Soliloquy

​Written for

Annie Donato, Violin

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Program Note

While the word “soliloquy” typically refers to a monologue that a character may have in a dramatic stage work, for this piece I wanted to focus on the inner monologues that we all experience throughout a typical day. To better understand my own “inner monologue”, I spent some time trying to be more aware of my thought processes and how various thoughts come and go over time. Some thoughts are quickly forgotten, while others stay in our minds. This is musically represented through a series of motifs and short melodic figures that continually develop throughout the piece. The climax of the music demonstrates how some of these lingering thoughts can manifest themselves into physical actions capable of affecting others, both positively and negatively. The last section of the piece returns to the music heard at the beginning, however now it is more dissonant and includes fragmented statements of some of the motifs heard previously. This closing section is a moment of reflection as one’s thought process begins to gradually slow down, eventually fading into the past.

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Duration

9'

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Premiere

April 6, 2024 by Annie Donato at the Eidson-Duckwall Recital Hall, Butler University (Indianapolis, IN, USA)