Maze of dripping Sirens
Teaser of Maze of dripping Sirens by António Sá-Dantas (Video: Artur Ribeiro).
Myth has it, that sirens do not wistfully sing to those who pass them by… if they don’t manage to entrance them, they will themselves perish and turn into stones. So they’re actually singing for their own lives.
In the same way artists — possibly all people — are singing out, hoping to entrance, not to turn into stone, but continue living with someone listening to our song.
Music
António Sá-Dantas — Maze of dripping Sirens
This musical maze is written so that the musicians have a choice in what they play and the audience has the choice of where to listen and is free to move around.
Example of the Score. Each arrow creates a decision point, in which the musician is free to jump down, or continue. Multiple people playing the same line will then overtake, or imitate each other, finding their own way through the maze.
Performance Story
The music draws inspiration from the Seikilos Epitaph, the oldest existing complete melody known to human kind. Found written on a plinth of stone, it sings:
While you live, shine
have no grief at all
life exists only for a short while
and time demands its due.
Like sirens, the musicians are placed in corners of the space, facing away from the audience, wearing blank masks on the back of their heads.
Each audience person makes their own way through this maze of sound, along rooms with closed doors (behind which are loudspeakers) from where come sounds of water, stone and echoing voices, beckoning them to come closer,
It’s only in the end, that all musicians slowly come together and sing, the Seikilos Epitaph - softly, like a prayer, to which any person could join in, humming along.
Photos
Performance History
Royal Academy of Arts, London. June 2019.
As part of the In tune with the Summer Exhibition concert series, in junction with Royal College of Music.
Library of the Royal College of Music. April 2019.
As part of the Royal College of Music Great Exhibitionists concert series.