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| Susie with Julian (left) and Andrew (right) who manage The Skyros Centre |
I have had the incredible good fortune to be on composing retreat at the Skyros Centre on the island of Skyros in Greece for these last three weeks. I have been working on my 4th symphony “The Island” which is inspired by Skyros. I love waking up every morning with my first thought being "how can I develop my symphonic material?" I need to go into composer's retreat more often. Up till last year I was very busy singing in opera houses in mainland Europe. This activity afforded me a lot of free time to compose so my first three symphonies were relatively easy to produce. At home its harder with all the details of opera company conducting and teaching to hold the massive architecture of symphonic material in my mind. I now understand why Mahler only composed symphonies in the summer when he wasn’t conducting. It is only when all the symphonic material is present simultaneously in one’s conscious mind that any significant progress can be achieved in developing material.
Originally I had thought to present all the aspects of Skyros island in the symphony and I have created some interesting textural effects inspired by cross rhythms produced by cicadas, church bells and distinctive overlapping owl calls . I am fascinated by creating texture in music, composing feels like weaving a complex piece of cloth. However my current time on Skyros has caused “The Island” to take on a more complex psychological undercurrent, it has become a Universal island: Prospero’s island or Cavafy’s “Ithaca”. The Island had become an analogy for the artist’s soul, how an artist needs to be alone yet also integrated and connected. How an artist longs for Utopia but when she arrives on the island she is challenged by nature, shaken up.
A friend on the island, Manos, made me a copy of “The Tempest” and I felt a broader connection to what an Island represents and how we want to dream that it has magic impregnated into its rock. Michael, my husband, suggested I listen to Sibelius’ storm music for “The Tempest” which I found inspiring for its texture: hypnotic and abstract. I was also reminded of Joseph Cambell's “The Hero with a Thousand Faces” and how the journey to the island is like being an artist: it is full of turmoil, false hopes and dashed dreams. To become a real artist she must lay bare her narcissistic ego, be dashed on the rocks by a tumultuous storm, struggle to shore half dead and begin again in a humble and simple way.
Following on with the theme of the fallen hero as artist, I had the amazing opportunity to swim though a cave that rivals Fingal’s Cave. Here follows a poem I wrote which forms the basis of a new section in my symphony. Each day I have worked on “The Island” from 10am to 5pm, then I sink into the island’s balminess, swimming in clear Aegean waters, walking into lush steep valleys or facing storms head on at the north east coast where Don Quixote’s windmill stands. All this is rounded off by delicious dinners and too much wine in the wonderful company of Julian and Andrew, the Skyros Centre managers, and all their amazing friends on The Island. I hope one day you will hear the symphony .
Susie Self 2012
What do I have to bring to the cave?
Will I daringly go into its solitary darkness?
Swimming into cool, clear, water, deep,
My soul, seeking, sinking, shelving,
Exploring high aquatic chambers.
Rocks formally abstract in the ceiling
Glowing cerulean blue and hints of pink,
Uplifted from the incandescent sea hole below.
I need to orgasm, I need to sink
Into sadness, into loss, into friendship.
I swim but my inner man is not entirely authentic.
He is heroic, armoured, grailed.
I see ahead “her” hand rise up with the
Sword, she wants to pierce my heart
With simplicity and humility.
I swim through the cave once again,
This time I am myself .
Seawolf Skyros 2012
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