WORKS FOR VOICE AND ORCHESTRA
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IAMBS AND ANAPAESTS PART II– MAGIC HERBS
Poems by Kostis Palamas
1. Prelude (1914) – A Fay Gave Me Birth (1912)
2. Old Mother Life (1908)
3. The Prince Waited Ready (1912)
4. The Black Ogress (1905/1912)
5. Menelaos Leaps Forward (1912)
6. From Distant Kingdoms (1912)
7. Son of Hamko (1912)
8. Digenis Akritas [link] (1912)
Orchestra: 2 3 2 2 – 4 4 3 1 – Timpani, Percussion, 2 Harps, Strings
First Performance: 12 March 1915 [with orchestra]
Auditorium of the Athens Conservatory
Conducted by Manolis Kalomiris
Soloist: Irene Skepers
The song cycle Iambs and Anapaests, Part II – Mayovotana, was first performed with piano accompaniment on 18 April 1914, in the Auditorium of the Athens Conservatory, by Irene Skepers, with the composer at the piano.
Publication
Full score: Unpublished.
Voice and piano: Manolis Kalomiris, (Mousiki edition), Athens 1914.
Maurice Senart, Paris 1927.
Gaetanos, Athens n.d. (only the songs A Fay Gave Me Birth and Old Mother Life).
Discography
Manolis Kalomiris: Magic Herbs / Petros Petridis: Kleft Dances & Symphony No. 1
Tonkünstlerorchester (Vienna)
Miltiades Caridis, conductor
Daphne Evangelatos, mezzo-soprano
LYRA CD 0060, 1991
* For the voice & piano version look under the corresponding category of works.
NOTES/FACTS
Mayovotana or Magiovotana (Magic Herbs), the second part of Iambs and Anapests (1897), a collection of poems in which iambic and anapaestic verses alternate in the respective metres and an atmosphere of magic transformation creates “a legend at the meeting point of folktales and history”.
Magic Herbs (Mayovotana), n.d. autograph manuscript of “Digenis Akritas”, title page. [© MKS]
Palamas, Kostis [link] (1859-1943), great lyric poet of historical importance in Greek literature. He was during his lifetime the admired leader of the Demotic Movement. He wrote in a grandiloquent flamboyant style, in which lyric expression was interwoven with elements of historical and traditional character. Palamas’ poetry became an important inspiration for Kalomiris’ vocal work. The two men had a lifelong friendship and admiration for each other. Kalomiris set to music numerous poems of Palamas and, finally, dedicated to him the Symphony No. 3, Palamiki.
[Notes by Maria Voelker-Kamarinea]
Audio
Manolis Kalomiris: Magic Herbs [link]
Daphne Evangelatos, mezzo-soprano
Yoshikazu Tanaka, conductor
Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra
Live concert in Tokyo, Japan, April 30, 1987
