Lacrimosa (from Malhaar: A Requiem for Water)

Program Note: "This Lacrimosa interweaves the original Latin text from the requiem mass with the beautiful poetry of William O’Daly. The Lacrimosa begins: 'Full of tears shall be that [judgement] day…' But O’Daly’s text asks a broader question: Without the presence of water, around us and inside us, how can we weep?

Sometimes grief comes slowly, and gives us a chance to settle in. But other times, our entire world changes in an instant — that single phone call, those few words that snatch away the certainty of a moment ago, and leave us facing an abject darkness… that we have no choice but to breathe into, one excruciating and uncertain exhale at a time.

That is the grief of this Lacrimosa. It starts from a barely audible hum, the sound of cavernous emptiness, and marches slowly but inevitably towards the pain as it crushes everything in its path, and leaves us forever changed. - Reena Esmail 

Percussion Instruments: the Tabla is featured in Esmail's "Lacrimosa." Click here to view a demonstration on the Tabla!