Score and parts available on special sale from the hire library

The ITHACA SUITE is composed of a series of psychological portraits of the characters that Odysseus meets or reunites with upon returning to Ithaca after his long journey. It is through their recognition of him that he can fulfill his destiny.

PROCOS- the Suitors- (for string quartet) are the arrogant men who seek to usurp the throne and court Penelope.

The worst is Antinous, whose name means “hostile mind,” and whom Homer calls “worse than a dog.”

The piece portrays them with asymmetric accents and rhythmic rigidity—menacing, shouting, violent.

The first violin represents Penelope’s inner state, while the cello embodies Odysseus, who, disguised as a beggar, is met only with insults and blows.

The rhythmic complexity stems from a polyrhythmic structure: the long melodic lines of the violin and cello are in 3/4 time, while the other instruments—the Suitors—play in 4/4, emphasizing the incompatibility between the noble and ignoble characters.

TELEMACHUS -the son of Odysseus- (for violin and piano) also lives through his own miniature Odyssey.

He too matures through a journey: he leaves as a boy and returns a man. From child to warrior.

Telemachus is transformation.

The goddess Athena gives him the call to adventure and the courage to embrace his destiny. But it is up to him to gather a crew, secure a ship, and sail across the open sea in search of news of his father—risking death or the knowledge of his father’s death.

Telemachus, “the one who fights from afar,” is an adolescent full of enthusiasm, but also fears—a surge of youthful energy and romantic emotion, all observed from a certain distance, as if from the outside.

Frenetic rhythmic elements and incandescent melodic lines mirror this youthful spirit, alternating between violin and piano across the two sections of the piece. Only at the end does everything calm, as destiny is fulfilled.

EUMAEUS – the swineherd – (for sax alto) is the good man who suffers and endures the arrogance of the Suitors.

He is the one who opens his heart to Odysseus upon his return to Ithaca, who cares for him, shares his sorrows, and allows his own wounds to be seen.

I imagine him alone on the island, facing the sea, singing his longing for the old king and his pain over the injustice inflicted by the Suitors.

A melody for alto saxophone, adapted from a theme in the second movement of the Concerto, unfolds with wide pauses, during which the inner ear seems to catch the sound of the sea in the distance, the wind on the island, the cry of seagulls. It is a melancholic melody that, after reaching a near-painful climax, ends with an octave dialogue that fragments the line more and more until it fades into silence.

PENELOPEIA  -the wife of Odysseus- (for piano solo) is the gravitational center of the Odyssey. She is Ithaca, she is the island.

Odysseus returns to her to fulfill his destiny.

Throughout his journey, Odysseus resists—every trial he overcomes is an act of re-existence. Penelope, though unmoving, also resists and re-exists when Odysseus finally returns.

She weaves and unweaves the loom (a stratagem to delay the Suitors), in a continuous motion: she is the woman who spins the thread of destiny—for both man and story.

There is no Odysseus without Penelope. She is the axis of the tale.

The piece associated with Penelope and her symbolic significance is, not by chance, at the center of the Suite. It begins with an undulating accompaniment, like a calm sea at sunset: I imagine how many times Penelope must have gazed toward the horizon, hoping to see a sail—that sail—how many times she must have called Odysseus’ name.

The melody oscillates between melancholy and uplift: Penelope never loses hope.

The second idea represents the act of weaving, the back-and-forth of the shuttle across the loom. When the same idea is later reversed, the movement becomes unwinding, and so Penelope halts time, undoing the web: only when Destiny is fulfilled does the Eternal become Time, become History.

EURYCLEIA - Odysseus’ old nurse-  (for Sax soprano and piano) is the one who recognizes him by the hunting scar still visible on his thigh.

She is the one who cares, who knows how to soothe wounds, to touch weaknesses gently—she helps you understand that you are fragile, but also helps you heal.

To her, Odysseus is his scars, and that is why she recognizes him. After all, we are all recognizable through our wounds.

The piece expresses this caring, tender, maternal quality, with a humble spirit. The playful melodic fragments reflect her flashbacks upon recognizing Odysseus—memories of when he was an infant, a boy, moments of joy and mischief they once shared.

LAERTES - Odysseus’ aging father- (for cello and piano), lives withdrawn in the countryside of Ithaca. He has abandoned his royal identity, dressed in rags, living in neglect, because he has nothing left to hope for.

The loss of his son has left him only with the slow wait for death. 

He tends lovingly to his orchard and plants, the only things he still cares for.

In a powerful scene, he embraces his son, and Homer tells us that when he throws his arms around Odysseus’ neck, the old man nearly faints from joy.

The piece depicting old age and sudden overwhelming joy is styled like a Baroque aria, with a characteristic dotted rhythm—the rhythm of weeping, of sobs.

The piano sustains the melody with a heavy tread, like an old man’s steps—a rhythm directly taken from the string quartet accompaniment in the second movement of the Concerto.

The recognition scene is marked by the same melody from the opening, now in the relative major key: a flowing, expanded song, with Schubertian phrasing.

PAX ATHENAE -the Peace of the goddess Athena- (for piano and string quartet)

Only a god can bring peace among men—this seems to be Homer’s final message.

Everything begins and ends at the will of the gods.

Peace is humanity’s deepest yearning, but only the divine can quench mankind’s thirst for blood and vengeance.

Man alone cannot escape the spiral of violence.

The new world envisioned by Homer, the blind poet, is the subject of this final piece.

Thus, the Suite closes with a joyful image.

If Odysseus’ destiny is Penelope, then Ithaca’s destiny is peace: Love and Peace.