“What Will We Say? An Elegy for the Victims of COVID-19” by Aaron Gage

What Will We Say? An Elegy for the Victims of COVID-19″ by Aaron Gage world premier at Western New Mexico University. April 27th, 2021.

Commissioned and performed by the +Pan Quartet
Steelpan: Mike Schwebke
Violin: Eric Sewell
Cello: Lisa Donald
Piano: Luke Gullickson

Note from the composer:
“In the last year, we have all had to endure countless emotional turmoils that have been brought forth by the loss and devastation established by Covid-19. In a time where we all feel like we can do so little to help while stuck in our homes, it is in these times that artists are allowed to find their voice and contribute what we can through our craft. I wanted to approach this mentality while constructing this piece. I decided I was going to write an elegy that sought to bring recognition to the loss we’ve all suffered this past year. A simple question arose; What will we say? 50 years from now, how will we answer to those younger generations while we collectively sat by and did nothing to help each other? How are we going to excuse letting the rot that has sunk in go unpunished? How do we defend the indefensible? This question haunts me. When I completed writing this piece, over 100,000 people had died in the US alone. By the time it reached it’s premiere, that number had sky rocketed past half a million.

The music you will hear channels my answer to that question. There is no true resolution. There is no happy ending. When we have finally moved on past this pandemic, we are still left in the wake of hundreds of thousands of dead citizens. One day it will hit us all how many lives we really lost. So I ask this; while you listen, reflect on every individual who suffered at the hands that did not act. Allow yourself to absorb the true gravity of what we have experienced. Give those victims a few minutes of your time. When the time comes for you to be asked, what will you say?

This piece was commissioned by Mike Schwebke and the +Pan Quartet. It was premiered at Western New Mexico University on April 27th, 2021. Score available by request.”