Tombeau for Michael Collins

Tombeau for Michael Collins

Harpsichord
10-12 min.
©1987
Publisher: Reese & Hassing Music

Description

Tombeau for Michael Collins is written in the unmeasured style of the seventeenth century tombeaux. Tombeau is improvisatory and can vary in length. The music is based on three themes, a 13th century plainsong (Dies Irae), the ostinato from Purcell’s Dido’s Lament, and Reynolds, new tune composed to represent strength of character and love of God. Michael Collins was a Methodist minister whose writing and teaching has been of great comfort to victims of AIDS. He died of the disease in 1984. The Schubert Club (St. Paul, Minnesota), commissioned this piece in 1987.