A Meditation on Loss

In this meditation, poet Darlene Montonaro uses water imagery – of pouring rain or a flooded, rushing river – to signal the weightiness of loss, the journey of grief, and ultimate emotional release. We pair Montonaro's poem "Parting" with  François Couperin's character piece, Les langueurs tendres, or The Tender languishing. Performed here by baroque oboe and harpsichord, the melody constantly “leans in” to small dissonances designed to make us “feel” something. Some of those dissonances might make you feel a mere twinge of nostalgia or regret; others might contain longing or a weightiness that corresponds to the sentiments of Montonaro’s poem.