Poème funèbre

This organ piece is ideal as liturgical piece for Lent and All Saints' Day/Sunday before Advent commemorating the dead but also for organ concerts on the topic of death and transitoriness. 'Poème funèbre is a very personal piece which, like an epitaph, shall bring to mind the death of a person who died young. I think such a remembrance is important, for it connects people with the dead. The first part is a musical expression of lament and grief: Within its symmetrical structure, the composition rises toward a dramatic climax and, diminishing, returns back to its starting point. This part is followed by a second quiet part in which the Gregorian antiphon 'In paradisum' is paraphrased in soft colours, as an expression of consolation and trusting to the sense of the yet incomprehensible.' (Harald Feller)