Originating in Homer’s Odyssey, the Ancient Greek word Nostos (νόστος) describes a literary trope of returning home after a long voyage. In many Nostos tales, the hero finds that home has changed and become strange and unfamiliar. The word Nostalgia derives from the word Nostos, along with the Greek root algos, meaning pain. The pain of longing to return home.
In my piece Nostos for piano trio, a short musical figure symbolizes a homeward journey. The entire piece repeatedly explores a five-note melodic shape that begins with an upward leap, followed by a stepwise descent back to its starting point. Every time this starting point is reached, however, a change in harmony, texture, or rhythm thwarts a sense of closure, thus propelling an endless cycle of failed returns. The idea of home is also represented in the piece in a more personal, biographical way, through allusions to songs and musical styles I heard growing up in Israel. This wistful tone becomes more explicit as the piece progresses and can be heard most clearly in the trio’s final movement, titled Nostalgia.
The piece consists of six moments that flow together in an unbroken stream. It is preceded by a brief Epigraph invoking the Hebrew refrain habayita, habayita, habayita (“homeward, homeward, homeward”), as a wordless instrumental allusion to the 1945 song Habayta, with music by Yedidya Admon and lyrics by Aharon Ashman. This theme returns at the very end of the final moment in the violin. Nostos was written for the Lysander Piano Trio and commissioned by the Adele and John Gray Endowment Fund.
The piano burst into a marvelous melody brimming with nostalgia for his childhood. That melody has been ringing in my ears over the past twenty-four hours; it provided a delightful conclusion, and I wished to hear the work once more!