Laszlo Tihanyi

Linos for harp

Greek mythology seems spontaneously to have offered the figure of linos as the central character in a work for solo harp. (Linos was a poet, believed to be the brother of Orpheus, and according to Greek tradition no greater musician ever appeared among mankind.) The musical material, conforming to the characteristics of the harp, consits of two interesting seven-degree note rows incorporating all the possible pedal combinations, their mirror inversions and the five-degree noterows that fit between them. The nine-section composition is made up of scenes from the imagined life of Linos, an imagined 'Linos's hymn', and laments played in his honour.