Three exhale

Three exhale is a text composition for English speaking voices. It is a play for three women about loss. In the most ideal situation, a composer writes for an instrument reflecting the sound they have in mind best. They might choose a warm sound or prefer something rhythmical or both. For a playwright this would be developing a character to be part of their play. Characters are distinguishable in looks, life experience and social standing and this affects what they sound like. A character might have an accent, stutter or use specific swear words. But apart from differences in use of language, a writer cannot influence a character’s musicality. A composer on the other hand writes tempi, pitch, duration and dynamics. With the use of word placement, font(size), the horizontal and vertical scale, spacing etc. I have found a way to communicate these musical parameters in a text score. There are moments where language becomes a blur and words are no longer attached to their meaning. Repetition becomes rhythm and just before it starts to get too comfortable for the ears, it moves back to the story. A reading of Three exhale was performed at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam in May. Three exhale is the first part of a trilogy of dramas written by Amanda Payne.