The composer writes: This composition was inspired by a conversation with a friend about sadness in music. He suggested several symphonic movements as candidates for the title of « the saddest music in the world »; but I held firm to my conviction that the saddest music ever penned was the aria « When I am Laid, » from Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas.

I’m pleased to acknowledge that my setting of Oscar Wilde’s poem Requiescat owes much to Purcell’s « When I am Laid. » Like Purcell’s famous aria, my song is a « baroque » setting: a passacaglia, in a slow 3/4 metre. As well, my text – written by Wilde after the death of his sister, Isola, at the tender age of nine – is intensely tragic.