The following program notes are written by composer Constantinos Soren Demetriou (B.M.’22, composition).
Suspicion (2018)
This is the very first piece I wrote at Boston Conservatory. I was interested in showing the appearance of suspicion in our minds through a waltz shared between the cello and piano. The instrumentation was inspired by my father’s adoration of the cello’s beautiful timbre.
Dreaming (2019)
Wanting to write for a wind quintet, I decided to start with a melodic ostinato and try to write a story about dreaming. As the dreamer experiences strange landscapes and confusing visions, he begins to fall into the void below him; then, suddenly, he is awake.
Intangibility (2019)
This piece was an exercise in writing for the cello. I named the piece after an object or entity that cannot be touched—something out of grasp. I worked closely with Alan Hlozek, a close friend and cellist to make it as idiomatic as I could. The piece has been through some trials and tribulations and couldn’t be performed due to unforeseen circumstances, miscommunications, and global pandemics (almost as if I unknowingly cursed it with its own name). It was only performed in its current form in December of 2021 when Alan performed it at one of his concerts. I hope you all enjoy it tonight!
Distorted Visions (2020)
(Electronic Music)
In this piece I took field recordings of sounds I greatly enjoyed (a large bell, a boat horn, the clinking of a beer glass, and the sound of wood breaking) and, using Sound Visualiser, I produced a spectrogram of each sound and recreated the sounds using sinusoids. I then arranged these recreated sounds into a sound collage.
Ribbon Duet (2020)
(Video)
This piece is the result of a from-home collaboration between Maria Ierides (an artist and close friend) and myself during the pandemic. She had created a beautiful work of art depicted on a roll of ribbon. It would be unrolled while passing through her hands in a video. She then asked me if I wanted to compose a piece that would accompany her artwork, and I wholeheartedly agreed. I wrote a duet for bouzouki and violin that explored some rhythms and melodies from our shared Cypriot culture. I performed the bouzouki part myself using a midi keyboard and asked Jayna Leach, a friend and violinist, to record the violin track with a clicktrack. I then put it all together in Cubase. Maria and I were both very pleased with the final work.
Eyes as Blue as the Sky (2021)
Inspired by tavern songs and fantasy melodies, I decided to write a solo violin work. The piece is a love letter. It is dedicated to my significant other Elisabeta Racolta who’s unending love, affection and support has helped me through many difficult moments and improved my life in every way over the last four years we’ve spent together.
Progression (2022)
This piece for solo vibraphone represents our ability to move on. Our lives are full of chaos and change and it is never easy to go back or feel exactly as one did at an earlier time. In a similar way this piece moves on and evolves throughout its three parts. The spoken text is a small letter to a great artist and dear family friend who was taken far too soon in 2021 by ALS; George Christodoulides. I decided to dedicate this piece to his memory and to the memory of all our lost loved ones.
—INTERMISSION—
Call of Cthulhu (2022)
This is my thesis piece for the completion of my B.M. in composition at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. The narrative behind the music is based on the short story of the same name by H.P. Lovecraft. With each new movement, new instruments are added to the ensemble. They help to create new timbres, textures and to add more color to the story of each new movement.
I. The Voyage
Fuelled by peculiar findings, statuettes of a dragon-like figure with tentacles around and strange religious gatherings, a group of investigators set out to search for answers across the sea. The sea however, is unforgiving.
II. The Stone Pillar
As the ship recovers from the ocean’s blows, the crew notices an unusual, large stone pillar. The ship approaches but the crew feels uneasy. This is a truly inhuman land. The ship struggles against the rocks but ultimately lands on the island’s shores.
III. The Ancient Land
The crew disembarks and comes upon rows and rows of walls with writings making up this oceanic plateau. The initial uneasy feeling grows into a frightening guttural wrench. These winding paths reveal nothing but occult scrawlings and markings. All the rows seem to lead to a mountainous boulder.
Interlude: The Colossal Passageway
The boulder begins to move and scrape to the side revealing a massive, dark opening in the landmass.
IV. The Sleeping One Awakens
From the depths of the darkness spills out a titanic mass of green flesh, tentacles, and eyes. As the tentacles wriggle and writhe, they reveal the face of an unspeakable monstrosity. The *thing* depicted on the statuette. The crew experiences visions of a starless void, civilisations dying, screaming. This *thing* was not meant to be looked upon by human eyes. All they can do is run. As they scramble to cast off, they manage to sail the ship through the eldritch horror in an explosion of flesh, ichor and viscera. The old one screams after them as they make their escape. Only time will tell if they will ever be able to forget those visions of abominable madness.
