Three Pieces of Odyssey

Three Pieces of Odyssey was written in 2011 for Mike Schwebke. It is a collection of three short pieces for steelpan duet (soprano & double seconds). Each piece is inspired by a different character, or set of characters, from Homer’s Odyssey. The first piece is inspired by the blind prophet Teiresias. The second piece is inspired by a tribe of man-eating giants - the Laistrygones and their king, Antiphates. The third piece is inspired by the Sirens and their alluring song. Each of the three pieces is unified with a motivic set of alternating broken thirds. The final piece, Sirens also uses a special extended technique to bend pitches in different directions. The recording below is from the premiere of the last movement, with Mike Schwebke on soprano pan and Kyle Krause on double seconds.