Duration: 8'00"
Instrumentation: Baritone voice, French Horn, and Piano
Notes:
The Immortals is a musical setting of a poem written by Harry Haller, the main character of Hermann Hesse’s novel Steppenwolf. To me, this poem is an eloquent and artistic summary of the solution to Haller’s spiritual struggles, and presents a view of life that I personally find very appealing. In this view, the Immortals—the supreme and ideal forms of being—simply view all of humanity through a lens of humor and detachment. Instead of promoting a lifelong struggle, this view suggests a passive acceptance of the horrible and contradictory, yet inevitable, features of human life.
I particularly enjoy the analogy implied by the poem: just as we humans become lost in the world of a tragic play or movie, only to emerge from the theater and regain our daily concerns, so do the Immortals become momentarily engrossed in the details and actions of our lives, only to snap back into their own reality, where they are reminded that the drama of the earth is “but as a show.” Ultimately, the only human act they truly value is that of creating art; after all, they did write the poem.
In setting the poem, I tried to generally follow the natural rhythms and inflections of the spoken text, in order to make the words more coherent and the musical line well suited to the English language. I also strove to follow and embellish upon the form of the poem, as established by its content, in order to enhance the power and make more clear the meaning I found in the poem.
The piece begins in the sound world of humanity and “life’s fevered surge,” characterized by stacks of perfect fourths set a major seventh apart and a trudging, march-like feel. In the second half of the poem, I introduce the contrasting sound world of the Immortals, characterized by stacks of perfect fifths set a major seventh apart, stopped horn, and a floating, static feel. These two worlds appear, dissolve, and intermingle in response to the text and the piece ends in the cool, unchanging world of the Immortals, with their eternal laughter ringing from the heavens.
Listen to excerpt
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