John Psathas Photo: The Dominion Post
Composer John Psathas explains the title:
"Tarantism is allegedly a deadly envenomation attributed to the bite of a kind of wolf spider called a tarantula, which is found near the seaport of Taranto in southern Italy. Historically, tarantism,is referred to as a psychological illness characterised by a “dancing mania”, prevalent in southern Italy from the 15th to the 17th century, and this is what the title refers to.
There were strong suggestions that there is no organic cause for the heightened excitability and restlessness that gripped the victims. The stated belief of the time was that victims needed to engage in frenzied dancing to prevent death from tarantism. As a result from this therapy, tarantella, a rapid, whirling dance evolved. Many people have suggested that the whole business was a deceit to evade religious proscriptions against dancing.
'Tarantismo' is based on the same legend that created the tarantella, the idea of dancing faster and faster to get the poison of the tarantula spider out of your system. My theory is that, back then, perhaps one pretended to have been bitten by a spider to give you an excuse for dancing, whirling faster and faster, and ever more frenzied, towards an ecstatic release.
For me, the whole idea of ecstatic release describes the intense effort of trying to launch something off the stage and into the audience, to make that electric point of connection. Other people can do that in a very calm, quiet and profound way, but with me it's delirious, ecstatic and – when it works – irresistible."
Recorded 26 June 2020, Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington by RNZ Concert
Producer: David McCaw
Engineer: Darryl Stack
