The Ritual - A Folk Fantasia (2015) for Chamber Ensemble
Composed by Aris Antoniades
 
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Running time: approx. 10'
 
The digital download includes SCORE and PARTS.
 
The Ritual is a fantasia based on Greek folk rhythms and idioms. The piece tries to musically depict the experience of a traveler who witnesses a pagan ritual. The strange ceremony takes place around a bonfire at a cold and distant mountain settlement. Masked people burst into a frenzy of dance and ecstatic priests pray to their gods. As the ritual progresses, the traveler’s mind becomes misty. Soon he transcends reality and enters a strange world—a world of dreams, a world of fantasy. There he discovers hidden spiritual treasures that will change his life forever. Finally, his spirit gets pulled back into his body while the natives continue their dance and end the ritual. The piece combines heterophonic dance elements (representing the secular part of the ritual) with strict contrapuntal writing, including a double canon (representing transcendence to the spiritual world).