Small Suite in Red Major
Song · digital release
A work for piano and voice setting poetry by Yannis Ritsos, exploring love and the value of life in the face of time. Singing and narration alternate with marked changes of dynamics, metre and tempo. Motifs drawn from Greek rhythms and dances connect its sections as a musical suite.
Work details
Programme note
A work for piano and voice. It sets one of the most beautiful, tender and truthful poems about love, desire and life. Through vivid everyday images, the poet conveys the characters’ physical and emotional intensity, expanding time and turning a moment into eternity: a hymn to the value of life in the face of time and death. Strong dynamic contrasts, sudden changes of metre and tempo, and alternations between singing and narration shape the work’s musical character. Different rhythmic patterns drawn from Greek rhythms and dances form a musical suite.
Credits
Tracks & movements
- Little Suite in Red Major