Sarah Kirkland Snider sees Homer's Odyssey in a female light

60-minute song cycle Penelope reinvents the popular poem

By Amy Strauss
Published: November 15th, 2010 | 7:00am

Tackling a modern day feminine perspective of Homer's Odyssey, composer and New Amsterdam Records cofounder Sarah Kirkland Snider's new 60-minute song cycle Penelope weaves pop, jazz, and classical music through a tale of a veteran returning from war to a woman who anticipated his arrival for years, only to find he’s no longer the man she once knew.

While the story of Odyssey's warrior traveling back to his homeland has loosely been seen through past theatrical productions, including in the Coen brothers' O Brother, Where Art Thou?, it is Snider's recent experience that encounters the classic tale in a new light.

“When you have a 'coming home from war' story, do any of them ask, 'how is the wife at home?'’' Snider says. “It's a different glimpse, a different interpretation.”

Originally constructed as a theater piece with lyrics by acclaimed playwright Ellen McLaughlin, Penelope features hauntingly beautiful vocals by operatic indie singer Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond. Worden’s joined by new music chamber orchestra Signal, conducted by Brad Lubman.

“When I had the vision for the song cycle, I wanted it to be sung specifically the way I had envisioned it,” says Snider. “I would listen to My Brightest Diamond recordings and notice emotional levels that others didn’t possess.”

Since Snider and Worden are found in similar musical circles, the emotionally expressive vocalist soon had the composer's music in her possession, instantly agreeing to join the tight ensemble for a vibrant, revamped storytelling.

“We have similar sensibilities in many ways when it comes to our music,” says Worden. “We’re both going for a similar aesthetic and have similar values within our music.”

Back in 2009, without direction or explanation, Snider first joined Worden to dabble in her dark-hued score and soon, the ambitious songsmith became exposed to “an easy, natural, unspoken” interpretation let loose from the classically trained singer.

“What I thought is most unique about our relationship is that Sarah had written all of the music before we joined forces,” says Worden. “But it wasn't as if I had to play a mind-reading game of what the composer wanted—it was extraordinarily strange and natural.”

The expressive nature of Penelope, paired perfectly aside the dramatic poem, heaves through 10-tracks that tackle soothing complexities of both modern and ancient worlds, all while situating the listener on a playing field that allows for familiar, re-established musical connections.

“You don't have to listen to the song cycle in order,” says Snider. “But the songs were meant to be performed in order. Penelope has an internal logic of the Odyssey, but it’s not specifically following the story.”

Right away with opener “The Stranger with the Face of a Man I Loved,” the visibility of Snider and McLaughlin's genre-bending style is quickly understood as something meant initially for theater, expressed through meaty masterpieces and told through approachable, heart-wrenching dialect. Traveling through seas of submersed strings, percussion, and electronics and stitched together through brief interludes, the talents of the participants (including all 26 members of Signal) quickly transcend a memory-mediating album of the purest kind, most identifiable to the modern music crowd.

“The Lotus Eaters,” the Penelope track made into a music video, is where Worden finds both elements of loss and passion all wrapped cozily in one cue, but it's in “Baby Teeth, Bones and Bullets” that Snider suggests her outfit reaches their “narrative arch, where the characters comes to terms with the past and take stock.”

“This is the moment where they get a glimpse of their old selves. It’s essential to telling this story,” says Snider. “Ellen wrote this original knowing that her story hasn't been told yet, and it’s very interesting to unravel.”

For Penelope's boundary-breaking composer, she believes if she can have anyone see the world fresh again, even if it is just for one minute, that her song cycle was a success. For her companion, the artsy songstress who lives to have one foot in punk and one in classical, if the album can influence listeners to reflect the questions of the tale into their own lives and explore their surroundings, they have reached an amazing feat.

“A reason to keep telling classic stories is that it helps us look at our own personal narratives, re-experiencing the great themes found in epic tales,” says Worden.

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Penelope official site

New Amsterdam Records