Embedded Files
Header Image: the West Sudanian savanna across West Africa
Music Score
Music Score
Audio Sample
Audio Sample
Featured Speaker
Featured Speaker
FRIEND
OEDIPUS
THESEUS
Reference
Reference
FC 118: Chorus (Choral Poem after Scene III)
FC 85 79: Oedipus & Stranger (Scene I)
Robert Fagles noted in his translation, "clear-sighted" implies "foresight" -- Oedipus' prophecy into Athens' future
DISCOVER
DISCOVER
Ode
Ode
A “Choral Ode” (or "Choral Poem" in Fitzgerald's translation, see more on "chorus" in Scene 5) is sung by CHORUS after a “Scene” as a concluding commentary. Odes are lyrical poems accompanied by music and dance - see "Ode vs Dialogue" in Scene 6, and the structure of an ode in Scene 15.
English odes are lyric poems that praise their subjects with exalted emotions. They have irregular meters, and are elaborate, imaginative, dignified, and sincere.
Biblical/Spiritual Odes are chants from the Bible sung in Christian liturgies from the earliest period, particularly to Orthodox worship. Hymns and anthems are essential to western Christian worship, but gospel music adds its participatory, jazz-blues twist to it.
Wrote in late-18th century by John Newton, who was a former captain of a slave trade ship, and later became a priest in the Church of England and an abolitionist.
The ensemble sung it in 2 ways: first as Newton’s composition of a western choral hymn, and second an African American interpretation, with more vocal improvisation.
Performned at 2020 Sing For Water Festival in the U.K.
The lyrics “Ise Oluwa ko le baje o,” loosely translate as “The creator’s work can never be destroyed.”
More on West African Chants
Original aurther unknown, the leader calls, “I’m a soldier,” and the congregation responds, “in the army of the Lord.”
Colonus
Colonus
Athenian suburb, several miles from the city (where Sophocles was born in 497 BCE!).
The city was named after a horseman Colonus and had a statue of him (indicated in Sophocles' Oedipud at Colonus). There was also cult of Oedipus at Colonus. Legends said the spirit of Oedipus appeared when Athens defeated Thebes in battle.
Greek Geography
Greek Geography
Although Colonus was a real settlement, Theseus’ Colonus was an imaginary place in the Bronze Age based on Greek mythologies, a distant past for Sophocles and his contemporaries.
Their nostalgia was rooted not only in the nature’s bounty, but also in Athen’s past glory and prosperity, both lost by 400 BC.
Learn more about Greek landscape & exile, and its wars & heroes. Click the map on the left to see different ancient Greek city-states, mountains, and shrines on Google Earth!
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