Escape. Some Ways for Living Not - Taja Astar

Music: Escape. Some Ways for Living Not, by Taja Astar for flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, viola, cello Recorded: Norrbotten NEO 2023-1-20 www.astarspace.com contact@astarspace.com About the piece The piece was written for Norrbotten Neo. This piece is my attempt to contemplate on the effect of cognitive dissonance and lack of meaning that forces people to escape reality in some way. The work consists of six main sections flowing seamlessly one after another, of which one, Running, is recurring and serves as a sort of connecting link between the parts. In this way, the composition tells a story of a soul that runs from one “shelter” to another, fleeing the mental and spiritual struggle that is involved in trying to make sense of the world outside and life itself. Escape is to a great extent an intertextual work, referring to several famous tunes, as follows: Church and Art: Die Internationale, the famous anthem of the international communist party. Its verse is used in the Church section, and its chorus in the Art section. I integrated the tunes into the musical texture to show how ideology can be hidden everywhere, and how both in religion and art one cannot stay apart from politics and how these both can be used as a weapon. Drugs: Hector Berlioz’ Rakoczy March. Berlioz was, probably, the first composer who attempted at describing the effect of drugs in his music. In Escape, his music is partly used to make a reference to this well-known picture of an unstable state of mind. War: Beethoven’s “Ode of Joy” from the Ninth. In the piano part, the motif is played in both hands, alternating with a semitone difference, creating an ugly dissonant sound as an image of a heated conflict, when both sides believe that they are on the right side, which results in a complete chaos. Death: the Happy Birthday song. Many a belief system consider death as a new beginning. So, why not?