Mikri Thalassa by Betty Beath

[barbaram]

Here is a recently posted youtube video of Mikri Thalassa by Australian composer, pianist, and music educator Betty Beath featuring the work of the Sydney Mandolins (Artistic Director: Adrian Hooper) and author/illustrator David Cox.

The work was first performed at the Gala Opening Night Performance, 3rd Australian Women's Music Festival, at Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney.



Betty Beath said: "This work was commissioned by Adrian Hooper for The Sydney Mandolins. I was inspired by images of the brave sponge divers of Kalymnos, who risk their lives to harvest sponges from the depths of the Mediterranean. This performance by The Sydney Mandolins said everything that I wished to say."

Betty Beath has also written other works for mandolin:

Lament for Kosovo - Commissioned by the Sydney Mandolins
Though I travel far, I do not forget - Commissioned by Australian Mandolin Music Association.

[vkioulaphides]

Lovely! Having just returned from Crete, on whose harbors Kalymnian sponge-divers often sell their harvest, I found this "song without words" profoundly moving. Deeply scarred by the relentless, briny breeze of the pelago, scorched to a chestnut-hued, swarthy, leathery complexion by a merciless, inexorable sun— doubly so as it reflects back upwards from the crystalline waters— and embodying that stony, engraved stoicism welded together by abject poverty and silent dignity, those men are the Ur-Hellenes since time immemorial. Singing their song is as sweet as it is noble, and Maestra Beath has sung it both warmly and eloquently.

Three cheers to composer and performers!

Victor

[Jim Abrams]

Both Betty Beath's composition and Victor's description of the Kalymnian sponge divers are beautiful. It was wonderful to listen to the recording while reading Victor's lovely evocation of Crete.