Soliloquy for Viola and Piano Op. 26

Composed: 1994

Duration: 6 minutes

First Performance: August 1995, by Brian Schiele (Viola) and Robin Hales (Piano) at the Three Choirs Festival, Gloucester.

Ian Venables' Soliloquy was written as a response to a commission from the Gloucester Three Choirs Festival.

A soliloquy in the true sense of the word is best described in literary terms as a solitary monologue; one thinks immediately of the soliloquy in Shakespeare's Hamlet. The title Soliloquy for Viola and Piano may be justified by the fact that, for the most part, the viola carries the main melodic material, with the piano acting as more of a 'harmonic underpinning'.

The work is cast in one continuous movement and opens with a passage for solo viola from which almost all of the material is subsequently developed or reshaped. The piano entry heralds what is to be one of three short bridge passages in which it plays solemn chords based upon the first four notes of the viola introduction.

After a lyrical episode in which the viola plays as passionate, but affirmative, melodic idea, the material returns to a mood of great solemnity, as a prelude to the first two important climaxes.

Soliloquy closes with a modified version of the opening viola statement, this time accompanied by sparse chording statement, ending the work on a bleak and austere note.