'Penelope' ~ A Tale of Two Stories
“The power in the music and libretto of Penelope showers me with so many emotions — loss, grief, remorse, pain, melancholy. And yet I also have a sense of peace, tranquility and comfort throughout. ”
Penelope ~ Galina’s Story
‘Penelope ~ Galina’s Story’
I was inspired to create my Penelope vase after a very moving performance by Symphony New Hampshire of Penelope, A Song Cycle. Having recently experienced the loss of a loved one, I was struggling to regain my artistic footing. While listening to the SNH livestream performance, conducted by Roger Kalia, I was captivated by the story and was immediately compelled to sketch ideas for my own artistic interpretation.
This vocal and orchestral piece is filled with emotion and tells the story of a man who returns home to his wife, Penelope, after a long absence at war. He has lost his memory of who he is, and Penelope doesn’t know who he has become. So she attempts to restore his identity and their bond by reading Homer’s The Odyssey to him. In Greek mythology, the war hero Odysseus spends 20 years trying to get back home to his beloved Penelope.
Penelope, A Song Cycle, is a meditation on memory, identity, and what it means to come home. This is ultimately a story about relationships, compassion, and healing.
I was astonished to hear Roger’s Penelope story (below). Though his conductor’s vision of the music has elements similar to my listener’s perception, it is different on so many levels. I was listening to the SNH performance of Penelope two months after my mother died. The grief overpowered my perception of the music revealing raw pain of loss through the grey/yellow colors of a sky and red, transparent and fragile colors of the tulip shaped vase. Everything was intense, tight and closed…
…Then I listened to Roger, as he shared his feelings and vision of Penelope. The tranquility, peacefulness of the melody changing into tense, hot feelings, and then - dying back to melancholy, resignation and ambience…In my mind I saw an open vase; cool blue sky and fallen soft leaves. Gradually it moved into intense, orange, pink and red translucent colors of the crying heart…The hope is there, and it brings in the acceptance and peace.
Penelope ~ The Conductor’s Story
‘Penelope’ Roger’s story translated in clay by Galina
The story of Penelope was told by Roger Kalia to Marcia Donaldson who listened and scribed as follows:
Conducting is “being in the moment”. You and the musicians are one. Conducting is mental, emotional and physical.
Penelope is one of my three favorite modern pieces of music to conduct. It’s because it contains such a wonderful assortment of instruments and styles. It has the electronic sounds of a rock band in one movement, for example, and influences of Indian classical music in another. The electronic guitar in the movement entitled Baby Teeth, Bones and Bullets reminds me of the sounds from a sitar and my Indian heritage. And then there are the soaring vocals. The power in the music and libretto of Penelope showers me with so many emotions — loss, grief, remorse, pain, melancholy. And yet I also have a sense of peace, tranquility and comfort throughout. Each movement draws a vivid picture in my mind, created by personal memories of special friends, places, my childhood, and even simple moments in time.
Imagery is the key to my conducting. I don’t compose, but I find that interpreting a piece is creative in its own way. With so much emotion in the music and the story of Penelope, you can lose control if you don’t maintain a balance between the mind and the heart.
Among the eleven talented musicians from Symphony NH who performed ‘Penelope’ with me this year, none had ever performed it before. It was so much fun to work on it together. For me, the orchestra is a living, breathing organism, and conducting is always an adventure. ~ Roger Kalia, Conductor, Symphony NH
View my first vase ‘Penelope - Galina’s Story’ here
View my second vase ‘Penelope ~ The Conductor's Story’ here
Please share your thoughts about this piece in the comments section below.