The Seven Last Words, meditations for keyboard

Keerthana “Katie” Vishwanath, piano
The Seven Last Words is the first piece I completed during my PhD studies at Durham University, and it’s something of an experiment. It’s an experiment in text setting, in that the notes written are literally the letters of the Latin text of the Seven Last Words set to music. (I’ll blog about how I did this a bit later, and link to it here.) It’s an experiment in limitations, as I gave myself very strict rules to follow as I wrote it. And it’s an experiment in giving the performer interpretive freedom: There are no dynamics, no tempo markings, no articulation, no precise rhythms... I didn’t even specify the instrument.

What does this mean? It means that there is no ‘one way’ to play the piece. Katie Vishwanath did a lovely job for this recording—and thanks to Tom Lavender for providing beautiful sound—but her take isn’t definitive in the traditional sense. She played it very faithfully, which is a completely valid take; another person could view each meditation as something like a lead sheet in a jazz context, using it as a springboard for something else entirely. Someone else may approach it in a way I haven’t even imagined. What’s more, maybe they’ll play it at piano, organ, harpsichord, celesta... There are a lot of directions in which it could go, and all are acceptable.

It also means that, when somebody plays it, they are, in a very real sense, playing the words of Christ. In much the same way that a solost may sing the words of Christ in a Passion oratorio—a type of piece I’ve been studying and listening to a lot lately—the soloist here is playing the part of Jesus. Which means that, as they reimagine and improvise over what is written... what is happening exactly? Yes, they’re playing, but are they also... praying?

I think so.