Violist Danielle Wiebe performs Penelope’s Song

Violist Danielle Wiebe performs Penelope’s Song in its original scoring for amplified viola and electronics. Penelope’s Song is a tribute to Penelope, Queen of Ithaca and wife of Odysseus. It was inspired by Homer’s Odyssey, which gives her short shrift. Here the music responds to the story of her staving off suitors by claiming she could marry none until she finished weaving the shroud for her father-in-law. But she unwove and night what she wove by day. This weaving is incorporated in the music, both through the fashioning of the elctronics by processing recordings I made of local weaver Jan Russell working on her wooden looms. The resulting sounds are sometimes close to their source, and sometimes very far away, and in all cases bear the marks of my process. The versions of Peneloope’s Song have expanded due to performer demand, and are now available also for flute, clarinet, soprano sax and violin. For more infiormation visit www.judithshatin.com –JS