UHI Honours Performance: Stéphane Barbey – Artos: A Story of Identity and Courage

My name is Stéphane Barbey. Born in France, I moved to England some 30 odd years ago to pursue my studies – a venture that didn’t really go to plan. My life’s story is very much one of fighting against the odds in order to see brokenness turn into triumph. Which is very much the same as the story of my music’s hero: Artos. This final year of my degree was an opportunity for me to write something that would announce my intentions as a classical composer, both to myself and to the public at large.

The story takes place in Romano-Britain sometime between 400ad and 500ad. Rome is fading, the barbarian Saxons are invading. Who will stand up and unite the fractious and beleaguered Britons? And who will lead them to victory? From the mist of our distant past a hero rises in the story this composition tells and shows us the way to finding a sense of identity and purpose in our modern age, where we too might feel like a fractured and beleaguered nation. Pay attention to the chorus singing in Latin (the official language of the day), particularly in the first movement, who represent the Romano-Britons and to some extend the hopelessness many must have felt, especially mothers losing their husbands and sons. The rougher male chorus sings in my best expression of Anglo-Saxon. They represent the invading barbarian hordes who respond to the Latin choir demonstrating a battle of cultures.