Kaddish 01 is a dance performance by Alina Noir, dealing with 3 recent events provoked by climate change: the melting of the glaciers in Iceland, the flooding in Germany, and the bush fires in Australia.

Concept: Alina Noir
Performance created and interpreted by Rosalie Mayet, Joana Millet & Alina Noir
Music: Todd Lent
Image: Graham Byrnes
Scenography: Alina Noir
30 July 2021, Théâtre Le Complexe, Lyon

www.alinanoir.com/kaddish.html

The music for Kaddish was written before the dance piece had been created. Because of this, it had its own concept and storyline, which although very different, is still perfectly in sync with the title.

Performed on solo piano, the music follows the life cycle of a person from the time before they're born up until their death.

We start with little clusters of notes symbolizing the dark clouds of possibility before a person is born. The tonality of the first one actually presages where the piece will eventually end. Over the course of the eleven opening phrases, that tonality slowly shifts and coalesces into that of the infant.

The only sound other than piano in the piece is a low synthesizer drone which occurs during this pre-birth section, and then reoccurs at the very last note of the piece after death.

The youth section begins with a simple, innocent melody symbolizing the inchoate world of the infant. Gradually the structure solidifies, and there is a rhythmic cohesion (largely based around a simple motor-rhythmic pattern in 4/4) which stays fairly consistent throughout the entire piece. This represents not only the ever-present heartbeat and breath, but also the apparent stability of our persona throughout our lifetime. There is something that most of us feel is essentially unchanged about our experience, all the way from our childhood straight through to our final years. That subtle, dubious sense of being “me”.

Over the course of the twenty-minute life cycle, adversity is encountered by means of dissonant notes, odd time signatures, and new melodic motifs. A person endures hardship, adapts to the challenges, and ultimately perseveres (often while being forever changed by them). So in the same way, those musical appearances are then incorporated into a slightly different tonality or melodic structure, which continue reappearing from then on, constantly evolving and assimilating life’s difficulties and struggles.

We continue outlining the various stages of life until the person reaches what seems to be the peak of their power, when they are feeling confident and strong. They finally seem to be at their most fully realized state. Then just as suddenly, they are overtaken by waning vitality, a slowing tempo, and thinning polyphony as their body and mind begin to break down and fail.

At the end there is a return of the opening child’s melody transplanted on top of the late adult material. This is obviously a metaphor for the return to a more helpless infantile state too often experienced by the elderly.

Finally we end in the same tonal space as the very first cloud of possibility, but on an unresolved note, since that is generally how death feels in real life. No matter how expected or even longed for it is, seemingly important things are always left undone and unsaid.

Though the description sounds rather pessimistic and depressing, the music was meant to have a somewhat bittersweet nostalgic flavor. Melancholy, but lighthearted and still optimistic. As Alan Watts said, we should approach this life sincerely, but not seriously.