The Bacchae Piano Solo - Digital Sheet Music

SKU: A0.1896436

Athenian playwright Euripides wrote the tragedy The Bacchae in 405 BCE. In the play, Dionysus, Greek god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre, punishes King Pentheus of Thebes, his cousin, and Pentheus’ mother Agave for not embracing his cult. Dionysus drives the women of the city, including his aunts, mad and they assimilate into his cult, The Bacchae. Pentheus reacts by banning Dionysian worship in Thebes and, as a result, Dionysus drives Pentheus’ mother, Agave, and the other Bacchae to tear Pentheus apart limb by limb and kill him. Agave presents the head of her son, which she believes to be that of a mountain lion, to her father Cadmus who is horrified by the sight. In my piano piece, divided into five movements, I depict Euripides’ play. I use contrasting piano textures to portray key scenes from the story and the godly presence of Dionysus. The pianist begins by playing a heroic theme in fugato style counterpoint. The introduction of an ominous bass line in the middle section of the first movement foreshadows the horror to come. The ecstasy and violence of the Bacchae is portrayed by virtuosic textures first introduced in the second movement. These textures increase in tempo at each reoccurrence in correspondence with the escalating drama. Each key event in the story is noted on the score for the pianist who is tasked with realizing the music at the same time as portraying the story.