Sixteen Solos for Meditation, Ritual, or Sacred Dance
for flute or recorder or violin
What better way to celebrate my ninth collection of music than to write a song for each of the nine muses? This volume is named in honor of Euterpe, the Muse of Lyric Poetry, usually seen carrying a flute.
An interlude entitled Pegasus leads to the second half of the book. Island Gaia offers six songs with a meditative quality inspired by a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii.
Belly dancers: Four of the Muses songs (Terpsichore, Polyhymnia, Thalia, and Melpomene) can be adapted for use in belly dance by playing with a drummer and/or finger cymbals. These pieces can be played on flute, alto recorder, violin, or any C instrument. Three tunes incorporate Middle Eastern modes.
Melpomene is a sword dance with taxim/chifte telli sections
Polyhymnia is a lyrical veil dance
Thalia is in 2/4 and can be used as a fast beledi; it does not use a Middle Eastern Mode
Terpsichore incorporates 4/4 and 9/8 Karsilama rhythms.
Songs from Euterpe is now available. This music is intended for flute or recorder. The adaptable recorder player will between switch soprano, alto, and tenor instruments according to preference and the range of the piece. The samples below are recorded with soprano and alto recorders. The four dance numbers also work well on violin, as they are performed in the audio gallery below.
Songs from Euterpe Table of Contents
Muses' Circle
Calliope
Erato
Clio
Euterpe
Terpsichore
Polyhymnia
Thalia
Melpomene
Urania
Interlude
Pegasus
Island Gaia
Morning
Labyrinth
Crater Credo
Rain Tree
Akaka Falls
Blue Temple
Copyright 2009 Dorothea Barth. All rights reserved.