When I was a freshman in college, our choir commissioned a secular requiem by Roland Martin, a composer/organist/professor from Rochester, NY. His Requiem da Camara was absolutely beautiful and I had the honor of being the solo vocalist in the opening movement. Mine was the first voice to sing his music and some wonderful poetry. One of the movements - the third one, I believe - was an a cappella setting of Christina Rosetti's "Rest." It's a beautiful text and was quite moving even at such a young and inexperienced age. Four years later, in my final choral performance at that school, we performed the Requiem again and I reprised my duties as soloist. It was a nice bookend to my life at school, but was far more moving as we had lost two members of our choir the previous school year - one of whom was a very dear friend. She died of heart failure at the age of 22 during a rehearsal in our Opera Workshop class. We were all there to witness it.
Every time I think of Erin, I remember the text from Ms. Rosetti's poem and it comforts me. If you'll allow me, I'd like to share with all of you:
"Rest"
by Christina Rosetti
O Earth, lie heavily upon her eyes;
Seal her sweet eyes weary of watching, Earth;
Lie close around her; leave no room for mirth
With its harsh laughter, nor for sound of sighs.
She hath no questions, she hath no replies,
Hushed in and curtained with a blessed dearth
Of all that irked her from the hour of birth;
With stillness that is almost Paradise.
Darkness more clear than noon-day holdeth her,
Silence more musical than any song;
Even her very heart hath ceased to stir;
Until the morning of Eternity
Her rest shall not begin nor end, but be;
And when she wakes she will not think it long.
