Solo for the Dead (2019)
For 3 instrumental soloists/open instrumentation with conductor.
Performed at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music’s 1st Year Composers’ Concert “Extremes” with Eddy Sit (Violin), Jack Hwang (Saxophone), Isabelle Ironside (Flute) and Isabella Rahme (Conductor).
An arrangement of this piece for Zoom performance titled “No Exit” was performed by Ensemble Onsombl for their “Music for Zoom” online performance series in 2020.
About
Solo for the Dead
“Hell is other people!”
(Sartre – No Exit)
Solo for the Dead was inspired by the existentialist play “No Exit” by Jean-Paul Sartre. It aims to provide a musical realisation of the concept of the afterlife explored within the play, without being programmatic.
The piece sets up the conditions for a musical experiment, as the three performers enter the space (through the guidance of the conductor – the valet) only to have their expectations of the performance challenged, in the same way the characters in “No Exit” had their perceptions of “Hell” challenged.
Each performer is given the same set of material and are given the opportunity to develop a character they can portray on stage, a chance to find their own musical purpose to convey to the audience, one which the composer has not assigned to them. In a way, it’s a musical realisation of one of the central concepts of existentialist thinking: Existence Preceding Essence. This philosophical view states that a human life does not possess any inherent identity or predetermined value, however meaning and value can be assigned by the individual.
The piece also draws on the existentialist concept of The Look, which is what occurs when a person is forced to view themselves as the object of another’s consciousness and not just as the subject of their own. Here is where the struggle to remain the subject of one’s own consciousness arises, which is what is being explored in both the play and this piece. The performers, practicing in preparation for a solo work, are met with the sudden arrival of The Other, and suddenly The Look forces each performer to view themselves as if from the other performers’ perspectives.
And so the struggle to remain the subject arises, not just of one’s consciousness, but of the performance, as they each attempt to hold their ground through their own assigned characters. So in this case, it would be safe to say, Hell is other musicians.
Isabella Rahme 