Eros: Chorus from Euripides' Hippolytos (Jon Corelis)

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Editor: Jon Corelis (submitted 2011-09-10).   Score information: Letter, 2 pages, 40 kB   Copyright: Personal
Edition notes:

General Information

Title: Eros: Chorus from Euripides' Hippolytos
Composer: Jon Corelis
Composer: Alfonso el Sabio

Lyricist: Jon Corelis Lyricist: Euripidescreate page


Number of voices: 1v   Voicing: SA

Genre: SecularUnknown

Language: English
Instruments: a cappella
Published: 2011

Description: A sung chorus from my play EURIPIDES’ HIPPOLYTOS: a modern performance version in verse with music. In this play the choral odes are set to music adapted from the medieval secular repertory; here, the melody is from Alfonso el Sabio's Ben Pode Santa Maria (Cantiga 189). My translation of the lyrics from the Greek is necessarily rather free, but is close enough to be recognizable as a translation. This score is for unaccompanied a cappella female voice: the number of singers, division of parts, and possible accompaniment are left to be decided by performers at production. I've listed it as SA; though strictly speaking soprano, only a few notes are slightly above the standard alto range as given in the charts, so some altos may be able to handle it. In this sound file, synth female la-la voice is used to simulate the vocal. The entire play is available at the link given below. The lyrics are also given below.

External websites: EURIPIDES' HIPPOLYTOS: A performance version with music: http://sites.google.com/site/euripideshippolytos/

Jon Corelis: http://sites.google.com/site/jcorelis

Original text and translations

English.png English text


Eros, Eros, sweetly despoiling
human hearts with your passionate fire,
never, never may you invade me
with so destructive a flood of desire.
Mightier, mightier than any gleaming
starlight endlessly piercing night’s radiance,
stronger than torches that paint the dark with flame,
flies the fatal shaft of the Love God,
child of all-seeing Zeus on Olympus
and Aphrodite: it strikes with deadly aim.
 
Vainly, vainly famous Olympia
and Delphi’s holy oracular shrine
richly, richly garner their harvest
of sacrifice and libations of wine:
O my country, why do you never
make oblation in honor of Eros,
born of the Love Queen to rule the minds of all?
Eros, guardian of Aphrodite’s
sacred chamber is mightier than armies:
he is the conqueror whose power makes cities fall.

Aphrodite kindled in Helen
a passion stronger than duty or shame:
Priam’s city, ancient and splendid,
is nothing now but a song and a name.
Death and terror, fire and destruction
blossomed forth from her heartbreaking loveliness,
leaving Troy’s citadel ashes soaked with blood.
Dreadful, dreadful comes Aphrodite,
whirling all in her devastating hurricane,
quick as a honeybee that seeks a springtime bud.