Vignettes, After Pierides – Carol Barnett

Composer: Carol Barnett

Instrumentation: flute, cello, piano

Duration: Approx. 16 minutes

Date Written:  2001

Composer’s note:  

One day in 1999, shortly after I had been approached by the Minnesota Music Teachers Association to write a trio for their 100th Anniversary concert, I received a book from Theofanis G. Stavrou, professor of Russian history and director of the Modern Greek Studies Program at the University of Minnesota. The book was Tetralogy of the Times: Stories of Cyprus by G. Philippou Pierides, published in 1998. I chose three of its stories as inspiration for the three movements of Vignettes, After Pierides.

“The Incorrigible” describes a young, recently-published poet’s uncertain attempts to fit in at an aristocratic gathering at the exclusive Hunter’s Club; his inner self would like “...to leave, to climb up by himself to the clean air of the mountain, to leave behind him the garbage of the city and the incomprehensible hierarchy of its values.” The music, based on two folk songs, contrasts the brittle dance rhythms of a noisy party with the simple melodies of the countryside.

“Auto-da-fé” deals with the Cypriot struggle for independence during the 1960s. The often-violent political confrontation is represented by an incident in which a poor leftist workman is stoned to death by his fellow villagers. Musical materials include the underlying tension of perpetual sixteenth notes, fragments of psalter hymns (the few voices of reason) and strong repeated quarter notes (the defiant stance of the outcast worker), all finally overwhelmed by the brutal punctuations of the piano.

“A Song for Aunt Chrystallou” is a paean to one of those admirable older women who, if we are lucky, we can find in our own lives – aunts, mother, grandmothers, women who are the spiritual center of the family and the lifeblood of the community. Perhaps the music is more nostalgic than I had planned. Yet so often the best things we do in life are done to remember and honor the past, and to build on it. The folk song used in this movement is  sung by young girls while fortune-telling on St. Johns’ day in the spring. “Karpasitissa,” used in the first movement, also makes a partial appearance.

I am most grateful to the Minnesota Music Teachers Association for commissioning this work, to Professor Stavrou for his inspiration and for making my research trip to Cyprus a wonderful reality, and to the the Inter-University Committee on Cyprus for its substantial support of that trip.