Song for Athene

Song for Athene

This seven-minute choral elegy had a similar inspiration to that of Tavener's Requiem, which began as the Little Requiem for Father Malachy Lynch -- born from a musical phrase that came to the composer's mind as he left the funeral. In this case, the idea came to Tavener as he left the funeral of Athene Harides, daughter of family friends who was killed in a cycling accident. "Her beauty," Tavener wrote, "both outward and inner, was reflected in her love of acting, poetry, music, and of the Orthodox Church." (Tavener himself had converted to Orthodoxy in 1977.)

Song for Athene is a mixture of lines from Shakespeare's Hamlet and words from the Orthodox liturgy, both set to monodic chant. The composer also makes use of a continuous "ison," or drone. Surely the most notable performance to date was that at the Westminster Abbey funeral services for Princess Diana of Wales in 1997; it was sung as her coffin was carried from the nave.

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