Iconic
Premiering with InfraSound - April 25-27, 2025 (Fri & Sat 8pm, Sun 3pm)
St. Malachy’s Church, The Actor’s Chapel (239 W 49 St, NYC)
soprano, countertenor, 2 flutes (piccolo, alto flute, bass flute doublings), bass clarinet, violin, viola, double bass, percussion, and piano (+toy piano) – approx. 40 minutes.
Iconic Program Note (25.04.16):
Our human stories are full of heroes and iconic figures. We adore them, then, often we discard them. Who are these icons? Humans who dare to be “god-like”? Mythology warns us of the consequences for such hubris.
Imagine two iconic characters emerging from the piles of our refuse:
Leander, who dared to love someone his society had forbidden
(Hero, a priestess of Aphrodite, who would light a lamp guiding him as he swam across the channel to her).Medusa, whom we know as the snake-haired monster
(an innocent girl, cursed as punishment for her god-provoking beauty).
These two iconic figures are joined by their intersections with Neptune, God of the Sea, who “took” them both, asserting his superiority.
Imagine Leander and Medusa, or perhaps their "spirits", stepping out of the sea, out from the piles we have discarded, giving voice to their stories. The two icons are transformed - in beauty beyond their bodies, rejoicing in love that transcends their corporal and mythic selves, freeing their souls like halcyon birds or crows.
Iconic was written for and commissioned by InfraSound.
This commission has been made possible with
Chamber Music America’s Classical Commissioning Program,
with generous funding from the Mellon Foundation.
(with gratitude to Joyce Sutphen and Yaccaira Salvatierra for sharing their poetry)
Prologue
1. This Body (Joyce Sutphen)
2. How dare I swim? (Leander)
3. How dare I bear such beauty? (Medusa)
Epilogue (Of My Body) (Yaccaira Salvatierra)