Deadweight of Love

Audio
Added by
Composed by
Paulo Brito
Instrument(s)
alto (voice), violin
With electronics
no
Music and...
Theatre
Work premiered
September 2018
Venue of the premiere
Shibaura, Minato City (Japan)
Duration
16 minutes

Deadweight of Love: Serenata Nō constitutes a musical hybrid not only in its combination of traditional Nō singing with contemporary composition, but also in its use of a stage play as the basis for a concert work. As a counterpart to its hybrid nature, however, the piece emanates from a single conceptual association derived from the Japanese kanji 謡. A typical Nō play, culminating in the dance of the shite (main actor) that follows the revelation of the protagonist as a spirit or transformation into one, is in essence dance drama. Deadweight of Love introduces dance into the concert setting by transferring this function to the violin.