Sirens Program Notes
Credit: Richard Jupe
From the Artistic Director
The figure of the Siren permeates ancient and modern culture for seemingly unrelated reasons, yet the more we researched these fascinating and evocative stories, the more commonalities came to the surface. Almost every siren story from around the world is associated with bodies of water, warning us of the dangers within a world in which we do not belong.
This program features original music inspired by some of these stories: the bird-like siren of Greek myths, luring sailors to their deaths with the promise of knowledge; the Kairai of the Sea of Japan which, while terrifying, brought happiness and prosperity; the Lorelei of the Rhine River, believed to be inspired by the murmuring sound of the water on the rocks; the Blue Men of the British Isles who would challenge sailors to complete lines of poems to save themselves from drowning; and an allegorical ‘fish out of water’ story from the perspective of modern-day Lutruwitan queer composer, Quin Thomson.
These stories are bound together with a Lutruwitan adaptation of the ancient Greek myth of Daphne and Apollo, crafted into prose by Lutruwitan writer, Isabel Howard. Her re-imagining of the story will lure you to the deepest depths of the oceanic underworld, where an existential challenge is fought and won, only to return you back to the world in which we belong, perhaps with a new perspective.
Program
Rachel Meyers (b.1981) Diurnality (2024)
Marco Uccellini (1603-1680) Questa Bella Sirena from Sonate, correnti et arie Op.4 (1645)
Kerry Andrew (b.1978) arr. VDF and Donald Nicolson (2025) Blue Men (2023)
Emily Sheppard (b.1993) Descent into Sirens* (2025)
Katie Yap (b.1990) & Yyan Ng (b.1985) Kairai* (2025)
Quin Thomson (b.1974) Perceived / Real* (2025)
R. Meyers Ginosko* (2025)
Fredrik Sjölin (b.1982) Shore (2017)
Trad. arr. R. Meyers (2025) Land on the Shore
* World premiere
CLICK HERE to download the print version of the program.
Artists
VAN DIEMEN'S FIDDLES
Julia Fredersdorff Artistic Director / Baroque Violin, Vocals
Emily Sheppard Violin, Octave Violin, Eelhu, Taiko, Vocals
Rachel Meyers Violin, Octave Violin, Vocals
Katie Yap Violin, Electric Violin, Viola, Kane, Vocals
Van Diemen's Fiddles (VDF) is a multi- disciplinary art music ensemble combining the exceptional talents of Van Diemen’s Band Artistic Director Julia Fredersdorff on baroque violin, Klezmer and folk fiddler Rachel Meyers, and Classical/ folk/ experimental violinist Emily Sheppard. In 2024 they were joined by modern/Baroque violist Katie Yap.
Equally at home performing in concert halls or pubs, VDF tour across Lutruwita/Tasmania creating community projects and accessible cultural events across a variety of audience demographics.
They have appeared at Ten Days on the Island, Cygnet Folk Festival, MONA FOMA and Four Winds and their debut album will be released in 2025.
Creative Team
Matthew Marshall Lighting Design
Lindy Hume OAM Dramaturgical Advice
Luke Plumb Audio Production
Isabel Howard & Emily Sheppard Daphne Myth Text
Jane Longhurst Narration
The Story of Daphne & Apollo
Apollo, powerful Olympian god of music, poetry, and archery, dares to mock Cupid’s archery skills. In retaliation, Cupid takes two arrows from his quiver - one gold-tipped, to ignite infatuation, and one lead-tipped, to command revulsion.
He shoots Apollo with the golden arrow, then turns to the beautiful nymph Daphne, and shoots her with the leaden one. Thus begins a chase of unrequited lust. Daphne avoids Apollo’s pursuit by turning into a laurel tree.
This story explores themes of power dynamics, consent, and the lengths one might go to to remain free. In the original myth, Daphne’s ultimate expression of her own will is to become a tree.
In SIRENS, we explore an alternate ending, where Daphne instead seeks refuge in the sea…
"Carved of lead and sharpened gold, two arrows flew across the sky.
Apollo’s gaze landed on Daphne, hot like melted silver.
She felt it’s weight like a leash of lead and ran out of his reach.
She ran past streams, forests and mountains
Chased by fingers of light, and ravens that sang like lyrebirds
She ran under the moon, to the edge of the sea,
and before the sun could rise again,
she stole a boat and sailed into the blue.
Praying for skies devoid of silver arrows,
She asked the wind, the tide and water, to take her further, to safer harbour.
Spitting brine and burning rope, cold hands beat at the boat
reaching, rising, pulling, falling,
a never-ending tempo.
Daphne let the wind snatch at her hair, to catch it in her sails,
Let saltwater sting her wounds, to taste the current and learn its tongue.
She felt its rhythm, its steady pulse
And cut a path by starlight, watching water ripple
all around, on every side.
Gliding over a rocky reef, wind slowed, and water turned to glass
Like bubbles made of honey, a hundred voices rose:
“Running girl with leaden bones, come join us down below.”
___
Water sweet with Siren song,
Daphne reached down to dark and damp
to scaled hands that held her aloft,
dragging her, uncoiling her, free in the current’s flow.
The water swallowed sunlight, and the world began to glow
Kelp fronds unfurled like dragon’s wings, flecks of luminescent blue
Sound crawled through the water, so slow Daphne could trace its edges:
swimming, scuttling, bubbling and breathing
Time moved gradually, then suddenly, claws hiding in the sand.
The Sirens opened their feathered arms,
Their teeth and bloodlust folded away
But the knowledge of their world hit Daphne’s mind like stones
carved with everything that happens anywhere on earth
Murmured in her ears, braided in her hair, written on her skin
The things she didn’t, hadn’t, could never know.
Untethered in the undertow, this knowledge stormed in Daphne’s skull,
crashing, rolling, thundering against her blood and bone.
she floated deeper down, then deeper, ‘til she settled on the seafloor
breathing in the ocean bed
blood steeping in salt
___
At the bottom of the sea, Daphne roamed the rolling water,
drifting in the song that flowed but never ebbed,
a stream of things she wouldn’t, shouldn’t, and didn’t want to know.
She walked the kelp forest in search of silence, an ignorance to rub into her skin,
Until she reached deep murk and gloom,
Where darkness diluted singing into a sigh.
In the shadows, long, slender bodies slithered through grit and rock
Children of the Sargasso sea, eels made of salt.
Unlike the Sirens, they preferred the shade,
a haven from knowing everything and all.
invited into their midst, she sank into the mud,
brushing against their fins and jaws
Watching them hide inside their hollows
Unknowing, twisting, undulating
Daphne felt a fellowship settle like the end of a storm,
a brackish balm
And closed her eyes to sleep.
___
Resting in the softness of an ocean bed
Siren song lapped at Daphne’s mind, a subsiding tide.
She listened and drifted, her eyes upon the darkness,
Where one eel emerged like velvet ribbon, pulled between the rocks.
A deity of eels, Anguilla confessed curiosity:
Why leave the world above, and bury her body below?
In the shadow of kelp, they shared their stories,
a quiet rockpool in the middle of the open sea.
Theirs was comfort without covet,
a cradle of reverence, held close.
___
Underneath the ceiling of kelp, a fever took the sanctuary:
shifting currents, carpets of red, corals bleached and brittle
a monsoon, infected, with an incalescent ache
Fronds limp between her fingers, Daphne looked up above
To see silver arrows piercing the canopy
Arcing, reaching, grasping,
down.
Apollo’s reach was the light of day, setting fire to the sea.
How to forge an end to it, before the underworld melted like wax?
She sharpened her knowledge, drew a plan into the sand
She shared it with the Sirens, who smiled wide,
Ripe with knowing all that could come next.
___
The Sirens spoke into the rising tides, up to the sacred mountaintop.
“A challenge,” they said, “to see who’s best
At pulling strings in mortal hearts:
When the next man passes, we’ll open our mouths, to lure him like fish
If he stays on land, Daphne will walk towards the sun
If he goes to the water, you will abandon your hunt.”
The god of music heard the challenge and deigned to cross with Siren song.
Master of the lyre, boy blessed with silver tongue
He’d lashed creatures with sweeter voices and greater skill before.
They each waited, chords constructed, tongues and teeth untwisted,
‘til a man stepped in between them, and music poured out of their mouths.
By land, Apollo’s song rang like peals of perfect bells
Down below, the Siren chorus rose, and fell
Spilling just a taste of truths the man would never know
Listening on the ocean floor, Daphne knew
what people wanted most was the story of themselves
She watched the man turn to tide,
wanting whispers, the things the world would never tell,
and the Sirens dragged their winnings down deep, into the undertow.
___
Defeated by the Siren song, Apollo cured his plague of heat.
He plucked his arrows from the sea
And swore his gaze would never fall on Daphne’s face again.
But the score was still unsettled,
and the Sirens sang sounds that seized Apollo’s skin.
A spell of perception, sense and self:
His face was replaced with a mirror of desire,
Reflecting how those who wanted him, distorted him:
the god’s true grace would never be seen again."
(c) Isabel Howard
Lyrics
KERRY ANDREW Blue Men (2023)
Lyrics: Robert Macfarlane
Storm takes form
Blue sea beats
Beats its fists
Fast on hull
Hard on hope
Hurls its ropes
Snares the boats
Hauls the hearts
To the deeps
O you must, O you must
Give a gift to us
A kist not of rust or dust
But of bright silver verse
Or we will pull you down
O we will pull you down
So you must, O you must
Sing our song’s next line
But we set the meter
We set the rhyme
And if you spoil our song,
Falter, utter wrong,
Then it is drowning time,
O it is drowning time.
So here is our song,
Now continue it on:
Have you danced in the mask of the deer?
Can you speak with the voice of the tides?
Will you swim through the blue without fear?
QUIN THOMSON Perceived / Real (2025)
1. city | the perceived
Ill
Ill-mannered
Ill-tempered
Ill-fitting
Ill-adapted
Ill at ease
|
She's a Dumb smart girl Unattractive, fat Hypochondriac And she talks too much And she laughs too loud Oversensitive Can't she take a joke? She's a know It All But she lacks self worth Goody two shoes girl Abrasive Annoying Unreasonable Awkward Abrasive Annoying Unreasonable Awkward Abrasive Annoying Unreasonable Awkward Abrasive Annoying Unreasonable Awkward |
not a girl things hurt things hurt it's they it's they things hurt it's they it's they it's they it’s it’s it’s it’s MY PRONOUNS… …are they/them |
Pronouns
Special snowflake pronouns
unfit
ungainly
uncomfortable
unhinged
unsettling
unacceptable
unacceptable
2. water | the real
welcome shock
pain
subsides
body calms
mind flows
waves wind currents tide
light shadow mountain
endless change endless now
in this place
unbreaking
belonging
RACHEL MEYERS Ginosko (2025)
ginosko (meaning: know/known; a call to intimacy and experiential knowledge)
kindynos (meaning: danger, peril, nakedness)
Funding Partners
Project Partners
Thankyou
VDB would like to thank the following people for their generous help with this program:
Uncle Jim-puralia Everett-meenamatta, Aunty Lola Greeno, Ten Days on the Island, Theatre North, Burnie Arts, Four Winds, HLA Management, Calic Carpentry & Building, Access Plastics, Taiko Drum Tasmania.
Acknowledgements
Works by Rachel Meyers and Emily Sheppard were assisted by a King Island Council Artist Residency.
Emily Sheppard Descent into sirens was created with support from APRA AMCOS Art Music Fund.
Sirens was supported by a creative development residency at Four Winds.