Ostraka

Ostraka were shards of broken pottery which in seventh and sixth-century BC Greece were often used to write on. We derive our modern word "ostracize" from the Greek ostrakon, shell, or potsherd. This ancient practice played out when the citizens gathered and wrote the names of men they deemed dangerous to the state on potsherds or tiles. The man whose name turned up often enough was sent away, out of the city. Experiencing poetic fragments of a past civilization creates an experience filled with promise. While we do not have the whole poem, the fragments offer something which our minds must fill in. We are shown a glimpse, a picture of what can be completed in many different ways. To the performers: These songs should be performed as a song cycle, with each being given its own world of affect, dynamic, and delivery. The parts have been carefully notated to make the intention clear.