Composer, Arranger, Musician
Michelle Lorimer
title. Grief Suite, for full orchestra
date. 2022
genre. orchestral suite
"What is grief but love persevering?" (Vision, from the TV series, WandaVision)
This suite for orchestra is an exploration of the various stages of grief...
It was the culminating project of my time at Humber, and also a personal journey.
**full orchestral scores are available for all of these.
There's a new “normal” that comes after loss, but we don't apprehend it at first. On the surface, everything seems like nothing has changed...but then gradually, the truth of loss emerges and we must face it.
How could this have been different? Our mind races to configure and scheme -- plotting in vain against loss, exploring alternative options— "if only, what if, I should have, I could have…". Slowly we realize that we can’t exchange loss, only accept it….
The explosive, uncontrollable nature of anger, its desire to be expressed & released. And in relationship to it, the heavier, deep & prolonged nature of depression. Eventually we return to the surface and along the way, move through disorientation...
Who knows exactly how we let Acceptance enter, but eventually, it does - a composite of our struggle & surrender, and the love that's persevered. Life beyond loss emerges, and our embracing of it is like a gradual dance that we are invited into, steps unsure and accompaniment unexpected. For this movement in the journey, I traced some of the lines from writer bell hooks' beautiful poem, Appalachian Elegy