- Samuel Barber
Andromache’s Farewell (1962)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 2+pic.2+ca.2+bcl.2/4331/timp.perc/hp/str
- Soprano
- 12 min
- Euripides, from The Trojan Women trans. by J.P. Creagh
- English
- 21st October 2023, Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, Baltimore, MD, United States of America
- 22nd October 2023, Music Center at Strathmore, Bethesda, MD, United States of America
Programme Note
Composer’s note:
Scene: an open space before Troy, which has just been captured by the Greeks. All Trojan men have been killed or have fled and the women and children are held captives. Each Trojan woman has been allotted to a Greek warrior and the ships are now ready to take them into exile. Andromache, widow of Hector, Prince of Troy, has been given as a slave-wife to the son of Achilles. She has just been told that she cannot taker her little son with her in the ship. For it has been decreed by the Greeks that a hero’s son must not be allowed to live and that he is to be hurled over the battlements of Troy. She bids him farewell. In the background the city is burning. It is just before dawn.
Scene: an open space before Troy, which has just been captured by the Greeks. All Trojan men have been killed or have fled and the women and children are held captives. Each Trojan woman has been allotted to a Greek warrior and the ships are now ready to take them into exile. Andromache, widow of Hector, Prince of Troy, has been given as a slave-wife to the son of Achilles. She has just been told that she cannot taker her little son with her in the ship. For it has been decreed by the Greeks that a hero’s son must not be allowed to live and that he is to be hurled over the battlements of Troy. She bids him farewell. In the background the city is burning. It is just before dawn.
Media
Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Op. 24 - Vocal
Dover Beach, Op. 3
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 1, At Saint Patrick's Purgatory - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 2, Church Bells at Night - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 3, Saint Ita's Vision - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 4, The Heavenly Banquet - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 5, The Crucifixion - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 6, Sea-Snatch - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 7, Promiscuity - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 8, The Monk and His Cat - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 9, The Praises of God - Vocal
Hermit Songs, Op. 29: No. 10, The Desire for Hermitage - Vocal
Andromache's Farewell, Op. 39 - Vocal