Bouleumata

Cheryl Frances-Hoad's Bouleumata for solo Clarinet.

'Shortly before writing this piece I reached the final of a competition to compose the music for the Cambridge Greek Play, whichhappened to be Medea that year. Although I didn’t end up winning, Euripides’ play stunned me with its depiction of Medea, a woman who kills her two children to spite her husband Jason (who has just left her for aCorinthian princess). This piece was inspired by the wildly contrasting emotions that Medea experiences during a monologue immediately preceding the double-murder: that she can’t
possibly go through with it, but thatshemust in order to punish her enemies. In one passage she says “I understand that what I am about to do is wrong, but my thumos (emotion) has vanquished my bouleumata (ability to deliberate)'.' - CherylFrances-Hoad