AN ELEGY FOR WILTED ROSES 

AN ELEGY FOR WILTED ROSES is a monodrama for soprano and chamber ensemble, with the text for the first and second movements being written by Milo Holland, and the third movement being written by Amit Manna. As a whole, this work explores the inner thoughts of a young person who is clinging onto a rose, now wilting, that was once gifted to them by their former beloved. Throughout the piece, we see the psychological effects of their immense grief, and follow their journey to find themselves as they rapidly cycle through their highly contrasting emotions.

Each movement of this work takes inspiration from a term found within John Koenig’s The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows - Tiris, Ambedo and Nodus Tollens - each of which also acts as the titles for their respective movements.

Tiris -“The Bittersweet Awareness That All Things Must End”
Ambedo - “A Momentary Trance of Emotional Clarity”
Nodus Tollens - “The Sense That Your Life Doesn’t Fit Into a Story”

The first movement, Tiris, explores how everything comes to an end. We watch the performer, who remains nameless throughout the work, sing to their wilting rose and express how they are not that dissimilar. In many ways, the character has taken a pessimistic view that this is fate and that they will never love again - they will be left to wilt and die like their ‘little rose’.

As we progress into the second movement, Ambedo, the protagonist has a brief period of clarity, and we explore their inner thoughts during this time. We see the character begin to accept what’s happened and start to almost feel grateful for just being alive and getting to experience life. They thank the miles that they’ve travelled and ask why they don’t try smiling, showing a clear change in their inner will from the first movement.

Suddenly, at the start of the third movement, Nodus Tollens, the protagonist snaps out of this trance. They begin to experience the feeling that their life is purely a jumble of unrelated events - they were meant to be following a story, but this one makes no sense. This hits them in such a way that they seem to forget the clarity that they were experiencing, and they begin to go back to the hopelessness they felt at the start. However, partway through this movement, the character begins to look at it in another way and realises that perhaps there is no narrative to track. They see the hope of life that exists within their ‘little rose’, and ergo themselves. All they have to do is give it a few drops of water.

Overall, AN ELEGY FOR WILTED ROSES could perhaps be described as a coming-of-age story. The work itself is riddled with hidden meanings and messages, but at the face of it, this monodrama is nothing but a young person pining over someone they loved, and eventually coming to terms with the fact that there will always be hope.

Tiris from AN ELEGY FOR WILTED ROSES was first premiered on the 2nd of July 2024 in the Carole Nash Recital Room at the Royal Northern College of Music. 

The performers in the premiere were:
CONDUCTOR - Amit Manna
SOPRANO - Sophia Brown
VIOLIN I - Joe Steel
VIOLIN II - Zoe Hennessey
VIOLA - Emily O'Dell
VIOLONCELLO - Lola Garcia Marquez
FRENCH HORN - Toby Johnson-Jones
FLUTE - Matt Jones
CLARINET - Miles Santner