Oh happy day! How long did it take me? A week? I've thoroughly outdone myself this time. Of course I'd better get used to having to finish pieces quickly. It's just part of life, for a composer anyways.
Minus the fact that I'm meeting with a percussionist tonight to discuss any passages that need changing, my piano/marimba duet is finished. Elysia is the name of the lead character from a ballet cantata I hope to write in the future, and I've called this duet "a sketch" because it is basically a fragmented summary of this character's development through the course of the ballet.
Before I talk more about the duet itself, you have to know about my ideas for the ballet. The ballet is set in a sort of prehistoric fantasy realm, (by prehistoric I don't mean cavemen and dinosaurs, I just mean before history). Elysia is a young girl who lives sheltered in a lush and luminous forest where essentially her whole world is her playground. Having grown up under these paradisal conditions, she is too naive to understand what "bad" is. In many ways she is still a child, although she has matured in her capacity for compassion and selflessness through looking after the living things that surround her.
Her sanctuary is penetrated when a stranger appears in her forest and in a "pied piper" fashion lures Elysia by an elegant melody, which is augmented by her intense curiosity. The stranger brings Elysia to the gate that has sheltered her all her life. She has never ventured this far, but although she is apprehensive, she cannot resist her wonder or the seduction of the music. She makes the earth-shaking decision to venture outside of her forest, and upon passing through the gate her perception of life is turned on its head. She is thrown suddenly into the outside world, which is harsh, cold, and dying. Without a sun in the sky, and now separated from the glow of her forest, the world is shrouded in eternal night.
The stranger turns out to have been an agent appointed to fetch Elysia once she had come of age. Previously unknown to her, she is in fact sacred to the people of the outside world, who have been waiting for this time to come. Finally ready to leave the paradise appointed for her safety, she is intended as a ritual sacrifice to revive the world, as was every member of her race before her.
I won't reveal the story line beyond this point, but what you should know is that there are three major movements to Elysia's development as a character. She begins in her ideal state of naivety, optimism, and playful joy. Then, facing the prospect of death and unable to return home, she is emotionally shattered and plagued by despair. It is from this state that she eventually rises to meet her fate with a victorious, selfless spirit. Believe it or not, you can't glean the ending from this.
But, this is as much as you need to know to understand the duet, because its three sections "sketch out" Elysia's transformation. The material I used to compose the piece will likely be used in some form or another in the final ballet, but the piece itself will not be quoted directly. You can sum the piece up as three snapshots of Elysia's life based on melodic material intended for the ballet.
Now, for some of the strictly musical aspects of Elysia. The piece is one movement, although divisible into three ideas. The first idea, Elysia's paradise, begins with a slow, shimmering introduction with contrapuntal melodic fragments that imitate twittering birds, rustling leaves, or what have you. All melodies and harmonies are based on a tone set which I selected to give the piece a blue-green sound (completely subjective, I know.) The slow segment suddenly bursts into Elysia's theme of playful innocence, employing frequent time signature changes and offbeat accents. The main melody is tossed between the piano and marimba and one always doubles the other at some dissonant interval, usually a seventh or ninth, giving the music a slightly unrefined, ancient timbre.
After a short moment of silence at the end of this segment the marimba quietly rolls the harmonic underpinning of the first segment, but in a much lower register, giving it a new feeling of sadness. This begins the second idea, which is Elysia's despair. Here, above the rolled chords, similar contrapuntal fragments to the opening behave as distant echoes of happiness, as if Elysia were taking refuge in memories of her former life. However, these gradually fade and are supplanted by a despondent variation of her theme, which in turn fades to silence.
From the silence begins to arise the third idea. An ascending ostinato on the marimba, hesitant and barely perceptible, slowly takes shape and becomes steadily more confident. Above the ostinato is iterated a new melody, which breaks the tone set of the previous ideas and trades 9th and 7th doubling for octaves. The melody borrows from the opening theme of the Rite of Spring, signifying a rising sun and the birth of new life, as well as the main melody from Dvorak's Symphony No. 9, dedicated to the new world. After the melody is stated in part and comes to silence, the marimba ostinato is heard faintly, but now with unwavering resolve. Over time it grows more fiery and jubilant, and the melody returns in full. From here the ostinato and melody develop alongside one another and ascend without falter to a spacious and energetic climax, as if dancing in midair. After achieving this climax, all sound comes to a sudden halt. Then there is a momentary shimmer, which darts in and out of the silence at unpredictable intervals. After this moment of wonder, like a spark trying to catch fire, the shimmering begins an unceasing crescendo which culminates in the final triumphant note, closing the piece.
Its a mouthful, but I'm proud of it, so I had to share it with you. The premiere will be with Project 21 on March 25th at 8pm, and I hope to get a quality recording out of it. So, I'll leave you with that. I can't wait to hear this live. Everybody wish me luck, because I'll be covering the piano part.
P.S. To give a you a little picture of the artistic color of Elysia, watch the cartoon below. It first inspired me to write the ballet, and it shares the same theme of life, death, and renewal which characterizes Elysia.
P.P.S. If you like the picture above, check out the artist's deviantART page
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