Abstract
Memorial Music I was written in 1971 in memory of Dr. Seymour Lustman, a friend and colleague at Yale University. The text, drawn from the prayer Ki K'shimcho, is traditionally recited on Rosh Hoshanah and Yom Kippur in the context of a memorial service.
Almost at once I envisaged a companion piece and with the help of the flutist Samuel Baron assembled a number of related biblical fragments, texts from Isaiah and the Psalms which speak of life as a dream, of man as a flower that fades, and of the eternal nature of God's word.
Memorial Music II was completed in June, 1973, and the work as it now stands was first performed at a CBC broadcast-concert in Montreal with Susan Davenny Wyner as soloist.
— Yehudi Wyner