This was the first movement that I wrote, inspired by learning that our sense of smell is the sense that most ignites our memory. I imagined someone who once associated the annual strong aroma of lilacs with happiness, but now is forced to relive pain every year when the flowers bloom again.
Soloists:
Josh Smiley - piano
Conrad Gluch - baritone saxophone
lyrics
Lilacs, the fragrance bittersweet in the fleeting weeks of May
Purple haze lingering to keep my here
What's one more tear to shed for you this time of year
Listen, I do, to the echoes, mauve and blue
For you I sigh, wonder why
My heart won't forget what you said in the spring we met
You said forever, you said for always
You said that winter, summer and fall
We were building a life that would withstand all pain
But spring came again
Same refrain filling my ears
All my fears came true that day, that past May
Still it lingers on, though you're gone
In the scent of the haunting lilacs