The Daedalus and Ikaros Journey (1995)

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This guitar and vocal work was originally set on the Robert Frost poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, and was written for part of a lecture series at Boston University given by Lukas Foss entitled Words on Music. Some years later I set out to publish the work and found that the estate of the late R. Frost frowned upon this particular practice and after a second failed attempt to get permission to publish the work, I decided to write my own verse for this composition (my first and last actually) and use a subject familiar to me, the story of Daedalus and Ikaros Journey to freedom.

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After his arrival in Crete, Daedalus found that Minos would not let him leave. He subsequently obtained wax and feathers and fashioned wings for himself and his son Ikaros. With these they succeeded in flying away, but Ikaros, flying too near to the sun, melted his wings, fell into the sea near Crete, and drowned; Daedalus escaped to Italy only to fall into the hands of the local King Kokalos who drowned him in hot water.

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Escape from here is what Ill do

I have a plan I thought it through

The waves beneath us deadly wild

Ill fly up high, its just the sky

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That was a dreadful thing to say

To fly so high, you cant survive.

Your wings, your soul and frozen smile,

The sun will burn and you will die.

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The Death you seek I am sure youll get,

Hes there for you he wont forget.

He will be fast and kind with you,

If He survived why not you too?

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Its time to go the sky gets blue

My mind will be so close to you

You can not scare me I have to try,

The time is right, lets say goodbye.

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(text by Apostolos Paraskevas)