Scena

About the piece

Composed: Durham, September 1987

Scena was written as an entry for the Terra Nova Composition Competition 1987. 
It was not successful.

The text is taken from a variety of sources, linked by selections from The 
Wasteland by T.S.Eliot. Under this scheme the Tenor Solo takes the part of 
Tiresias, the hermaphrodite observer from that poem. During the 'scene' he 
'remembers' a variety of episodes, usually romantically or sexually based, from 
works by Dylan Thomas, James Joyce and D.H.Lawrence. The latter's 'contribution' 
is taken from the seduction scene in Lady Chatterley's Lover - the whole scene 
was cut to the bone by the composer, leaving only the most lurid and erotic 
phrases.