Esther's Monologue

Twentieth-century American composer Allan Blank started his musical education in New York, gaining admittance to Juilliard through his talent as a skilled violinist. He continued further schooling in New York and the Midwest before attaining a spot with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in 1950. Despite Blank’s obvious talent for performance, his legacy survives primarily through his work as a composer, and it was in the capacity of composer that he served at several universities, including Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond before his death in 2013.
A few years before arriving in Richmond in the late 1970s, Blank completed his work for soprano, oboe, viola, and cello entitled Esther’s Monologue, set to a text written by his wife, Margot. This piece provides a poignant portrait of the biblical Queen Esther in a moment of inner turmoil. Having only recently gained access to the power of the throne through marriage to the king, she marvels at how her circumstances have changed: “A queen today, and only yesterday a girl of noble birth.” Not able to bask for long in the splendor of her new position, however, she contemplates the plight of her imprisoned relative Mordecai and wonders how she might serve both the king and her family. Esther’s Monologue provides sonic indications of both Esther’s bewilderment and her tenderness, moving between passages of disjunct, unpredictable movement and lyrical phrases, with an instrumental ensemble that both supports the singer’s own expressed emotions and also at times voices what she does not.

(c) Emily Masincup and Jason Stell