MusicSpoke | Artist Owned Sheet Music™

About the Score

The concept behind Songs from the Departed is to set 6 texts by poets who have passed on. The poets left messages to their loved ones, essentially instructions on how to grieve. I’m fascinated by this point of view on death, not from the people left behind, but from the lost souls themselves. Part of what drew me to these poems in particular is the ambiguous spirituality behind them; none of the poems is overtly religious, though some of the poets were religious themselves, but almost all of them express some belief or hope for an existence after death, be it as themselves or as part of the broader universe.

Taken as a whole, the message of the work is one of allowing yourself to grieve. Each of the pieces expresses a desire for the listener to forget the hard times, to be comforted, to remember love and good times, and to let go. We do not know what awaits us beyond death, be it silent land, darkness and corruption, existence as a thousand winds, or simply “home” but we do know that we wish only the best for the loved ones we leave behind. We, those left behind, must allow ourselves to move through grief and find happiness, until it is our turn to be welcomed home.

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