click for larger image

Title	Return to Ithaca
Article no.	98038983
Category	Concert/wind/brass band
Subcategory	Original contemporary music (20th, 21st century)
Instrumentation	Ha (concert/wind band)
Format	PrtStm (full score and parts)
Country of publication	Germany (de)
Publisher *	click here
Publisher's article no. *	click here
Year of publication	1999
Price	click here
Composer	Vlak, Kees
Difficulty level	4
Evaluation level of countries	D4 (German upper level)
Duration	11:44
Additional info/contents	Sing to me, O muse, of the deeds of the widely travelled man who on his long wanderings after Troy’s destruction saw cities of many people and found sense from life and who endures so many unutterable sorrows on the high seas. These verses open the epic work "Odyssey" by the Greek poet Homer who lived around 800 years B.C. It is under his name that the first two epic works of literature were recorded for posterity: The "Jliad“ in which the stories of the Greek heroes in the Trojan war are related and the "Odyssey“ which depicts the ensuing wanderings of Odysseus. Kees Vlak composed this tone poem based on Homer's story. The starting point for our composition is Olympus, that mountain of the dynasty of gods which is steeped in ancient Greek mythology and on which the omnipotent father of the gods, Zeus, has his throne. In the rest of the composition the various stages of the ten-year-long wanderings of Odysseus, the courageous king of Ithaca are described. He had helped the Greeks to defeat the Trojans by means of his ruse with the wooden horse but was later cursed by Poseidon the god of the sea for his arrogance. After a cadenza of the solo clarinet which leads us into the mysterious world of the god of the sea we arrive on the island of the Cyclops Polyphemus, the one-eyed giant who seeks to kill Odysseus and his companions yet is finally blinded by them. In the main part of the composition we hear the enticing dances of the beautiful nymph, Calypso and the seductive songs of the magician, Kirke who turned the companions of Odysseus into animals. In order not to fall prey to the irresistible singing of the Sirens, the shrewd Odysseus poured wax into the ears of his companions and had himself bound to the ship’s mast. So they in turn fail to stop the king of Ithaca who is helped by Athene, the goddess of wisdom, from finally returning home as an old man to find his faithful wife Penelope who has been waiting for him throughout all these years of war and wanderings. Thus the story which has been passed down to us by thousands upon thousands of singers from ancient world finds an happy ending. The Olympus of Zeus The Mysterious Sea of Poseidon The Cyclades Temptation Dances A Message from Hermes The Sweet Honey-wine of Circe Return to Ithaca The Olympus of Zeus
Sample score *	click here
Sound sample *	click here
Listen to this in the Musicainfo Radio *	click here
Available	yes
ergänzender Text *	click here

	Format
	Return to Ithaca (concert/wind band), full score and parts
	Return to Ithaca (concert/wind band), full score
	Flexibility, audio CD
	Return to Ithaca, audio CD

To order this item please log in (click here).

* Fields with a star are only visible for club members after registration.

In order to see the demo scores you need Adobe Reader, which you can download free. Just click on the following link.

In order to listen to the sound samples you need an MP3 player, which you can download free, for example: