Lamentation

For String Orchestra (2019)

Duration: c. 8 mins

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Also available in a version for SATB Choir

Video (St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra - Lithuania)

Score Video

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Lamentation is a string orchestra arrangement I made in January 2019 of my Jesus Wept for SATB choir, which I had composed the year before. It is a setting of the shortest verse in the King James Version of the Bible (John 11:35) which consists of just the two words of choral work's title. I removed the verse from its original context in order to suggest that Jesus weeps for all the suffering that humankind has inflicted on our planet, other beings, and ourselves despite his teaching us to love others as we love ourselves. This is a lamentation for our collective suffering as a result of our failures to see every place as sacred, everywhere as our home, and everyone as our brothers and sisters.

1st Prize, St. Christopher Chamber Orchestra's Third International Composer Competition, Vilnius, Lithuania

Premiered March 20, 2021 at the Penn State 2021 New Music Festival and Symposium by the Penn State Philharmonic, Gerardo Edelstein-conductor, at Penn State University, State College, PA.

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“I just went to a concert and this was the opening to it. It was played in a church and was one of the most beautiful things I ever heard, my favorite piece of the entire concert. Incredible.”