Voices In Memoriam for piano with optional electronics by Jim Mobberley

VOICES IN MEMORIAM began as a commission from two wonderful and talented pianists: Leah Hokanson and Daniel Koppelman. A month after the 9/11 attacks I made a trip to New York and stopped at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. There I spent a few minutes in a chapel dedicated to the Firefighters of New York. The sentiments expressed in this shrine were at once universal and specific, and brought home to me the full impact of this tragedy on the individual and collective spirit.

Hence the 343 tones of the opening piano section create the work’s sound world, and honor the voices of the firefighters lost at the World Trade Center.. The piece itself is an example of this process of change: once the voices have been stated, there is a significant change of mood, and the sound world of the piece changes its context completely. Yet memory persists and, in the end, brings us inevitably back to these now-silent yet very audible voices. In fact, our memories argue convincingly that nothing that we love ever really leaves us.

If the electronics are used, the computer does what computers do best – hold the voices in memory, and bring these memories back, changed – as memories always are – by time and by new experiences and associations.