Note: This score is at sounding pitch. Parts available upon request.

Commentary by Left Brain vs. Right Brain. LB: "My song cycle Life and Afterlife is a set of 4 Elegies for soprano and orchestra. The first movement 'The Last Time' is in G Minor, although the harmonies are ambiguous. It is based upon a single theme, phrases of which evolve into 2 further themes. Thus the music is in constant development. The cantabile main theme is presented quasi berceuse as an elegy to the loss of a loved one, above shifting harmonies which elude repose. The music is also permeated by a rhythmic motive, or rhythmotive as I call it, which manifested itself in January 2001 when my wife Denise & I were in Caracas, Venezuela. The rest of this music was composed during my travels for engineering projects, and completed in May 2001 in Washington, DC." RB: "In retrospect, it was fun to discover details which were in my subconscious. Very Right-Brain, eh? For example the exquisite horn countermelody, as the soprano repeats the main theme, evolved from my rhythmotive. I love the final pages, which skirt the G Major/Minor tonalities with chords based upon G-Bb-Eb-G."