Medea's Dance of Vengeance

History

Medea's Dance of Vengeance is a composition (Opus 23a) by the American composer, Samuel Barber derived from his earlier ballet suite, Medea (Ballet). Barber first created a seven movement concert suite from this ballet (Medea, Op.23), and five years later reduced this concert suite down to a single-movement concert piece using what he felt to be the strongest portions of the work. He originally titled it Medea's Meditation and Dance of Vengeance, but shortly before his death, he changed the title to simply Medea's Dance of Vengeance[1].

Scoring & Premiere

Dance of Vengeance is scored for a larger orchestra than either preceding version (ballet or concert suite). It calls for:

3 Flutes, Piccolo, 2 Oboes, English Horn, 2 Clarinets, E-flat Clarinet, Bass Clarinet, 2 Bassoons, Contrabassoon, 4 Horns, 3 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Tuba, Timpani, Snare Drum, Bass Drum, Tom Tom, Triangle, Cymbals, Tam-tam, Xylophone, Whip, Piano, and Strings.

Dance of Vengeance was premiered on February 2, 1956 by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Dimitri Mitropoulos [2].

"Dance of Vengeance" in Popular Culture

Star of Indiana

The Star of Indiana drum and bugle corps based out of Bloomington, IN used the work as much of the source music for their 1993 production, The Music of Barber & Bartók. They placed second at Drum Corps International Division I Finals that August with a score of 97.300 before leaving the drum corps activity to pursue other performing ventures which eventually led to the creation of Blast![3].

Audio Clips

• "Meditation Clip"
• "Fanfare Clip"
• "Closing Statement Clip"

References

• Freed, Richard. "Program Notes for 'Dance of Vengeance'", The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, March 16-18, 2006. Accessed May 13, 2007.
• "Star of Indiana Drum & Bugle Corps", Cook Group, Accessed May 13, 2007.