Wine-Dark Sea

From Wind Repertory Project
John Mackey

John Mackey


Subtitle: Symphony for Band


General Info

Year: 2014
Duration: c. 30:35
Difficulty: VII (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Osti Music
Cost: Score and Parts - Rental   |   Score Only - $125.00


Movements

1. Hubris - 10:15
2. Immortal Thread, So Weak - 11:20
3. The Attentions of Souls - 8:25


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II-III-IV
Oboe I-II (second doubling English Horn)
Bassoon I-II
Contrabassoon
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III-IV
B-flat Bass Clarinet I-II
B-flat Contrabass Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Saxophone
E-flat Alto Saxophone I
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
C Trumpet I-II-III-IV
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II-III
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Piano (prepared with glass rods)
Harp
Timpani
Percussion I-VII, including:

  • Bass Drum, small and large
  • Snare Drum
  • Crash Cymbals
  • Bell Plate
  • Crotale
  • Darbuka
  • Djembe
  • Log Drum (4 pitches)
  • Marimba
  • Ocean Drum
  • Suspended Cymbals, assorted
  • Tam-Tams (2)
  • Tambourine
  • Tom-Toms (4)
  • Triangles
  • Vibraphone
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

For the past 10 years, I've written all of my music in collaboration with my wife, Abby. She titles nearly all of my pieces, a process that usually involves my writing the music, then playing it for her, after which she tells me what the piece is about. Without her help, Aurora Awakes would be "Slow Music Then Fast Music #7 in E-flat." Sometimes she'll hear a piece halfway through my writing process and tell me what the music evokes to her, and that can take the piece in a different (and better) direction than I had originally intended. I've learned that the earlier she is involved in the process, the better the piece turns out. So with Wine-Dark Sea, my symphony for band, I asked for her help months before I ever wrote a note of music.

The commission, from Jerry Junkin and The University of Texas Wind Ensemble, in honor of the 100th anniversary of the Sarah and Ernest Butler School of Music, was for a piece lasting approximately 30 minutes. How could I put together a piece that large? Abby had an idea. Why not write something programmatic, and let the story determine the structure? We had taken a similar approach with Harvest: Concerto for Trombone, my trombone concerto about Dionysus, the Greek god of wine. Why not return to the Greek myths for this symphony? And since this story needed to be big (epic, even), I'd use the original, truly epic tale of Odysseus, as told thousands of years ago by Homer in The Odyssey.

The full Odyssey, it turned out, was too large, so Abby picked some of the "greatest hits" from the epic poem. She wrote a truncated version of the story, and I attempted to set her telling to music. Here is the story the way Abby outlined it (in three movements), and I set it:

After ten years of bloody siege, the Trojan War was won because of Odysseus's gambit: A horse full of soldiers, disguised as an offering. The people of Troy took it in as a trophy, and were slaughtered.

Odysseus gave the Greeks victory, and they left the alien shores for home. But Odysseus's journey would take as long as the war itself. Homer called the ocean on which Odysseus sailed a wine-dark sea, and for the Greek king it was as murky and disorienting as its name; he would not find his way across it without first losing himself.

I. Hubris

Odysseus filled his ship with the spoils of war, but he carried another, more dangerous, cargo: pride. This movement opens with his triumphal march, and continues as he and his crew maraud through every port of call on their way home.

But the arrogance of a conquering mortal has one sure consequence in this world: a demonstration of that mortal's insignificance, courtesy of the gods. Odysseus offends; Zeus strikes down his ship. The sailors drown. Odysseus is shipwrecked. The sea takes them all.

II. Immortal thread, so weak

This movement is the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Kalypso, who finds Odysseus near death, washed up on the shore of the island where she lives all alone. She nurses him back to health, and sings as she moves back and forth with a golden shuttle at her loom. Odysseus shares her bed; seven years pass. The tapestry she began when she nursed him becomes a record of their love.

But one day Odysseus remembers his home. He tells Kalypso he wants to leave her, to return to his wife and son. He scoffs at all she has given him. Kalypso is heartbroken.

And yet, that night, Kalypso again paces at her loom. She unravels her tapestry and weaves it into a sail for Odysseus. In the morning, she shows Odysseus a raft, equipped with the sail she has made and stocked with bread and wine, and calls up a gentle and steady wind to carry him home. Shattered, she watches him go; he does not look back.

III. The attentions of souls

But other immortals are not finished with Odysseus yet. Before he can reach his home, he must sail to the end of the earth, and make a sacrifice to the dead. And so, this movement takes place at the gates of the underworld, where it is always night.

When Odysseus cuts the throats of the sacrificial animals, the spirits of the dead swarm up. They cajole him, begging for blood. They accuse him, indicting him for his sins. They taunt him, mocking his inability to get home. The spirit of his own mother does not recognize him; he tries to touch her, but she is immaterial. He sees the ghosts of the great and the humble, all hungry, all grasping.

Finally, the prophet Teiresias tells Odysseus what he must do to get home. And so Odysseus passes through a gauntlet beyond the edge of the world, beset by the surging, shrieking souls of the dead. But in the darkness he can at last see the light of home ahead.

Wine-Dark Sea is dedicated to Jerry Junkin, without whom the piece would not exist. The second movement, Immortal thread, so weak, telling of Kalypso's broken heart, is dedicated to Abby, without whom none of my music over the past ten years would exist.

- Program Note by composer


Awards


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Carnegie Mellon University (Pittsburgh, Penn.) Wind Ensemble (George Vosburgh, conductor) - 16 September 2023
  • Central Washington University (Ellensburg) Wind Ensemble (T. André Feagin, conductor) - 9 February 2023
  • Lone Star High School (Frisco, Tx.) Wind Symphony (Mark Poole, conductor) - 19 December 2022 (2022 Midwest Clinic)
  • Rutgers University (New Brunswick, N.J.) Wind Ensemble (Kraig Williams, conductor) - 9 December 2022
  • Texas Tech University (Lubbock) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Sarah McKoin, conductor) - 29 March 2022
  • University of Oklahoma (Norman) Wind Symphony (Shanti Simon, conductor) - 9 March 2022
  • University of Northern Colorado (Greeley) Wind Ensemble (Wesley J. Broadnax, conductor) - 30 November 2021
  • Charles River Wind Ensemble (Boston, Mass.) (Matthew M. Marsit, conductor) – 15 March 2020
  • Rosemount (Minn.) High School Wind Ensemble (Leon Sieve, conductor) – 7 March 2020
  • California All-State High School Wind Symphony (Kevin Sedatole, conductor) – 22 February 2020 (2020 CASMEC Conference, Fresno)
  • Stephen F. Austin State University (Nacogdoches, Tx.) Wind Ensemble (David Campo, conductor) – 19 November 2019
  • University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire Wind Symphony (John R. Stewart, conductor) – 17 October 2019
  • Colorado State University (Fort Collins) Wind Symphony (Rebecca Phillips, conductor) – 10 October 2019
  • Lamar University (Beaumont, Tx.) Wind Ensemble (Andrew McMahan, conductor) – 18 April 2019
  • Florida State University (Tallahassee, Fla.) Symphonic Band (Patrick Dunnigan, conductor) – 16 April 2019
  • Stetson University (DeLand, Fla.) Symphonic Band (Douglas Phillips, conductor) – 13 April 2019
  • University of North Texas (Denton) Wind Ensemble (Nicholas E. Williams, conductor) – 11 April 2019
  • Sierra Nevada Winds (Rocklin, Calif.) (Robert Halseth, conductor) – 28 April 2018
  • Sherwood (Ore.) High School Wind Ensemble (Brant Stai, conductor) – 9 March 2018
  • University of Alabama (Tuscaloosa) Wind Ensemble (Kenneth Ozzello, conductor) - 7 February 2015
  • University of Texas Wind Ensemble (Jerry F. Junkin, conductor) – 12 February 2014 - *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • Dorsey, Rodney. "Wine-Dark Sea." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 10, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 1057-1068. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2015.
  • Osti Music
  • Perusal score
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