Category: Rhapsody of the Soul

by Gary Powell

At last, the dreaded inevitable happens. We hear the bell toll. The ghostly soprano voice representing ultimate loss beckons us, or, perhaps our loved ones. The ringing and predictable chords of life are lost to the repetitive ambiguity of two parallel major chords. In this, the tonality – the key – is uncertain. In spite of our obsessions and our avoidance and our denials, we will die. Doug Manning, The Gift of Significance

The chanting of bass voices implores us to experience our loss and this, our unchosen path. Other voices join as each separately restates our musical themes and recounts each step of our rhapsodic journey. It’s a cacophony of sounds, hardly discernible until the final gasp of life is taken and all voices join in unison in the lyric, “suavis unitas ne discedas” – sweet oneness depart not. The train’s whistle blows. The music is reduced to a single bass pedal, and life is over.

by Gary Powell

Throughout the ballet Rhapsody of the Soul, we have explored the separation and loss associated with living life, the moving toward and the stepping away from. The hope for healing and the gift of resolution, which might transcend our losses, has been there all along. Every musical theme within the Kyrie was quoted in the previous sections of the ballet. The healing made the journey with us, although perhaps not consciously, throughout our lives and within the ballet itself.