Trojan Women

1	Trojan Women/Voices (Constantinople Lyra, Ney, Harp) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:10
2	Trojan Women/Lament I (Constantinople Lyra, Ney) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:16
3	Trojan Women/Desolate Land I (Laouto, Constantinople Lyra, Harp, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:07
4	Trojan Women/Lament II (Kanonaki) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:06
5	Trojan Women/Hecuba's Lament (Constantinople Lyra) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:27
6	Trojan Women/Parodos (The Land I Call Home) (Harp, Ney, Kanonaki, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:18
7	Trojan Women/Parodos (Home of My Forefathers) (Harp, Kanonaki, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:50
8	Trojan Women/Parodos (I Wish I'm Given There) (Harp, Kanonaki, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:36
9	Trojan Women/Cassandra's Theme (Constantinople Lyra, Ney, Harp) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:03
10	Trojan Women/Cassandra's Trance (Bendir, Laouto, Ney Kanonaki, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:53
11	Trojan Women/First Stasimon (An Ode of Tears) (Laouto, Harp, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 4:05
12	Trojan Women/First Stasimon (For the Phrygian Land a Vast ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:01
13	Trojan Women/Andromache's Theme (Laouto, Constantinople Lyra, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:10
14	Trojan Women/Andromache's Lament (Kanonaki) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:08
15	Trojan Women/Terra Deserta (Santouri, Daouli, Kanonaki, Ney, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:18
16	Trojan Women/Astyanax' Theme (Suling, Harp, Lyra) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:02
17	Trojan Women/Hecuba's Theme I (Harp, Constantinople Lyra, Ney, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 0:42
18	Trojan Women/Hecuba's Theme II (Harp, Constantinople Lyra, Ney, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 0:38
19	Trojan Women/Second Stasimon (Telamon, You Came to Conquer Our ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:53
20	Trojan Women/Second Stasimon (The City That Gave Birth to You Was ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:17
21	Trojan Women/An Ode of Tears (Constantinople, Kanonaki, Ney) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:01
22	Trojan Women/Desolate Land II (Laouto, Constantinople Lyra, Harp, Ney, / Eleni Karaindrou 1:08
23	Trojan Women/Lament III (Constantinople Lyra, Ney) / Eleni Karaindrou 0:42
24	Trojan Women/Third Stasimon (In Vain the Sacrifices) (Laouto, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:05
25	Trojan Women/Third Stasimon (My Beloved, Your Soul Is Wandering) ... / Eleni Karaindrou 3:10
26	Trojan Women/Hecuba's Theme (Harp, Constantinople Lyra, Ney, Kanonaki) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:18
27	Trojan Women/Lament for Astyanax (Oh Bitter Lament, My Bitter Boy) ... / Eleni Karaindrou 1:53
28	Trojan Women/Exodos (Santouri, Daouli, Kanonaki, Ney, ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 2:25
29	Trojan Women/Exodos (Accursed Town) (Ney, Harp, Constantinople ...) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:02
30	Trojan Women/Astyanax' Memory (Suling, Harp, Constantinople Lyra) / Eleni Karaindrou 1:01

Barnes & Noble

Eleni Karaindrou has beaten the odds -- and macho Greek society -- to become one of her country's most celebrated composers for theater and film, and her music for Euripides' Trojan Women goes a long way to demonstrating just how. The performance on this ECM release, which originally took place at the ancient theater of Epidaurus, takes an excitingly avant-garde approach to this hoary classic, as Karaindrou all but jettisons Western instrumentation for the folk tones from Asia Minor. The sounds, she writes in the notes, are the sounds of her home, but ones recognizable "in all the countries wetted by the Mediterranean," from the Balkans to Turkey. Thus they are led by the Constantinople lyra, the chiming of the kanonaki (a zither) and outi (a Greek cousin of the oud), as well as the breath of the ney, a flute, and the beat of the bendir and daouli. Karaindrou's music is not "Greek music" in the folkloric sense, even as it borrows from the armory of folk instruments. Rather, it's Greek in its sense of place, her themes suffused with light and strident clarity. Building on monumental laments and themes, voiced by the Trojan Women and featuring the soprano Veronika Iliopoulou, Karaindrou makes manifest the aims of Euripides when he wrote the tragedy as a polemic against senseless war. It's a lesson that seems as relevant in the first years of the 21st century as it did in the playwright's day, and this contemplative, stirring, and at times jarring work from the cradle of Western civilization is a timely reminder. Mark Schwartz

All Music Guide

Eleni Karaindrou has made her reputation working with Greek instruments and musical forms for theater and move pieces, and this can only add more luster to her burgeoning reputation. Trojan Women is a series of short, impressionistic pieces, mostly instrumental, although some feature a chorus. Working on a play that's Classical, her choice of Classical instruments makes perfect sense, while her sense of form, working in such confined time strictures, is dense and demanding -- while still managing the remarkable balancing act of leaving plenty of space in the sound. In other words, it's atmospheric, and fits in very well with the ECM esthetic. The question of how successful it is as a free-standing piece of music is a different question. By it's nature, there's little development and movement in the pieces, which simply stand as short sketches. But accept it for what it is, and you have something wonderful. Chris Nickson