by Dan Locklair
In Memory – H.H.L., for string orchestra, was composed in late summer 2005. In February 2014 this organ solo version of the piece was created. In Memory H.H.L. bears the following dedication:
In loving memory of my mother, Hester Helms Locklair (1918-2005)
The primary musical material for this short, single movement elegiac composition comes from the plagal cadence (IV-I). Since this cadence is often associated with the close of hymns on the word “amen,” it has often been referred to as “the amen cadence.” The finality of the word “amen” (meaning “may it be so”) to a prayer or a hymn that is a prayer, seemed to me a most appropriate symbol of musical remembrance for the finality of my mother’s earthly life. Further, a church school teacher of two-year-old children for many years, Hester Locklair always taught her classes a simple pentatonic hymn, Jesus Loves Me. Paying tribute to that, a brief quote from that hymn is heard near the end of In Memory – H.H.L.
Dan Locklair
Winston-Salem, NC
Duration : ca. 4’
In Memory – H.H.L., for string orchestra, has been recorded for Naxos by the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by British conductor, Kirk Trevor (Naxos, American Classics, 8.559337 – DAN LOCKLAIR : SYMPHONY OF SEASONS). The score and parts are available for purchase from Subito Music (www.subitomusic.com). About In Memory – H.H.L., Maestro Trevor has said: “After the first read-through of In Memory – H.H.L. I realized we had found a worthy successor to the Barber Adagio… After recording it, I was even more convinced that [the work] has a real place in the standard string orchestra literature.”