The Hollow Men (on the poem by T.S. Eliot) for mezzo-soprano and sinfonietta was commisioned by the Georgina Joshi Foundation as 2023 Indiana University Georgina Joshi Composition Award and premiered on March 7th 2024. The piece is written for its first performers, Elizaveta Agladze-Scherschel, David Dzubay, and the Indiana University New Music Ensemble.
The Hollow Men by T.S. Eliot is a poet’s reflection on the consequences of the World War I. Since its publication in 1925, this work became one of the most famous poems of the 20th century. The poem has been continuously referenced in music, literature, and television. One of the prominent citations occurs in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse now, which also circles around the theme of war.
The central image of the poem is people that lost their faith. Empty inside, they are awaiting on the riverbank ready to enter the Kingdom of Death, but nobody comes to help them cross the water. They are cursed to stay there and wait hopelessly for eternity, gradually losing their minds.
This poem has a clear line of development, through repeating images of a flowing dark water and a twilight sky, to the horrors of war and insanity gradually leading to Apocalypse. Music follows the original text structure with its division into 5 stanzas and highlights these symbolic elements through textural changes. The first three movements represent the motives of flowing water, twinkling stars in the dark sky, and the deserted land of prickly cactuses respectively. The opening leitmotiv of empty men played by trumpet is carried throughout the piece, becoming more and more ominous and aggressive towards the end, symbolizing the approaching end of the world. Movements IV and V are performed without interruption, leading to the climax point of the entire piece, which coincides with the infamous ending lines of the original text.
The symbolism of The Hollow Men has been maintaining its popularity throughout the 20th century with its continuous growth of inhumanity and violence. As Eliot’s work manifests his ideas about faith and war, my music expresses a thought on a new wave of escalation of hatred, which humanity has been experiencing in recent years.
Performed by:
Elizaveta Agladze-Scherschel, Mezzo-Soprano
Graeme Sugden, Flute/Piccolo
Alex Alani, Oboe
Renae Dishman, Clarinet/Bass Clarinet
Sara Erb, Bassoon
Emma Nixon, Horn
Bailey Cates, Trumpet
Robert Cardon-Wake, Trombone
Gage Sippel, Tuba
Mihail Babus, Percussion
Braedon Bomgardner, Percussion
Theresa Labuda, Harp
Josh Catanzaro, Piano
Thomas Mathias, Violin
William Mayhew, Violin
Seung A Jung, Viola
Jaemin Lee, Cello
Edmund Song, Double Bass
David Dzubay, Conductor