Soliloquy – Pierrot Ensemble

Program Notes

My goal in writing Soliloquy was to set up a different tonal system in place of the traditional dominant-based tonal system, but still rooted in triads. I wanted the new tonal system to feel to the listener as established as the traditional system, complete with a strong sense of tonic. Soliloquy is set in a mediant-based tonal system, relating major chords by thirds. Over the course of the piece, this system breaks down into chromatic passages and climaxes, returning each time to the mediant-based system. The break-downs and returns, along with the connections of melodic motifs to the mediant motifs, strengthen the familiarity of that system. The end, then, should feel to the listener less like a return to this different system, and more like a return to home.