Duration ca. 32 minutes
Instrumentation: S.S.A. & String Orchestra
(5, 4, 3, 3, 2 minimum)
RENTAL REQUEST FORM (for string orchestra parts)
Commissioned by A Far Cry and Lorelei Ensemble Hurry To The Light is a work for women’s choir and string orchestra based on a new translation of Homer’s The Odyssey by Emily Wilson. This work was premiered on May 17th, 2019 in Boston USA at Jordan Hall.
The Boston Globe wrote of Roustom’s Hurry To The Light
“If that also means one gets to hear Roustom’s “Hurry to the Light’ again, so much the better. The “Odyssey” has made its home in song since ancient Greece, and it was wonderful to hear Emily Wilson’s recent translation given voice that way. The consistent ebb and flow of its iambic pentameter compelled the rhythms and cadences.Episodes from the epic came to vivid life. Gnashing violins underscored the description of Scylla while the low strings’ whine evoked Charybdis; Penelope’s loneliness was illustrated with claustrophobic orchestration; Odysseus’s mother appeared in a strongly rhythmic, almost ritual chant and open harmonies.”
I. Intrada – Penelope
II. Circe’s Instructions to Odysseus
III. Penelope & the Phantom
IV. The Sirens
V. Anticlea- The Ghost of Odysseus’ Mother
VI. Interlude (Penelope questions Odysseus)
VII. The Reunion of Penelope & Odysseus