Lament

for Violin and Piano (6”40)

Programme note:

This piece is an emotional response to the reports and images of the bombing of a Mariupol maternity hospital during the Ukraine/Russian war in March 2022, and the devastating impact of war on innocent new life.

The image of an injured, heavily pregnant woman on a stretcher following the attack, clutching her bloodied abdomen, and the report of her and her unborn child’s death later, confirmed to the world the brutality of Putin’s invasion and served as a stark reminder of the long-lasting scarring of human conflict on our children.

In this piece, I have attempted to explore the conflict between violence and the serenity of new life. What should be a time of great peace, hopefulness, joy and stability is suddenly rocked by trauma, bleakness, desolation and great uncertainty.

A plaintive, lullaby-like melody becomes frequently unsteadied by more menacing and threatening harmony and rhythmic unevenness. The tension between the two mounts, and remains unresolved, in darkness. In the way in which a mother’s love and commitment to protection will endure the most difficult circumstances, this musical idea endures, but suffers, and is haunted by the disturbance of a new reality to the end.