Elegy: Before Their Time

“Elegy: Before Their Time”, by Michael Carl Green.
Composed for Solo Violin, Oboe, Harp, Piano Viola and Cello.

“Only a few years ago did a college student violinist take his own life after having been humiliated and tormented by others he believed were his friends. While I did not personally know this young man, and while no one else will ever fully know all the reasons for his irrevocable act of despair, this event deeply troubled me additionally as being emblematic of the untold thousands of similar suicides that have occurred and continue to occur all over the world, year after year. Too many young people with beautiful promise and potential leave us before their time. Their loss is our loss.

Featuring a passionate violin solo, “Elegy – Before Their Time” is intended to convey a range of emotions, from somber anxiety, sadness and fiery resistance, to memory of happier times and fleeting joys, and then back again to somber reflection, concluding with a sense of quiet resolution instead of resignation.

Note that that piano part is sufficiently cued with harp part cues to facilitate rehearsals when a harpist is not available.”