Apollo's Lament

Performance by Ling Chun (oboe/English horn), Kasey Calebaugh (viola), and Alix Raspé (harp) at the Bowdoin International Music Festival, Studzinski Hall. August 8th, 2014

This piece is based on the Greek myth of Apollo and Hyacinth. Apollo and Zephyrus, the god of the west wind, were both pursuing the affections of Hyacinth, when they decided to hold a contest. Hyacinth chose Apollo, and in an act of jealousy, Zephyrus blew one of Apollo’s discuses off course, striking and killing Hyacinth. Apollo, overwhelmed in grief, immortalized his lover by creating a flower from his spilled blood, saving him from his fate in Hades.
The piece begins with the death of Hyacinth and is primarily concerned with Apollo’s reaction to Hyacinth’s death. It represents a duality often found in the Greek pantheon where on one hand, they sometimes very honorably immortalize someone by turning them into a constellation or creating something in their memory. Conversely, they often commit acts of wrath and jealousy, such as when Marsyus challenged Apollo to a music contest and Apollo flayed him and nailed his skin to a tree. Also drawing upon Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’s famous five stages of grief, the piece represents the internal conflict between disbelief, anger, emotional numbness, mourning, and the foreshadowing of acceptance as Apollo deals with the death of his dearly beloved.