Daedalus and Icarus - a Piano Ballad

In the last few years, I’ve worked with composer Jannum Kruidhof several times. His writing style is very open, honest and modern, and I’m always happy when he asks me to work with him on one of his projects.

A few months ago, I asked him to work with me on a project of mine. I’m planning to create a programme of Ballads, and I thought it would be great to have a contemporary ballad added to it. I talked to Jannum about it, he was very excited, and long story short, now I can!

The ballad is based on the story of Daedalus and Icarus, a Greek tragedy.

Daedalus was a true genius. He was hired by the King of Crete to create the Labyrinth which was supposed to hold the dreadful Minotaur. After creating it, however, Daedalus and his son were left on an island so that Daedalus could never share the secret of the Labyrinth. Daedalus, being a genius, didn’t let that stop him; he made wings by gluing feathers together with beeswax and set off to freedom with his son.

Icarus thought this all was a great adventure, and had great fun playing with his new wings. His father tried to warn him – too close to the sea, the water would weigh the wings down, too close to the sun, the beeswax would melt – but Icarus didn’t want to hear it.

Tragedy strikes.

The story is very clearly presented musically. Father and son are alone on the island; Daedalus has his idea, and the two take off to freedom, with Icarus climbing higher and higher towards his doom.

The ink on the piece is still wet, so there’ll probably be a few changes, but I must admit this is a rather fabulous start.

As soon as the piece is completely finished, I’ll record a few snippets from the piece to give all of you an idea what you’re in for.

I can’t wait to start!