Solitude

Abstract

Solitude: The Orchestration of a Word on a Canvas By Mart?Án Sebastian Loyato The orchestration of a word on a canvas and the procedures and artistic decisions that are contained in the creation of my composition for orchestra: Solitude. For me, music, painting, and poetry are equivalent in meaning. As an artist, my passion is expressed by fusing these art forms. My personal experience of this synthesis is so compelling that the compositional technique I use to create each of these three types of art is based on the same parameters: architecture, phrasing, sounds, colors, textures, and all creative multidimensional essences of expression. This orchestral piece is based on the word "SOLITUDE." I have written a poem using this word as the core of the composition. Each letter is drafted on a canvas, and each is composed of a series of organized words that start with the same consonant or vowel. There are eight stanzas, one for each letter in Solitude. For example, the first stanza, "S," is composed of the following words: Sorrowful solitude, silent sadness, secrets signs, seven seas, etc. Visually, I paint each letter of the poem on a canvas using the art of calligraphy; this technique is a means of expressing the emotion and evoking the mood of the word. For example, the stanza for the letter "S" is also drawn in the shape of the letter itself, and so are the other letters of the word Solitude. After the poetry and painting were completed, I wrote the music. The idea is that the orchestration of the music is also physically shaped in the word Solitude. My effort has been to create an orchestration that is musically convincing, and also visibly contains each letter of the word. Although the musicians in the orchestra are not able to see the letters forming the word, they have to reproduce, in different ways, each of the words inside the letter (stanza). The only place where one is able to see the word Solitude is in the orchestral score. The piece has eight short movements, one for each letter/stanza in the word; each movement is approximately four to six minutes. In other words, the shape of the letters of the word Solitude influence and guide my orchestration. The visual and poetic aspects of this work of art are now complete with the addition of the orchestral piece, which embodies these aspects while having its own integrity as a viable piece of music. I have been fascinated by the challenge of building a composition using the architecture and texture of painting and poetry, and was aware that it would be difficult to combine all these diverse elements while creating a befitting and respectable piece of music. Nevertheless, even if I had to alter traditional rules slightly while working on the piece, fusing multidimensional art and music has been a fertile and challenging experience.