Tiresiasl (2002)
from Ovid's Metamorphoses
English translatation by Rolfe Humphries
(used with permission)
for SATB choir
duration: 4 minutes
download score (as pdf - 180KB)
performance materials are available on request
Full recording:
recording from the dedication of the Traina Center for the Arts, 2002
Clark University Choir, Andrew Clark conductor
Program Notes
This text is taken from Ovid's Metamorphoses and recounts an episode in myth where Tiresias is changed by the Gods from man to woman and back again. Zeus and Hera are having a dispute: who enjoys more pleasure in love-making? When Hera sees Tiresias strike a pair of copulating snakes, she turns Tiresias from man to woman. Only by experiencing both genders could Tiresias be able to adjudicate the Gods's dispute. After seven years as a woman, Tiresias again found mating snakes. Depending on the myth, either she made sure to leave the snakes alone this time, or, according to Hyginus, trampled on them again. As a result, Tiresias was released from her sentence and permitted to regain his masculinity. Along with Putting the Devil in Hell and The Crowning, Tiresias is another installment in my Aural Sexuality series (for mature audiences), a set of works devoted to exploring aspects of the human experience rarely considered in musical terms.