Cello solo. Score
± 15 MIN.
Monologue is a cello-solo piece in which the cellist shares a story with the audience.
Something dramatic has happened. It’s a secret. She* has to talk about it. She is in a dilemma and doesn’t know if she’s guilty, if she even did it intentionally, if it was an accident, or if she was inattentive. When does inattentiveness become indifference or even deliberate negligence? She isn’t upset because of what happened, but is obsessed with how other people might interpret her role in the dramatic event.
Monologue is written for the American cellist Hannah Collins.
Monologue has five movements:
I.Prologue
II. Frases
III. Monologue
IV. Toccata (words)
V. Epilogue
II. Frases
peo-ple stare at me
I nee-d, I nee-d to tell you some-thing
I nee-d wa-ter
I hear the silk mur-me-ring of the wa-ter
I nee-d,
I nee-d to tell you some-thing
peo-ple stare at me
I need wa-ter
there was wa-ter,
Yes! Yes!
I hear the silk mur-mu-ring of wa-ter
when do you call some-thing an ac-ci-dent?
III. Monologue
We went to the woods. It was a sun-ny day, a hap-py day. It was hot!
The heat made me hea-vy (I need wa-ter) I hear the silk mur-muring of the wa-ter.
I like to lis-ten to it with my eyes closed.
“Don’t go near the wa-ter,” I said. (a glass of cold wa-ter)
Eyes closed, a kind of o-ver-whel-ming white came through my eye-lids. The wa-ter was sing-ing to me.
“Don’t go near the wa-ter,” I said.
“Don’t an-noy me,” I said. I… I… I… don’t know… I want to go home, a-lone.
It was a sun-ny day, a hap-py day. Yes. Yes!
some-bo-dy screamed.
The heat made me hea-vy (I need wa-ter) I hear the silk mur-muring of the wa-ter.
I like to lis-ten to it with my eyes closed. (I need wa-ter) (a glass of cold wa-ter)
Did I scream? I am a good mo-ther [fa-ther]
“Are you cold…?” I asked.
IV. Toccata (words)
wa-ter
some-bo-dy
wa-ter
white
an-noy me
did I scream?
o-ver-whel-ming
don’t
wa-ter
don’t
mur-mu-ring
cold
white
o-ver-whel-ming
o-ver-whel-ming
white
wa-ter
don’t
cold
eyes closed
Yes!
white
wa-ter
cold
don’t
mur-mu-ring
when do you call some-thing
an ac-ci-dent?