Iconic

2 voices, 2 flutes (piccolo, alto flute, bass flute doublings), bass clarinet, violin, viola, double bass, percussion, and piano (+toy piano) – approx. 30 minutes. 

The texts intersect abstractly. The singers may be the characters, or they may imagine that they are... the piece is about discarding our heroes, our icons, about our wastefulness. Neptune-the sea-is represented by 2 waves frozen as if so full of trash that they can no longer move, and the 2 icons are suspended (in pieces, like life-size broken toys) in the crests of the immobile waves). Their "spirits" step out of the sea to share their stories in "arias". The ensemble is the voice of Neptune, and birds (alcyons and crows), and the environment - a chorus. The two icons are transformed - in voice, in beauty beyond their bodies, rejoicing in love that transcends their corporal and even mythic selves.

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, who would light a lamp guiding him as he swam across the channel to her). 

  • Medusa, whom we know as the snake-haired monster (a curse 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, stepping out from the piles we have discarded, giving voice to their stories, freeing their souls like halcyon birds or crows.

  1. Intro – Neptune

  2. This Body (Joyce Sutphen) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/browse?contentId=41109

  3. Leander (Luke)

  4. Medusa (Amber)

  5. Icons (Amber & Luke)

  6. Of My Body (Yaccaira Salvatierra) https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/158161/of-my-body

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)