Diptych

I – Sky-Maze with Song Shards
II- Daedalus’s Lament

Diptych for oboe/cor anglais and harp consists of two works that can be performed independently or together in the order recorded here. The first piece, Sky-Maze with Song Shards, combines two ideas found in Michael Ayrton’s novels The Testament of Daedalus and The Maze Maker, which relate the life of Daedalus, the mythical Greek inventor. In the novels the term “sky-maze” is used by Daedalus to describe the patterns created by the diving and swooping of birds, while the song shards are sung by Daedalus’s son Icarus when they fly to Cumae.

Sky-Maze with Song Shards begins with a quiet harp solo that was inspired by the idea of distant diving and swooping birds gradually coming into focus. When the oboe joins, the music continues with gestures and shapes inspired by birds in flight, but gradually marcato fragments interrupt the flow. Eventually these fragments dominate and lead to the climax of the piece, which focuses briefly on the lower registers of both instruments for the first and only time. A short coda returns the music to the stratospheric register with which the piece began.

Daedalus’s Lament was partly inspired by the idea of the father reflecting on the loss of his son, and also how he might feel if he knew that his invention had led to the events of 9/11. The piece can be understood as consisting of three arias separated by two recitatives, each ending with increasingly intense references to Sky-Maze with Song Shards.

Diptych was commissioned by Okeanos with funds from the David James Music Trust and was premiered on 7 March 2002 at Manchester University by Okeanos, Jinny Shaw (oboe/cor anglais) and Lucy Wakeford (harp).

Philip Grange