LAMENT

"A moving expression of the numbness of unexpected grief, the waves of anger and denial, and final acceptance of loss" LAMENT is for piano quintet and empty chair, dedicated to my dear friend, the late Laura Flax. Laura, the first female clarinetist of the New York City Ballet Orchestra and member of the Da Capo Chamber Players, was a fierce inspiration. I planned to meet up with her in NYC on a recent trip, but when I found out that she had passed, I was too numb to speak. Like metal to a magnet, I was drawn into my studio and stared at my music notation software, unable to move. One lone, long cello note pushed through waves of grief. It came again, and again. I finally wrote it down but struggled. My familiar harmonic colors felt so shallow in light of my intense grief. I needed something deep. Suddenly I remembered the last time I heard Laura play. It was a Messiaen piece, which he wrote in a concentration camp. It then knew its octatonic mode brought the depth of color to my sound palette that I needed. Lament travels through undulations of numbness, anger, denial, and ends with a final surrender to acceptance. Though the empty chair represents my own friend's absence, performers are free to use the empty chair to represent any loss of their own. Suitable for advanced high school, college, regional, or professional string quartet and piano " Absolute in meaning, the most beautiful lament ever." Brian McDonald, Composer