Rzewski: De Profundis

Frederic Rzewski’s De Profundis (1992) infuses text from Oscar Wilde’s homonymous letter with stylistically varying piano interludes and accompaniment to create a theatrical work challenging the single performer as pianist and vocalist. Its vocal effects containing pitched and unpitched syllables, breathing sounds, groans, sighs, humming, and whistling, compounded with choreography and use of a bicycle horn all contribute to the madness.