Robert Jager

Litany: "In Terra Pax"

Written following a visit to both the nuclear holocaust "ground zero" of Hirsshima, Japan, and the more conventional holocaust of Pearl Harbor, the opening of this work is meant to capture the solemn and mournful sound of the massive bell at Hiroshima's "ground zero."  Remaining melancholy throughout, the composer writes, "The composition, like a prayer, has no answers.  Maybe there is no answer.  Perhaps a solution must be found within each of us, before there is no longer time."  Litany was commissioned by the Galesburg-Augusta, MI, High School Band, Martin Benstein, conductor.