Shostakovich: Quartet No.13 in B Flat Minor Op.138 [1970]

During this segment the composer is in his room but might as well be in a microscopic world filled with one celled organisms, or an airless avenue near the asteroid belt in outer space. He is in the armchair and has trouble moving or making himself understood.

{Note: this text may also be sung by a mezzosoprano, who may have been collaborating with the improvising instrumentalists throughout the performance}

LIGHTING IS A COMBINATION OF GREENS AND PURPLES WITH ORANGE ACCENTS

Flesh.

Long pause.

And bone.
My.

He makes an effort but can barely raise them

Hands.

Long pause.

I don’t know what to do.
My hands will not obey me.
I can’t help it.
When I write I have to
Hold my right hand
With my left
My pen jumps
And my legs won’t walk
But my memory
Is still all right

ORANGE LIGHTS BEGIN TO MERGE ODDLY WITH PURPLES

He is somewhat delirious, yet coherent.
Each of the following words and phrases is spoken as if in response to unheard questions or comments, as if we are seeing and hearing fragmented portions of one side of a discourse with an invisible, inaudible entity:

Carpal.

Tunnel.

Ancipital.

Nerves.

Ancilliary.

Edema.

AS HE SAYS THESE WORDS, THE LIGHTING SWIFTLY BECOMES DIMMER AND MORE DISORIENTING AS
X RAYS OF HANDS, ARMS & FINGERS ARE PROJECTED ON THE WALLS

Anasarca.

Anathema.

Anchoretic.

Recluse.

Momentarily, he speaks with clarity like a narrator

Left to the oncoming vagaries
of corrosion and ambiguity.

LIGHTING SHIFT, voice again adrift

Suspension.

Gradual.

Dissolution.

Over Time.

SKY CHART APPEARS PROJECTED ACROSS THE CEILING

Ursa.

Ulna.

Cassiopeia.

What’s left.

To say.

I am still.

Precise.

What’s left.

PHOTOGRAPHS OF MARX, LENIN, STALIN, MOLOTOV, LYSENKO, BERIA, KRUSHCHEV, KHRENNIKOV, BREZHNEV, PURGE VICTIMS, GULAG & WAR CRIMES ARE INTERPOLATED AMONGST THE X-RAYS & BECOME VISIBLE THROUGH THE WINDOWS

Process.

Anconeal Process.

Coronoid Process.

Radial.

His arms contort slightly.

THE X-RAYS & OTHER IMAGES FLICKER AND CHANGE COLORS. LIGHT SHOW HAS BECOME KINETIC.

Elbows.

Semilunar notch.

Counterweights.

Hands.

Shoulders.

Sciatica.

Ludwig.

Nevsky.

    Pyotr.

Lear.

Extremities.

Counterweights.

Skull.

Neck.

Spine.

Moons.

Mars.

Jupiter.

Skull.

THE LIGHTS FLICKER, A SILVERY FLARE IS SEEN BEHIND HIM, THEN BLACKOUT.

© arwulf arwulf 2015