This Is For You is dedicated for my late father. There are a few musical easter eggs that I would like to impart upon the listener, to perhaps augment the experience.
It begins with a cluster chord (made up of notes adjacent to each other, kind of bunched together). This same chord reappears, but with no sustain, at the very end of the second movement; the chord book ends the piece as a whole.
In the first movement, Requiem, I have adopted snippets from "Aιώνια η Mνήμη" (Ay-OH-nee- ah ee MNEE-mee, tr. "Memory Eternal"), a traditional Greek canticle sung to comfort the family and friends of the departed. If you are familiar with the hymn, it may take a few listens to find some of the short phrases embedded throughout, I wanted to paint with it a bit more abstractly.
I remember vividly laying on my father's chest the day he died and then witnessing the last time he would breathe; the last 20 measures in Requiem represent that slowing, and ending. For those who have watched their loved ones pass on --the dreamlike surreality, pain of the moment, the gratitude for the chance to be there -- it's just all too much.
The second movement, Voicemail Waltz, is based on a remaining artifact of my dad -- an otherwise totally uneventful voicemail which has now become a treasure. I developed rhythmic phrase that informed the theme based on his simple message opening, "Hello, it's me..." And closing, "I'm not going anywhere" Therefore, in the main theme, you will hear a melody that matches: "Hello, it's me...I'm not going anywhere." The sheet music indicates, "As if in a conversation" because the next phrase is my response; I will choose to keep that private, but it is also based on my reply to his voice.
Beyond these facts, I would like the listener to take from it what they may. The You in the title is firstly for him, dad. But it extends to the listener, the grieving, the comforted, the heartbroken, the ether, the cosmic, and the unknown. Death is so much. I hope this helps.
On her first release for RVNG, Discovery Zone makes lustrous, winking pop music that's equal parts pleasant and mysterious. Bandcamp New & Notable Jan 9, 2024
