Alone. How tragic.
Unless that’s what’s intended?
How sad a solo?
Orchestras have a vast array of instruments, yet composers frequently employ a solo instrument within orchestral passages. Hansen & Huron (2018) have investigated whether a solo is used to convey or enhance a sad effect.
By characterising orchestral passages as featuring a solo or not and then investigating the differences between they were able to assess the impact of a solo on the emotion of the piece. Whilst they acknowledge that composers might use a solo for a number of reasons, their results suggest that there is an association between sadness-related acoustic feature and solos. Indeed, pieces of music with sad characteristics are twice as likely to feature solos.
Original research: http://dx.doi.org/10.1525/mp.2018.35.5.540