IMAGO (2021) marimba solo (4-mallet) · 5 minutes · advanced
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IMAGO is centered around the absurdist novella The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka. As an elementary school child, I had read The Metamorphosis by mistake while rifling through bookshelves; the story itself is quite short and, physically, could easily be mistaken for a children's novel if it were not for the contents within.
I initially understood the novel to be at the most basic of interpretations: the fear of quite literally metamorphosing into a large insect overnight with little rhyme nor reason. I dismissed this idea as a foolish concept suited for silly fiction.
Many years later, I reread the book as a teenager nearing adulthood, and I realized with abject horror that the themes the book embodied—societal alienation for factors beyond one's reach—were themes that had truly prevailed my life, even as a child, and especially more as I near adulthood.
The title IMAGO is the entomological term for the final and fully developed stage of an insect.
IMAGO was premiered at the Allen ISD Performing Arts Center on February 27th, 2021 by Sebastian Zhang.