The Farewell

About

I often use programmatic subjects in writing music, and when I began thinking about what this piece would be, one subject kept returning to me: the idea of saying goodbye to many things throughout our lives. All through our lives we see things disappear that are important to us. What I had specifically in mind, rather than the loss of loved ones, was the dwindling of ways of life. The fading of traditions, old practices, environments both natural and man-made, handed-down knowledge, and so on. Things we cherish and hold sacred from our childhood become relegated to history, and then forgotten on a regular basis. And the farewell to all that was what the piece was originally to be about. However in November 2003, a long-time friend died suddenly, and my thoughts were turned to my farewell to him. But I did not want to make this a requiem or an elegy. It needed to have at least some glimpse of the energy and audacity with which he lived. I have sought to bring together both the original subject, and the new. I've explored themes of resignation and resistance, reminiscence and grief, and final farewells.