Encyclopedia Britannica : Macedonia is considered the birthplace of the Greek race and of the twelve Greek gods. Ancient Traditions about the First Argaead King As the first written record of the Greek legend about the Macedonian Argaeads we may regard Aeschylus’ lines in the play “The Suppliants,” where the poet introduces Pelasgus, king of Argos, common ancestor of the Doric branch of Greeks, boasting that his race rules as far as the pure waters of the Strymon (end note 1). On the basis of the age-long legend handed down by the Greeks from prehistorical times, Aeschylus indirectly proclaims the descent of the Macedonians from the Doric branch and directly tells us about their origin from the Argive Heracleids, as those who ruled “the land of the Perrhaibians,” “beyond Pindus,” “near the Paeonians,” “in the Dodona mountains” and “all the territory through which the pure Strymon flows.” Because of the generally believed descent of these people from the Dorians, who claimed Pelasgus as their common ancestor and revered Heracles as their nonpareil national hero, Aeschylus with poetic elation somewhat broadens the legend about the Argaeads, to include the peoples of Thessaly and Epirus, whose royal families had their own traditions of descent from the gods. But it is clear that it chiefly concerns those living between Pindus, the Dodona mountains and the Strymon, in other words the Macedonians whose royal house traced its descent to the Argive Temenids. Thus, the poet who …

Iannis Xenakis: Oresteïa (1966) 1. Agamemnon 2. Kassandra (1987) 3. Agamemnon (suite et fin) 4. Les choephores 5. Les Euménides Spiros Sakkas – Baritone Sylvio Gualda – Percussion Maitrise de Colmar Ensemble Vocal d’Anjou Ensemble de Basse-Normandie Dominique Debart Robert Weddle *From the Montaigne/Naïve CD (2000) From the time of his youth, Xenakis found solace and inspiration in the writings of the ancient Greeks, and his handful of stage works draw on these sources exclusively. One of the composer’s earliest commissions came from Alexis Solomos, originally of the Greek National Theater, who had been engaged to direct a series of performances of Greek dramas in Ypsilanti, Michigan in the summer of 1966. Xenakis was hired to provide the music for Aeschylus’ tragic trilogy, Oresteïa. Evidently, he provided almost two hours of music for this production; as it was not recorded nor ever again presented, little is known about the original score. Soon after the premiere, though, Xenakis produced a concert suite which was subsequently published and performed. The suite is in three parts, following, in abbreviated fashion, the outline of the original trilogy: “Agamemnon,” “The Libation Bearers,” and “Eumenides.” In fashioning the suite, Xenakis used only excerpts from the choruses, setting them in the original Greek and attempting to follow the rhythmic and melodic contours of the language as much as possible. The instrumental writing, while more restrained than that in Xenakis …