Lament

The Word of the Day for December 3 is "lament."

lament: (noun)

1. A song or a hymn of mourning composed or performed as a memorial to a dead person.
2. A feeling or an expression of grief; a lamentation.

Synonyms: coronach, dirge, requiem, threnody

Usage: And when the Duke's wife died, Chaucer wrote a lament which is called the Dethe of Blaunche the Duchess, or sometimes the Book of the Duchess.

Relevance to my life: About three weeks after my son had died, and my parents had returned home, I found myself alone in the house for the first time, no watchful friend or family member hovering worriedly over me; my husband and his sister had taken Natalie out for a walk along the boardwalk on the Bay, while I sat on the floor in a stream of improbably cheery golden sunlight and sang the only lament for my son which I could compose: a keening wail, "Why, oh God, why?"

Three pieces of music which I have been privileged enough to perform in a choir:




Lacrimosa - Mozart requiem
Familiar to many, thanks to the movie Amadeus.




Libera Me (Verdi requiem)
If anyone can write an operatic requiem, it'd have to have been Verdi. You should check out the Sanctus.





A German Requiem (Brahms)
My favorite moment from this is in the middle of the 6th movement, at the end of the first clip. It's a slow-building movement, and really kicks into high gear at the 4-minute mark.
When you get to the section where they're singing "Tod, wo is dein Stachel, Hölle, wo is dein Sieg?" (Death, where is thy sting; Hell, where is thy victory?), it's electrifying. The section at the end of the clip, where the choir is, well, screaming out "Wo? Wo? Wo?" always raises goosebumps for me.




Brahms Requiem, Mvmt 6 pt 2
The glorious resolution of the 6th movement