Phaedo, Symphonic poem No. 5 for orchestra

Phaedo is one of the most fascinating of Plato’s Dialogues. It recounts the conversation between Socrates and his friends in the death cell during the last hours of his life.

It is not the composer’s purpose to reproduce musically all the deep thoughts in the Dialogue, but rather to express the general Platonian concept of soul pre-existence, corporal life and liberation.

The piece starts with a slow part evoking the world of pure essences where the soul acquires the knowledge of the universals before birth. In this eternal world, the absolute ideas are hinted at but not fully stated.

The union of soul and body begins when time starts (Timpani entrance. Fast tempo).  When the corporal life starts, the soul is imprisoned by the body which is the root of all evil and the greatest obstacle to the soul’s attainment of knowledge.

The struggle has just begun. In this unhappy union, the knowledge of the universal concepts will be acquired by recalling the pure essences already learned by the soul in its pre-existence before birth.

The three fundamental elements of the soul are presented:

2. Thymos or the noble-spirited horse which carries the energy (Percussion and subsequent Brass music in steady rhythm).
3. The desire or the degenerated horse of the appetite (String music in agitated gestures).
4. The intellect or the charioteer human reason which passionless controls the two forces (Woodwinds static music on a Vibraphone pedal).

Under the control of the intellect, the music gradually becomes more pleasant and peaceful. But the struggle comes back when the three elements get in conflict.

The dominance of one or other of the three elements of the soul gives rise to three different character dispositions. The interaction of the three elements under the control of the intellect is the ideal and ultimate goal of human existence: to attain the knowledge of the truth (a mixture of all thematic musical material).

Death is the culmination of this process of self-purification. The philosopher looks forward to death since the soul is liberated from the evil body’s senses. After death (Tam-tam crash), the soul returns to its original pure world, where it will undergo a process of purification to return to its immortal state.

Phaedo was written during the spring of 1991 in Portland, OR, and was awarded by the 20th Young Composers Contest, organised by Juventuts Musicals (musical youth) Barcelona.

In 2018, the composer revised the whole piece adding some instrumental changes.

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