TITANIC

There are stories that span centuries, modern myths that continue to move us and resonate through time. That of the sinking of the Titanic is one of them. A few years ago, I immersed myself in the details of this tragedy: the timeline of events, the crew accounts, the memories of survivors. Thus I discovered something that deeply moved me: the presence of eight young musicians on board, hired to earn a living, like so many others on so many projects before and after them.

We do not know the exact composition of the orchestra, except that it featured strings and a piano, nor even the program they played on board. On the other hand, many accounts agree on the last piece they performed even as the ship was sinking into the icy waters: Nearer, My God, to Thee, a 19th-century chorale.

My composition for piano and strings is conceived in a single movement around fragments of this final chorale. It seeks to pay tribute to these eight musicians, colleagues from another century, through the telling of that tragic night when the Unsinkable sank: a story of progress and pride, of dreams and hopes, of courage and sacrifice; a tale become legend, forever inscribed in the pantheon of the ocean.