Description
Soprano, violin, cello, theorbo; ca. 8 min.
The composer writes: This composition was inspired by a conversation with a friend about sadness in music. He suggested several symphonic movements as candidates for the title of "the saddest music in the world"; but I held firm to my conviction that the saddest music ever penned was the aria "When I am Laid," from Purcell's Dido and Aeneas.
I'm pleased to acknowledge that my setting of Oscar Wilde's poem Requiescat owes much to Purcell's "When I am Laid." Like Purcell's famous aria, my song is a "baroque" setting: a passacaglia, in a slow 3/4 metre. As well, my text – written by Wilde after the death of his sister, Isola, at the tender age of nine – is intensely tragic.