‘Crescent’, by McCoy Tyner
McCoy Tyner rose to prominence as a member of John Coltrane’s legendary quartet in the 1960’s, but he sustained a brilliant solo career in the decades that followed. Today’s song ‘Crescent’ ís by Coltrane, originally issued on the 1964 album with the same name, featuring McCoy Tyner.
An almost hour-long(!) version of ‘Crescent’ would later appear on ’John Coltrane Live In Japan’.
Soliloquy. Hmm, as a non-native English speaker I had to look that one up. A soliloquy is when a character (in a play) relates his thoughts and feelings to himself and to the audience without addressing any of the other characters, and is delivered often when they are alone or think they are alone.
It’s not the same as a monologue, because than you are talking to the other characters, for a longer time. And it’s not the same as an ‘aside’, which is the same as a soliloquy, only very short, basically just one comment.
Are you still with me?
The ‘to be or not to be‘ speech in ’Hamlet’ is wrongly considered the most famous soliloquy in the English language because it is in fact a monologue delivered to Ophelia and to the spying Polonius and King Claudius.
Juliet’s “O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” is a good example of a Shakespearean soliloquy (although Juliet’s speech is overheard by Romeo, she thinks that she is alone with her thoughts when she delivers it, which is in the essence of a soliloquy).
The album ‘Soliloquy’ was recorded at the Merkin Hall, New York from February 19th to February 21st, 1991.
McCoy Tyner - Piano
