Note: This score is at sounding pitch. Parts available upon request.


Commentary by Left Brain vs. Right Brain. LB: "My song cycle Life and Afterlife is a set of 4 Elegies for soprano and orchestra. The first movement 'The Last Time' is in G Minor, although the harmonies are ambiguous. It is based upon a single theme, phrases of which evolve into 2 further themes. Thus the music is in constant development. The cantabile main theme is presented quasi berceuse... (more)

Note: This score is at sounding pitch. Parts available upon request.


Commentary by Left Brain vs. Right Brain. LB: "My song cycle Life and Afterlife is a set of 4 Elegies for soprano and orchestra. The first movement 'The Last Time' is in G Minor, although the harmonies are ambiguous. It is based upon a single theme, phrases of which evolve into 2 further themes. Thus the music is in constant development. The cantabile main theme is presented quasi berceuse as an elegy to the loss of a loved one, above shifting harmonies which elude repose. The music is also permeated by a rhythmic motive, or rhythmotive as I call it, which manifested itself in January 2001 when my wife Denise & I were in Caracas, Venezuela. The rest of this music was composed during my travels for engineering projects, and completed in May 2001 in Washington, DC." RB: "In retrospect, it was fun to discover details which were in my subconscious. Very Right-Brain, eh? For example the exquisite horn countermelody, as the soprano repeats the main theme, evolved from my rhythmotive. I love the final pages, which skirt the G Major/Minor tonalities with chords based upon G-Bb-Eb-G."

All Reviews

There are 3 reviews for this score

Nice use of instruments and chords, so-so lyrics
The use of the orchestra was great, and well balanced with the soprano soloist. This reminded me most of John Williams, but you do some more interesting things in the alternation of major and minor chords.

The lyrics were kind of average. Bordering on the cliche, but tolerable. Only thing I could suggest there would be to add some new stuff and not repeat the same lines.

Mark Salzwedel

Nearly indescribable
I so like this piece. This is the first movement of a song cycle. I have listened repeatedly to all of the movements. I think this is my favorite, but when I hear the other movements, I am torn. The thing about this music is that it's just not quite like anything I've ever heard. It's certainly not atonal, or off the wall or even bizarre. I'm really having difficulty describing the exact quality that is so compelling. But I think that's a good thing. I am bored by too much analysis and suspicious of formula music. This has artistic stamped all over it. Maybe there are times when I question myself and think that maybe it's not all that unusual or compelling. But I can tell you that I have moved mountains to listen to it again and again. Trouble with my MP3 player caused me to be nearly obsessive about returning to this site. And the overall SibMus site has tossed me about plenty as well. Give this music a listen. I would like to read someone elses review of it. That would be helpful to me and helpful to the composer as well. I think I can guarantee that it will not be a waste of your time.

Richard McKinney

A song most emotive and in deeply lyrical vein
Having reviewed some of David Stybr?s more abstract music, notably his admirable music for brass quintet, I find this song cycle by David Stybr fascinating, as it reveals another side of this author, a most emotive and lyrical vein. I have read all the songs and I intend to review each one of them in due course.

Life and Afterlife: I. The Last Time is, as stated in the subtitle, an elegiac piece. This is an elegy to the departed, in which the living talks gently to the dead, in the context of a berceuse-like soundscape. Using the analogy between sleep and death, the author achieves a highly atmospheric, restrained but emotionally powerful lyrical flow with delicately symbolist underpinnings.

The piece is for soprano and large orchestra, and begins with a slowly meandering music which sounds like a gently undulating accompaniment followed by a contrasting section in which harp arpeggiations and figurations become very prominent. Then, a truly beautiful melody is started by the flute and is answered by the oboe. The voice takes on this melody at mid-phrase, a touching and very original detail.

The music is deeply nostalgic and matches perfectly the lyrics of the song. Such lyrics are quite admirable, emotionally profound without falling into sentimentality. I would say that tybr is not only quite a good composer but is also quite a good poet.

The harmony is rich and varied and there are several subtle and appealing changes of key. The orchestration is delicate, soloistic and effective. The effect is captivating and enigmatic. My advice to the listener is that he or she let themselves be carried out gently by this flowing, delicate and constantly developing song, and you will feel transported to an ethereal region of the spirit where life and death sing a song of love together.

There is a central part to this song that is nicely contrasted and functions as a somewhat faster orchestral interlude. This section looks great and sounds great. Ascending and descending arches traverse the texture of the woodwind section as a sort of a klagenfarbenmelodie. The music accelerates, then brings itself to an ecstatic point and calm begins to return amidst gorgeous sounds awash with impressionistic colour. The way the melody returns at bar 62, first with the flute and then with the voice, is inexorable and shows and clear logic at the service of expression. The orchestra continues moving forwards with characteristic triplet accompaniments in the harp and the first violins superimposed to slower chords in the other instruments.

Just when you think that the song would round itself off by more or less repeating the ?A? section after the ?B? interlude, there is an interesting development as the music begins to open up to a different emotional plain. Up to now the song has been like a quiet cry of farewell from the world of the living to the world of the dead. But just when the music seems to portray into a symbolic dream world there begins a gradual voice of hope implying that the departed, though he or she has left, is not really lost to the living. There is a sort of pantheistic finale in which the dead is recognised as being present in spirit in the Nature?s manifestations, hence the end of the song, like that of life, is not morbid but positivist. Perhaps the fact that this message is in tune with my philosophical principles has enabled me to empathise and respond emotionally to this song in the way I have had.

The last pages of the song contain a movement to the major key which is like a ray of hope, reinforced by the repetition of the words ?for ever? several times. A comparison with the end of Mahler?s ?Das Lied von der Erde? is pertinent here, but where Mahler can possibly be called nihilist, his ?Ewig, Ewig? being a chant of inexorable extinction of the conscious self, Stybr?s message works in reverse. What we have here is a re-integration of consciousness into nature?s manifestations rather than a disintegration.

And thus ends a piece that has given me a lot to think about. I detest giving marks to music, and I?d rather we did not have to in these reviews. However, although I no longer tend to give top marks to any piece except in a very few cases, I do feel that in this case I must give this song all that I can give it. Perhaps a more experienced composer can find flaws and problems that I have overlooked (I would recommend, incidentally, the addition of comprehensive bowing slurs for the string instruments. I have noticed that the composer is rather sparse in these respects). But to me music is primarily about communication. If it talks to me and makes me feel things then it is good as far as I am concerned. So, because of this, a 10 point mark from me is perfectly appropriate here.

Finally, if a fine soprano is reading this review, I would advice her to try to perform this music. The composer deserves it and the public shall not be disappointed.

Jordi Vives i Batlle