Three exhale is a text composition for English speaking voices. It is a play for three women about loss.

Ideally, a composer writes for an instrument that best captures the sound they envision. They may favor a warm tone, a rhythmic quality, or a blend of both. Similarly, a playwright develops characters to inhabit their play. These characters are distinguished by their appearance, life experiences, and social status, all of which influence their voice. A character might have an accent, a stutter, or use specific swear words. However, aside from variations in language, a writer cannot directly shape a character’s musicality.

In contrast, a composer defines tempo, pitch, duration, and dynamics. Through careful word placement, font size, horizontal and vertical scaling, and spacing, I have found a way to convey these musical parameters in a text score. There are moments when language blurs, and words detach from their meanings. Repetition transforms into rhythm, and just as it begins to feel comfortable to the ears, it shifts back to the narrative.


A first reading of Three Exhale was performed at the Sandberg Institute in Amsterdam in May 2023.

Welcome to the House of the Ruler was commmissioned by Amsterdam Dance Event and the H*art Museum in the fall of 2023. The terminus a quo for the performance was the opening of H’art Museum’s exhibition about Julius Caesar I came, I saw, I met my doom and Elif Murat’s sound piece Sonic Phantasmagoria. The collective, working together with Murat, worked on a show set around the hypothetical funeral of Julius Caesar, exploring (the vocal qualities of) grief, power dynamics and social status in response to the Kerkzaal of the H*art Museum.