of lament and gratitude

The experience of composing the textual material for this piece was closely similar to musical composition. Words carry sounds that encapsulate time in multiple senses. Once the monopoly of a single language is disrupted through the juxtaposition of foreign counterparts, a new kind of counterpoint becomes possible: a counterpoint between words that sound similar in different languages, yet differ in subtle nuances. When sung together, these nuances generate a distinct ebb and flow, contributing to the delicate complexity of the sound event.
This piece is another experiment within the form I call SoundsTheatre: a pre-musical approach that investigates the ontology of intonation and the meaning of temporal stretching of sound within the most intimate human experiences—mourning and prayer. In developing the concept of the work, I drew inspiration from mourning songs across various traditions, as well as from a madrigal by Monteverdi, which is briefly cited in the composition.
The piece is dedicated to Saeed Kiani, the brother of my dear friend and assistant who was killed in the protests of January 2026 in my country Iran.