god good luck
piano, bass guitar, percussion, 3 table top guitars, live electronics.
This work was commissioned and written for Ensemble Klang (NL) with the idea of using their self-made 'junk-guitars'. The piece is scored for piano, metal percussion, electric bass, three table (junk) guitars and live electronics. It is based on questions submitted to the Oracle of Dodona. Surviving questions submitted to oracle, such as those below, are transcribed into the fabric of the music.
The oracle at Dodona in north-west Greece was one of the oldest divination sites in the ancient world. It answered questions through the priestess and priest's interpretation of the rustling of the leaves of an oak tree. The queries, mostly of a personal nature, would range from whether one should act to change a particular situation: marriage, job opportunities, health, travel, money, to questions about suspected crimes, trustworthiness of siblings and even slave ownership.
Text used and encoded in the music:
- God. Fortune. Whether I also travelled by land/in the same place?
- God. Good Luck. About possessions and a place to live: whether (it would be) better for him and his children and his wife in Kroton?
- God. Gerioton ask Zeus about a woman, whether (he would do) better if he married (her)
- God, good fortune. Anaxippos ask Zeus Naios and Dione about male children from Philiste his woman. By praying to which of the gods would I do best and excellently?
- God. The Kerkyrains ask Zeus and Dione by sacrificing and praying to which god or hero may they live in the best and finest way now, and in the future.
- God. Good Luck. Does the god rule that Phainylos he should pursue his father's craft, should fish and do better?
- God. To good fortune. Hippostratos asks Zeus Naios and Dione whether he would not do better if he became a shipowner?
- God, good fortune. Razia asks whether she will attain an agreement from Teitukos while he lives and a place of safety?
- God. Luck. Leontios ask about his son Leon, whether he will be healthy and (cured) of the disease which has gripped him?
- God. Good fortune. About the price of a slave.
- God. Good Fortune. Glaukias asks Dione about possessions, whether it is…and about….
- God..luck..whether..would I do better and more well, now and into the future?
