Symphony No. 2: Into Oblivion

Symphony No. 2: Into Oblivion, Haralabos [Harry] Stafylakis (2019)a symphonic song cycle for bass-baritone and orchestraText by D.H. Lawrence One autumn day in 2014, my phone rang unexpectedly and I was met with a familiar deep, resonant voice. Philippe Sly and I had first collaborated on the orchestral premiere of my song cycle, The Keats Cycle, while we were both still based in Montreal, and he was now interested in embarking on a new vocal project. Phil remains one of the most inspiring musicians I’ve had the pleasure of working with, so there was no hesitation in my response. We quickly started developing the idea for a large-scale work.Some years earlier, while researching possible texts to set for a different project, I’d come across D.H. Lawrence’s The Ship of Death. It had immediately drawn me in, sung to me, in a way that I knew I had to set it to music one day. When the new project with Phil came up, I was drawn back to that text, which seemed finally complete with his voice