Jason Carl Rosenberg, Composer

A Crimson Dawn is scored for chamber orchestra and was premiered by Orchestre National de Lorraine at the Acanthes festival.  The piece was composed immediately following a family tragedy.  More broadly, it is a reflection on sudden loss and its powerful psychological repercussions.  For the melodic foundation, I composed what I dubbed the "death counterpoint".  This is an elongated contrapuntal working of two famous melodies associated with death: the first phrase of the "Dies Irae" and the bassline of “Dido's Lament”.  The death counterpoint also forms the basis of a chaconne used throughout the work, colored in different sections by my responses to bereavement.