Grief is a human experience.

Grief: A Symphonic Choral Poem is work that utilizes the Requiem Mass texts to explore the emotion of grief. By using Robert Plutchik’s (21 October 1927 – 29 April 2006) theory of emotions as a framework for analyzing the Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (8 July 1926 – 24 August 2004) model of grief, this thesis will explore grief as a fundamental human experience that is realized through musical performance. The movements of my musical work are named after the Kubler-Ross stages of grief; Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance. These five stages are not sequential or prescriptive but are fluid and individualistic in their musical manifestations.