Polydrama

Poul Ruders Polydrama (Manyfold Event) for cello and orchestra, is the last part of a drama trilogy otherwise consisting of Dramaphonia" for piano and 11 instruments and Monodrama for percussion and 32 instruments. In this abstract drama, the individual listener is left entirely to his own associations. The composer has compared polydrama with the gradual defoliation of a big tree: the vigorously growing organism is attacked by a swarm of locusts until, finally, nothing remains but bare branches in a landscape of long shadows, a solitary, singing bird remains, however, like a streak of hope in an increasingly dark and pessimistic universe.