HONORARY MENTION
Songs for G
Charles Kriel
"Songs For G", written between Christmas of 1996 and May 1997, is a reflective work dealing with the character of stories I was told by a friend - an artist - who found them too difficult to tell herself within a creative work. "Songs for G" does not attempt narrative, but rather tries to create a psychological space for the listener to enter, which might be similar to both the space I occupied while composing this work, and the space habited by G throughout much of her life.
"Dottir", the first section, is rooted in daughterhood, and the antinomous life one leads as a child of the mad. The subtitles refer to sections within "Dottir", and a dialogue "directed" between child and mother. "My eyes wet by the morning sun, he walked with his back to the west", finds its psychological source in the difficulties of creating and maintaining a mature romantic love in the wake of an embittering yet poorly questioned childhood. "Someplace better than this place" is the second aftermath, following "My eyes...", as "My eyes..." follows "Dottir". The work ends ambiguously, as did G and her stories.
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