 2004
Duration: 00:12:00
Ensemble type: Voice, Solo or With Chamber or Jazz Ensemble:Solo Voice with One Non-keyboard Instrument
Instrumentation: 1 Guitar (Classical/Acoustic), 1 Medium Voice