Mythos Suite - Lynn Blake John - Brian Bromberg - Solo Cello

When Lynn sent me her piece last year I almost immediately put it on the stand to play with several of my students. If you are unfamiliar with Lynn’s work, she is a wonderful composer, author of children’s books, and a visual artist. She has written for every ensemble imaginable including solo cello, and multiple cello ensembles. Most of her music is playful, and evokes the childhood whimsy of children’s music. This isn’t to say that her music isn’t challenging, it can be. Sadly, Lynn passed away earlier this year.4
Mythos Suite is a set of 5 pieces each named after a character from Greek mythology. They explore various moods and at times even tell a literal storyline. Most of the music therein would suit ABRSM level 5 to level 7 players.
The first piece in the set is titled Icarus and is roughly 2 minutes long. There is a heroic theme that can be played entirely in first position and several fun ornamentations of the theme. If you are familiar with the story of Icarus, you know that his father built him some wings held together by wax, so that he could escape from the island of Minos. His father warned him not to fly too close to the sun but Icarus didn’t listen. When he got too close to the sun the wax melted and Icarus fell into the sea where he perished. Lynn’s clever writing style portrays this wonderfully in a musical version of his demise.
The second piece in the set is titled Medusa and is named after Ovid’s character whose beautiful hair was turned into snakes. Thusly changed, Medusa became so ugly that when anyone looked at her they turned to stone. Lynn’s musical translation of the story starts with a lovely melody in E flat major which takes a turn to the dark side. This piece offers a wonderful chance for students to practise drastic contrasts of mood, as well as playing in second position.
The story of Orpheus’s life is filled with tragedy and sadness, and the slow lamenting melodies of this movement portray this character beautifully. Orpheus was also known as the greatest musician of his time and the middle section of this movement gives the cellist a moment to show off their virtuosic side. For students learning 4th position this is an excellent piece to add to their repertoire. The melody is easy to hear and follows obvious tonal tendencies and as such helps to build student’s confidence in the new position.
Movement 4 brings us to Prometheus. The story of Prometheus tells us of a tricky and conniving character who steals fire from the gods and gives it to the humans. Lynn portrays this mischievous chicanery with a fiery and fast movement that happens in large part on the lower strings. It gives us a great chance to practise playing in some of the flat minor keys and gives our 4th finger a bit of a workout.
Finally this brings us to Pandora, a story about a pawn in Zeus and Prometheus’s endless battle, who unwittingly opens a jar containing all bad things known to humankind. The composer writes a lovely low range melody that makes way for a Bach inspired arpeggio and scale passage that fits nicely under the fingers in G minor. If we approach this movement with a mind similar to that when we are performing Bach (especially suite 2 and suite 3 preludes) we’ll achieve a wonderful undulating effect that really showcases the instruments strong suits.
If you enjoy playing Bach and are looking for similarly idiomatic music written for the cello, Lynn Blake John’s Mythos Suite is a great place to go next.
Composer contact: lynnblakejohn....
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