(2001)
Inst:
solo cello (and various versions for other solo or duo instruments)
Duration:
4 minutes 30 seconds
Commission:
in response to September 11, 2001
Meira’s music…comes from a place which is beyond music. It is like a prayer…from deep within the soul. It always evokes deep responses from the listeners and is very moving for me to perform.- Ina-Esther Joost, cellist
Subsequent versions for:
- violin solo (commissioned by Gregory Harrington)
- violin and cello duo
- violin and bass clarinet duo
- clarinet solo
- clarinet and bass clarinet duo
- clarinet and cello duo (arr. By Suzanne Mueller)
- Solo cello with cello ensemble (6 celli, arr. by Mirel Iancovici)
- Solo cello with string ensemble
- (9 players: 3 2 2 1 1) or string orchestra
I wrote these sketches during the days of watching the horror of the attacks of September 11: the collapse of the World Trade Center, the attack on the Pentagon, the plane crash in Pennsylvania.
I didn’t have a piece in mind, or consciously set out to write one. But the sketches seemed to belong together, afterwards, and to fit the solo cello. It is my way of holding each other in our loss.
It reflects my sadness, our collective sadness
the loss of loved ones
looking for survivors, not finding…
Hoping it isn’t true, disbelief…
it is true…
The slow motion collapse of the towers–
with that collapse, all of our losses
our national sense of invulnerability gone
humility
interdependence
prayer
— Meira Warshauer, 2001
Listen and View the Score