Last Thursday, on March 19th, I had an opportunity to join one of the online live sessions that Bret introduced. The session was a musical composition performance by Joe Goodkin that is based on the famous Classics literature, the Odyssey! Joe, a Classics major in undergraduate and now professional musician playing acoustic guitar, performed his original pieces that show the summary of the Odyssey and exemplify Homer’s original oral composition of the Odyssey. In fact, it was fascinating to me that the Odyssey was not initially written as a book but was an oral performance. Joe performed his 24 songs continuously for 35 minutes and it really reminded me of my freshman year of high school when the Odyssey was the first book of the semester that I read in my English class. I really enjoyed reading it, especially because I cherished every in-class discussion I had with peers and I, in fact, still keep in touch with the teacher!
When he played his pieces via Zoom call, he shared the slides showing the lyrics. My favorite songs are below:
XVI. My Son (Odysseus is reunited with Telemachus)
What words can mend the years?
What words can dry your tears?
Your smile is mine
Your eyes still shine
Like the day that I first held you
My hands are yours
Your place is sure
Like the day that I first called you
My son
XVII. Oh Father (Telemachus recognizes his father)
Oh Father, now’s our time
Oh Father, I’ve seen the sign
And we’re off
A midnight prayer floating on the breeze
A high-noon eagle far above the trees
And we are on…
Our way
I chose these two songs as my favorites because I almost felt like the songs were almost like a live dialogue between characters. For example, in this case, I thought it depicted a conversation going back and forth between Odysseus and Telemachus. It’s true that all the songs clearly explain the abridged plot of the Odyssey. More importantly, all the songs convey the emotions that characters would have felt and have the audience to feel them as well. Again, through his simple but poetic lyrics (just with his acoustic guitar and voice), it was interesting to observe his unique interpretation of the Odyssey.
After his performance, I had an opportunity to be engaged in the Q&A session. One of the intriguing questions that was asked was: “What was the most difficult plot of the Odyssey to translate into a song?” His answer, which was quite unexpected to me, was that the part where monsters appear in the middle of the story was the most difficult because it is not a single episode but a collective one. By the Q&A session, I realized how much time, hard effort, and contemplation that he has put into to create this invoking, original piece. Furthermore, I would like to get to know more classical literature other than the Odyssey!