The Rational Argumentator

Program Notes
Piano Sonata No. 3 in G minor
“Death is Wrong”
Composer: Adriano G. Santos

Inspired by the book Death is Wrong, written by Gennady Stolyarov II

This piano composition was completed on December 26, 2025, and was conceived as a programmatic work inspired by the book Death is Wrong, written by Gennady Stolyarov II.

When I started reading the book I felt so identified with some of the contents due to special circumstances I was facing at that time, like the extreme frustration I have always had towards the senescence of piano playing from a physical perspective, and my mother’s tragic femur rupture.

As I was reading the book, very strong musical desires of composing came to my mind and heart, and I almost immediately felt the need to create a new work of programmatic nature based on the contents of this book.

The composition structure is based on the sonata form. The music starts on page 4 from the book, when Gennady asks his mother, “But why do people die? Do they do anything bad to deserve it?” (1), and his mother answers with a perfectly understandable constant justification of human mortality.

The introduction of the sonata tries to mirror this with a dialogue in A major (V/V) between 2 motivic cells in which the first one is made of an eighth-note, 6 quarter-notes organized in triplets asking questions regarding the existence of death, and a question mark represented as a half-note (Fig. A).

The second motif consisting of eight notes alternated with 16th notes answer this question justifying human mortality (Fig. B).

This same dialogue is transposed to the dominant and tonic keys (V/I).

Motifs illustrated in Figures A and B came to my mind almost arbitrarily while composing the introduction, but after a short analysis of different masterpieces, Alkan’s Scherzo Diabolico knocked at my door, and I realized that, very conveniently, the first four notes are a fragmented diminution of my original motif that started the musical dialogue questioning human mortality.

I made a variation of the beginning motifs of the Alkan Etude (Fig. 1), and I used this to express the following statement from Stolyarov’s book: “It is wrong!” I exclaimed. “People should not die!” (2) (Fig. 1.1).


The purposefully forward motion filled with an anxious and passionate emergency of the Alkan Etude, Opus 39, Number 3 in G minor, was ideal for the main theme of my sonata, which I titled, “Deeply and passionately attached to eternal life”.

Unfortunately, as of today, life extension within the context of human eternal life could be perceived as “unfulfilled love”, and a perfect example of this is Beethoven, whose music is often marked by ambiguity and unrequited love, due partially to his relationships, disappointment, suffering, and deafness. Interestingly, I felt a strong call to go through the first movement of his E minor Sonata, Op. 90, and when I reached the secondary theme in B minor, I could sense a painful yearning for fulfillment in those recurrent minor seconds (G/F#), and I immediately knew that my main theme needed that same persistent interval.

In the illustration above in Fig. C, Alkan’s rhythmic and technical patterns give a sense of urgency and anxiety to the desire of fulfillment.

The secondary theme in E-flat major addresses specific lines from Stolyarov’s book. The motivic cells are a fragmentation of the main theme, and the overall idea of the initial fragmented motif of the first 8 measures (mm. 109-116) is based on two crucial questions from the book on page 18: “What could you do if you could live for hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of years? What could you do if you could live even longer than that?”

When the motif suffers another fragmentation in measures 117-128, the music is answering the 2 questions aforementioned by emphasizing the benefits of life extension addressed in the book: “You could read many of the greatest books ever written, you could become a great composer, you could live to see the most amazing scientific and technological wonders…”

In measures 129-133, the original fragmented motif comes back as a desire to fulfill those possibilities through life extension.

As the music becomes denser through transposition, secondary dominants, diminished harmonies, and modulations, the composition is trying to express advice and danger warnings: “The younger you apply this, the more chances you will have to defeat death” and “Be careful of the different dangers that empower senescence and death.”

The Development begins with a motif derived from the original question at the beginning of the introduction, only this time the cell is broader and there is no longer a question of “Why do we have to die?” but a deep thinking of the possibility that “Death is Wrong.”

As the Development progresses, this possibility becomes stronger and more definitive (mm. 176-224).

From measures 200-215, music advances chromatically, and by every half-step a new discovery, experiment, or theory about the most promising scientific efforts of our time enriches life-extension possibilities.

Constant chromatic evolution gives a sensation of confidence and power that results ideal in trying to reflect musically the achievements of experiments with small animals like mice, the fact of the existence of huge lifespans in lobsters, the potential of medical therapies to reverse biological aging in humans from Dr. Aubrey de Grey (3), and other scientific breakthroughs (Fig. H1).

The motif can be expressed into lyrics to make the idea more approachable as in Fig. H2, where you can see only the top notes of the same motifs.

After this chain of chromatic events, an octave virtuosic section derived from the 2nd warning in Fig. H, takes place and represents the struggle against death, senescence, diseases, accidents, natural disasters, and sheep-like mentality (mm. 225-309).

This intense and ferocious section not only develops the second warning of the exposition ending but also goes into a deeper and more powerful chromatic evolution.

The closing section is greatly influenced by Liszt’s B minor Ballade, where the development seems to come to an end, and a sequence of broken octaves brings back the fire leading to a climatic point. In my sonata, when the repeated D quarter-notes die away, suddenly, an identical sequence of E-flat quarter notes brings back the final part of the development, as if the phoenix were rising from the ashes. This continuation in E-flat is a small musical symbol that represents “Musical Life Extension” (Fig. H3).

As the development ending gradually reaches greater intensity, the main motivic cells of the exposition are battling for supremacy as tension is built throughout fifty-eight measures (mm. 354-412), full of energy and yearning.

The recapitulation takes place as the highest climatic point where the main theme is disguised as “development”. Technical virtuosic patterns from Liszt’s Paganini and Transcendental Etudes are ideal for expressing one of the most powerful possibilities I’ve ever read in a book: “Maybe the person who will conquer death… is you.”

During my learning process of some of the hardest piano works by Liszt, I really felt that I was climbing a mountain, and that’s what I tried to mirror in this climatic passage (Fig. H4 & H5). Thus, I believe that humanity has the privilege of living in a present era that is at a considerable height on the mountain of the conquest of death.

The secondary theme opens with a follow-up question to the original in the exposition, which was, “What could you do if you could live for thousands of years or even longer?”

In the recapitulation we no longer have a personal question that answers with dreams and desires, but a follow-up one about the world and humanity in general: “What would happen if this is achieved in human beings?”

New dreams would arise in the human need and creativity for new ramifications of life extension that could result in an even more fulfilling eternal life.

This evolution can go from quantifying and manipulating dopamine levels in humans, biomarkers at their final peak through superb innovations of data analytics, multi-omics, and digital health, to even more astonishing possibilities that are considered today science fiction, like past-time travel through the manipulation of gravity and rotation of wormholes. Imagine saving a loved one from dying in the past, or even sharing life-extension benefits with great minds like Einstein, Beethoven, Shakespeare, and many others.

In the bridge that connects to the Coda (mm. 499-532), the music becomes more chromatic and rotatory, trying to create a transcendental effect that pushes the momentum forward towards the Coda.

The Coda section arrives trying to express that the need for eternal life is no longer only a strong desire but a passionate fulfilling encounter that is enriched by life-extension ramifications mentioned in Theme B.

After such a heartfelt outburst of measures 533-579, the motto perpetuo of D quarter-notes from the development comes back in an even more mysterious output on measures 580-627 and followed by another symbolic “extension”.

The main theme takes a gradually strong and determining lead that finishes the work with a very convenient influence of Liszt’s Funérailles ending that releases a triumphant and solemn return of the secondary theme (mm. 628-688).

References

1, 2, 3. Stolyarov II, G. 2013. Death is Wrong. Rational Argumentator Press. https://rationalargumentator.com/Death_is_Wrong_Second_Edition_Full.pdf

Fig. 1. Alkan, C.-V. (1979). Douze études dans tous les tons mineurs, Op. 39, No. 3. (R. Lewenthal, Ed.). Schirmer.

Fig. H4. Liszt, F., 1851. Grandes études de Paganini. S. 141, No. 6, Variation 11. Shonenberg, R. Cocks & Co. (London).

Listen to the complete Piano Sonata No. 3 in G minor, “Death is Wrong”, by Adriano G. Santos on YouTube here.

Listen to the compositions of Adriano G. Santos on his YouTube channel.