jorge a. bosso

The Eternal Embrace
(après The Odyssey)

Tales for cello and orchestra (2004)

“ Her knees failed her,
her heart melted then and there she knew for truth
the undoubted tokens Odysseus gave her,
then she ran across to him,
and throwing her arms about his neck
she kissed him and began to speak…”

(The Odyssey, chapter XXIII)

Chapter I	Hymn to Athene
Chapter II	Odysseus towards the unknown
Chapter III	Phaecing games, dancing, poems (a song for Psyche…)
Chapter IV	Penelope’s mourning  (solo viola)
Chapter V	Polyphemus
Chapter VI	Circe
Chapter VII	Odysseus among the ghosts
Chapter VIII	The Sirens’ chant and the cattle of the sun
Chapter IX	Odysseus’ mourning
Chapter X	Return to Ithaca – The contest of the bow
Chapter XI	Penelope doubts and believes
Chapter XII	Epilogue

Instrumentation

Solo cello
2 Flutes (2nd  doubling Piccolo)
2 Oboes (2nd  doubling English Horn)
2 Clarinets in Bb
2 Bassoons
2 French Horns
Timpani
Percussion (bass drum, tam-tam-, triangle, cymbals, tubular bells, vibraphone)
Strings

Duration: 40 minutes ca.  

Three movements, divided in twelve chapters, are the structure of the whole concert, that I conceived,  to give life in music to one of most representative epic poems in the history of literature of all times.

Two are the  main characters, Penelope (solo viola)  and Odysseus (solo cello).

Chapter IV - Penelope’s mourning- and chapter IX - Odysseus mourning -, symmetrically disposed, close the nucleus, the core of the entire piece creating “The Eternal Embrace”.

An endless feeling, an infinite sentiment  of belonging to somebody or to an idea of faithfulness represented by Penelope and her nostalgic desire for the man she still loves, and on  the other hand, by  Odysseus that cries on the seashore, in the island of Calypso, and wishes to come back to his land and to his beloved queen.

An embrace is a gesture of extreme tenderness and warmth, but at the same time a sign of enormous inner strength, and it is this motion and action  that give me the transcendental essence of the entire poem.

It is, for me, the culmination of the adventures of  Laertes’ son this  precise moment: the instant in which Penelope doubts and the moment  in which she believes. It is this final  recognition  that confers a deeper identity on both of them, her individuality through his uniqueness.

Jorge A. Bosso