ANCESTRAL TALES

SAT JAN 28 | 7:30 PM

HARALABOS [HARRY] STAFYLAKIS

Centennial Concert Hall

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1: MYTHOS (2023)

Commissioned by the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra and by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (Canada), Research/Creation Grant, in partnership with the University of Ottawa. Premiere by Jenny Lin and the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Raiskin conducting, on January 28, 2023 at Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

“I’ve come to the conclusion that mythology is really a form of archaeological psychology. Mythology gives you a sense of what a people believes, what they fear.”

― GEORGE LUCAS

“The Greeks created gods that were in their image; warlike but creative, wise but ferocious, loving but jealous, tender but brutal, compassionate, but vengeful.”

― STEPHEN FRY, Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold

Though I grew up from an early age with the piano and its repertoire as an integral part of my daily life, I did not truly fall in love with the instrument until I discovered the music of Sergei Rachmaninoff as a teenager. His piano concerti, especially, moved me deeply; they began to reveal to me how the grandeur of Classical-Romantic musical idioms could be harnessed in a more modern context. Years later, when I first began transitioning out of metal songwriting into classical composition, one of my first attempts (ambitiously and wildly naively) was in the form of a piano concerto. Though I did not at the time have the tools necessary to succeed in such a massive endeavor, the attempt itself was invaluable to the development of my compositional voice. (Some small elements from that piece of juvenilia have wormed their way into this new opus…)

Piano Concerto No. 1: Mythos came into existence some 15 years later, following my collaboration with pianist Jenny Lin on my series of piano etudes. Born of my love for two of my favorite instruments – the piano and the symphony orchestra (yes, I consider it an instrument) – this concerto serves as a semi-biographical archive of my personal musical history.

Each of the four movements is modelled – loosely and idiosyncratically – on a traditional form and its archetypal function within a multi-movement work: prologue (prelude), sonata, scherzo, fantasy. Together they trace a dramatic-narrative arc that, I hope, conveys the sense of mythological grandeur that I feel when I consider the vaunted history of the piano concerto as one of our most important and celebrated orchestral genres. The work is dedicated to Jenny Lin and Maestro Daniel Raiskin, without whom such a massive project would not have been possible.

BRAMWELL TOVEY SKY CHASE (2017)

Sky Chase was written for Maestro Roger Cole and the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra and gifted to them in celebration of the sesquicentennial of Canada. This work was inspired by the Coquihalla Highway, one of the most dramatic features of the journey across the Rockies between Banff in Alberta and Vancouver on the west coast. This is the road that links British Columbia to the rest of Canada.

At the outset the music is fast and driven, with woodwinds and wood block providing the motor for the rest of the orchestra. As the music becomes calmer the pulse remains the same but the orchestra seems to take flight, as if gliding like a bird. There is a brief interlude of repose to admire the view, before the chase resumes and reaches its inevitable climax.

SANDRA LARONDE & ELIOT BRITTON ADIZOKAN SUITE (2018)

In Anishinaabemowin, Adizokan means “a spiritual being that carries wisdom and knowledge. For Indigenous peoples, it is not necessarily ‘the human’ who possesses wisdom. For Indigenous Peoples, human life is limited and we can experience only a tiny slice of the spiritual experience. There is so much more knowledge and wisdom that does not necessarily live inhuman form, but resides in animals, rocks, trees, water, and the stars. We respect all life forms and all lifeforms have a spirit. It is a world view that is critical for a profound renewal of transformation in this era of great upheaval. Adizokan is a celebration of connected threads of information that weave across the universe, linking the biological, technological and cosmological forces though human experience. From the quiet sense of infinity that comes from a star filled sky, to the sense of wonder that results from looking at one’s own DNA sequence on a cellphone. All of these experiences bind across time. Our universe is pulsing with densely packed and expansive seas of information, flowing with messages, stories, meaning, and ways of knowing whether it be human, hoofed or winged.

Adizokan is divided into seven sections as there are seven layers of the universe for Indigenous peoples. In this music composition, these seven layers trace Indigenous experience of information beginning with our evocative “Origins” and the intensely primal “Fundamental Forces,” and culminating in the epic energy of “Future Skies.” These movements are interspersed with electroacoustic / throat-boxing interludes featuring Nelson Tagoona’s unique integration of throat singing and beat-boxing. Each section relies on computer assisted compositional techniques to seek out, shape and emphasize threads of connection between orchestral, vocal, Indigenous and throat-boxing sound worlds.