Requiem

In August 2022, my home church was thrown into grief after a sudden accident killed a young mother in the congregation. Everyone connected to the family struggled in some way. We asked questions, trying to find comfort and meaning in the middle or grief and suffering. We wanted to support the family, but also to find the time to wrestle with our own grief. The church and community bonded together and are still caring for the family and supporting their long and difficult path ahead. When I heard of the accident, I was out of town, already beginning my next semester of grad school. Though I felt disconnected from the tragedy, or perhaps because I felt this way, I found it very difficult to focus on my work. Feelings of sadness and questions of why constantly kept me from engaging with my immediate surroundings. Then guilt overpowered the other feelings because what I was struggling with was nothing compared to what those much closer to the tragedy were going through. On top of these whirling emotions, I had assignments, including a composition for a solo instrument to write in one week. That assignment became Requiem. I wrote Requiem as part of my own grieving process. It is based on Elisabeth Kubler-Ross's five stages of grief. The piece opens with the tragedy, then walks through Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.