Lois V Vierk

for cello and piano

ca. 7'19"

I wrote the melody for the first movement of Words Fail Me soon after September 11, 2001. My family and I had watched horrid events of that day "live" out of our apartment window, as thousands of people were murdered before our eyes and the World Trade Center was shot down. It was just across the Hudson River from where we live. It is an image I will never ever forget of smoke and dust drenching lower Manhattan in a horrible white cloud of debris that used to be a building vibrant with the energy of many living, breathing people.

After spending some weeks in a kind of daze I eventually picked up musical sketches I had been working on before 9/11. The materials in those sketches seemed so irrelevant that I threw them away. Then I wrote simple music. There is room for some improvisation. This is the first movement.

The second movement is made up of dense instrumental textures. It is dynamic and rhythmic. It builds relatively simple phrases into more complex statements, which develop into a high energy climax. This piece is meant as a tribute to the victims and to all the people of greater New York City, as well as to all people anywhere who survive tragedy and disaster and go on with life with great resolve.

Recording is by:

Theodore Mook, cello

Margaret Kampmeier, piano

from CD:

New World Records 80766 "Lois V Vierk: Words Fail Me"

Click here to view the CD on New World Records.

Click here to view the score and listen to the recording.